πρὸς οὓς ἀραῖος, ἄγαμος, ἅδ᾽ ἐγὼ μέτοικος ἔρχομαι.
7
865
Antigone. Sophocles. Cambridge, UK. 1906.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by Tufts University.
Table of Contents
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Current edition Experimental
Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) (Greek) (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906))
Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.
Editions (11)
Greek (L. Benloew, 1858) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (L. Benloew, 1858)) — 865 focus
κασίγνητε
1
γάμων κυρήσας,
865
Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 865 focus
ἔλουσα κἀκόσμησα κἀπιτυμβίους
865
Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 865 focus
θέμις ὁρᾷν ταλαίνᾳ·
865
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 865 focus
ἐμῷ πατρὶ δυσμόρῳ ματρός,
865
Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 865 focus
ἐμῷ πατρὶ δυσμόρου ματρός,
865
Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 865.mvp-line-857 focus
ἐμῷ πατρὶ δυσμόρου ματρός,
865
Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979)) — 865 focus
νητ᾽ ἐμῶι πατρὶ δυσμόρου ματρός,
865
Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 865 focus
κράτος δ᾽, ὅτῳ κράτος μέλει,
865
Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 865.mvp-line-857 focus
τογέννητ᾽ ἐμῷ πατρὶ δυσμόρου ματρὸς,
865
Antigone (OCR draft) Experimental (Antigone) — 865 focus
ἆται κοιμήματά τʼ αὐτογέννητʼ ἐμῷ πατρὶ δυσμόρου ματρός,
865
Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 865 focus
νητ᾽ ἐμῶι πατρὶ δυσμόρου ματρός,
865
Translations (2)
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 858 focus
Du regst den herzkränkenden Gram mir auf im Busen,
Das Jammergeschick des Vaters,
Unseres ganzen
850
Stammes berufenes Loos,
Edler Labdakossöhne !
Weh, weh!
Fluchvoll, schuldvoll Ehbett, wo
Dem leiblichen Sohn die Mutter,
855
Ach! unserem Vater beiwohnte,
Von welchen ich entsproß, die Unselige,
In deren Haus ich unvermählt, von Fluch belastet, wandern muß!
weh! Unheil schuf
Der Bund, den du, mein Bruder, knüpftest!
1
860
Ein Todter schon, mordest du mein Leben!
Du regst den herzkränkenden Gram mir auf im Busen,
Das Jammergeschick des Vaters,
Unseres ganzen
850
Stammes berufenes Loos,
Edler Labdakossöhne !
Weh, weh!
Fluchvoll, schuldvoll Ehbett, wo
Dem leiblichen Sohn die Mutter,
855
Ach! unserem Vater beiwohnte,
Von welchen ich entsproß, die Unselige,
In deren Haus ich unvermählt, von Fluch belastet, wandern muß!
weh! Unheil schuf
Der Bund, den du, mein Bruder, knüpftest!
1
860
Ein Todter schon, mordest du mein Leben!
Der Chor.
English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904)) — 883-940 focus
Enter Creon.
929
Creon
Do you not know that dirges and wailing before death would never be given up, if it were allowed to make them freely?
Take her away—now! And when you have enshrouded her, as I proclaimed, in her covered tomb, leave her alone, deserted—let her decide whether she wishes to die or to live entombed in such a home. It makes no difference, since our hands are clean so far as regards this girl.
885
But no matter what, she will be stripped of her home here above.
890
Do you not know that dirges and wailing before death would never be given up, if it were allowed to make them freely?
Take her away—now! And when you have enshrouded her, as I proclaimed, in her covered tomb, leave her alone, deserted—let her decide whether she wishes to die or to live entombed in such a home. It makes no difference, since our hands are clean so far as regards this girl.
885
But no matter what, she will be stripped of her home here above.
890
Antigone
Tomb, bridal-chamber, deep-dug eternal prison where I go to find my own, whom in the greatest numbers destruction has seized and Persephone has welcomed among the dead!
Last of them all and in by far the most shameful circumstances, I will descend, even before the fated term of my life is spent. But I cherish strong hopes that I will arrive welcome to my father, and pleasant to you, Mother, and welcome, dear brother, to you.
895
For, when each of you died, with my own hands I washed and dressed you and poured drink-offerings at your graves. But now, Polyneices, it is for tending your corpse that I win such reward as this.
And yet I honored you rightly, as the wise understand.
