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What portent from the gods is this?—my soul is amazed. I know her—how can I deny that yon maiden is Antigone? 380 O hapless, and child of hapless sire,—of Oedipus ! What means this? Thou brought a prisoner?—thou, disloyal to the king’s laws, and taken in folly?

Guard

Antigone. Sophocles. Cambridge, UK. 1904.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by Tufts University.

Current edition Experimental

English (Sir Richard Jebb1, 1904) (OCR draft) (English) (English (Sir Richard Jebb1, 1904))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (12)

Greek (L. Benloew, 1858) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (L. Benloew, 1858)) — 376 focus

ἐς ¹ δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶ

τόδε πῶς εἰδὼς ἀντιλογήσω

τήνδ᾽ ² οὐχ εἶναι παῖδ᾽ Ἀντιγόνην.
375

ὦ δύστηνος, καὶ δυστήνου

πατρὸς Οἰδιπόδα, τί ποτ᾽ ; οὐ δή που

σέ γ᾽ ἀπιστοῦσαν

τοῖς βασιλείοισιν ἄγουσι νόμοις,

καὶ ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ καθελόντες.
380

Φύλαξ

Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 376 focus

ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶ

τόδε, πῶς εἰδὼς ἀντιλογήσω

τήνδ᾽ οὐκ εἶναι παῖδ᾽ Ἀντιγόνην.
365

ὦ δύστηνος,

καὶ δυστήνου πατρὸς Οἰδιπόδα,

τί ποτ᾽; οὐ δή που σέ γ᾽ ἀπιστοῦσαν

τοῖς βασιλείοις ἀπάγουσι νόμοις,

καὶ ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ καθελόντες;
370

5. ἘΠΕΙΣΟΔΙΟΝ ΔΕΥΤΈΡΟΝ.

Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 376 focus

— εἰ δαιμόνιον τέρας, ἀμφινοῶ,

τόδε. — πῶς δ᾽, εἰδὼς, ἀντιλογήσω,
370

τήνδ᾽ οὐκ, εἶναι παῖδ᾽ Ἀντιγόνην ;

ὦ δύστηνος,

καὶ δυστήνου πατρὸς Οἰδιπόδα,

τί ποτ᾽; οὐ δή που σέ γ᾽ ἀπιστοῦσαν

τοῖς βασιλείοισιν ἄγουσι νόμοις,
375

καὶ ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ καθελόντες;

Φύλαξ

Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 376 focus

ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶ

τόδε, πῶς εἰδὼς ἀντιλογήσω

τήνδ᾽ οὐκ εἶναι παῖδ᾽ Ἀντιγόνην.

ὦ δύστηνος καὶ δυστήνου

πατρὸς Οἰδιπόδα, τί ποτ'; οὐ δή που
380

σέ γ᾽ ἀπιστοῦσαν

τοῖς βασιλείοις *ἀπάγουσι νόμοις

καὶ ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ καθελόντες;

Φύλαξ

Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 376 focus

ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶ

τόδε· πῶς εἰδὼς ἀντιλογήσω

τήνδ᾽ οὐκ εἶναι παῖδ᾽ Ἀντιγόνην ;

ὦ δύστηνος καὶ δυστήνου

πατρὸς Οἰδιπόδα,
380

τί ποτ᾽; οὐ δή που σέ γ᾽ ἀπιστοῦσαν

τοῖς βασιλείοισιν ἄγουσι νόμοις

καὶ ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ καθελόντες;

Φύλαξ

Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 376 focus

ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶ

τόδε· πῶς εἰδὼς ἀντιλογήσω

τήνδ’ οὐκ εἶναι παῖδ’ Ἀντιγόνην;

ὦ δύστηνος καὶ δυστήνου

πατρὸς Οἰδιπόδα,
380

τί ποτ’; οὐ δή που σέ γ’ ἀπιστοῦσαν

τοῖς βασιλείοισ ιν ἄγουσι νόμοις

καὶ ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ καθελόντες;

Φύλαξ

Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979)) — 376 focus

ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶ
375

τόδε· πῶς εἰδὼς ἀντιλογήσω

τήνδ᾽ οὐκ εἶναι παῖδ᾽ Ἀντιγόνην;

ὦ δύστηνος καὶ δυστήνου

πατρὸς Οἰδιπόδα,
380

τί ποτ᾽; οὐ δή που σέ γ᾽ ἀπιστοῦσαν

τοῖς βασιλείοις ἄγουσι νόμοις

καὶ ἐν ἀφροσύνηι καθελόντες;

Φύλαξ

Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 376 focus

ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶ

τόδε, πῶς εἰδὼς ἀντιλογήσω

τήνδ᾽ οὐκ εἶναι παῖδ᾽ Ἀντιγόνην.

ὦ δύστηνος,
375

καὶ δυστήνου πατρὸς Οἰδιπόδα,

τί ποτ᾽; οὐ δή που σέ γ᾽ ἀπιστοῦσαν

τοῖς βασιλείοισιν ἄγουσι νόμοις,

καὶ ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ καθελόντες;

Φύλαξ

Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906)) — 376 focus

ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶ

τόδε· πῶς εἰδὼς ἀντιλογήσω

τήνδ᾽ οὐκ εἶναι παῖδ᾽ Ἀντιγόνην;

ὦ δύστηνος

καὶ δυστήνου πατρὸς Οἰδιπόδα,
380

τί ποτ᾽; οὐ δή που σέ γ᾽ ἀπιστοῦσαν

τοῖς βασιλείοισιν ἄγουσι νόμοις

καὶ ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ καθελόντες ;

Φύλαξ

Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 376 focus

ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶ,

τὸ δὲ πῶς εἰδὼς ἀντιλογήσω

μὴ οὐ τήνδ εἶναι παῖδ᾽ Ἀντιγόνην.

ὦ δύστηνος

καὶ δυστήνου πατρὸς Οἰδιπόδα,
380

τί ποτ᾽; οὐ δή που σέ γ᾽ ἀπιστοῦσαν

τοῖς βασιλείοισιν ἄγουσι νόμοις

καὶ ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ καθελόντες;

Φύλαξ

Antigone (OCR draft) Experimental (Antigone) — 376 focus

Χορός

ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶ

τόδε· πῶς εἰδὼς ἀντιλογήσω

τήνδʼ οὐκ εἶναι παῖδʼ Ἀντιγόνην.

ὦ δύστηνος

καὶ δυστήνου πατρὸς Οἰδιπόδα,
380

τί ποτʼ; οὐ δή που σέ γʼ ἀπιστοῦσαν

τοῖς βασιλείοισιν ἄγουσι νόμοις

καὶ ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ καθελόντες;

Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 376 focus

ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶ

τόδε· πῶς εἰδὼς ἀντιλογήσω

τήνδ᾽ οὐκ εἶναι παῖδ᾽ Ἀντιγόνην;

ὦ δύστηνος

καὶ δυστήνου πατρὸς Οἰδιπόδα,
380

τί ποτ᾽; οὐ δή που σέ γ᾽ ἀπιστοῦσαν

τοῖς βασιλείοισιν ἄγουσι νόμοις

καὶ ἐν ἀφροσύνηι καθελόντες;

Φύλαξ

Translations (10)

German (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 376 focus

CHOR

O Wunder, dem Blick kaum trau' ich, und doch

wie soll ich verneinen, was klar mir bewuſst,

dafs die Jungfrau dort Antigone sei?
365

O Unglückskind

von dem Unglücksvater, von Oedipus, ach!

Wie? führen sie dich hierher, weil kühn

du des Königs Gesetz miſsachtend verletzt,

und ergriffen in thörichtem Thun bist?
370

V. ZWEITES EPEISODION.

CHOR, WÄCHTER, ANTIGONE, dann KREON, später ISMENE.

WÄCHTER

Hier ist sie, jene, die es that; sie griffen wir

jetzt beim Bestatten. Aber wo ist Kreon denn?

CHOR

Hier kommt zurück er aus dem Haus zu rechter Zeit.

KREON (tritt auf).

Spanish (J. A. Bolufer, 1921) (OCR draft) Experimental (Spanish (J. A. Bolufer, 1921)) — 376 focus

Ante el admirable prodigio que se me presenta a la vista, estoy dudando. ¿Cómo, si la estoy viendo, podré negar que no sea ésta la niña Antígona? ¡Oh hija infeliz de Edipo, infeliz padre! ¿Qué es esto? ¿Es que, por desobedecer los mandatos del rey, te traen éstos habiéndote sorprendido en tal imprudencia?

EL CENTINELA

Latin (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Latin (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 376 focus

At dubito, an hoc esse dicam deorum ostentum. — Quanquam infitias ire qui potero, hanc, quam video puellam, esse Antigonam ?

O misera, et misero patre Oedipode mata, quidnam istud est? Anne te isti adducunt regis imperio immorigeram, et in amenti deprehensam auso?

Custos

English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 376 focus

How can I gainsay what I see?

I know the girl Antigone,

O hapless child of hapless sire!

Didst thou, then, recklessly aspire
380

To brave kings’ laws, and now art brought

In madness of transgression caught?

WATCH
Enter Watchman , bringing in ANTIGONE

German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 376 focus

Was seh' ich? Erscheint, von den Göttern gesandt,

Dies Wunder? Ich weiß, wie läugnet' ich's noch,
375

Daß die Jungfrau dort Antigone sei?

Unglückliches Kind

Von dem Unglücksvater, dem Dedipus, ach!

Was ahnt mir? Wie? Dich führen sie her,

Weil kühn du verlezt die Gebote des Herrn,
380

Und ergriffen dich über der Thorheit?

Der Wächter. Antigone. Der Chor. Bald darauf Kreon.

Der Wächter.

English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 384 focus

Behold tho woman who hath done the deed !

I' th' very act of burial we surprised her.

Where is the king ?
385

Chorus

Returned, as we could wish ;

Spanish (A. G. Garbin, 1889) (OCR draft) Experimental (Spanish (A. G. Garbin, 1889)) — 376 focus

Pero ¿qué es lo que veo? No me cabe duda: ¿Cómo he de decir que no es esta la joven Antígona, si la estoy mirando con mis propios ojos? ¡Hija infortunada del desdichado Edipo! ¿Qué es esto? A ti no te traerán aquí como infractora de la orden del Rey; en ti no cabe semejante locura...

El Centinela—Antígona—El Coro

EL CENTINELA

German (F. Hölderlin, 1804) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (F. Hölderlin, 1804)) — 376 focus

Wie Gottesversuchung aber stehet es vor mir,

Dafs ich sie seh’ und sagen doch soll,

Das Kind seys nicht, Antigonä.

O Unglükliche, vom unglüklichen
395

Vater Oedipus, was führt über dir und wohin,

Als ungehorsam dich

Den königlichen Gesezen,

In Unvernunft dich ergreifend?

Erste Scene DER BOTE. DER CHOR. KREON.

English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 376 focus

With high device and quick invention fraught:

And now to ill it downward leads;

Generous in virtue now delights,

And prompt to guard its country's rights

Glory d'er all the empire spreads;
380

To baseness when its wild design descends,

Destruction on the state it draws.

Watchman

English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904)) — 384-580 focus

Guard

Here is she, the one who did the deed.

We caught this one burying him. Where is Creon?
385

Enter Creon from the palace.

Chorus

There, he is coming from the house again at our need.

Creon

What is it? What has happened that makes my coming timely?

Guard

My king, there is nothing that a man can rightly swear he will not do. For second thought belies one’s first intent.

I could have vowed that I would not ever come here again, because of your threats by which I had just been storm-tossed. But since this joy that exceeds and oversteps my hopes can be compared in fulness to no other pleasure, I am back—though it is contrary to my sworn oath—
390

bringing this girl who was caught giving burial honors to the dead. This time there was no casting of lots. No, this piece of luck has fallen to me, and me alone. And now, my king, as it pleases you, take her yourself, question her and convict her. But justice would see me
395

released free and clear from this trouble.
400

Creon

Your prisoner here—how and where did you take her?

Guard

She was burying the man. You know all there is to tell.

Creon

Are you clear and sure about what you are saying?

Guard

I am. I saw her burying the corpse that you

had forbidden to bury. Is that plain and sufficient?
405

Creon

And how was she observed? How taken in the act?

407

Guard

It happened like this. When we had come to the place with those fierce threats of yours still in our ears, we swept away all the dust that covered

the corpse and bared the damp body well. We then sat down on the brow of the hill to windward, fleeing the smell from him, lest it strike us. Each man was wide awake and kept his neighbor alert with torrents of threats, if any one should be careless of this task.
410

So time passed, until the disk of the sun stood bright in mid-sky and the heat began to burn. And then suddenly a whirlwind lifted from the earth a storm of dust, a trouble in the sky, and it filled the plain, marring all the foliage of its woods.
415

Soon the wide air was choked with it. We closed our eyes, and endured the plague from the gods. When, after a long while, this storm had passed, the girl was seen, and she wailed aloud with the sharp cry of a grieving bird, as when inside her empty
420

nest she sees the bed stripped of its nestlings. So she, too, when she saw the corpse bare, broke into a cry of lamentation and cursed with harsh curses those who had done it. Immediately she took thirsty dust in her hands,
425

and from a pitcher of beaten bronze held high she crowned the dead with thrice-poured libations. We rushed forward when we saw it, and at once closed upon our quarry, who was not at all dismayed. We then charged her with her past and present doings,
430

but she made no denial of anything—at once to my joy and to my pain. For to have escaped from trouble one’s self gives the greatest joy, but it stings to lead friends to evil. Naturally, though, all such things are
435

of less account to me than my own safety.
440

441

Creon

You, you with your face bent to the ground, do you admit, or deny that you did this?

Antigone

I declare it and make no denial.

Creon
To the Guard.

You can take yourself wherever you please,

free and clear of a heavy charge. Exit Guard.
445

To Antigone.

You, however, tell me—not at length, but briefly—did you know that an edict had forbidden this?

Antigone

I knew it. How could I not? It was public.

Creon

And even so you dared overstep that law?

Antigone

Yes, since it was not Zeus that published me that edict, and since not of that kind are the laws which Justice who dwells with the gods below established among men. Nor did I think that your decrees were of such force, that a mortal could override the unwritten
450

and unfailing statutes given us by the gods. For their life is not of today or yesterday, but for all time, and no man knows when they were first put forth. Not for fear of any man’s pride was I about to owe a penalty to the gods for breaking these.
455

Die I must, that I knew well (how could I not?). That is true even without your edicts. But if I am to die before my time, I count that a gain. When anyone lives as I do, surrounded by evils, how can he not carry off gain by dying?
460

So for me to meet this doom is a grief of no account. But if I had endured that my mother’s son should in death lie an unburied corpse, that would have grieved me. Yet for this, I am not grieved. And if my present actions are foolish in your sight,
465

it may be that it is a fool who accuses me of folly.
470

471

Chorus

She shows herself the wild offspring of a wild father, and does not know how to bend before troubles.

Creon

Yet remember that over-hard spirits most often collapse. It is the stiffest iron, baked to

utter hardness in the fire, that you most often see snapped and shivered. And I have witnessed horses with great spirit disciplined by a small bit. For there is no place for pride, when one is his neighbors’ slave.
475

This girl was already practiced in outrage when she overstepped the published laws. And, that done, this now is a second outrage, that she glories in it and exults in her deed. In truth, then, I am no man, but she is,
480

if this victory rests with her and brings no penalty. No! Whether she is my sister’s child, or nearer to me in blood than any of my kin that worship Zeus at the altar of our house, she and her sister will not escape a doom most harsh. For in truth
485

I charge that other with an equal share in the plotting of this burial. Call her out! I saw her inside just now, raving, and not in control of her wits. Before the deed, the mind frequently is convicted of stealthy crimes when conspirators are plotting depravity in the dark.
490

But, truly, I detest it, too, when one who has been caught in treachery then seeks to make the crime a glory.
495

Antigone

What more do you want than to capture and kill me?

Creon

I want nothing else. Having that, I have everything.

499

Antigone

Why then do you wait? In none of your maxims

is there anything that pleases me—and may there never be! Similarly to you as well my views must be displeasing. And yet, how could I have won a nobler glory than by giving burial to my own brother? All here would admit that they approve,
500

if fear did not grip their tongues. But tyranny, blest with so much else, has the power to do and say whatever it pleases.
505

Creon

You alone out of all these Thebans see it that way.

Antigone

They do, too, but for you they hold their tongues.

Creon

Are you not ashamed that your beliefs differ from theirs?
510

Antigone

No, there is nothing shameful in respecting your own flesh and blood.

Creon

Was not he your brother too, who died in the opposite cause?

Antigone

A brother by the same mother and the same father.

Creon

Why, then, do you pay a service that is disrespectful to him?

Antigone

The dead man will not support you in that.
515

Creon

Yes, he will, if you honor him equally with the wicked one.

Antigone

It was his brother, not his slave, who died.

Creon

But he died ravaging this land, while he fell in its defense.

Antigone

Hades craves these rites, nevertheless.

Creon

But the good man craves a portion not equal to the evil’s.
520

Antigone

Who knows but that these actions are pure to those below?

Creon

You do not love someone you have hated, not even after death.

Antigone

It is not my nature to join in hate, but in love.

Creon

Then, go down to hell and love them

if you must. While I live, no woman will rule me.
525

526

Enter Ismene from the house, led in by two attendants.

Chorus

Look, here comes Ismene from the palace, shedding the tears of a loving sister. A cloud over her eyes mars her red-flushed face,

and it breaks into rain on her comely cheek.
530

531

Creon

You who were lurking like a viper in my own house and secretly gulping up my life’s blood, while I was oblivious that I was nurturing two plagues, two revolutions against my throne—tell me now, will you also affirm

your share in this burial, or will you forswear all knowledge of it?
535

Ismene

I performed the deed—as long as she concurs—and I share and carry the burden of guilt.

Antigone

No, justice will not permit you to do this, since you were not willing to help with the deed, nor did I give you a part in it.

Ismene

But now with this sea of troubles around you, I am not ashamed to sail in a sea of suffering at your side.
540

Antigone

As to whose deed it is, Hades and the dead are witnesses. A friend in words is not the type of friend I love.

Ismene

No, sister, do not strip me of death’s honor,

but let me die with you and make due consecration to the dead.
545

Antigone

Do not share my death. Do not claim deeds to which you did not put your hand. My death will suffice.

Ismene

And how can I cherish life, once I am deprived of you?

Antigone

Ask Creon. Your concern is for him.

Ismene

Why do you torture me like this, when it does not help you?
550

Antigone

No, if I mock you, it is to my own pain that I do so.

Ismene

Tell me, how can I help you, even now?

Antigone

Save yourself. I do not grudge your escape.

Ismene

Ah, misery! Will I fall short of sharing your fate?

Antigone

Your choice was to live, it was mine to die.
555

556

Ismene

At least your choice was not made without my protests.

Antigone

One world approved your wisdom, another approved mine.

Ismene

Nevertheless, the offense is identical for both of us.

Antigone

Take heart! You live. But my life has long been

in Death’s hands so that I might serve the dead.
560

Creon

One of these maidens, I declare, has just revealed her foolishness; the other has displayed it from the moment of her birth.

Ismene

Yes, Creon. Whatever amount of reason nature may have given them does not remain with those in dire straits, but goes astray.

Creon

Yours did, I know, when you chose dire actions with dire allies.
565

Ismene

What life would there be for me alone, without her presence?

Creon

Do not speak of her presence. She lives no longer.

Ismene

What? You will kill your own son’s bride?

Creon

Why not? There are other fields for him to plough.

Ismene

But not fitted to him as she was.
570

Creon

I abhor an evil wife for my son.

Antigone

Haemon, dearest! How your father wrongs you!

Creon

Enough! Enough of you and of your marriage!

Chorus

Will you really cheat your son of this girl?

Creon

Death it is who will end these bridals for me.
575

Chorus

Then it seems that it is resolved that she will die.

Creon

Resolved, yes, for you and by me. To the two Attendants. No more delay! Servants, take them inside! Hereafter they must be women, and not left at large.

For it is known that even the brave seek to flee, when they see Death now closing on their life. Exeunt Attendants, guarding Antigone and Ismene. Creon remains.
580

Commentary

Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))

mvp-comment-45-1 οὕνεκ’ ¹

mvp-comment-45-2 ἐκ ²

mvp-comment-45-3 ἀκούειν ³ ταῦτα ⁴ ἀλγίονα ⁵

mvp-comment-46-1 ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν ⁶

mvp-comment-46-2 τοὺς ὑπὸ χθονός ⁷

mvp-comment-46-3 βιάζομαι τάδε ⁸

mvp-comment-47-1 τοῖς ἐν τέλει βεβῶσι ⁹ βεβῶσι ¹⁰

mvp-comment-47-2 τὸ γὰρ | ...πράσσειν ¹¹

mvp-comment-47-3 περισσὰ πρ ¹²

mvp-comment-47-4 οὐκ ἔχει νοῦν οὐδ. ¹³

mvp-comment-48-1 ἔτι ¹⁴

mvp-comment-48-2 πράσσειν … δρῴης ¹⁵ δρῴης ¹⁶ ἄν ¹⁷ ἡδέως ¹⁸ γε ¹⁹ ἡδέως γε ἂν ἐμοῦ ²⁰ <)μοῦ ²¹ γε ²² ἐμοί γ’ ²³ μέτα ²⁴ ἀσμένης ²⁵ ἡδέως ²⁶ ἐμοῦ γε ²⁷

mvp-comment-49-1 ἴσθ’ ²⁸

mvp-comment-49-2 όποία σοι δοκεῖ ²⁹ ἴσθ’ ³⁰ ὁποῖά σοι δοκεῖ ³¹

mvp-comment-50-1 θάψω ³²

mvp-comment-50-2 φίλη … φίλου ³³

mvp-comment-50-3 μετ’ αὐτοῦ κείσομαι ³⁴ μετά ³⁵

mvp-comment-51-1 ὅσια πανουργήσασ’ ³⁶ ὅσια ³⁷

mvp-comment-51-2 ἐπεὶ κ.τ.λ. ³⁸

mvp-comment-51-3 τῶν ἐνθάδε ³⁹

mvp-comment-52-1 κείσομαι ⁴⁰

mvp-comment-52-2 σοὶ δ’ ⁴¹ σὺ δ’ ⁴² εἰ δοκεῖ ⁴³

mvp-comment-52-3 τὰ τῶν θεῶν ἔντιμα ⁴⁴

mvp-comment-52-4 ἀτιμάσασ’ ἔχε ⁴⁵

mvp-comment-53-1 ἐγὼ ⁴⁶ μέν ⁴⁷ δέ ⁴⁸

mvp-comment-53-2 ἄτιμα ποιοῦμαι ⁴⁹

mvp-comment-53-3 τὸ δὲ | ...δρᾶν ⁵⁰

mvp-comment-54-1 τάδ’ ἂν προὔχοιο ⁵¹

mvp-comment-54-2 δὴ ⁵²

mvp-comment-54-3 τάφον χώσουσ’ ⁵³

mvp-comment-55-1 Join οἴμοι ταλαίνης ⁵⁴

mvp-comment-55-2 μὴ ’μοῦ προτάρβει ⁵⁵ τὸν σόν ⁵⁶ μὴ ’μοῦ ⁵⁷ προτάρβει ⁵⁸

mvp-comment-55-3 ἐξόρθου ⁵⁹

mvp-comment-56-1 ἀλλ’ οὖν … γε ⁶⁰ ἀλλά ⁶¹ οὖν ⁶²

mvp-comment-56-2 κρυφῆ δέ ⁶³

mvp-comment-56-3 σὺν δ’ ⁶⁴

mvp-comment-56-4 αὔτως ⁶⁵

mvp-comment-57-1 καταύδα ⁶⁶

mvp-comment-57-2 πολλόν ⁶⁷ πολλὸν ⁶⁸

mvp-comment-57-3 σιγῶσ’ ⁶⁹ ἐὰν … τάδε ⁷⁰ πᾶσι ⁷¹

mvp-comment-58-1 θερμὴν ἐπὶ ψυχροῖσι ⁷² ἐπί ⁷³ θερμήν ⁷⁴

mvp-comment-59-1 ἁδεῖν ⁷⁵

mvp-comment-60-1 εἰ καὶ δυνήσει γ’ ⁷⁶ καὶ ⁷⁷ δυνήσει ⁷⁸ εἰ καί ⁷⁹

mvp-comment-61-1 Since οὐκοῦν ⁸⁰ δὴ ⁸¹ ὅταν ⁸²

mvp-comment-61-2 πεπαύσομαι ⁸³

mvp-comment-62-1 ἀρχήν ⁸⁴

mvp-comment-63-1 ἐχθαρεῖ ⁸⁵

mvp-comment-63-2 ἐξ ἐμοῦ ⁸⁶

mvp-comment-64-1 ἐχθρὰ...τῷ θανόντι προσκείσει δίκῃ ⁸⁷ προσκείσει ⁸⁸ ἐχθρά ⁸⁹

mvp-comment-64-2 Lehrs proposed

Δίκῃ

, i.e. ‘you will fall under the chastisement of justice.’ Donaldson, following Emper, reads

ἐχθρᾷ... δίκῃ

, as iure inimicorum apud mortuum eris: i.e. on the part of the dead you will be deemed to have only the rights of a foe. This is impossible. The ordinary reading is sound.

mvp-comment-65-1 ἔα ⁹⁰

mvp-comment-65-2 τὴν ἐξ ἐμοῦ δυσββουλίαν ⁹¹

mvp-comment-65-3 τὸ δεινὸν τοῦτο ⁹²

mvp-comment-65-4 πείσομαι γὰρ οὐ ⁹⁴

mvp-comment-65-5 μὴ οὐ ⁹⁵

mvp-comment-66-1 τοῖς φίλοις δ’ ὀρθῶς φίλη ⁹⁶ ἴσθι ⁹⁷

mvp-comment-68-1 ἀελίου ⁹⁸

mvp-comment-68-2 τὸ κάλλιστον ...φάος ⁹⁹

mvp-comment-68-3 ἑπταπύλῳ ¹⁰⁰

mvp-comment-68-4 τῶν προτέρων ¹⁰¹

mvp-comment-69-1 ἐφάνθης ¹⁰²

mvp-comment-69-2 χρυσέας ¹⁰³

mvp-comment-69-3 βλέφαρον ¹⁰⁴

mvp-comment-69-4 Διρκαίων ¹⁰⁵

mvp-comment-70-1 τὸν λεύκασπιν...φῶτα ¹⁰⁶

mvp-comment-70-2 The words

τὸν λεύκασπιν Ἀργόθεν

answer metrically to 123

πευκάενθ’ Ἥφαιστον ἑλεῖν

. Instead of

Ἀργόθεν

(¯˘¯) we therefore require ¯˘˘¯. The short final of

λεύκασπιν

is legitimate, the metre being Glyconic (see Analysis Metr.). In the antistrophic verse, the H of

Ἥφαιστον

is ‘irrational,’ i.e. is a long syllable doing duty for a short: and Nauck is incorrect in saying that the metre ‘requires’ (though it admits) a choriambus beginning with a consonant. The simplest remedy is to read Ἀργόθεν ἐκ | βάντα φῶτα ¹⁰⁷ Ἰναχόθεν ¹⁰⁸

mvp-comment-71-1 πανσαγίᾳ ¹⁰⁹

mvp-comment-71-2 φυγάδα πρ. ¹¹⁰ κινήσασα ¹¹¹

mvp-comment-71-3 πρόδρομον ¹¹²

mvp-comment-71-4 ὀξυτέρῳ...χαλινῷ ¹¹³

mvp-comment-71-5 ὀξυτέρῳ ¹¹⁴

mvp-comment-72-1 The MSS. have ὃν...Πολυνείκης ¹¹⁵ ὃς ...Πολυνείκους ¹¹⁶

mvp-comment-72-2 Πολυνείκους … νεικέων ¹¹⁷

mvp-comment-72-3 ἀρθείς ¹¹⁸

mvp-comment-72-4 νεικ. ἐξ ἀμφιλόγων ¹¹⁹

mvp-comment-73-1 ὀξέα κλάζων ¹²⁰

mvp-comment-73-2 αἰετὸς εἰς γᾶν ὣς ὑπερέπτα ¹²¹ ὥς ¹²²

mvp-comment-73-3 ὑπερέπτα ¹²³

mvp-comment-74-1 λευκῆς χιόνος πτ. ¹²⁴

mvp-comment-74-2 στεγανός ¹²⁵

mvp-comment-74-3 ὅπλων … κορύθεσσι ¹²⁶ ξύν ¹²⁷ μετά ¹²⁸ ξύν ¹²⁹

mvp-comment-75-1 In στὰς δ’ ὑπὲρ μελάθρων ¹³⁰ πτάς ¹³¹

mvp-comment-75-2 The words φονώσαισιν ἀμφιχανὼν... λόγχαις ¹³²

mvp-comment-75-3 φονώσαισιν ¹³³

mvp-comment-75-4 ἑπτάπυλον στόμα ¹³⁴

mvp-comment-76-1 ἔβα ¹³⁵

mvp-comment-76-2 πρίν ποθ’ ¹³⁶ αἱμάτων ¹³⁷

mvp-comment-76-3 γἑνυσιν ¹³⁸ πλησθῆναι ¹³⁹ τε ¹⁴⁰ τε ¹⁴¹

mvp-comment-76-4 στεφάνωμα ¹⁴²

mvp-comment-76-5 πευκάενθ’ Ἥφαιστον ¹⁴³

mvp-comment-77-1 τοῖος ¹⁴⁴

mvp-comment-77-2 ἐτάθη ¹⁴⁵

mvp-comment-77-3 πάταγος ¹⁴⁶

mvp-comment-77-4 ἀντιπάλῳ δυσχείρωμα δράκοντος ¹⁴⁷ ἀντιπάλῳ ... δράκοντι ¹⁴⁸ ἀντιπάλου … δράκοντος ¹⁴⁹ ἀντιπάλῳ … δράκοντος ¹⁵⁰

mvp-comment-77-5 The interpretation of the passage turns primarily on two points.

mvp-comment-77-6 (1) The δράκων ¹⁵¹

mvp-comment-77-7 (2) The δυς ¹⁵² δυσχείρωμα ¹⁵³

mvp-comment-77-8 Those who read ἀντιπάλῳ … δράκοντι ¹⁵⁴ ὲτάθη ¹⁵⁵

mvp-comment-77-9 Those who read ἀντιπάλου … δράκοντος ¹⁵⁶

mvp-comment-78-1 μεγάλης ¹⁵⁷

mvp-comment-78-2 ῥεύματι ¹⁵⁸ ῥεύματι πολλῷ ¹⁵⁹

mvp-comment-79-1 χρυσοῦ καναχῆς ὑπεροπλίαις ¹⁶⁰

mvp-comment-79-2

μέγας

. In post-Homeric poetry

ὑπέροπλος

is a freq. epith. of overweening strength (

ἠνορέη, βίη, ἥβη

, etc.).—Other readings are:—(1)

χρυσοῦ καναχῇ θ’ ὑπερόπτας

, ‘and haughty in the clang of gold.’ This involves an improbable change; the subst.

ὑπερόπτης

, too, is unsuitable here, and cannot be defended by Theocr. 22. 58

πρὸς πάντα παλίγκοτος ἠδ’ ὑπερόπτης

. Wecklein, reading

ὑπερόπτας

, keeps

καναχῆς

in the sense, hoffärtig auf: but a genit. after

ὑπερόπτης

could not denote that in which one takes pride. (2)

χρυσοῦ καναχῆς ὑπερόπτης

, or

‐όπτα

, i.e., ‘Zeus, a despiser of the clang of gold.’ (3)

χρυσοῦ καναχῆς ὑπέροπτα

, adv. neut. plur. (as O. T. 883 ), ‘advancing haughtily in a great stream of clanging gold.’ But the adv. comes weakly at the end, and

χρυσοῦ κ

. is harshly joined with

π. ῥεύματι

.—Aesch. , too, gives prominence to gold in picturing the Argive chiefs: Capaneus has golden letters on his shield ( Aesch. Th. 434 ), Polyneices has the image of a warrior in golden armour, with a golden legend (644, Aesch. Th. 660 ).

mvp-comment-79-3 καναχῆς ¹⁶¹

mvp-comment-80-1 παλτῷ πυρί ¹⁶²

mvp-comment-80-2 βαλβίδων ἐπ’ ἄκρων ¹⁶³

mvp-comment-80-3 ὁρμῶντα ¹⁶⁴

mvp-comment-80-4 νίκην ¹⁶⁵ ἀλαλάξαι ¹⁶⁶

mvp-comment-81-1 ἀντιτύπᾳ ¹⁶⁷

mvp-comment-81-2 As regards the sense,

ἀντίτυπος

was regularly used of hard surfaces, which, as it were, repel that which strikes them (for the accent

ἀντίτυπος

, not

ἀντιτύπος

, though the sense is act., see on O. T. 460 ). Probl. 5. 40

οἱ...ἐν ἀντιτύποις περίπατοι

. Lucian Amor. 13

τὴν ἀντίτυπον οὕτω καὶ καρτερὰν τοῦ λίθου φύσιν

. So, fig., Plat. Crat. 420D

τὸ...ἀναγκαῖον καὶ ἀντίτυπον

, what is necessary, and what resists us.

mvp-comment-81-3 τανταλωθείς ¹⁶⁸

mvp-comment-82-1 πυρφόρος ¹⁶⁹

mvp-comment-82-2 βακχεύων ¹⁷⁰

mvp-comment-82-3 ῥιπαῖς...ἀνέμων ¹⁷¹

mvp-comment-83-1 εἶχε δ’ ἄλλᾳ τὰ μέν ¹⁷² εἶχε δ’ ἄλλαι τὰ μὲν ἄλλαι τὰ δ’ ἐπ’ ἄλλοις ¹⁷³ τὰ μέν ¹⁷⁴ ἄλλα δέ ¹⁷⁵ τὰ μέν ¹⁷⁶ ἄλλᾳ ¹⁷⁷

mvp-comment-83-2 ἐπενώμα ¹⁷⁸ στυφελίζων ¹⁷⁹

mvp-comment-83-3 δεξιόσειρος ¹⁸⁰

mvp-comment-83-4 The old v.l. δεξιόχειρος ¹⁸¹

mvp-comment-84-1 ἑπτὰ λοχαγοί ¹⁸²

mvp-comment-84-2 ἴσοι πρὸς ἴσους ¹⁸³

mvp-comment-84-3 Ζηνὶ τροπαίῳ ¹⁸⁴

mvp-comment-84-4 πάγχαλκα τέλη ¹⁸⁵

mvp-comment-84-5 It was the ordinary practice to set up a

τρόπαιον

(old

αττ.τροπαῖον

) after a victory, on the spot where it had been won, or, in the case of a sea-fight, on the nearest land ( Thuc. 2.92 ). Such a trophy ordinarily consisted of shields, helmets, and weapons, conspicuously displayed on wooden supports, and dedicated, with an inscription, to a deity. Cp. Eur. Phoen. 1473 (of the Thebans after the victory)

οἱ μὲν Διὸς τροπαῖον ἵστασαν βρέτας

(i.e. a wooden image of

Ζεὺς Τροπαῖος

), |

οἱ δ’ ἀσπίδας συλῶντες Ἀργείων νεκρῶν | σκυλεύματ’ εἴσω τειχέων ἐπέμπομεν

. Part of the armour would be affixed to the walls of Theban temples (cp. Aesch. Ag. 577 , Th. 276 ).

mvp-comment-85-1 πλὴν τ. στυγεροῖν ¹⁸⁶ πατρός ¹⁸⁷

mvp-comment-85-2 καθ’ αὑτοῖν ¹⁸⁸

mvp-comment-85-3 δικρατεῖς λόγχας ¹⁸⁹

mvp-comment-85-4 στήσαντε ¹⁹⁰

mvp-comment-86-1 ἀλλὰ γάρ ¹⁹¹ γάρ ¹⁹² γάρ ¹⁹³

mvp-comment-86-2 μεγαλώνυμος ¹⁹⁴

mvp-comment-86-3 πολυαρμάτῳ ¹⁹⁵

mvp-comment-86-4 ἀντιχαρεῖσα ¹⁹⁶

mvp-comment-87-1 ἐκ...πολέμων τῶν νῦν ¹⁹⁷ ἐκ ¹⁹⁸ νῦν ¹⁹⁹

mvp-comment-87-2 θέσθαι ²⁰⁰ θέσθε ²⁰¹ παννυχίοις ²⁰²

mvp-comment-87-3 ὁ Θήβας ²⁰³ ἐλελίχθων ²⁰⁴

mvp-comment-87-4 Βάκχιος ²⁰⁵

mvp-comment-87-5 ἄρχοι ²⁰⁶

mvp-comment-88-1 ἀλλὰ … γάρ ²⁰⁷ Κρέων ²⁰⁸

mvp-comment-88-2 Μενοικέως ²⁰⁹

mvp-comment-88-3 νεοχμὸς νεαραῖσι ²¹⁰

mvp-comment-88-4 their equivalents. See Appendix I prefer the first of these views. An anapaest or spondee, meaning ‘ruler,’ has probably dropped out before νεοχμός ²¹¹ κρείων ²¹² ἄρχων ²¹³ ταγός ²¹⁴

mvp-comment-88-5 θεῶν … συντυχίαις ²¹⁵ ἐπί ²¹⁶

mvp-comment-89-1 μῆτιν ἐρέσσων ²¹⁷

mvp-comment-89-2 σύγκλητον ²¹⁸

mvp-comment-89-3 προὔθετο ²¹⁹ λέσχην ²²⁰

mvp-comment-89-4 not the meeting, but the discussion which is to take place there: thus the poet's phrase, true to Attic usage, corresponds with

γνώμας προθεῖναι

rather than with

ἐκκλησίαν προθεῖναι

. Herod. uses

λέσχη

of a public discussion (9. 71): cp. O. C. 167 . The midd. προὔθετο ²²¹

mvp-comment-89-5 κοινῷ κ. πέμψας ²²²

mvp-comment-91-1 There is a general dramatic analogy between this speech and that of Oedipus in O. T. 216 —275. In each case a Theban king addresses Theban elders, announcing a stern decree, adopted in reliance on his own wisdom, and promulgated with haughty consciousness of power; the elders receive the decree with a submissive deference under which we can perceive traces of misgiving; and as the drama proceeds, the elders become spectators of calamities occasioned by the decree, while its author turns to them for comfort.

mvp-comment-91-2 τὰ μὲν δὴ πόλεος . . ὑμᾶς δ’ ²²³

mvp-comment-91-3 πόλεος ²²⁴ πολλῷ σάλῳ σείσαντες ²²⁵

mvp-comment-91-4 The image of the State as a ship dates in Greek literature from Alcaeus (whom Horace copied, Carm. 1. 14 ), fr. 18. The ship of Alcaeus is labouring in the trough of a wild sea,—water is coming in,—the sail is torn,—the anchor will not hold:

νᾶϊ φορήμεθα σὺν μελαίνᾳ | χείμωνι μοχθεῦντες μεγάλῳ μάλα, κ.τ.λ.

It is only through Heracleides Alleg. Homer. 5 that we know the meaning of Alcaeus to have been figurative and political. Aesch. often uses the image ( Aesch. Th. 2 , Aesch. Th. 62 , Aesch. Th. 208 etc.). Creon returns to it at 189. It is peculiarly well suited to his point,—the unity of the public interest.

mvp-comment-91-5 ὤρθωσαν ²²⁶

mvp-comment-92-1 ἐκ πάντων ²²⁷ δίχα ²²⁸

mvp-comment-92-2 ἔστειλ’ ἱκέσθαι ²²⁹ τοῦτο μέν ²³⁰

mvp-comment-92-3 σέβοντας ²³¹

mvp-comment-92-4 θρόνων . . κράτη ²³²

mvp-comment-93-1 ἡνίκ’ Οἰδίπους ²³³ κείνων ²³⁴ κείνων παῖδας ²³⁵ ἡνίκ’ . . ὤρθου πόλιν ²³⁶ ἐπεὶ διώλετο ²³⁷ τοῦτο μέν . . τοῦτ’ αὖθις ²³⁸

mvp-comment-93-2 καί ²³⁹ καί ²⁴⁰

mvp-comment-93-3 ἐμπέδοις φρονήμασιν ²⁴¹ ἐμπέδους ²⁴² ἐμπέδοις ²⁴³

mvp-comment-94-1 ὅτε ²⁴⁴

mvp-comment-94-2 πρὸς διπλῆς μ. ²⁴⁵ διπλῆς . . μίαν ²⁴⁶

mvp-comment-94-3 παίσαντες . . πληγέντες ²⁴⁷

mvp-comment-94-4 αὐτόχειρι … μιάσματι ²⁴⁸

mvp-comment-95-1 ἐγὼ . . δή ²⁴⁹

mvp-comment-95-2 κράτη ²⁵⁰

mvp-comment-95-3 γένους κατ’ ἀγχιστεῖα τῶν ὀλ. ²⁵¹

mvp-comment-96-1 ἀμήχανον δέ ²⁵² δέ ²⁵³ δέ ²⁵⁴

mvp-comment-96-2 Demosthenes, in his speech on the Embassy (343 B.C.), quotes this passage (vv. 175—190) as illustrating maxims

mvp-comment-96-3 which Aeschines had violated, though, accustomed as he had been to play tritagonists' parts, he ought to have known them by heart (or. 19 § 247).

mvp-comment-97-1 ψυχήν ²⁵⁵ φρόνημα ²⁵⁶ γνώμην ²⁵⁷

mvp-comment-98-1 ἀρχαῖς ²⁵⁸ νόμοισιν ²⁵⁹

mvp-comment-98-2 ἐντριβής ²⁶⁰

mvp-comment-98-3 φανῇ ²⁶¹

mvp-comment-99-1 ἐμοὶ γάρ ²⁶² γάρ ²⁶³ πᾶσαν … πόλιν ²⁶⁴

mvp-comment-99-2 μὴ … ἅπτεται ²⁶⁵ ὅστις μὴ ἅπτεται ²⁶⁶

mvp-comment-99-3 ἐκ φ. του ²⁶⁷

mvp-comment-99-4 ἐγκλῄσας ἔχει ²⁶⁸

mvp-comment-99-5 νῦν τε καὶ πάλαι ²⁶⁹

mvp-comment-100-1 μείζον’ ²⁷⁰ ἀντὶ τῆς...πάτρας ²⁷¹ ἤ ²⁷² μεῖζον ²⁷³

mvp-comment-100-2 οὐδαμοῦ λέγω ²⁷⁴

mvp-comment-101-1 ἐγὼ γάρ ²⁷⁵ γάρ ²⁷⁶ τοῦτο γιγνώσκων ²⁷⁷ ἴστω ²⁷⁸

mvp-comment-102-1 οὔτ’ ἂν σιωπήσαιμι ²⁷⁹

mvp-comment-103-1 στείχουσαν ἀστοῖς ²⁸⁰ ὁμοῦ ²⁸¹

mvp-comment-103-2 ἀντὶ τῆς σωτηρίας ²⁸² τῆς ²⁸³

mvp-comment-104-1 ἄνδρα δυσμενῆ χθονός ²⁸⁴

mvp-comment-104-2 ἐμαυτῷ ²⁸⁵ φίλον ²⁸⁶ θείμην ²⁸⁷

mvp-comment-105-1 ἡ σῴζουσα ²⁸⁸

mvp-comment-105-2 ταύτης ²⁸⁹ ὀρθῆς ²⁹⁰

mvp-comment-105-3 τοὺς φίλους ποιούμεθα ²⁹¹

mvp-comment-105-4

εὐτυχούσῃ πολλῷ μᾶλλον διασῴζεται

. ‘Pericles Thucydidis 11. 60 Sophoclem videtur respexisse, vel eum Sophocles,’ is Dobree's remark ( Adv. 2. 37 ); but there is no adequate ground for such a view. The verbal coincidence of

ὀρθῆς

with

ὀρθουμένην

may well have been accidental. What is really common to poet and historian is the general sentiment of Periclean Athens. For another example of this, cp. O. C. 116 n.

mvp-comment-106-1 νόμοισι ²⁹²

mvp-comment-106-2 αὔξω ²⁹³

mvp-comment-107-1 ἀδελφὰ τῶνδε ²⁹⁴

mvp-comment-107-2 τῶν ἀπ’ Οἰδίπου ²⁹⁵

mvp-comment-108-1 δορί ²⁹⁶ δόρει ²⁹⁷

mvp-comment-109-1 τὰ πάντ’ ἐφαγνίσαι ²⁹⁸ ἐπί ²⁹⁹ ἐφαγνίσαι ³⁰⁰ ἀφαγνίσαι ³⁰¹ ἀπό ³⁰²

mvp-comment-110-1 τοῖς ἀρίστοις ³⁰³

mvp-comment-110-2 ἔρχεται κάτω ³⁰⁴

mvp-comment-111-1 L has Πολυνείκην ³⁰⁵

mvp-comment-111-2 λέγω ³⁰⁶

mvp-comment-112-1 γτ=ν πατρῴαν . . καὶ θεοὺς . . πρῆσαι ³⁰⁷

mvp-comment-112-2 θ. τοὺς ἐγγενεῖς ³⁰⁸

mvp-comment-112-3 κατελθών ³⁰⁹

mvp-comment-112-4 γ)θέλησε μέν … ἠθέλ. δέ ³¹⁰ ἠθέλησε μὲν ³¹¹

mvp-comment-112-5 πρῆσαι ³¹²

mvp-comment-112-6 κατ’ ἄκρας ³¹³

mvp-comment-112-7 αἵματος κ. πάσασθαι ³¹⁴

mvp-comment-112-8 τοὺς δὲ … ἄγειν ³¹⁵

mvp-comment-113-1 The traditional ἐκκεκηρῦχθαι τάφῳ ³¹⁶ ἐκκεκήρυκται τάφῳ ³¹⁷ ἐκκεκηρῦχθαι λέγω ³¹⁸ τάφῳ ³¹⁹ κτερίζειν ³²⁰ τάφῳ ³²¹ κτερίζειν ³²² μήτε ³²³ κωκῦσαι ³²⁴ τάφῳ ³²⁵ λέγω ³²⁶ τάφῳ ³²⁷ ἐκκεκ ³²⁸

mvp-comment-114-1 ἐᾶν δ ³²⁹ ἄθαπτον, αἰκισθέντ’ ἰδεῖν ³³⁰ δέμας καὶ πρὸς οἰωνῶν καὶ πρὸς κυνῶν ἐδεστόν ³³¹ αἰκισθέντ ³³² αἰκισθέντ ³³³ ἐδεστόν ³³⁴ αἰκισθέν τ’, δέμας ³³⁵

mvp-comment-114-2 δέμας ³³⁶

mvp-comment-114-3 ἰδεῖν ³³⁷

mvp-comment-115-1 φρόνημα ³³⁸

mvp-comment-115-2 ἔκ γ’ ἐμοῦ ³³⁹

mvp-comment-116-1 The MSS. have τιμὴν προέξουσ’ ..τῶν ἐνδ. ³⁴⁰ τιμήν ³⁴¹ τιμῆ ³⁴² προσέξους ³⁴³

mvp-comment-117-1 τιμήσεται ³⁴⁴

mvp-comment-118-1 I print Dindorf's κἀς ³⁴⁵ καὶ ³⁴⁶ σοὶ ταῦτ’ ἀρέσκει ³⁴⁷ Κρέον ³⁴⁸ ταὔτ ³⁴⁹ ταῦτ’ ³⁵⁰

mvp-comment-119-1 In παντί πού γ’ ³⁵¹ σοί γ’ … που ³⁵² ἔνεστι ³⁵³ χὡπόσοι ζῶμεν ³⁵⁴ πέρι ³⁵⁵

mvp-comment-120-1 ὡς ἂν … ἦτε ³⁵⁶ πῶς ἂν … εἶτε ³⁵⁷

mvp-comment-120-2 σκοποί ³⁵⁸

mvp-comment-120-3 νυν ³⁵⁹ νῦν ³⁶⁰

mvp-comment-120-4 τῶν εἰρ ³⁶¹

mvp-comment-121-1 πρόθες τοῦτο ³⁶² βαστάζειν ³⁶³

mvp-comment-121-2 τοῦ νεκροῦ γ’ ³⁶⁴

mvp-comment-122-1 τί δῆτ’ ἂν … ἐπεντέλλοις ³⁶⁵

mvp-comment-122-2 The reading ἄλλῳ ³⁶⁶ τοῦτο ³⁶⁷

mvp-comment-122-3 ἐπιχωρεῖν ³⁶⁸

mvp-comment-122-4 ἀπιστοῦσιν ³⁶⁹

mvp-comment-122-5 τάδε, ³⁷⁰

mvp-comment-123-1 ὃς ³⁷¹ ἐρᾷ ³⁷²

mvp-comment-123-2 καὶ μὴν ³⁷³ γε ³⁷⁴ μισθός ³⁷⁵

mvp-comment-123-3 requital of disobedience is that.’ For

καὶ μήν

so used, cp. O. T. 836 , 1004 f., El. 556 .

mvp-comment-123-4 τὸ κέρδος ³⁷⁶

mvp-comment-123-5 διώλεσεν ³⁷⁷

mvp-comment-124-1 ἐρῶ μὲν οὐχ ³⁷⁸

mvp-comment-124-2 ὅπως ³⁷⁹

mvp-comment-124-3 τάχους ὕπο ³⁸⁰ τάχους ³⁸¹

mvp-comment-125-1 ἐξάρας ³⁸²

mvp-comment-125-2 φροντίδων ³⁸³ ἐπιστάσεις ³⁸⁴

mvp-comment-125-3 ὁδοῖς ³⁸⁵

mvp-comment-125-4 κυκλῶν ³⁸⁶

mvp-comment-126-1 ψυχὴ γὰρ ηὔδα ³⁸⁷ πολλὰ ³⁸⁸ μυθουμένη ³⁸⁹

mvp-comment-127-1 τάλας … τλήμων ³⁹⁰

mvp-comment-127-2 μένεις ³⁹¹ μενεῖς ³⁹² αὖ ³⁹³

mvp-comment-127-3 πῶς … οὐκ ³⁹⁴

mvp-comment-127-4 ἀλγυνεῖ ³⁹⁵

mvp-comment-128-1 ἑλίσσων ³⁹⁶

mvp-comment-128-2 ἤνυτον ³⁹⁷

mvp-comment-128-3 σχολῇ βραδύς ³⁹⁸

mvp-comment-129-1 τέλος γε μέντοι ³⁹⁹

mvp-comment-129-2 ἐνίκησεν ⁴⁰⁰

mvp-comment-129-3

ἐκλιπεῖν τὴν πόλιν

. That

μολεῖν

should not be regarded as the subject to

ἐνίκησε

, is shown by such an example as Her. 8.9

ἐνίκα τὴν ἡμέρην ἐκείνην αὐτοῦ μείναντάς τε καὶ αὐλισθέντας μετέπειτα νύκτα μέσην παρέντας πορεύεσθαι

, where the length of the interval excludes such a view. The personal constr. occurs below, 274; cp. Thuc. 2.12

ἦν...Περικλέους γνώμη...νενικηκυῖα

mvp-comment-130-1 σοί ⁴⁰¹ μολεῖν ⁴⁰² σοί ⁴⁰³ φράσων ⁴⁰⁴ φράσω δ ⁴⁰⁵ κεἰ ⁴⁰⁶ κεἴ σοι ⁴⁰⁷ σοί. ⁴⁰⁸

mvp-comment-130-2 τὸ μηδέν ⁴⁰⁹

mvp-comment-131-1 τῆς ἐλπίδος ⁴¹⁰

mvp-comment-131-2 δεδραγμένος ⁴¹¹ πεφραγμένος ⁴¹² πεπραγμένος ⁴¹³

mvp-comment-131-3 τὸ μὴ παθεῖν ἄν ⁴¹⁴

mvp-comment-131-4

πάθοιμι ἄν

, depending on

ἐλπίδος...δεδρ

. as=

ἐλπίζων

: for the art. with infin., cp. 78 n.

mvp-comment-131-5 τὸ μόρσιμον ⁴¹⁵

mvp-comment-132-1 ἀνθ’ οὗ ⁴¹⁶

mvp-comment-132-2 τὸ γὰρ | πρᾶγμ’ ⁴¹⁷ γάρ ⁴¹⁸

mvp-comment-133-1 εὖ γε στοχάζει ⁴¹⁹ στοχάζει ⁴²⁰ ἀποφράγνυσαι ⁴²¹ στοχάζομαι ⁴²²

mvp-comment-133-2 κἀποφράγνυσαι ⁴²³

mvp-comment-133-3 τὸ πρᾶγμα ⁴²⁴

mvp-comment-134-1 δηλοῖς δ’ ὥς τι ς. ⁴²⁵

mvp-comment-135-1 τὰ δεινά ⁴²⁶ γάρ ⁴²⁷

mvp-comment-135-2 ποτ ⁴²⁸

mvp-comment-135-3 ἀπαλλαχθείς ⁴²⁹

mvp-comment-136-1 καὶ δή ⁴³⁰

mvp-comment-136-2 θάψας ⁴³¹ κἀπί ⁴³²

mvp-comment-136-3 διψίαν ⁴³³

mvp-comment-136-4 κἀφαγιστεύσας ⁴³⁴ ἃ χρή ⁴³⁵

mvp-comment-137-1 ἀνδρῶν ⁴³⁶

mvp-comment-137-2 οὔτε του γενῇδος … οὐ δικέλλης ⁴³⁷ οὔτε … οὐ ⁴³⁸ γενῄς ⁴³⁹ γενῄς ⁴⁴⁰ δίκελλα ⁴⁴¹

mvp-comment-137-3 δικ. ἐκβολή ⁴⁴² ἐκβ. ⁴⁴³ στύφλος ⁴⁴⁴ χέρσος ⁴⁴⁵ ἀρρώξ ⁴⁴⁶

mvp-comment-137-4 ἐπημαξευμένη ⁴⁴⁷ ἐπ‐ ⁴⁴⁸ ἐφ‐ ⁴⁴⁹

mvp-comment-137-5 ἀλλ’ ὁ ἐργάτης ἄσημός τις ἦν ⁴⁵⁰

mvp-comment-138-1 It is still the early morning of the day on which the drama opens. The Argives having fled in the night, Creon had published his edict shortly before dawn. Antigone had done her deed in the short interval between the publication of the edict and the beginning of the watch over the corpse. ὁ πρῶτος ἡμεροσκόπος ⁴⁵¹ ἡμεροσκ. ⁴⁵²

mvp-comment-138-2 δείκνυσι … παρῆν ⁴⁵³

mvp-comment-138-3 δυσχερές ⁴⁵⁴

mvp-comment-139-1 ὁ μὲν ⁴⁵⁵

mvp-comment-139-2 τυμβήρης μὲν οὔ ⁴⁵⁶ τυμβ. ⁴⁵⁷ λεπτὴ δ’ … ἐπῆν ⁴⁵⁸

mvp-comment-139-3 ἄγος φεύγοντος ὥς ⁴⁵⁹ ἄγος ⁴⁶⁰

mvp-comment-140-1 θηρός ⁴⁶¹

mvp-comment-140-2 του ⁴⁶² θηρός ⁴⁶³

mvp-comment-140-3 οὐ σπάσαντος ⁴⁶⁴ οὐ ⁴⁶⁵ σπάσαντος ⁴⁶⁶ σπάσαντος οὐδ’ ἐλθόντος ⁴⁶⁷

mvp-comment-141-1 λόγοι δ’ … φύλακα ⁴⁶⁸ λόγοι κακοὶ ἐρρόθουν ⁴⁶⁹ ἐρρόθουν ⁴⁷⁰

mvp-comment-141-2

γλώσσης ῥόθος

, of an unintelligible jargon.

mvp-comment-141-3 ἐλέγχων ⁴⁷¹

mvp-comment-141-4 κἂν ἐγίγνετο ⁴⁷²

mvp-comment-141-5 τελευτῶς ⁴⁷³

mvp-comment-141-6 ὁ κωλύσων ⁴⁷⁴

mvp-comment-142-1 ἦν … οὑξειργ. ⁴⁷⁵

mvp-comment-142-2 ἐναργής ⁴⁷⁶

mvp-comment-142-3 ἀλλ’ ⁴⁷⁷

mvp-comment-142-4 ἕφευγε μὴ εἰδέναι ⁴⁷⁸

mvp-comment-142-5 μὴ ⁴⁷⁹ εἰδέναι ⁴⁸⁰

mvp-comment-143-1 μύδρους ⁴⁸¹

mvp-comment-143-2 a red-hot mass of metal, and that the custom was symbolical of an older use of the

μύδρος

in ordeals by fire. This would explain how the Alexandrian poets of the 3rd cent. B.C. (Lycophron, Callimachus) came to use the word

μύδρος

, in defiance of its etymology, as simply ‘a lump’ (or even ‘a stone’). They supposed that the

μύδροι

had been cold masses.

mvp-comment-144-1 πῦρ διέρπειν ⁴⁸²

mvp-comment-144-2 θεοὺς ὁρκ. ⁴⁸⁴

mvp-comment-144-3 τὸ μήτε δρ ⁴⁸⁵

mvp-comment-144-4 μήτ’ είργασμένῳ ⁴⁸⁶ μηδ ⁴⁸⁷

mvp-comment-145-1 πλέον ⁴⁸⁸

mvp-comment-145-2 λέγει ⁴⁸⁹

mvp-comment-145-3 τις εἷς ⁴⁹⁰

mvp-comment-146-1 προὔτρεψεν ⁴⁹¹

mvp-comment-146-2 οὐ γὰρ εἴχομεν ⁴⁹²

mvp-comment-146-3 As ἀντιφωνεῖν ⁴⁹³ δρῶντες ⁴⁹⁴ ὅπως δρῶντες ⁴⁹⁵ εἴχομεν ⁴⁹⁶

mvp-comment-147-1 σοί ⁴⁹⁷

mvp-comment-147-2 ταῦτ’ ἐνίκα ⁴⁹⁸

mvp-comment-147-3 πάλος ⁴⁹⁹ καθαιρεῖ ⁵⁰⁰

mvp-comment-147-4 τἀγαθόν ⁵⁰¹ —ἄκων οὐχ ἑκοῦσιν ⁵⁰²

mvp-comment-148-1 ἐμοί ⁵⁰³ βουλεύει ⁵⁰⁴ μή ⁵⁰⁵

mvp-comment-148-2 τι ⁵⁰⁶

mvp-comment-148-3 θεήλατον, ⁵⁰⁷

mvp-comment-148-4 ἡ ξύννοια ⁵⁰⁸

mvp-comment-148-5 πάλαι ⁵⁰⁹

mvp-comment-149-1 πρὶν ὀργῆς καί με μεστῶσαι ⁵¹⁰ καί ⁵¹¹ πρίν ⁵¹² μεστῶσαι ⁵¹³ καί ⁵¹⁴ με ⁵¹⁵

mvp-comment-149-2 κἀμέ ⁵¹⁶

mvp-comment-149-3 μεστῶσαι ⁵¹⁷

mvp-comment-150-1 πότερον ⁵¹⁸ ἔκρυπτον ⁵¹⁹

mvp-comment-150-2 ἀμφικίονας ναούς ⁵²⁰

mvp-comment-150-3 κἀναθήματα ⁵²¹

mvp-comment-150-4 Her. 1.50 ; Thuc. 6.46 ; Isae. or. 7 § 41.) The wealth of Delphi in

ἀναθήματα

is already proverbial in Il. 9.404 ; at Thebes the

Ἰσμήνιον

( O. T. 21 ) also seems to have been rich in them. After

ἀνάθημα

the gen. denotes either

ὁ ἀναθείς

(as more oft.), or, as here, the divine owner.

mvp-comment-150-5 γῆν ἐκείνων ⁵²² πυρώσων ⁵²³

mvp-comment-150-6 νόμους διασκεδῶν ⁵²⁴

mvp-comment-150-7 διασκεδῶν ⁵²⁵

mvp-comment-151-1 τοὺς κακοὺς τιμῶντας … θεούς; ⁵²⁶

mvp-comment-152-1 ταῦτα ⁵²⁷ μόλις φέροντες ⁵²⁸ καὶ πάλαι ⁵²⁹

mvp-comment-152-2 πόλεως ἄνδρες ⁵³⁰

mvp-comment-152-3 ἐρρόθουν ⁵³¹

mvp-comment-152-4 ἐμοί ⁵³²

mvp-comment-152-5 κάρα σείοντες ⁵³³

mvp-comment-152-6 ὑπὸ ζυγῷ ⁵³⁴

mvp-comment-152-7 λόφον ⁵³⁵

mvp-comment-152-8 δικαίως ⁵³⁶

mvp-comment-152-9 equal poise’ ( New Crat. 371).—

ὡς = ὥστε

( O. T. 84 ): στέργειν ⁵³⁷

mvp-comment-153-1 τῶνδε ⁵³⁸ ἐκ ⁵³⁹

mvp-comment-153-2 τούτους, ⁵⁴⁰

mvp-comment-153-3 εἰργάσθαι ⁵⁴¹ ἐξεπίσταμαι ⁵⁴² παρηγμένους ⁵⁴³

mvp-comment-154-1 νόμισμ’ ⁵⁴⁴

mvp-comment-154-2 ἔβλαστε ⁵⁴⁵

mvp-comment-154-3 πορθεῖ ⁵⁴⁶

mvp-comment-154-4 τόδ’ ⁵⁴⁷ ἄνδρας ⁵⁴⁸

mvp-comment-155-1 τόδ’ ἐκδ. καὶ παραλλάσσει ⁵⁴⁹ ἵστασθαι ⁵⁵⁰ καὶ παραλλάσσει ⁵⁵¹

mvp-comment-155-2 ἵστασθαι πρός τι ⁵⁵²

mvp-comment-156-1 πανουργίας … ἔχειν ⁵⁵³

mvp-comment-156-2 εἰδέναι ⁵⁵⁴ παντὸς ἔργου δυσσέβ. ⁵⁵⁵ παντὸς ἔργ ⁵⁵⁶ πανουργίας ⁵⁵⁷

mvp-comment-157-1 ἤνυσαν ⁵⁵⁸

mvp-comment-157-2 χρόνῳ ποτέ ⁵⁵⁹ δοῦναι δίκην ⁵⁶⁰

mvp-comment-157-3 ἐξέπραξαν ὡς ⁵⁶¹

mvp-comment-158-1 Ζεύς ⁵⁶²

mvp-comment-158-2 ὅρκιος ⁵⁶³

mvp-comment-158-3 τὸν αὐτόχειρα ⁵⁶⁴ τάφου = ταφῆς ⁵⁶⁵

mvp-comment-159-1 μοῦνος ⁵⁶⁶ πρὶν ἂν . . δηλώσητε ⁵⁶⁷ κρεμαστοί ⁵⁶⁸ ζῶντες κρεμαστοί ⁵⁶⁹

mvp-comment-159-2 δηλώσηθ’ ⁵⁷⁰

mvp-comment-159-3 ὕβριν ⁵⁷¹

mvp-comment-160-1 ἵν’ … ἁρπάζητε ⁵⁷²

mvp-comment-160-2 τὸ κέρδος ⁵⁷³ ἔνθεν οἰστέον ⁵⁷⁴

mvp-comment-160-3 μάθηθ’ ⁵⁷⁵

mvp-comment-160-4 ἐξ ἅπαντος ⁵⁷⁶ τὸ κερδαίνειν ⁵⁷⁷

mvp-comment-160-5

πιεῖν

. In O. C. 807

ἑξ ἅπαντος εὖ λέγει

=speaks well on any theme (starting from anything).

mvp-comment-161-1 τι ⁵⁷⁸

mvp-comment-161-2 δέ ⁵⁷⁹ δώσεις ⁵⁸⁰

mvp-comment-161-3 οὕτως ⁵⁸¹

mvp-comment-161-4 ἴω ⁵⁸²

mvp-comment-161-5 καὶ νῦν ὡς ⁵⁸³ ἀνιαρῶς ⁵⁸⁴ ι— ⁵⁸⁵

mvp-comment-162-1 ἐν ⁵⁸⁶ ὠσίν ⁵⁸⁷

mvp-comment-162-2 ἐπί ⁵⁸⁸

mvp-comment-163-1 τί δὲ ⁵⁸⁹ τί δαὶ ⁵⁹⁰

mvp-comment-163-2 ῥυθμίζεις ⁵⁹¹ ὅπου ⁵⁹² ὅπου ⁵⁹³

mvp-comment-164-1 τὰς φρένας...τὰ δ’ ὦτ’ ⁵⁹⁴ σε ⁵⁹⁵

mvp-comment-164-2 οἴμ’ ὡς ⁵⁹⁶

mvp-comment-164-3 λάλημα ⁵⁹⁷ ἄλημα ⁵⁹⁸ ἄλημα ⁵⁹⁹

mvp-comment-164-4 δῆλον, ⁶⁰⁰

mvp-comment-165-1 ‘At any rate (

οὖν

—babbler or not) I certainly have not done this deed.’ εἰμί ⁶⁰¹ οὔκουν … γε ⁶⁰²

mvp-comment-166-1 ‘Yes, (you have done it,) and that, too, at the cost of betraying,’ etc. The particle γε ⁶⁰³ καὶ ταῦτα ⁶⁰⁴ προδούς ⁶⁰⁵

mvp-comment-167-1 ἦ δεινόν ⁶⁰⁶ καὶ ⁶⁰⁷ γε ⁶⁰⁸

mvp-comment-168-1 κόμψευε . . τὴν δόξαν ⁶⁰⁹

mvp-comment-168-2 τὴν δόξαν ⁶¹⁰

mvp-comment-168-3

κληδόν’

(the

κληδών

of which you speak), not merely, ‘the word

δόξα

.’ If the v. l.

τὸ δόξαν

(see cr. n.) was intended to mean the latter, it should have been

τὸ δόξα.

mvp-comment-168-4 νυν ⁶¹¹ νῦν ⁶¹² ταῦτα … τοὺς δρῶντας = τοὺς ταῦτα δρῶντας ⁶¹³

mvp-comment-169-1 δειλά ⁶¹⁴

mvp-comment-169-2 δεινά ⁶¹⁵ ν ⁶¹⁶

mvp-comment-170-1 ἀλλ’ ⁶¹⁷ εὑρεθείη ⁶¹⁸ καὶ ⁶¹⁹

mvp-comment-171-1 καὶ ⁶²⁰ γάρ ⁶²¹

mvp-comment-171-2 γνώμης ⁶²²

mvp-comment-173-1 πολλὰ … κοὐδέν ⁶²³

mvp-comment-173-2 καί ⁶²⁴

mvp-comment-173-3 τὰ δεινά ⁶²⁵

mvp-comment-174-1 τοῦτο ⁶²⁶ πέραν ⁶²⁷ πέρα ⁶²⁸

mvp-comment-175-1 χειμερίῳ νότῳ ⁶²⁹

mvp-comment-176-1 περιβρ … ὑπ’ οἴδμασιν ⁶³⁰

mvp-comment-177-1 ὑπερτάταν ⁶³¹

mvp-comment-178-1 ἀκαμάταν ⁶³²

mvp-comment-178-2 ἀποτρύεται ⁶³³

mvp-comment-179-1 ἰλλομένων ἀρότρων, ⁶³⁴ ἀρότων ⁶³⁵

mvp-comment-179-2 ἔτος εἰς ἔτος ⁶³⁶ εἰς ⁶³⁷

mvp-comment-180-1 ἱππείῳ γένει ⁶³⁸

mvp-comment-180-2 πολεύων ⁶³⁹ τοῦτο ⁶⁴⁰

mvp-comment-181-1 Man's conquests over the animal world are here taken in two groups. First, those of which the primary aim is to kill or to capture. Here the means is netting (

ἀμφιβαλὼν σπείραισι δικτυοκλώστοις

), in its threefold sporting use, as applied to fowling (

ὀρνίθων

), hunting (

θηρῶν

), and fishing (

πόντου φύσιν

). Secondly, those conquests which aim at reducing wild animals to man's service. These are effected by

μηχαναί

(349),— arts of taming and training. And their result is aptly expressed by the word

mvp-comment-181-2

κρατεῖ

: here, man is not merely the slayer or captor; he becomes the master of docile toilers. The horse and the bull are types.

mvp-comment-181-3 Thus, in this ode, the scale of achievement ever ascends: man (1) conquers inanimate nature: (2) makes animals his captives: (3) trains them to be his servants: (4) develops his own social and intellectual life.

mvp-comment-181-4 κουφονόων ⁶⁴¹

mvp-comment-181-5 ἀμφιβαλὼν ⁶⁴²

mvp-comment-182-1 πόντου … εἰναλίαν φύσιν ⁶⁴³

mvp-comment-183-1 περιφραδής ⁶⁴⁴

mvp-comment-184-1 μηχαναῖς ⁶⁴⁵ ἀγραύλου ⁶⁴⁶ ὀρεσσιβάτα ⁶⁴⁷

mvp-comment-185-1 λασιαύχενά θ’ ⁶⁴⁸

mvp-comment-186-1 ὀχμάζεται ⁶⁴⁹ ἀμφὶ λόφον ζυγῶν ⁶⁵⁰

mvp-comment-186-2 Rhod. 1. 743

κυρίως ἐστὶν ὀχμάσαι τὸ ἵππον ὑπὸ χαλινὸν ἀγαγεῖν ἢ ὑπὸ ζυγόν

. The midd. voice does not occur elsewhere; but this cannot be regarded as an objection, when we remember how many rare middle forms occur in the dramatists. Thus

προσορωμένα

in O. C. 244 is a solitary example of that verb in the midd., and if the license could be taken with so common a word, much more might it be allowed with a comparatively rare one. Blaydes writes

ὀχμάζει ὑπ’ ἀμφίλοφον ζυγόν

: but the Ms.

ἕξεται

indicates that the verb, whatever it was, was of the midd. form.

ὀχμάζεται

was published by G. Schöne in 1833, and by Franz in 1846: they appear to have made the conjecture independently. Donaldson (1848) printed

ὁχμάζεται ἀμφὶ λόφον ζυγῶν

, and seems to ascribe

ζυγῶν

to Franz and Schöne; though Franz, at least, proposed

ἀμφὶ λόφον ζυγῷ. ζυγῶν

has been revived (seemingly without knowledge of a predecessor) by H. Schütz (1886). Sophocles would write

ΑΜΦΙΛΟΦΟΝΖΥΓΟΝ

, and thus

ζυγῶν

changes no letter. Aesch. used the fut.

ζυγώσω

(fr. 110), and Soph. has the verbal

ζυγωτῶν

( El. 702 ). To

ἀμφιλόφῳ ζυγῷ

it may be objected that, being clear, it was not likely to become -

ον ‐όν

: but, when

ἀμφίλοφον

had once been written,

ζυγῶν

(or

ζυγῷ

) would easily become

ζυγόν

. As to the schol. on

ἀμφίλοφον,—ἀντὶ τοῦ, περιβαλὼν αὐτῷ ζυγὸν περὶ τὸν λόφον, ὑπάγει

,—it cannot fairly be urged for

ζυγῶν

(or for any partic.), since it may be merely a paraphrase of

ἀμφίλοφον

.—Schütz's ἐφέζεται ⁶⁵¹

mvp-comment-187-1 φθέγμα ⁶⁵²

mvp-comment-187-2 beginnings of speech...Speech is the development, through imitation, of a capacity of man—the capacity of making a noise.’ This is quite compatible with

ἐδιδάξατο.

mvp-comment-187-3 ἀνεμόεν φρόνημα ⁶⁵³

mvp-comment-188-1 ἀστυνόμους ὀργάς ⁶⁵⁴

mvp-comment-189-1 ἐδιδάξατο ⁶⁵⁵

mvp-comment-190-1 πάγων ⁶⁵⁶

mvp-comment-190-2 ἐναίθρεια ⁶⁵⁷

mvp-comment-190-3 βέλη ⁶⁵⁹

mvp-comment-191-1 παντοπόρος ⁶⁶⁰

mvp-comment-191-2

οὐδὲν … τὸ μέλλον = οὐδὲν ὃ μέλλει

(

ἔσεσθαι

), nothing that is to be (cp. the absolute

τὸ μέλλον, τὰ μέλλοντα

). So Plat. Lach. 197 A

ἔγωγε ἀνδρεῖα καλῶ οὔτε θηρία οὔτε ἄλλο οὐδὲν τὸ τὰ δεινὰ ὑπὸ ἀγνοίας μὴ φοβούμενον = οὐδὲν ὃ μὴ φοβεῖται

. This negative form is as correct as (though actually rarer than) the positive

πᾶν τὸ καλῶς ἔχον

( Plat. Rep. 381A ) for

πᾶν ὃ καλῶς ἔχει

. Donaldson took

τὸ μέλλον

adverbially: ‘in regard to the future, he comes to nothing without resources.’ Cp. 728 ,

μηδὲν τὸ μὴ δίκαιον

, where

μηδέν

is subst., not adv.

mvp-comment-192-1 μόνον ⁶⁶¹ μόνου ⁶⁶² φεῦξιν — ἐπάξεται ⁶⁶³

mvp-comment-193-1 ἀμηχάνων ⁶⁶⁴

mvp-comment-193-2 φυγάς ⁶⁶⁵

mvp-comment-193-3 ξυμπέφρασται ⁶⁶⁶

mvp-comment-194-1 The ode closes with a more direct reference to the incident which suggested its theme. The daring ingenuity shown by the unknown breaker of Creon's edict is an instance of the subtlety which leads to ruin. The implied contrast with Creon—

ὑψίπολις

by his care for the laws—is effective in view of the destined

περιπέτεια

mvp-comment-194-2 σοφόν τι … ἔχων ⁶⁶⁷

mvp-comment-194-3 τὸ μηχανόεν τ ⁶⁶⁸

mvp-comment-195-1 τοτὲ μὲν … ἄλλοτ’ ⁶⁶⁹

mvp-comment-195-2 ἐπ’ ⁶⁷⁰

mvp-comment-196-1 γεραίρων ⁶⁷¹

mvp-comment-196-2 5. 67

ἐτίμων τὸν Ἄδρηστον καὶ δὴ πρὸς τὰ πάθεα αὐτοῦ τραγικοῖσι χοροῖσι ἐγέραιρον

. Ar. Th. 960

γένος Ὀλυμπίων θεῶν | μέλπε καὶ γέραιρε φωνῇ

mvp-comment-197-1 θεῶν τ’ ἔνορκον δίκαν ⁶⁷²

mvp-comment-198-1 ὑψίπολις ⁶⁷³

mvp-comment-198-2 ἄπολις ⁶⁷⁴

mvp-comment-198-3 τὸ μὴ καλόν ⁶⁷⁵ τόλμας χάριν ⁶⁷⁶

mvp-comment-199-1 παρέστιος ⁶⁷⁷

mvp-comment-199-2 ἴσον φρονῶν ⁶⁷⁸

mvp-comment-200-1 ἔρδει ⁶⁷⁹ ἔρδοι ⁶⁸⁰

mvp-comment-202-1 The choral ode has closed with an allusion to the unknown man ( ὅς ⁶⁸¹ ἀμφινοῶ ⁶⁸² ἐς ⁶⁸³

mvp-comment-202-2 δαιμόνιον τέρας ⁶⁸⁴

mvp-comment-203-1 πῶς εἰδὼς ⁶⁸⁵

mvp-comment-203-2 ἀντιλογήσω ⁶⁸⁶

mvp-comment-204-1 ὦ δύστηνος ⁶⁸⁷

mvp-comment-204-2 δ. πατρός ⁶⁸⁸

mvp-comment-204-3 Οἰδιπόδα— ⁶⁸⁹

Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus

66. mvp-comment-42-1 βιάζομαι τάδε This passive use of βιάζομαι occurs again in l. 1073, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ σοῦ βιάζονται τάδε.

67. mvp-comment-43-1 τοῖς .. βεβῶσι Those whose position is supreme; i.e. the present ruling power.

68. mvp-comment-44-1 περισσὰ πράσσειν ‘Το act beyond one's sphere.' Cp. Tr. 617, τὸ μὴ πιθυμεῖν πομπὸς ὢν περισσὰ δρᾶν.

70. mvp-comment-45-1 ἐμοῦ.. μέτα Would your acting with me be any pleasure to me. For the adverb ἡδέως, implying a predicate, see Essay on Language § 24. p. 40.

71. mvp-comment-46-1 ἴσθ᾽ ὁποία This reading is acknowledged by the Scholiast equally with ἴσθ' ὁποῖα, the reading of LA. Be such as you choose to be' (i. e. base, cp. supr. 38) is more forcible than Hold what principles you please, even if εἰδέναι can have this meaning. Cp Phil. 1049, τοιοῦτός εἰμ' ἐγώ: Eur. Or. 1680, κἀγὼ τοιοῦτος. ὁποία is nominative by attraction to the antecedent. Hermann thought the dative ὁποίᾳ was required.

72. mvp-comment-47-1 Antigone knows clearly from the beginning, with the heightened consciousness of passion, the consequences of her act. There is no irony of fortune, so far as she is concerned.

74. mvp-comment-48-1 ὅσια πανουργ. Cp. infr. 924.

75. mvp-comment-49-1 τῶν ἐνθάδε See Essay on Language § 10. p.15. The form of expression resembles Hdt. 3. 124, βούλεσθαι οὖν παρθενεύεσθαι πλείω χρόνον ἢ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐστερῆσθαι. For the thought, cp. Plat. Legg. 9.881 Α, θάνατος μὲν οὐκ ἔστιν ἔσχατον, οἱ δὲ ἐν ῞Αιδου . πόνοι .. εἰσὶ μᾶλλον ἐν ἐσχάτοις : Sim. Am. 3, πολλὸς γὰρ ἡμῖν ἐστι τεθνάναι χρόνος, κ.τ.λ.

76. mvp-comment-50-1 σοὶ δ᾽ εἰ δοκεῖ The emphasis really rests on the subject (σύ), but is transferred to the dative, as in Phil. 1395, ὡς ῥᾷστ᾽ ἐμοὶ μὲν τῶν λόγων λῆξαι, σὲ δὲ | κ.τ.λ. Essay on Language § 41. pp. 78-79. The change to σύ (see v. rr.) is slight, but rather weakens the expression.

77. mvp-comment-51-1 τὰ τῶν θεῶν ἔντιμα What is held honourable amongst the Gods. Cp. θεῶν νόμιμα, infr. 454-455: 1.ε. τὰ τῶν θεῶν ὄντα καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν θεῶν ἀγόμενα ἐν τιμῇ. Hh ἀτιμάσασ᾽ ἔχε] Persist in slighting. 78. ἐγὼ ποιοῦμαι I do not mean to show disrespect. She shrinks from saying distinctly τὰ τῶν θεῶν.

79. mvp-comment-52-1 ἔφυν By nature and position.

82. mvp-comment-53-1 ταλαίνης after οἴμοι: σου after ὑπερδέδοικα. But this distinction is hardly felt in the Greek.

83. mvp-comment-54-1 ἐξόρθου Continue to direct safely, as if steering a vessel.

85. mvp-comment-55-1 σὺν δ' See Essay on Language § 18. p. 26.

86. mvp-comment-56-1 The Epic πολλόν is curious, but need not be changed. Cp. Tr. 1196, πολλὸν δ᾽ ἄρσεν᾽ ἐκτεμόνθ᾽ ὁμοῦ | ἄγριον ἔλαιον. Other Epic forms in this play are ὡσεί τε, infr. 653; ὑπαί, infr. 1035: εἰν ῞Αιδου δόμοις, 1241. A lukewarm spirit is above all hateful to Antigone. If Ismene disapproves her act, let her denounce it. ἐὰν μή, κ.τ.λ., further explains σιγῶσ'. Cp. Ο. Τ. 57, ἔρημος ἀνδρῶν μὴ ξυνοικούντων ἔσω.

88. mvp-comment-57-1 θερμὴν .. ἔχεις Your courage is hot upon a cold enterprize.

88. mvp-comment-57-2 ψυχροῖσι] Chilling, i.e. Causing a cold thrill of horror. Cp. Aesch. Prom. 691-693, οὐδ᾽ ὧδε δυσθέατα καὶ δυσοιστὰ ... ψύχειν ψυχὰν ἐμάν. Also with an association from the meaning fruitless; cp. Hdt. 9. 49, ἐπαρθεὶς ψυχρῇ νίκῃ.

91. mvp-comment-58-1 Cp. 1. 926, παθόντες ἂν ξυγγνοῖμεν ἡμαρτηκότες.

94. mvp-comment-59-1 ἐχθρὰ .. δίκῃ And our dead brother will justly hold you as an enemy: ἐχθράν σε προσθήσεται: ср. Eur. Τr. 185, τῷ πρόσκειμαι δούλα; Who has me for his slave.

95. mvp-comment-60-1 τὴν ἐξ ἐμοῦ That proceeds from me; i. e. For which I alone am responsible. See Essay on Language § 19. p. 28.¹

96. mvp-comment-61-1 πείσομαι γὰρ οὐ The reading οὐ, for which some critics would substitute οὖν, is confirmed (1) by the tendency to a vehement accumulation of negatives in the speeches of Antigone in this scene: (2) by the similar emphatic inversions noticed in the Essay on Language § 41. p. 78.

99. mvp-comment-62-1 τοῖς φίλοις δ᾽ ὀρθῶς φίλη But unfailing in kindness to thy friends; i. e. A faithful sister to thine own brother. Cp. Eur. Or. 424, ἀληθὴς δ᾽ ἐς φίλους ἔφυν φίλος. Antigone goes to perform the sepulture, and Ismene returns into the palace. The stage is left vacant. As in the Ajax, there is a distinct break after the prologue, which has laid the ground of the action so far as Antigone is concerned. The first episodion, ll. 163 ff., is in one sense a fresh beginning, as setting forth the motives of Creon, and still only preparing for the collision. The parados, ll. 100 ff., introduces us to the public feeling of Thebes, and to the wider sphere of which the action forms the central point. 100 ff. Instead of a long series of anapaests, followed by lyrical strophes and antistrophes, as in the Ajax (with which cp. Aesch. Agamemnon), we have here two strophes and antistrophes alternating with anapaestic systems of about seven lines each: making a form of parodos intermediate between that of the Ajax and that of the O. T., in which there are no anapaests. The α' (100-109=117-133). chorus on its first appearance chants ll. 100-109, then advances while the coryphaeus recites 110-116, then the antistrophe is chanted, then another advance is made during the recitative of 11. 127-133, then strophe B' is chanted, the chorus by this time standing near the stage; then they make a final advance, and, during the second antistrophe, are standing full in front of the stage. Lastly, as Creon is seen approaching, the coryphaeus chants ll. 155-162, which thus form at once the conclusion of the parodos and the introit or prelude of the first episodium.

99. mvp-comment-62-2 The total effect is that of a stately and solemn triumph, in which the bright influence of the glyconic opening is tempered with slow movements (---), as in ll. 106, 122, 137, 151, and interrupted rhythms, as in ll. 103, 120, 138, 152; the notes of triumph and solemnity being combined in the choriambi, which bring the lyrical part to a close. Thus we have- β΄ (134-140=148-154). CI IICCーしー CLトくトCCI 51--10CICIC ト 1001010110010||| ――トしてトー luclcclcULCII) C- 「SƆIDII7 5トレトしし LCCLLCCLLCCLLCCLI トリトー The culmination of feeling is marked by the dactylic opening of β'. The rhythms of a' 3. 4, 6, and β' 3, 4, show the correlation of the two movements. The adaptation of sound to sense is specially obvious in the resolved trochees of a' 7, while the concluding lines, a' 8, β' 7, serve to harmonize the logaoedic with the anapaestic measures. Cp. O. C. 135-137, 167-169.

99. mvp-comment-62-3 'Never did morning rise so fair as this which thou didst bring at length to waiting Thebè, O eye of golden day! For thy first beams, shooting over Dircè's rills, stirred into quicker flight the Argive warrior, who for Polynices' quarrel swooped upon our land on snow-white wing, with many a shield and many a plumèd helm.

99. mvp-comment-62-4 Threatening our halls in towering pride he stood, and gaped with bristling spears around our gates, thirsting for our blood: but he is gone, or ever his desire was slaked, or ever the fire-god caught our coronal of towers. Such fight displayed the serpent writhing in his gripe, not easily subdued. Such din of war assailed him as he turned to flee. For Zeus abhors the boaster and contemns the clank of gold. And when he saw them moving in a full proud stream, he smote with lightning from on high the daring climber who had gained the pinnacle and was eagerly preparing to shout victory. And swung to earth he fell with a rebound, the firebearer, who with mad rush was breathing his blast of enmity against the wall. And various was the fortune of the day. But terrible was the War-god as he plunged amidst our enemies, a mighty helper for us.

99. mvp-comment-62-5 'For at all our gates their captains, seven against seven, left their panoplies as trophies to our cause. All, save the horrid pair, who fell together with the guilt of mutual fratricide.

99. mvp-comment-62-6 But forget we the griefs of war. For victory came with smiles of joy to greet our smiling town. So visit we the temples of the gods with dances all night long: and let Theban Bacchus be the master of our revelry.

103. mvp-comment-63-1 χρυσέας χρυσέας, as in O. T. 158-187.

106. mvp-comment-64-1 The rivulet of Dircè was to the west of Thebes. The sun had risen just as the retreat of the Argives became a rout, and the army returning from pursuit would see the morning light reflected in the stream, which they would cross on their way back to the city. Cp. Eur. Phoen. 730. The ode is not chanted at sunrise, but celebrates the glorious morning which had seen the discomfiture of the enemy. The chorus of elders imagine themselves in the position of the victorious army.

106. mvp-comment-64-2 λεύκασπιν Cp. Aesch. S. c. Т. 96, λευκοπρεπή λέων: Eur. Phoen. 1099, λεύκασπιν εἰσορῶμεν Ἀργείων στράτον.

106. mvp-comment-64-3 Αργόθεν The correspondence of a dactyl in the antistrophe to the trochee Αργό- in this line justly leads to suspicion of the text, and Hermann conjectured Ἀργόθεν ἐκ. Qy. Ἀργόλεων ? or Ἀργογενή ?

108. mvp-comment-65-1 φυγάδα πρόδρομον (1) Running before us in flight. Said from the point of view of the pursuing host. Or (2), In the van of the flying host. The Schol. on Phoen. 409 says, φασὶ .. τὸν Ἀδραστον .. μόνον φυγάδα σωθῆναι ὑπὸ τοῦ ἰδίου ἵππου Ἀρείονος. Cp. Paus. 8.25. § 5.

109. mvp-comment-66-1 χαλινῷ Either (1) literally Riding with hastier rein, or (2) metaphorically, With thy hastening bridle in his lips. The first (1) is best. If (2) were adopted, the reading ὀξυτόρῳ, galling (see v. rr.), might be preferred.

110. mvp-comment-67-1 *ὃς .. *Πολυνείκους The emendation of Scaliger improves the sense as well as the grammar. The imagery throughout represents not Polynices, but his Argive ally. The subject of the single fight between the two brothers is passed lightly over, as unsuited to a triumphal hymn.

111. mvp-comment-68-1 ἀρθεὶς.. ἐξ ἀμφιλόγων Carried forth in consequence of the doubtful quarrel (the quarrel and debate) of Polynices. ἀρθείς is said with allusion to αἴρειν στόλον, but also suggests the image of the bird mounting in air. Cp. Il. 13. 63, of the hawk, ἀπ' αἰγίλιπος πέτρης περιμήκεος ἀρθείς, Eur. Phoen. 636-637. For the play on the name of Polynices, see Essay on Language § 44. p. 82.

113. mvp-comment-69-1 The omission of ὡs in this line, which Herm. suggested, is hardly necessary, although it does not impair the sense. The correspondence of strophe and antistrophe does not extend strictly to the anapaests, although the anapaestic systems in this passage are nearly of the same length.

114. mvp-comment-70-1 λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι See Essay on Language § 9. p. 11, and cp. l. 106.

114. mvp-comment-70-2 στεγανός Covered all over; i. e. There were no gaps in their array.

115-116. mvp-comment-71-1 πολλῶν μεθ᾽ ὅπλων | ξύν θ᾽ ἱπποκόμοις κορύθεσσι Accompanied with many a shield and armed with many a helm.

117. mvp-comment-72-1 στάς Staying his flight, like the bird of prey preparing to stoop. At this point the image, which has hitherto grown in distinctness, becomes less definite, the figure of an eagle passing into that of a flying dragon, with spears for teeth. Cp. Shak. K. John, 2. 1, O, now doth Death Line his dead chaps with steel, etc. Also the image in Milton's Samson Agonistes, 11. 1692-1696.

117. mvp-comment-72-2 φονώσαισιν Boeckh's emendation at once cures the metre and supplies a poetical touch which corresponds to the explanation of the Scholiast, ταῖς τῶν φονῶν ἐρώσαις λόγχαις. It is confirmed by the reading of L² pr. See v. rr.

118. mvp-comment-73-1 ἀμφιχανὼν.. στόμα Yawning round our seven-mouthed gates.

120. mvp-comment-74-1 ἔβα He went his way. For the use of the aorist of βαίνω in this sense, cp. Od. 22. 249, καὶ δή οἱ Μέντωρ μὲν ἔβη, κενὰ εὔγματα εἰπών: Τr. 115, βάντ᾽ ἐπιόντα τ', Some gone, others coming on.

121. mvp-comment-75-1 γένυσιν With his jaws. Instrumental dative.

121. mvp-comment-75-2 πλησθῆναί τε καὶ ἑλεῖν For the change of subject in these lines, cp. Aj. 458, ἐχθαίρομαι, μισεῖ δέ, κ.τ.λ. And for στεφάνωμα πύργων, cp. Pind. Ol. 8. 32, Ἰλίῳ μέλλοντες ἐπὶ στέφανον τεύξαι : Hom. h. Dem. 151, .. κρήδεμνα πόληος | εἰρύαται ...

124. mvp-comment-76-1 τοῖος .. δράκοντι (1) Such din of war was spread about his rear by the reluctant snake, no easy matter to subdue. So the Scholiast, who wrote τὸ δὲ ἀντιπάλῳ δράκοντι ἀντὶ τοῦ ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀντιπάλου δράκοντος, ὡς Ἀχιλῆϊ δαμασθείς (Il. 22. 55). Or (2) δυσχείρωμα may be taken to mean the act rather than the object of victory (cp. O. Τ. 560, θανασίμῳ χειρώματι), and the sense may be, Such din of war encompassed him, issuing in a hard-won victory for the serpent matching his foe. In this case it will make little difference to read the genitive. Or, (3) if the genitive is read (Wecklein), the words may be taken in yet another way: Such din of war harassed him from behind, the hard-to-be-subdued might of the serpent, who was a match for his foe. The genitive is given as an alternative reading by the 1st hand of L, and is supported by V (Ven. 468). But the dative is alone recognised by the Scholiast.

124. mvp-comment-76-2 The δράκων is certainly the emblem of Thebes, and the eagle and snake are in conflict, as in Il. 12. 201, foll., where also the serpent struggles and escapes : ὁ δ᾽ οὔπω λήθετο χάρμης, | κόψε γὰρ αὐτὸν ἔχοντα κατὰ στήθος παρὰ δειρὴν | ἰδνωθεὶς ὀπίσω· ὁ δ᾽ ἀπὸ ἕθεν ἧκε χαμάζε, κ.τ.λ. Hor. Carm. 4. 4, 11, Nunc in reluctantes dracones | Egit amor dapis atque pugnae.

129. mvp-comment-77-1 πολλῷ ῥεύματι προσνισσομένους Coming on in full proud stream. Like a great river filling its banks.

130. mvp-comment-78-1 χρυσοῦ καναχῆς ὑπερόπτης] Despiser of the clank of gold. Cp. Aesch. Agam. 776, τὰ χρυσόπαστα δ᾽ ἐσθλὰ σὺν πίνῳ χερῶν | παλιντρόποις ὄμμασιν | λιπούσ', ὅσια προσέβα: S. c. T. 481-485. The Scholiast, who wrote καὶ τὴν τοῦ χρυσοῦ φαντασίαν ὑπερβεβηκότας τῇ ἰδίᾳ ὑπεροψίᾳ, seems to have read ὑπερόπτας, which appears in the margin of some copies. The ὑπεροψία of his interpretation may have given rise to ὑπεροπτίας, as in conjunction with this it has suggested ὑπεροπλίαις, (Vauvillers, who compares II. 1. 205). Musgr. and Böckh are contented with ὑπεροπτείας, abstr. noun of ὑπερόπτης, gen. with ῥεύματι, In floods of supercilious pride.

131. mvp-comment-79-1 παλτῷ ῥιπτεῖ πυρί (1) Hurls down with brandished thunderbolt. Or possibly (2) ῥιπτεῖ is a more emphatic substitute for βάλλει = Smites from afar. The word παλτῷ suggests the zig-zag flicker of the lightning.

131. mvp-comment-79-2 βαλβίδων .. ἀλαλάζαι As, having reached the topmost goal, he was eager to raise the cry of victory. βαλβίδες are the end of the race-course, metaphorically applied here to the top of the wall to which Capaneus had climbed, and so receiving the epithet ἄκρων.

131. mvp-comment-79-3 βαλβίδων may be also taken as abl. gen, with ῥιπτεῖ, and only resumed with ἄκρων. But this is questionable.

133. mvp-comment-80-1 The subject of ὁρμῶντα (Capaneus) is anticipated from the following lines, viz. ὅς, κ.τ.λ.

134. mvp-comment-81-1 ἀντιτύπᾳ This conj. of Porson has been generally received. He fell upon the earth, that smote him again; i.e. He fell with a shock. The Scholia explain ἀντίτυπα, which is against metre.

134. mvp-comment-81-2 τανταλωθείς Swung. As if the scale that had been the lightest had suddenly become the heaviest. Cp. Hom. Il. 22. 212, ῥέπε δ᾽ Ἕκτορος αἴσιμον ἦμαρ, | ᾤχετο δ᾽ εἰς Ἀἰδαο.

135. mvp-comment-82-1 πυρφόρος With the fire in his hand, with which he had threatened the town. O. C. 1318: Aesch. S. c. T. 422, ff.

135. mvp-comment-82-2 ὁρμᾷ Observe the tautology after ὁρμῶντ', supra.

136-137. mvp-comment-83-1 Had breathed against us in frenzy with blasts of malignant winds. Cp. infra 929-930: O. C. 612 and note: Aesch. S. c. T. 115, πνοαῖς Ἄρεος.

138. mvp-comment-84-1 εἶχε δ᾽ ἄλλᾳ τὰ μέν· κτ.λ.] This was in one direction: whilst on other men terrible fortune was dispensed by mighty Ares rushing on them like a steed harnessed upon our right hand. For the use of ἔχω with the locative adv., see L. and S. s. v. ἔχω, Β. 11. Ι. The reading in the text is suggested by that of V (Ven. 468), a MS. of the 13th century, which, together with many obvious corruptions, has preserved some good readings. See on O. T. 1526. This MS. reading is curiously near the conj. of Musgrave, εἶχε δ᾽ ἄλλᾳ τὰ δείν᾽. The epithet, as read in the text, may be suggested by a forefeeling of what is coming. Even the end of Capaneus is less awful than that of Eteocles and Polynices (144 ff.). Hermann's reading, εἶχε δ᾽ ἄλλᾳ μὲν ἄλ | λᾳ· τὰ δ᾽ ἐπ᾿ ἄλλοις, makes good enough sense; Plat. Rep. 2. 369 Β, οὕτω δὴ ἄρα παραλαμβάνων ἄλλος ἄλλον ἐπ᾿ ἄλλου, τὸν δ᾽ ἐπ᾿ ἄλλου χρείᾳ : but the synaphea between the cretics and the choriambi is questionable. And the same objection applies to Wecklein's εἶχε δ' ἄλλᾳ τὰ τοῦδ᾽· | ἄλλα δ᾽ ἐπ᾿ ἄλλοις.

140. mvp-comment-85-1 δεξιόσειρος The War-god taking part with Thebes and bounding hither and thither over the plain is compared to the σειραῖος ἵππος, whose free action was so important at critical moments in the chariot-race. Cp. El. 721-722, δεξιὸν δ᾽ ἀνεὶς | σειραῖον ἵππον εἶργε τὸν προσκείμενον: Aesch. Agam. 841-842, μόνος δ' Οδυσσεύς, ὅσπερ οὐχ ἑκὼν ἔπλει | ζευχθείς ἕτοιμος ἦν ἐμοὶ σειραφόρος. The reading δεξιόχειρος is probably erroneous. It is acknowledged as a variant by the Scholiast.

141. mvp-comment-86-1 Capaneus, who is one of the seven adversaries, is already disposed of. But the general description in 141-143, is only preparatory to the chief statement, 144-147, from which, however, the chorus pass quickly, as they approach it with aversion. What is of the best omen must be kept to the front. For ἴσοι πρὸς ἴσους, cp. Hdt. 9. 49, ἴσοι πρὸς ἴσους ἄριθμον μαχεσόμεθα.

142-143. mvp-comment-87-1 'Left the tribute of their brazen panoplies to Zeus, who turns the battle.'

144-147. mvp-comment-88-1 Neither could despoil the other, since both were slain. And the citizens could not dedicate to Zeus arms polluted with kindred blood.

145. mvp-comment-89-1 αὑτοῖν i. e. ἀλλήλοιν: ἑαυτούς, ἀλλήλους. Hesych.

146. mvp-comment-90-1 δικρατεῖς λόγχας στήσαντε Having pointed their two spears, of which either was victorious. The spears are not hurled, as commonly in the Iliad, but held firmly as the combatants rush at each other. Cp. Hom. Il. 4. 307 (quoted by Donaldson), ὃς δέ κ᾿ ἀνὴρ ἀπὸ ὧν ὀχέων ἕτερ᾽ ἅρμαθ' ἵκηται | ἔγχει ὀρεξάσθω, ἐπεὶ ἢ πολὺ φέρτερον οὕτως.

147. mvp-comment-91-1 'Both have their portion in mutual death: i.e. Each strove for sole inheritance, but they share equally-in a death;' which each has given and each has received. See on l. 57. The spirit of the words is the same as those of Aesch. S. c. T. 726 ff.: O. C. 790.

149. mvp-comment-92-1 ἀντιχαρεῖσα Exchanging looks of joy. Cp. χαίρειν γέλωτι, Χen. Cyr. 8.1.33.

149. mvp-comment-92-2 Θήβη, as in Pindar, is the personification of Θήβαι, for which it is used consistently throughout this play. Cp. Od. 7. 80, εὐρυάγυιαν Ἀθήνην.

150. mvp-comment-93-1 ἐκ μὲν δὴ πολέμων .. λησμοσύvav Turning from the present wars, appoint ye forgetfulness of them. For the pleonastic use of ἐκ, see Essay on Language § 19. p. 27. The reading θέσθαι, which has good MS. authority and preserves the metrical correspondence with l. 137, is retained by some editors as an infinitive for imperative. Cp. infr. 1142, μολεῖν. For the expression, cp. Eur. Phoen. 1584,5, ὡς ὥρα τάφου | μνήμην τίθεσθαι.

153. mvp-comment-94-1 παννυχίοις Cp. Ο. Τ. 1090: Aesch. Ag. 23, 24. καὶ χορῶν κατάστασιν | πολλῶν ἐν Ἄργει τῆσδε συμφορᾶς χάριν.

153. mvp-comment-94-2 ὁ Θήβας δ'. . ἄρχοι And let Bacchus, Thebe's God. who shakes the earth (with revelry), lead on the dance. Schol. ὁ Θήβας Βακχεῖος, ὁ Θηβαγενὴς Διόνυσος, ὁ τῆς Θήβης πολίτης, ὁ ἐλελίχθων, ἄρχοι τῆς χορείας. See Essay on Language § 9. p. 11.

156. mvp-comment-95-1 The metre requires either the addition of one (or three) anapaests or the omission of νεοχμός. Dindorf's supposition that νεοχμός νεαραῖσι has grown in some way out of νεοχμοῖσι is in itself probable enough, but the omission of some word like *ἄρχων after βασιλεύς is equally so. The spectator is thus reminded that Creon is young in power.

157-158. mvp-comment-96-1 νεαραῖσι .. συντυχίαις In consequence of the recent god-sent fortune. These words are to be joined with the whole sentence, though chiefly with ἐρέσσων. Creon's accession, his coming, and the counsel which he brings, all follow closely on the events of the war. The question is, what is that counsel?

159. mvp-comment-97-1 τίνα δή This is preferable to τινὰ δή, which Aldus printed from Ven. 467 (V3).

159. mvp-comment-97-2 On ἐρέσσων = Moving, Advancing. see Essay on Language p. 87, and cp. Aj. 251, τοίας ἐρέσσουσιν ἀπειλάς.

160-161. mvp-comment-98-1 ὅτι. προὔθετο That he hath appointed. ὅτι gives the reason of the question.

160. mvp-comment-99-1 σύγκλητον Specially convened. The word is used, after the analogy of the σύγκλητος ἐκκλησία at Athens, for an assembly specially summoned by the στρατηγός. λέσχη is less formal than βουλή. Cp. Ο. C. 166.

161. mvp-comment-100-1 προὔθετο The middle voice implies that Creon had summoned the elders of his own motion. So καλέσσατο of Achilles in Il. 1. 54.

162. mvp-comment-101-1 κοινῷ κηρύγματι πέμψας Having cited us by a message sent to us all.

162. mvp-comment-101-2 κοινῷ = Inclusive. πέμψας] i. e. στείλας πομποῖσιν, as Creon expresses himself in ll. 164-165. 162-210. Creon's first error is not mere self-will, but an excessive zeal for the honour of the state, to which all private feelings must give way (183-184, 187-190). His spirit of self-assertion is however already felt, esp. in ll. 173, 191, 207-10. And the unconsciousness of one young in power is shown in the self-inculpating words in ll. 175-177. He characteristically dwells on the virtue of loyalty (165-169, 209-210) and the crime of rebellion (199-202): and his passionate nature is betrayed by the exaggerated expression in l. 208. Cp. O. T. 216 ff. and note. The frequent occurrence of the Ist personal pronoun is a significant feature of both these speeches.

162. mvp-comment-101-3 τὰ μὲν δὴ πόλεος As for the state. This form of expression suits the introduction of a subject before the form of sentence is determined. πόλιν, rather than τὰ πόλεος, is the object of σείσαντες and ὤρθωσαν.

162. mvp-comment-101-4 ἀσφαλῶς Unharmed, = ἄνεν τοῦ σφαλῆναι,

163. mvp-comment-102-1 ὥρθωσαν Have righted the vessel of the state.

165-166. mvp-comment-103-1 τὰ Λαΐου. κράτη Knowing that you ever duly reverenced the enthroned authority of Laius. Λαΐου is governed by θρόνων κράτη taken as one word, θρόνων being added to supplement κράτη. σέβοντας and μένοντας, infr. 166, 169, are imperfects = ὅτι ἐσέβετε .. ἐμένετε,

167. mvp-comment-104-1 ὤρθου Kept on a safe course: i. e. Governed prosperously. The word recalls the happiness of the first period of Oedipus' rule. Cp. Plat. Men. P. 99 C, ᾗ οἱ πολιτικοὶ ἄνδρες χρώμενοι τὰς πόλεις ὀρθοῦσιν : Phaedr. 244 B. 168-169. ἀμφὶ .. φρονήμασιν]. Ye still remained loyal to their issue with unshaken minds. ἀμφί, Surrounding, as ready to defend. The apodosis is made to suit the latter protasis, ἐπεὶ διώλετο, and that of the former protasis, ἡνίκ' . . πόλιν (viz. ἐκείνῳ ὁμοίως πειθομένους οι the like), is thus absorbed.

167. mvp-comment-104-2 κείνων . . παῖδας i. e. Sons of Oedipus and grandsons of Laius.

172. mvp-comment-105-1 αὐτόχειρι Fratricidal. See Essay on Language p. 91.

174. mvp-comment-106-1 γένους κατ᾿ ἀγχιστεῖα By privilege of being nearest in kindred (ὡς ἀγχιστεύων) to the dead. Cp. πρωτεία, etc.

175. mvp-comment-107-1 παντὸς ἀνδρός Of any man, and therefore of me.

176. mvp-comment-108-1 ψυχήν. . φρόνημα.. γνώμην As observed in the Essay on Language pp. 91-3, the opposition between these words is chiefly formal. So far as there is any difference between them, ψυχήν is mind, or nature, φρόνημα, spirit, or way of thinking, (cp. infr. 207), and γνώμην, judgment or meaning.

176-177. mvp-comment-109-1 πρὶν ἂν ἀρχαῖς.. φανῇ “Until he be seen in his true colours through being tried in office and administration.' According to the saying of Bias, ἀρχὴ τὸν ἄνδρα δείξει (Arist. Eth. Nic. 5. 1. 16). There is an allusion to the detection of spurious coin through wear. Cp. Aesch. Ag. 390-392, κακοῦ δὲ χαλκοῦ τρόπον | τρίβῳτε καὶ προσβολαῖς | μελαμπαγὴς πέλει | δικαιωθείς (where Herm. says, 'Vereor autem ne non de lapide Lydio loquatur poeta, sed aes adulterinum dicat, quod usu tritum amisso falso splendore cognoscitur'): Hdt. 7. 10, ὥσπερ τὸν χρυσὸν τὸν ἀκήρατον, αὐτὸν μὲν ἐπ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ οὐ διαγινώσκομεν, ἐπεὰν δὲ

178. mvp-comment-110-1 ἐμοὶ γάρ The connection is not strictly logical. γάρ explains not the difficulty of discerning the difference between rulers, but the essential point on which the difference turns. In setting forth this, Creon also declares the spirit of his own policy. He is feeling his way with the elders, of whose submission he is not perfectly sure, and beats about the bush before coming to the point with them. Hence he repeats the same thought in different words.

178-183. mvp-comment-111-1 The sentiment of these lines is closely parallel to Plat. Legg. 9. 856 B, ὃς ἂν ἄγων εἰς ἀρχὴν ἄνθρωπον δουλῶται μὲν τοὺς νόμους, ἑταιρείας δὲ τὴν πόλιν ὑπήκοον ποιῇ, καὶ βιαίως δὲ πᾶν τοῦτο πράττων καὶ στάσιν ἐγείρων παρανομῇ· τοῦτον δὴ διανοεῖσθαι δεῖ πάντων πολεμιώτατον ὅλῃ τῇ πόλει, τὸν δὲ κοινωνοῦντα μὲν τῶν τοιούτων μηδενί, τῶν μεγίστων δὲ μετέχοντα ἀρχῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει, λεληθότα τε ταῦτα αὐτὸν ἢ μὴ λεληθότα, δειλίᾳ δ᾽ ὑπὲρ πατρίδος αὑτοῦ μὴ τιμωρούμενον, δεῖ δεύτερον ἡγεῖσθαι τὸν τοιοῦτον πολίτην κακῇ.

180. mvp-comment-112-1 ἐγκλείσας Locked up. Cp. Shakespeare, Richard II, 1. 3,

Within my mouth you have engaoled my tongue, | Doubly portcullised with my teeth and lips.

Infr. 505, εἰ μὴ γλῶσσαν ἐγκλείσαι φόβος.

182. mvp-comment-113-1 μείζον᾽.. ἀντί Essay on Language § 19. p. 27. Cp. Od. 7. 216, στυγερῇ ἐπὶ γαστέρι κύντερον.

183. mvp-comment-114-1 οὐδαμοῦ λέγω Plat. Gorg. 456 C, οὐδαμοῦ ἂν φανῆναι, supr. 32. 184 ff. Having shown what makes the good and bad ruler, Creon declares his own intentions, first generally, and then (192 ff.) with reference to Eteocles and Polynices. γάρ implies that his opinion will be proved by his acts. In both statements (178-183, 184-190) the stress is laid on the duty of renouncing friendship with the public enemy (182-183, 187-188), which is the ground of the present edict, Polynices being presumably Creon's private friend: supr. 174.

186. mvp-comment-115-1 στείχουσαν ἀστοῖς Menacing my people. Cp. supr. l. 10: Aesch. Prom. 1089-1090, τοιάδ᾽ ἐπ᾿ ἐμοὶ ῥιπὴ Διόθεν, | τεύχουσα φόβον, στείχει φανερῶς. For the dative, Essay on Language § 12. p. 18.

187. mvp-comment-116-1 δυσμενή χθονός Who is my country's foe. The genitive avoids the awkwardness of two datives, χθονί and ἐμαυτῷ, coming close together.

189-190. mvp-comment-117-1 She it is who preserves us, and we make friends only while she carries us in the course of public safety; i. e. The friendship that is made against the interest of the state is hollow and insecure. Cp. Thuc. 2. 60: (Pericles loq.) ἐγὼ γὰρ ἡγοῦμαι πόλιν πλείω ξύμπασαν ὀρθουμένην ὠφελεῖν τοὺς ἰδιώτας, ἢ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον τῶν πολιτῶν εὐπραγοῦσαν, ἀθρόαν δὲ σφαλλομένην, κ.τ.λ.: Zaleuc. ap. Stob. (Mullach, p. 543), πόλις γὰρ εὖ ἀγομένη μεγίστη ὄρθωσίς ἐστι, καὶ ἐν τούτῳ πάντα ἔνι, καὶ τούτου σωζομένου πάντα σώζεται καὶ τούτου φθειρομένου πάντα διαφθείρεται: Shakespeare. King John, 3. 1, Pand.

All form is formless, order orderless, | Save what is opposite to England's love.

On the change of pronouns (ἥδε.. ταύτης), see Essay on Language § 22. p. 32. The article in τοὺς φίλους points the reference to ll. 182-183.

191. mvp-comment-118-1 τοιοίσδε νόμοισι By such principles as these. Cp. infr. 908, τίνος νόμου δὴ ταῦτα πρὸς χάριν λέγω;

192. mvp-comment-119-1 ἀδελφὰ τῶνδε i. e. In full accord with them. Cp. Plat. Rep. 4. 421 C, ἆρ᾽ οὖν .. καὶ τὸ τούτου ἀδελφὸν δύξω σοι μετρίως λέγειν; Lys. 2. 64, ἀδελφὰ τὰ βουλεύματα τοῖς ἔργοις : Ο. C. 1262, ἀδελφὰ . . τούτοισιν.

193. mvp-comment-120-1 τῶν ἀπ᾿ Οιδίπου For the pleo- 190 195 200 nastic use of the preposition, see above 150, 182, and notes.

195. mvp-comment-121-1 πάντ᾿ ἀριστεύσας δορί After proving himself in all ways the bravest in the war. For the aor., cp. Hdt. 9. 74, alib.

196. mvp-comment-122-1 τὰ πάντ᾽ ἐφαγνίσαι ‘Το add all sacred offerings.'

199. mvp-comment-123-1 θεοὺς τοὺς ἐγγενεῖς The gods of his race; i. e. Those honoured by the Cadmeans. The gods of the race also include the ancestors of the race. Infr. 938, θεοὶ προγενεῖς.

201. mvp-comment-124-1 πρῆσαι κατάκρας The city (γῆν = πόλιν) is thought of as the main object of the verb.

201. mvp-comment-124-2 ἠθέλησε δ' The correspondence of clauses (with μέν and δέ) is not perfect, the antithesis being due to afterthought.

201. mvp-comment-124-3 αἵματος .. πάσασθαι ‘Το repast him with blood of his own kin.' The expression suits the Epic colouring of the whole speech.

202. mvp-comment-125-1 τοὺς δέ The rest; i. e. Those not slain, as implied in the opposition το αἵματος κοινοῦ πάσασθαι. 203.

202. mvp-comment-125-2 ἐκκεκήρυκται Musgrave's correction has been generally adopted, lopted, and is probably right. The impersonal verb gives absoluteness to the expression. Wolff construes the inf. with λέγω in 198 (deleting the comma after τοῦδε), and Wecklein reads λέγω for τάφῳ. The slight corruption is probably due to a reminiscence of supr. 27.

205. mvp-comment-126-1 δέμας is accusative of limitation, and ἄθαπτον and ἐδεστόν are masculine. To leave him unburied, to have his flesh consumed by birds and dogs.

206. mvp-comment-127-1 αἰκισθέντ᾿ ἰδεῖν A spectacle of indignity. Lit. Outraged to behold. The infinitive is added after the participle, which is masculine.

207. mvp-comment-128-1 Cp. 176, ψυχήν τε καὶ φρόνημα καὶ γνώμην.

209-210. mvp-comment-129-1 θανών | καὶ ζῶν In death as well as in life. The first word is the more emphatic. Essay on Language p. 78.

211-212. mvp-comment-130-1 For the construction of the accusatives τὸν .. δύσνουν. . τὸν εὐμενῆ, after σοὶ ταῦτ᾽ ἀρέσκει as = οὕτω τάσσεις, or the like, cр. О. С. 1120, τέκν᾽ εἰ φανέντ᾽ ἄελπτα μηκύνω λόγον, and see Essay on Language § 16. p. 22. No emendation is necessary.

213. mvp-comment-131-1 παντί πού γ᾽ ἔνεστί σοι γε has been thought a useless insertion, and Dindorf reads πάντι που πάρεστί σοι. But δέ γε is not unsuitable to the connection, introducing the second premiss of an implied argument. The words of the chorus express the barest acquiescence in the will of the ruler. Cp. infr. 509, σοὶ δ᾽ ὑπίλλουσι στόμα. They hide their disapproval, and that is all. Cp. Richard III, 4. 2, 21, Buck. Your grace may do your pleasure.

215. mvp-comment-132-1 ὡς ἂν.. εἰρημένων Sc. οὕτω πράσσετε. The subjunctive with ὡς ἄν follows the implied imperative. Act, then, so as to see my words obeyed. Cp. Ο. Τ. 325, ὡς οὖν μηδ᾽ ἐγὼ ταὐτὸν πάθω : Plat. Phaedo 59 Ε, παραγγέλλουσιν, ὅπως ἂν τῇδε τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τελευτήσῃ. The ellipse is idiomatic. It is not to be supposed either that Creon hesitates, or that the elders interrupt him.

218. mvp-comment-133-1 τί.. ἔτι 'What means then this charge further given by you to another?' τοῦτο, cogn. acc. = σκοποὶ εἶναι τῶν εἰρημένων : τί, suppl. predic. = With what meaning?' To what effect? ἄλλῳ = to another than the appointed guards. ἄλλο gives a poorer sense, What then is this other thing which you enjoin besides?

220. mvp-comment-134-1 ὃς .. ἐρᾷ As to be in love with death. For the irregular correlative (οὕτω .. ὅς), see Essay on Language § 22. p. 36. There is a confusion of οὐκ ἔστιν ὃς ἐρᾷ and οὐκ ἔστιν οὕτω μῶρος ὥστε ἐρᾶν.

222. mvp-comment-135-1 The emphatic position of ἄνδρας at the beginning of the line shows that the word is intended to mark Creon's unconsciousness of the real source of danger. So infr. 1. 248. Cp. Aesch. Ag. 1110: O. T. 928, al. So ὑπ᾿ ἐλπίδων shows how incapable he is of divining the motive of Antigone.

223-330. mvp-comment-136-1 The half-comic or rustic character of the watchman in this play is an extension of the common character of the messenger, whose natural rudeness of speech and thought brings into greater prominence the horror or pathos of the events he describes. The grotesqueness disappears when he speaks of the action of Antigone in 407-440. The employment of this artifice by Sophocles arises from the same motive to which Shakespeare gave a far wider range in such creations as the gravediggers in Hamlet, and the rural fellow in Antony and Cleopatra. The Messenger in the Trachiniae, the Corinthian in the Oedipus Tyrannus, Menelaus in the Ajax, the pretended Shipmaster in the Philoctetes, afford the same sort of contrast to the more tragic personages: and the superstition of the Coloniatae may be compared with the cowardice of the Phrygian slave in the Orestes of Euripides.

223-330. mvp-comment-136-2 The vulgarity of the common-place Athenian of the fifth century в.с. takes the form of misplaced subtlety of wit. Cp. Shak. Hamlet, 5. 1 ,

We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. The age is grown so picked, that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe.

223-224. mvp-comment-137-1 I am out of breath, but not with speed. It is not that I ran nimbly hither. Aristotle, Rhet. 3. 14. § 10, quotes 223 thus, Ἄναξ, ἐρῶ μὲν οὐχ ὅπως σπουδῆς ὕπο.., adding, as if from the reply of Creon, τί φροιμιάζῃ; But it is as unsafe to follow his authority in this line, as it would be to substitute τί φροιμιάζῃ for εὖ γε στοχάζει in l. 241. It is evident that he is quoting from memory: and, although it is curious that the Scholiast uses the same word in his explanation, οὐ τοῦτο λέγω, ὅτι μετὰ σπουδῆς ἀσθμαίνων πρὸς σὲ πορεύομαι, yet this does not amount to a proof that this is the right reading. σπουδῆς may be the word which would be more naturally used in prose, but it is less pointed than τάχους in this connection. κοῦφον ἐξάρας πόδα is added in explanation of τάχους ὕπο. ἐξάρας, having set forth from the point of departure, like αἴρειν στόλον.

225. mvp-comment-138-1 For I had many stoppages by reason of thoughts, i. e. My thoughts cried halt to me (ἐπέστησάν με) again and again. Cp. Αj. 869, κοὐδεὶς ἐφίσταταί με συμμαθεῖν τόπος. The genitive φροντίδων is part causal, My thoughts checked me,' and part final, I stopped to think.

226. mvp-comment-139-1 ὁδοῖς As I came. Essay on Language § 14. p. 20. Ср. О. С. 553, ὁδοῖς ἐν ταῖσδ᾽ ἀκούων. Hearing of you on your coming hither.

227. mvp-comment-140-1 This mockery of dialectic is curiously significant of the earlier stage of rhetoric.

229. mvp-comment-141-1 κεἰ has the authority of the oldest MS. The reading of Par. A, καὶ .. ἀνδρός, has a certain liveliness, but is perhaps too abrupt.

231. mvp-comment-142-1 τοιαῦθ᾽ ἑλίσσων Turning round and round such thoughts as these. Cp. Plat. Phil. 19 (of the boyish dialectician), πάντα κινεῖ λόγον ἄσμενος, τότε μὲν ἐπὶ θάτερα κυκλῶν καὶ συμφορῶν εἰς ἕν, τότε δὲ πάλιν ἀνειλίττων καὶ διαμερίζων.

231. mvp-comment-142-2 σπουδῇ βραδύς The reading of L, σχολῇ βραδύς, Slowly because I stopped, is not pointed enough, and it seems probable that an oxymoron is intended in this as in the following line. The correction adopted by the Scholiast, σχολῇ ταχύς, secures this in rather an awkward way. That of Seyffert, which is here adopted (for the collocation of words, cp. the proverb σπεῦδε βραδέως), appears far more probable.

234. mvp-comment-143-1 This line was well explained by Dindorf in 1860: Dicturus erat σοὶ φράσοντα, sed propter verba interposita, κεί τὸ μηδὲν ἐξερῶ, mutata orationis forma infert φράσω δ ὅμως cum δε particula, ut Oed. T. 302, πόλιν μέν, εἰ καὶ μὴ βλέπεις, φρονεῖς δ' ὅμως | οἷᾳ νόσῳ σύνεστιν.' Essay on Language § 35. p. 59.

234. mvp-comment-143-2 τὸ μηδέν ῾Α vain report,' because the doer of the deed was still unknown.

235. mvp-comment-144-1 τῆς has the emphatic force of an antecedent: This hope, that ... δεδραγμένος] This reading is implied in the second scholium on the passage, ἀντειλημμένος τῆς ἐλπίδος ἐλήλυθα, and appears in the text of E and V³. (whence Aldus had it), and as a marginal reading of Aug. b. and of V¹. Clinging fast by the hope, is a natural and forcible expression, well suited to the style of the Φύλαξ : whereas ἐλπίδος πεφραγμένος or πεφαργμένοs, whether in the sense of Shut out from hope,' or Fortified by the hope, is not really admissible.

236. mvp-comment-145-1 That I cannot suffer anything but what is fated for me. Cp. Aesch. S. c. Τ. 263, πείσομαι τὸ μόρσιμον.

238. mvp-comment-146-1 τὸ γάρ For the light ending, cp infr. 327, 409, Ο. Τ. 553-554. τὸ δὲ | πάθημ᾽ ὁποῖον φῇς παθεῖν δίδασκέ με, ib. 995-996, 1056-1057.

239. mvp-comment-147-1 ὅστις ἦν ὁ δρῶν i. e. τὸν δρῶντα, ὅστις ἦν, The unknown doer of the deed.

241-242. mvp-comment-148-1 (1) You aim carefully, and fence the business off from yourself all round. Some editors read τί φροιμιάζει; from Ar. Rhet. 3. 14, § 10, quoted above. But though the Scholiast of the Rhetoric says τὸ δὲ τί φροιμιάζῃ τοῦ Κρέοντός ἐστι λέγοντος, it is much more probable that the words are a separate quotation from Eur. I. T. 1162. See Cope's edition of Ar. Rhet. vol. 3. p. 175. Others explain the text (2), You lay the ground carefully and hedge your approaches closely round, as if in preparing a stance to watch for game. According to Pollux, 5, 36, στοχασμός, στοχάς, and στόχος, were terms used in describing the setting of a hunting-net: καλεῖται δ᾽ αὐτῶν (τῶν ἀρκύων) ἡ στάσις, στοιχισμός, στοίχος, στόχος, στοχὰς καὶ στοχασμός· στοχὰς δὲ καλεῖται καὶ χειροποιητά τινα οἰκοδομήματα ἐκ λίθων, ἢ ὕλης ὑπὲρ τὴν γῆν ἀναστήματα, κατὰ χρείαν τῆς τῶν δικτύων ἐξ ἴσου στάσεως, εἴ τι κοῖλον εἴη περὶ τὸ ἀρκύστατον.

243. mvp-comment-149-1 τὰ δεινὰ .. πολύν The reply, as often elsewhere, refers to the first part of the previous speech. Cp. O. Т. 361. The frigid tautology belongs to the character of the Φύλαξ.

244. mvp-comment-150-1 εἰτ᾿ ἀπαλλαχθεὶς ἄπει And be off with you. The Scholiast acutely remarks that these impatient words are intended to hold out the hope of impunity, which is withdrawn again in the angry threats of ll. 305, foll.

246. mvp-comment-151-1 Some one has buried the corpse and has disappeared, after not only sprinkling dry dust upon the flesh, but adding all due rites. This last refers to the libation. Cp. supr. 196-197: infr. 430-431. The surprise was increased by observing the completeness of the act. There is a stress on the participles. Essay on Language p. 75 β, 94, 4.

248. mvp-comment-152-1 τίς ἀνδρῶν Cp. supra 222, and note.

249. mvp-comment-153-1 οὔτε .. ἐκβολή No dint of pick-axe, nor earth turned up with hoe.'

250. mvp-comment-154-1 στύφλος .. καὶ χέρσος Hard and bare. χέρσος γῆ is untilled land, and so here, Undisturbed by implements of husbandry. Cp. infr. 773, 1197.

251. mvp-comment-155-1 ἀρρώξ .. τροχοῖσιν Unbroken, and with no mark of wheels. ἐπημαξευμένη τροχοῖσιν] Lit. Carted over with wheels.' Essay on Language p. 88, note.

252. mvp-comment-156-1 ἀλλ'.. ἦν But whoever did it was one who left no trace.

253. mvp-comment-157-1 ὁ πρῶτος .. ἡμεροσκόπος Our first look-out-man for the day. ἡμεροσκόπος in Xen. Hell. 1. 1. 2, is a watchman who stands at his post at daybreak. Cp. ἡμεροφύλαξ, ib. 7. 2. 6, 7. Antigone's act preceded the setting of this watch.

254. mvp-comment-158-1 θαῦμα δυσχερές Α sight of wonder and dismay.

255. mvp-comment-159-1 τυμβήρης.. κόνις Not covered with a mound, but sprinkled with dust as by one avoiding pollution. Hor. Od. 1. 28,

Debita jura vicesque superbae | Te maneant ipsum: precibus ibus non linquar inultis | Teque piacula nulla resolvent. | Quamquam festinas, non est mora longa, licebit | Injecto ter pulvere curras.

For the gen., cp. Tr. 768.

255. mvp-comment-159-2 τυμβήρης For this use of the adjective, see Essay on Language § 23. p. 38.

258. mvp-comment-160-1 οὐ σπάσαντος Cp. Aesch. Prom. 451, οὔτε.. δόμους.. οὐ ξυλουργίαν.

259. mvp-comment-161-1 ἐν ἀλλήλοισιν Sc. τοῖς φύλαξιν. Words of abuse were loudly bandied to and fro. Cp. Aesch. Prom. 200, στάσις δ᾽ ἐν ἀλλήλοισιν ὠροθύνετο, sc.

259. mvp-comment-161-2 τοῖς δαίμοσιν.

260. mvp-comment-162-1 φύλαξ ἐλέγχων φύλακα On the nominative out of construction in the clause in apposition, see Essay on Language § 33. p. 57. § 15. p. 21.

260. mvp-comment-162-2 κἂν ἐγίγνετο And it was threatening to come to blows at last. The combination of the imperfect with av here is peculiar, having a force intermediate between ἐγίγνετο and ἐγένετο ἄv; i. e. it was coming to this, that we should have come to blows.

262-263. mvp-comment-163-1 The subtlety of the Φύλαξ deserts him in attempting to express his meaning. The perpetrator was every one and no one of us all every one in vague suspicion, and no one evidently: he escaped being known.' τις gives the indefiniteness required by the sense, = πως.

263. mvp-comment-164-1 ἀλλ᾽ ἔφευγε *μὴ εἰδέναι (1) But he (the perpetrator) always escaped, so that we could not know him. Böckh and Donaldson read as in the text, interpreting (2) Every man' (πᾶς implied in οὐδείς, the affirmative elicited from the negative) defended himself by pleading ignorance of the matter. For φεύγειν, * to urge a defensive plea,' cp. Aesch. Suppl. 390, and for the plea, μὴ εἰδέναι, Plat. Legg. 11. 936 E. But the plea of ignorance, although suitable in l. 266, is too special for this place, wherethe non-appearance of the criminal alone is in question. The meaning given above (1) is the same as that required by Hermann (see below), but is more simply expressed by the epexegesis, and the imperfect tense expresses the frustration of continued search. This interpretation involves a rare use of φεύγω, which is, however, analogous to a meaning of ἐκφεύγω that is not uncommon. Cp. Ο. Τ. 111, ἐκφεύγει δὲ τἀμελούμενον : Plat. Phil. 17, τὰ δὲ μέσα αὐτοὺς ἐκφεύγει. Other emendations are ἔφυγε τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι (Porson), explained by Erfurdt to mean amoliens a se accusationem scire sese negaverat ; ἔφυγε τῷ μὴ εἰδέναι (Herm. 1839), effugit, eo quod nesciebamus; ἔφευγε πᾶς τὸ μή, every man pled Not guilty. (Dind.). 264-265. There are few traces of anything corresponding to the trial by ordeal in ancient times. Brunck quotes Virg. Aen. 11. 787,

Et medium freti pietate per ignem | Cultores multa premimus vestigia prima.

It seems to have existed in different places as a popular belief, but nowhere to have received positive legal sanction. For a trace of trial by combat' (in Scythia), see Hdt. 4. 180. Cp. also Ar. Lys. 133.

269. mvp-comment-165-1

His verbis et sequentibus significatur terror quem Creontis auctoritas custodibus incutit.

(Dind.).

269. mvp-comment-165-2 λέγει, κ.τ.λ. The sense is interrupted by the relative clause, but resumed in the words ἦν δ᾽ ὁ μῦθος in l. 272. For τις εἷς, cp. Thuc. 6. 61, καί τινα μίαν νύκτα, κ.τ.λ. The emphatic use of little words shows the common mind; cp. infr. 404, ὃν σὺ τὸν νέκυν, κ.τ.λ. Wolff and Weckl. join els with what follows: but the antithesis of eἷς πάντας is too pointless here. Cp. Plat. Rep. 6. 496 D, εἰς πᾶσιν ἀγρίοις ἀντέχειν.

274-275. mvp-comment-166-1 κἀμὲ.. λαβεῖν And the lot devotes me, wretched man, to be the recipient of this piece of luck. καθαιρεῖ is used much as in ἡ καθαιροῦσα ψῆφος, not by an extension of the technical sense, but with the same general mean- ing of Fastening upon, Bringing down, Overtaking and subduing.

279. mvp-comment-167-1 *1 This is Nauck's emendation for ἡ. It involves a very slight change, and is extremely probable. Reflection suggests the fear that' (not 'the question whether') this may be some visitation from the gods. The conscience of the elders, which was stifled at first, begins to awaken in the presence of the mysterious fact. For the pause after the 2nd iambus, here and supr. 269, cp. Aj. 340, 342, 719, 791, 803, 988, 1050, 1077, 1140, 1332.

280. mvp-comment-168-1 Cease, ere you have quite filled me with wrath. καί, which is combined with πρίν, according to the common idiom (πρὶν καὶ..), is slightly displaced so as to emphasize the phrase ἐμὲ μεστῶσαι. The language is made clearer by the emendation καί με, but the emphatic ἐμέ is more suitable in the mouth of Creon. Cp. Phil. 1042.

281. mvp-comment-169-1 ἄνους τε καὶ γέρων Cp. О. С. 930-931, καί σ᾽ ὁ πληθύων χρόνος | γέρονθ' ὁμοῦ τίθησι καὶ τοῦ νοῦ κενόν. See Essay on Language § 41. p. 78. 285-286. Who came to burn their pillared shrines and offerings, and to break in pieces their land and laws. It seems more likely that the ἀναθήματα are joined in one expression with ναούς than with γῆν and νόμους, which are in a different category.

289-290. mvp-comment-170-1 ἀλλὰ ταῦτα.. ἐμοί But this explains the murmurs I have long been hearing from men in the city against me;' i. e. Those murmurs have become explicit in this act. Οη ταῦτα, see Essay on Language § 17. p. 25; and for the dative ἐμοί, at me, ib. § 12. p. 18. μόλις φέροντες, which some have connected with ταῦτα (ταῦτα μόλις φέροντες, 'Bearing my edict ill'), seems to be used absolutely, sc. τὸ ἐμὸν ζυγόν, with an allusion to the metaphor in what follows. Cp. Thuc. 5. 80, θυμῷ ἔφερον, sc. τὸν πόλεμον ἢ τὰ πράγματα.

291. mvp-comment-171-1 'Covertly shaking the head,' like an animal preparing to throw off the yoke.

292. mvp-comment-172-1 δικαίως Rightly; i. e. As I had a right to expect that they should.

292. mvp-comment-172-2 ὡς στέργειν ἐμέ So as to accept my sway. To this it has been objected that στέργω implies affectionate allegiance. But this notion, although inherent in the etymology of the word, is dropped in use. Cp. Phil. 538, ἐγὼ δ' ἀνάγκῃ προὔμαθον στέργειν κακά : Aesch. Prom. 11, τὴν Δίος τυραννίδα | στέργειν. What hope was there that Prometheus would be made loyal by loyal torments? The other interpretation, So that I should be content (cp. Phil. 458, τούτους ἐγὼ τοὺς ἄνδρας οὐ στέρξω ποτέ), would give but feeble expression to the self-will of Creon. The substitution for these words of εὐλόφως φέρειν from the citation of Eustathius, with the further change of νῶτον for λόφον, is rightly rejected by Dind., who points out that Eustathius, probably quoting from memory, has confused this passage with one of Lycophron.

293. mvp-comment-173-1 ἐκ τῶνδε By these malcontents. Supr. 290.

293. mvp-comment-173-2 τούτους (1) These guards. Infr. ll. 304 ff., supr. 260 ff.: or (2) simply τοὺς εἰργασμένους. The whole of this picture of discontent is the creation of Creon's anger from the hesitation of the chorus when told to see to the execution of the decree. Supr. 215 ff.

294. mvp-comment-174-1 There is a stress on μισθοῖσιν, preparing for what follows.

296. mvp-comment-175-1 νόμισμα, usually = Current coin, is here used in the more general sense which includes this. No such pestilent usance as money is, ever sprang up amongst mankind.

298. mvp-comment-176-1 The object of ἐκδιδάσκει, SC.

298. mvp-comment-176-2 χρηστοὺς αἰσχρά, is absorbed in the expansion of the sentence.

299. mvp-comment-177-1 πρὸς .. ἵστασθαι Το address themselves to shameful enterprizes.' Cp. Thuc. 6. 34. § 7, τῶν δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων πρὸς τὰ λεγόμενα καὶ αἱ γνῶμαι ἵστανται.

300. mvp-comment-178-1 πανουργίας The plural of the abstract noun gives the concrete notion.

300. mvp-comment-178-2 πανουργίας ἔχειν, like θήραν ἔχειν, Αj. 564: ὕβριν ἔχειν, Od. 1. 368, etc.

301. mvp-comment-179-1 παντὸς ἔργου δυσσέβειαν The impiety of every deed; i. e. Every kind of impiety in action. Cp. O.T. 864-865, εὔσεπτον ἁγνείαν λόγων | ἔργων τε πάντων.

303. mvp-comment-180-1 He implies, This cannot be their first act of disloyalty.' The unity of time is not to be pressed in the Antigone: see below, 11. 1064 ff. Else this suspicion of inveterate disaffection, against one who has reigned only for a few hours, would be too extravagant. The elders were selected for their loyalty. supr. 165 ff.

308-311. mvp-comment-181-1 οὐχ ὑμὶν ῞Αιδης.. ἁρπάζητε] Death shall not alone suffice for you, but first you shall be hung up alive to show the heinousness of this offence, that for the future, in your wrongful gettings, you may know better where to look for gain. See Essay on Language § 37. p. 64. There is a confusion of two constructions: (1) οὐχ ὑμὶν ῞Αιδης ἀρκέσει, τo which μοῦνος is added for emphasis, i. e. οὐ θανεῖσθε μόνον: and (2) οὐ θανεῖσθε πρίν, κ.τ.λ. Cp. 1064 ff., and see Aj. 106 ff., θανεῖν γὰρ αὐτὸν οὐτί πω θέλω, κ.τ.λ. The Φύλαξ is to take this message to his fellows.

313-314. mvp-comment-182-1 The sentence is redundant, either the article or ἢ σεσωσμένους being unnecessary. Weckl. reads σεσωμένους. For the article, cp. Eur. Phoen. 606, τοῦ μέρους ἔχων τὸ πλεῖον,

315. mvp-comment-183-1 εἰπεῖν τι δέ (v. rr.) is unmeaning. τι as in θέλεις τι μεῖζον, infr. 497.

316. mvp-comment-184-1 καὶ νῦν with λέγεις.

317. mvp-comment-185-1 δάκνει; (1) Act. impersonal. Is the smart in your ears or in your mind? Cp Hdt. 7. 16. Or (2) 2nd pers. pass. Are you stung? (2) agrees better with τὴν ἐμὴν λ. in the following line.

318. mvp-comment-186-1 τί δαί; though not found elsewhere in Sophocles or Aeschylus, may be admitted on the authority uthority of of the MS, where it is so obviously in keeping. Cp. ὦ τἂν in Ο. Τ. 1145, Phil. 1387.

318. mvp-comment-186-2 ῥυθμίζεις .. ὅπου; Do you scan the whereabouts of my annoyance?

320. mvp-comment-187-1 λάλημα The reading is doubtful between ἄλημα, A clever rogue, and λάλημα, Α prating fellow. ἄλημα is better known, and was read by the Scholiast, but λάλημα is sufficiently supported by Eur. Andromache 937, τούσδε Σειρήνων λόγους, | σοφῶν, πανούργων, ποικίλων λαλημάτων. And this word τίνεσθαι. fits more closely to the context of the present passage. 'Fie, tis too clear you are a born chatterbox. Then it is clear that I never did this deed. 323. What a pity that one who is opinionated should have a false opinion. For the subjunctive δοκῇ, cp. О. Т. 316, 317.

324. mvp-comment-188-1 κόμψευε . . δόξαν 'Ay do, refine now on the word "opinion."" This does not seem to be one of the cases where viv with the imperative mood should be changed to vuv, as there is a sufficient reason for the emphatic particle.

325. mvp-comment-189-1 ἐξερεῖτε You shall tell the world. Cp. Pind. Pyth. 2. 22, Ιξίονα φαντὶ ταῦτα βροτοῖς λέγειν ἐν πτερόεντι τροχῷ .. τὸν εὐεργέταν ἀγαναῖς ἀμοιβαῖς 332 ff. The chorus, in their first stasimon, express, in a veiled manner, their emotions at what has occurred. Not being able to say what they really think, that Creon's rash edict has already recoiled on his own family, they descant on the wonderful range of human enterprize, adding that where boldness and resource are combined with justice, they confer glory, but only bring ruin where they are subservient to wrong. The elders do not decide who in the present instance is the transgressor. The ode consists of two strophes and antistrophes, in which glyconic rhythms are mixed with lyrical dactyls, iambi, and trochees, in different proportions, the scheme being as follows:- ICC CC CI CICIC α'. } Iamb. Dact. Troch. Glycon. The two long syllables at the beginning of l. 8 of a form the transition from the dactyls to the trochees. There is a sensible change to a lighter and less simple movement at the beginning of β'. The resolved trochees in B' 5 mark a climax of feeling.

332-383. mvp-comment-190-1 Most wonderful of wondrous things is man, Who traverses the surging brine, And wearies mighty earth with yearly furrow. His craft ensnares the finny produce of the seas And taketh captive beast and bird. He compasseth a way to master the monster of the wilds, And brings under his yoke the horse with flowing mane And the never-wearied mountain bull. Selftaught in speech and thought and civil ways, And in providing shelter from the cold and rain, There is no end to his devices. Nothing but death ever finds him unprepared. Even diseases, not to be avoided, are escaped by him. Inventive beyond hope, he moveth now to evil, and again to good. When weaving with his wit the law of justice and piety He is exalted in the city, but outcast when he harbours wickedness for deeds of crime. May I never live with such an one, and may he never share my counsels. 332. Aesch. Cho. 585, πολλὰ μὲν γὰ τρέφει δεινὰ δειμάτων ἄχη,.. ἀλλ᾽ ὑπέρτολμον ἀνδρὸς φρόνημα τίς λέγοι; Troch. Iamb. Troch.

332-383. mvp-comment-190-2 δεινά = ' wonderful,' or mighty, is in transition from the earlier sense of fearful to the later sense of clever. Cp.

332-383. mvp-comment-190-3 ὀλοόφρων.

334. mvp-comment-191-1 τοῦτο This creature, man. The neuter continues the abstract notion from οὐδὲν .. δεινότερον, and is thus more impressive than the masculine would have been.

334. mvp-comment-191-2 πέραν Το the other side of.' Quite over. For the alliteration, which assists the emphasis, cp. El. 210.

335. mvp-comment-192-1 χειμερίῳ νότῳ Impelled by the stormy south-wind. Dative of cause. Essay on Language § 14. p. 21. 335-336. Traversing half-buried in the seething surge. For ὑπό with the dative in this sense, cp. О. С. 673, χλωραῖς ὑπὸ βάσσαις. Essay on Language § 19. p. 27.

336. mvp-comment-193-1 περιβρύχιος is probably active = Surging round, and contains an allusion to βρύχω, for which, cp. Aesch. Prom. 1082, βρυχία δ᾽ ἠχὼ παραμυκᾶται βροντής.

338. mvp-comment-194-1 ὑπερτάταν Supreme, as eldest and mother ofall. Solon, Fr. 36. 3, μεγίστη δαιμόνων Ὀλυμπίων | Γῆ. Cр. О. Т. 660, where the primacy for the occasion is similarly given to the sun. Schneidewin remarks that the assonance ἄφθιτον, ἀκαμάταν ἀποτρύεται, .. ἀρότρων helps to express the persistent industry of man. This ode is full of assonance and alliteration, and of correspondences such as ἀνεμόεν, μαχανόεν-παντόπορος, ἄπορος -ὑψίπολις, ἄπολις.

339. mvp-comment-195-1 ἀποτρύεται Wears out for his use (mid.) the still-unwearied Earth. The present implies that the process is never-ending. Even in the common operations of husbandry the old religion finds a ground for awe. The dactyls suit the thought of the continuous round of human labour, as those of the antistrophe express the movement of the steed. The two long syllables, ἱππει-, οὐρει-, at once check the flow of rhythm (as with a renewed feeling of wonder), and by their weight give impetus to the concluding trochees. Cp. Eur. Phoen. 1039-1040, 1063.4.

340. mvp-comment-196-1 ἰλλομένων ἀρότρων As the ploughs keep turning year after year. The force of ἴλλω is limited motion. Thus the shuttle might be said ἴλλεσθαι, because when it reaches either end of the loom it is driven back again. Precisely in the same way the ploughs are said ἴλλεσθαι, “To keep moving to and fro within certain bounds.' ἔτος εἰς ἔτος] i. e. δι' ἔτους εἰς ἔτος, "Through one year into the next,' the first ἔτος being the accusative of duration.

340. mvp-comment-196-2 ἱππείῳ γένει πολεύων Breaking the glebe by the strength of mules. πολεύειν = πολεῖν in Hes. Op. 460, ἔαρι πολεῖν· θέρεος δὲ νεωμένη οὔ σ᾽ ἀπατή- The masc. is more probable than the neuter, both because τοῦτο is re- σει. mote, and because ἀνήρ follows in the antistrophe.

340. mvp-comment-196-3 ἱππείῳ γένει i. e. Prole equarum. Schol. ταῖς ἡμιόνοις.

αἱ γάρ τε βοῶν προφερέστεραί εἰσιν ἐλκέμεναι νείοιο βαθείης πηκτὸν ἄροτρον.

Hom. Il. 10.352. Donaldson also compares Simon. Fr. 13 (Bergk.), χαίρετ' ἀελλοπόδων θύγατρες ἵππων.

343. mvp-comment-197-1 *κουφονόων Light-thoughted. This is Brunck's certain emendation, anticipated by the corrector of R. (Cp. v. rr. on l. 617.) Donaldson well says that as wings express the light-mindedness of light-mindedness is here made an epithet of the winged birds. But the word may further suggest the unsuspicious nature ('Despising the earth where cares abound') which makes them an easy prey. Cp. Plat. Tim. 91 D, τὸ δὲ τῶν ὀρνέων φῦλον . . ἐκ τῶν ἀκάκων ἀνδρῶν, κούφων δέ, κ.τ.λ.

345. mvp-comment-198-1 πόντου τ᾽ εἰναλίαν φύσιν The brood of ocean teeming in the seas. For φύσιν, see Essay on Language § 51. p. 96.

346. mvp-comment-199-1 σπείραισι δικτυοκλώστοις With meshy toils,' is to be joined with ἀμφιβαλὼν ἄγει. Nets (δίκτυα) were used in hunting and fowling, as well as in fishing. For ἄγειν in the sense of making captive, cp. Il. 9. 594, τέκνα δέ τ᾽ ἄλλοι ἄγουσι βαθυζώνους τε γυναῖκας.

346. mvp-comment-199-2 ἄγει suits well with the image of a captive enemy, which is kept up in the words φύλον and ἔθνη.

348. mvp-comment-200-1 περιφραδής By his excellent wit. The 1st strophe exhibits the boldness, the Ist antistrophe the cunning, of primitive man. The 2nd strophe and antistrophe describe the higher functions of civilized life. 349 ff. He not only subdues the animals, but makes them his servants.' In correcting this line, the dactylic metre is to be retained, which is hardly done in the conjj. ἀμφιλόφῳ ζυγῷ or ἀμφὶ λόφον ζυγοῖ. The words ἀμφίλοφον ζυγόν are sound both in meaning and rhythm. Brunck's conj. ὑπάξεται, supplying the preposition required by the Scholia, would be unexceptionable, if such a potential use of the future in an affirmative sentence could be defended. Blaydes' ὑπήγαγεν would be convincing if closer to the MSS. In favour of ἐπάξεται it may be urged that the repetition of the same word is in the manner of the ode, and that the figurative expression, he shall bring to his aid,' agrees with ἄγει, supr. 343. But besides the questionable future, the construction of the 2nd accus., sc. ἐπ᾿ ἀμφ. ζυγόν, is in this case dubious. ὑφέλκεται. . ζυγόν, compels to serve him in the yoke, may be suggested, although the verb ὑφέλκειν is not used elsewhere precisely in the sense required. Else qy. ἐφέλκεται?

352. mvp-comment-201-1 ἀκμῆτα is preferable to ἀδμῆτα, as the rarer word and as introducing a new and apposite idea. 353 ff. There is a natural progress in the thought. First, navigation and agriculture were mentioned as the arts of subduing the crude forces of nature; then the capture and domestication of animals. Now we come to the humanities and arts of life (the domestication of man himself), and lastly, in ἀντ. β', to moral or political good and evil.

354. mvp-comment-202-1 ἀνεμόεν φρόνημα Windswift thought; i. e. Thought which is viewless, free and nimble as the wind. Sophocles knew that the soul had been identified with the air. Cp. Plat. Phaedo, 96 Β, πότερον τὸ αἷμά ἐστιν ᾧ φρονοῦμεν, ἢ ὁ ἀήρ. ἢ τὸ πῦρ, κ.τ.λ. Schneidewin well compares Hom. Il. 15. 80, foll., ὡς δ᾽ ὅτ᾽ ἂν ἀΐξῃ νόος ἀνέρος, ὅς τ᾽ ἐπὶ πολλὴν | γαῖαν ἐληλουθὼς φρεσὶ πευκαλίμῃσι νοήσῃ | · ἔνθ εἴην ἢ ἔνθα, μενοινήπολλὰ | ὡς κραιπνῶς μεμανία διέπτατο πότνια Ἥρη. Wieseler's conj.

354. mvp-comment-202-2 κατ᾿ ἀν. φρ., adopted by Wolff, is surely unnecessary. Why should not man teach himself to think as well as to count? (See Plat. Rep. 7, p. 522.)

355-356. mvp-comment-203-1 ἀστυνόμους | ὀργάς is well explained by Seyffert, Urbium incolendarum studia. The disposition to inhabit cities. This seems more probable than The tempers of civic life. ἀστυνόμος ὀργή is the social impulse which draws men together to become inhabitants of the same town. comparison of Ar. Pol. 6. 8. 4, (ἑτέρα δ᾽ ἐπιμέλεια ταύτης ἐχομένη καὶ σύνεγγυς ἡ τῶν περὶ τὸ ἄστυ δημοσίων καὶ ἰδίων, ὅπως εὐκοσμία ῃ, καὶ τῶν πιπτόντων οἰκοδομημάτων καὶ ὁδῶν σωτηρία καὶ διόρθωσις, καὶ τῶν ὁρίων τῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλους, ὅπως ἀνεγκλήτως ἔχωσι, καὶ ὅσα τούτοις ἄλλα τῆς ἐπιμελείας ὁμοιότροπα, καλοῦσι δ' ἀστυνομίαν οἱ πλεῖστοι τὴν τοιαύτην ἀρχήν), suggests the conjecture ἀστυνόμους ἀρχάς (already made by Valckenaer), Administrative rule. V reads ὁρμάς, ср. О. Т. 337. Qy. ἀρετάς? Ср. 366. 355, foll. And to avoid the cleareyed influence of comfortless frosts, and the pelting of the pitiless rain.' διαίθρεια, sc. βέλη.

356. mvp-comment-204-1 ἐδιδάξατο He taught himself. For the directly reflexive middle, see Essay on Language § 31. p. 52. The origin of the arts was a favourite problem of the Sophists. Cp. Plato, Prot. 320 D, foll. It is here assumed that they were selftaught without Prometheus or other superhuman aid.

357. mvp-comment-205-1 Musgr. would read either διαίθρεια, or αἴθρεια with φρουρῶν for παρειρῶν in l. 367. G. Wolff reads αἴθρεια and πληρῶν. But the repetition of in ll. 3, 4, and 6 suits the composition of the strophe better than the introduction of the bacchius and cretic in l. 3. διαίθρεια, serene, while keeping up the alliteration, suits the context better than ὑπαίθρεια or ἐναίθρεια, in the open air. Join *διαίθρεια βέλη as well as δύσομβρα βέλη.

360. mvp-comment-206-1 παντοπόρος· ἄπορος This punctuation is justified by the corresponding line of the antistrophe, which cannot be pointed otherwise. παντοπόρος, sc. ὤν, is added, like περιφραδής ἀνήρ, supr. 347, to express the admiration excited by the preceding statements.

360-361. mvp-comment-207-1 οὐδὲν . . τὸ μέλλον] Cp. l. 728, μηδὲν τὸ μὴ δίκαιον. Essay on Language § 22. p. 36.

362. mvp-comment-208-1 οὐκ ἐπάξεται He shall not win. For a similar metaphorical use of ἐπάγεσθαι, where, however, the reading has also been questioned, cp. Thuc. 3.10, τὴν τῶν ξυμμάχων δούλωσιν ἐπαγομένους.

364. mvp-comment-209-1 νόσων δ᾽ ἀμηχάνων φυγὰς | ξυμπέφρασται He hath gathered to him by his thought a remedy for many an unavoidable disease. ξυμ- marks that the healing art is a collective monument of human skill. πέφρασται recalls the notion of περιφραδής, supr. 347. For the oxymoron, cp. supr. 340, ἀκαμάταν ἀποτρύεται.

365-366. mvp-comment-210-1 His power of artful contrivance is a miracle of unimaginable skill, wherewith he followeth one while an evil purpose, at other times a good one.' τέχνας is added as genitive of respect to complete the notion of τὸ μηχανόεν. ὑπὲρ ἐλπίδα, beyond what could have been hoped for, or expected before the event. τι marks the indefiniteness of σοφόν as the predicate. It is in agreement with σοφόν, but has the effect of a particle or adverb (πως).

366. mvp-comment-211-1 κακόν, . . ἐπ᾿ ἐσθλόν Cp. О. Т. 761, ἀγρούς σφε πέμψαι κἀπὶ ποιμνίων νομάς.

367. mvp-comment-212-1 νόμους παρείρων χθονός When he knits therewith, sc. τῷ μηχανόεντι τῆς τέχνης καὶ σοφῷ, the laws of his land and the oath-observing righteousness of heaven. It is objected to παρείρων that it elsewhere means Inserting incidentally, or by the way, and that such a meaning is unsuitable here. But, as Seyffert has already shown, the word (which is a rare one) may quite well mean Weaving in,' like gold-leaf, for instance, into a chaplet of flowers. Cp. Plat. Legg. 605 D, καὶ τὸν τοῦ Κύρου δασμὸν ὃν ὑπέσχετο Πέρσαις εἰς τὸν νόμον ἐνέδει. Conjectural emendations are γεραίρων, περαίνων, γὰρ αἴρων, τ᾿ ἀείρων, πληρῶν (see v. rr., and note on 357).

370. mvp-comment-213-1 ὑψίπολις For this compound, cp. ἡδύπολις, ὀρθόπολις, μεγιστόπολις, δικαιόπολις. The construction is elliptical, sc. ὑψίπολις ὧν or ἐστί.

370. mvp-comment-213-2 ἄπολις . . χάριν] He is outcast from the state, who harbours evil for the indulgence of crime. Cp. supr. l. 30, πρὸς χάριν βορâs: Plat. Phaedr. 241, χάριν πλησμονῆς. This is better than joining τόλμας χάριν with ἄπολις = He is an outcast for his boldness.

375. mvp-comment-214-1 ἴσον φρονῶν i. e. Of the same party in the state. For the expression, cp. Il. 15.50, ἶσον ἐμοὶ φρονέουσα.

376-378. mvp-comment-215-1 ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας .. Ἀντιγόνην] I stand in doubt at this strange marvel, how to gainsay what I know, and say that this is not the maid Antigone. The resumption is suitable to the chorus' perturbed state of feeling. Seyffert's ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶν τότε, referring to the previous scene (1. 278), is without the directness and simplicity of these short anapaestic passages, in which the chorus announce the entrance of a new person on the stage. Cp. 526 ff., 626 ff.

378. mvp-comment-216-1 οὐκ εἶναι, not μὴ εἶναι, because the entrance of Antigone is a patent fact.

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Φύλαξ

5. ἘΠΕΙΣΟΔΙΟΝ ΔΕΥΤΈΡΟΝ.

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V. ZWEITES EPEISODION.

CHOR, WÄCHTER, ANTIGONE, dann KREON, später ISMENE.

WÄCHTER Hier ist sie, jene, die es that; sie griffen wir jetzt beim Bestatten. Aber wo ist Kreon denn?

CHOR Hier kommt zurück er aus dem Haus zu rechter Zeit.

EL CENTINELA

Custos

How can I gainsay what I see? I know the girl Antigone, O hapless child of hapless sire! Didst thou, then, recklessly aspire 380 To brave kings’ laws, and now art brought In madness of transgression caught?

WATCH Enter Watchman , bringing in ANTIGONE

Der Wächter.

Behold tho woman who hath done the deed ! I' th' very act of burial we surprised her. Where is the king ? 385

Chorus Returned, as we could wish ;

El Centinela—Antígona—El Coro

EL CENTINELA

With high device and quick invention fraught: And now to ill it downward leads; Generous in virtue now delights, And prompt to guard its country's rights Glory d'er all the empire spreads; 380 To baseness when its wild design descends, Destruction on the state it draws.

Watchman

Guard Here is she, the one who did the deed. We caught this one burying him. Where is Creon? 385

Chorus There, he is coming from the house again at our need.

Creon What is it? What has happened that makes my coming timely?

Creon Your prisoner here—how and where did you take her?

Guard She was burying the man. You know all there is to tell.

Creon Are you clear and sure about what you are saying?

Guard I am. I saw her burying the corpse that you had forbidden to bury. Is that plain and sufficient? 405

Creon And how was she observed? How taken in the act?

Creon You, you with your face bent to the ground, do you admit, or deny that you did this?

Antigone I declare it and make no denial.

Creon To the Guard. You can take yourself wherever you please, free and clear of a heavy charge. Exit Guard. 445

To Antigone. You, however, tell me—not at length, but briefly—did you know that an edict had forbidden this?

Antigone I knew it. How could I not? It was public.

Creon And even so you dared overstep that law?

Chorus She shows herself the wild offspring of a wild father, and does not know how to bend before troubles.

Antigone What more do you want than to capture and kill me?

Creon I want nothing else. Having that, I have everything.

Creon You alone out of all these Thebans see it that way.

Antigone They do, too, but for you they hold their tongues.

Creon Are you not ashamed that your beliefs differ from theirs? 510

Antigone No, there is nothing shameful in respecting your own flesh and blood.

Creon Was not he your brother too, who died in the opposite cause?

Antigone A brother by the same mother and the same father.

Creon Why, then, do you pay a service that is disrespectful to him?

Antigone The dead man will not support you in that. 515

Creon Yes, he will, if you honor him equally with the wicked one.

Antigone It was his brother, not his slave, who died.

Creon But he died ravaging this land, while he fell in its defense.

Antigone Hades craves these rites, nevertheless.

Creon But the good man craves a portion not equal to the evil’s. 520

Antigone Who knows but that these actions are pure to those below?

Creon You do not love someone you have hated, not even after death.

Antigone It is not my nature to join in hate, but in love.

Creon Then, go down to hell and love them if you must. While I live, no woman will rule me. 525

Chorus Look, here comes Ismene from the palace, shedding the tears of a loving sister. A cloud over her eyes mars her red-flushed face, and it breaks into rain on her comely cheek. 530

Creon You who were lurking like a viper in my own house and secretly gulping up my life’s blood, while I was oblivious that I was nurturing two plagues, two revolutions against my throne—tell me now, will you also affirm your share in this burial, or will you forswear all knowledge of it? 535

Ismene I performed the deed—as long as she concurs—and I share and carry the burden of guilt.

Antigone No, justice will not permit you to do this, since you were not willing to help with the deed, nor did I give you a part in it.

Ismene But now with this sea of troubles around you, I am not ashamed to sail in a sea of suffering at your side. 540

Antigone As to whose deed it is, Hades and the dead are witnesses. A friend in words is not the type of friend I love.

Ismene No, sister, do not strip me of death’s honor, but let me die with you and make due consecration to the dead. 545

Antigone Do not share my death. Do not claim deeds to which you did not put your hand. My death will suffice.

Ismene And how can I cherish life, once I am deprived of you?

Antigone Ask Creon. Your concern is for him.

Ismene Why do you torture me like this, when it does not help you? 550

Antigone No, if I mock you, it is to my own pain that I do so.

Ismene Tell me, how can I help you, even now?

Antigone Save yourself. I do not grudge your escape.

Ismene Ah, misery! Will I fall short of sharing your fate?

Antigone Your choice was to live, it was mine to die. 555

WÄCHTER

Hier ist sie, jene, die es that; sie griffen wir

jetzt beim Bestatten. Aber wo ist Kreon denn?

CHOR

Hier kommt zurück er aus dem Haus zu rechter Zeit.

How can I gainsay what I see?

I know the girl Antigone,

O hapless child of hapless sire!

Didst thou, then, recklessly aspire
380

To brave kings’ laws, and now art brought

In madness of transgression caught?

WATCH
Enter Watchman , bringing in ANTIGONE

Behold tho woman who hath done the deed !

I' th' very act of burial we surprised her.

Where is the king ?
385

Chorus

Returned, as we could wish ;

With high device and quick invention fraught:

And now to ill it downward leads;

Generous in virtue now delights,

And prompt to guard its country's rights

Glory d'er all the empire spreads;
380

To baseness when its wild design descends,

Destruction on the state it draws.

Guard

Here is she, the one who did the deed.

We caught this one burying him. Where is Creon?
385

Chorus

There, he is coming from the house again at our need.

Creon

What is it? What has happened that makes my coming timely?

Creon

Your prisoner here—how and where did you take her?

Guard

She was burying the man. You know all there is to tell.

Creon

Are you clear and sure about what you are saying?

Guard

I am. I saw her burying the corpse that you

had forbidden to bury. Is that plain and sufficient?
405

Creon

And how was she observed? How taken in the act?

Creon

You, you with your face bent to the ground, do you admit, or deny that you did this?

Antigone

I declare it and make no denial.

Creon
To the Guard.

You can take yourself wherever you please,

free and clear of a heavy charge. Exit Guard.
445

To Antigone.

You, however, tell me—not at length, but briefly—did you know that an edict had forbidden this?

Antigone

I knew it. How could I not? It was public.

Creon

And even so you dared overstep that law?

Chorus

She shows herself the wild offspring of a wild father, and does not know how to bend before troubles.

Antigone

What more do you want than to capture and kill me?

Creon

I want nothing else. Having that, I have everything.

Creon

You alone out of all these Thebans see it that way.

Antigone

They do, too, but for you they hold their tongues.

Creon

Are you not ashamed that your beliefs differ from theirs?
510

Antigone

No, there is nothing shameful in respecting your own flesh and blood.

Creon

Was not he your brother too, who died in the opposite cause?

Antigone

A brother by the same mother and the same father.

Creon

Why, then, do you pay a service that is disrespectful to him?

Antigone

The dead man will not support you in that.
515

Creon

Yes, he will, if you honor him equally with the wicked one.

Antigone

It was his brother, not his slave, who died.

Creon

But he died ravaging this land, while he fell in its defense.

Antigone

Hades craves these rites, nevertheless.

Creon

But the good man craves a portion not equal to the evil’s.
520

Antigone

Who knows but that these actions are pure to those below?

Creon

You do not love someone you have hated, not even after death.

Antigone

It is not my nature to join in hate, but in love.

Creon

Then, go down to hell and love them

if you must. While I live, no woman will rule me.
525

Chorus

Look, here comes Ismene from the palace, shedding the tears of a loving sister. A cloud over her eyes mars her red-flushed face,

and it breaks into rain on her comely cheek.
530

Creon

You who were lurking like a viper in my own house and secretly gulping up my life’s blood, while I was oblivious that I was nurturing two plagues, two revolutions against my throne—tell me now, will you also affirm

your share in this burial, or will you forswear all knowledge of it?
535

Ismene

I performed the deed—as long as she concurs—and I share and carry the burden of guilt.

Antigone

No, justice will not permit you to do this, since you were not willing to help with the deed, nor did I give you a part in it.

Ismene

But now with this sea of troubles around you, I am not ashamed to sail in a sea of suffering at your side.
540

Antigone

As to whose deed it is, Hades and the dead are witnesses. A friend in words is not the type of friend I love.

Ismene

No, sister, do not strip me of death’s honor,

but let me die with you and make due consecration to the dead.
545

Antigone

Do not share my death. Do not claim deeds to which you did not put your hand. My death will suffice.

Ismene

And how can I cherish life, once I am deprived of you?

Antigone

Ask Creon. Your concern is for him.

Ismene

Why do you torture me like this, when it does not help you?
550

Antigone

No, if I mock you, it is to my own pain that I do so.

Ismene

Tell me, how can I help you, even now?

Antigone

Save yourself. I do not grudge your escape.

Ismene

Ah, misery! Will I fall short of sharing your fate?

Antigone

Your choice was to live, it was mine to die.
555

Ismene

At least your choice was not made without my protests.

Antigone

One world approved your wisdom, another approved mine.

Ismene

Nevertheless, the offense is identical for both of us.

Antigone

Take heart! You live. But my life has long been

in Death’s hands so that I might serve the dead.
560

Creon

One of these maidens, I declare, has just revealed her foolishness; the other has displayed it from the moment of her birth.

Ismene

Yes, Creon. Whatever amount of reason nature may have given them does not remain with those in dire straits, but goes astray.

Creon

Yours did, I know, when you chose dire actions with dire allies.
565

Ismene

What life would there be for me alone, without her presence?

Creon

Do not speak of her presence. She lives no longer.

Ismene

What? You will kill your own son’s bride?

Creon

Why not? There are other fields for him to plough.

Ismene

But not fitted to him as she was.
570

Creon

I abhor an evil wife for my son.

Antigone

Haemon, dearest! How your father wrongs you!

Creon

Enough! Enough of you and of your marriage!

Chorus

Will you really cheat your son of this girl?

Creon

Death it is who will end these bridals for me.
575

Chorus

Then it seems that it is resolved that she will die.