900
Never, if I had been a mother of children, or if a husband had been rotting after death, would I have taken that burden upon myself in violation of the citizens’ will. For the sake of what law, you ask, do I say that? A husband lost, another might have been found,
905
and if bereft of a child, there could be a second from some other man. But when father and mother are hidden in Hades, no brother could ever bloom for me again. Such was the law whereby I held you first in honor, but for that Creon judged me guilty of wrongdoing
910
and of dreadful outrage, dear brother! And now he leads me thus in his hands’ strong grasp, when I have enjoyed no marriage bed or bridal song and have not received any portion of marriage or the nurture of children. But deserted by friends,
915
in misery I go living to the hollow graves of the dead. What law of the gods have I transgressed? Why should I look to the gods anymore? What ally should I call out to, when by my reverence I have earned a name for irreverence?
920
Well, then, if these events please the gods, once I have suffered my doom I will come to know my guilt. But if the guilt lies with my judges, I could wish for them no greater evils than they inflict unjustly on me.
925
929
Tomb, bridal-chamber, deep-dug eternal prison where I go to find my own, whom in the greatest numbers destruction has seized and Persephone has welcomed among the dead!
Last of them all and in by far the most shameful circumstances, I will descend, even before the fated term of my life is spent. But I cherish strong hopes that I will arrive welcome to my father, and pleasant to you, Mother, and welcome, dear brother, to you.
895
For, when each of you died, with my own hands I washed and dressed you and poured drink-offerings at your graves. But now, Polyneices, it is for tending your corpse that I win such reward as this.
And yet I honored you rightly, as the wise understand.
900
Never, if I had been a mother of children, or if a husband had been rotting after death, would I have taken that burden upon myself in violation of the citizens’ will. For the sake of what law, you ask, do I say that? A husband lost, another might have been found,
905
and if bereft of a child, there could be a second from some other man. But when father and mother are hidden in Hades, no brother could ever bloom for me again. Such was the law whereby I held you first in honor, but for that Creon judged me guilty of wrongdoing
910
and of dreadful outrage, dear brother! And now he leads me thus in his hands’ strong grasp, when I have enjoyed no marriage bed or bridal song and have not received any portion of marriage or the nurture of children. But deserted by friends,
915
in misery I go living to the hollow graves of the dead. What law of the gods have I transgressed? Why should I look to the gods anymore? What ally should I call out to, when by my reverence I have earned a name for irreverence?
920
Well, then, if these events please the gods, once I have suffered my doom I will come to know my guilt. But if the guilt lies with my judges, I could wish for them no greater evils than they inflict unjustly on me.
925
Chorus
Still the same tempest of the soul
grips this girl with the same fierce gusts.
930
Still the same tempest of the soul
grips this girl with the same fierce gusts.
930
Creon
Then because of this her guards will have reason to lament their slowness.
Then because of this her guards will have reason to lament their slowness.
Antigone
Ah, no! That command verges close on death.
Ah, no! That command verges close on death.
Creon
I cannot console you with any hope that your doom is not to be fulfilled in that way.
935
I cannot console you with any hope that your doom is not to be fulfilled in that way.
935
Antigone
O city of my fathers, land of
Thebes
, and you gods, our ancestors! I am led away now; there is no more delay!
Look at me, you who are
Thebes
’ lords—look at the only remaining daughter of the house of your kings. See what I suffer, and at whose hands, because I revered reverence!
Antigone is led away by the guards.
940
O city of my fathers, land of
Thebes
, and you gods, our ancestors! I am led away now; there is no more delay!
Look at me, you who are
Thebes
’ lords—look at the only remaining daughter of the house of your kings. See what I suffer, and at whose hands, because I revered reverence!
Antigone is led away by the guards.
940
Commentary
Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))
mvp-comment-7-1 αὖ 1
mvp-comment-7-2 πανδήμῳ πόλει 2
mvp-comment-8-1 θεῖναι 3
mvp-comment-8-2 τὸν στρατηγόν 4
mvp-comment-9-1 ἔχεις 5
mvp-comment-9-2 κεἰσήκουσας 6
mvp-comment-10-1 τῶν ἐχθρῶν κακά 7
mvp-comment-11-2 Ἀντιγόνη 10
mvp-comment-11-3 φίλων 11 μῦθος 12
mvp-comment-11-4 ἐξ ὅτου 13
mvp-comment-12-1 δυοῖν … δύο 14 δύο 15
mvp-comment-13-1 θανόντοιν 16
mvp-comment-13-2 διπλῇ χερί 17
mvp-comment-14-1 ἐπεί 18
mvp-comment-14-2 ἐν νυκτὶ τῇ νῦν 19
mvp-comment-14-3 ὑπέρτερον 20
mvp-comment-14-4
As
οἶδ’ εὐτυχοῦσα = οἶδ’ ὅτι εὐτυχῶ, so the participles
εὐτυχοῦσα
21
ἀτωμένη
22
mvp-comment-15-1 ᾔδη 23 καλῶς 24
mvp-comment-15-2 αὐλείων πυλῶν 25
mvp-comment-15-3 ἐξέπεμπον 26
mvp-comment-16-1 τί δ’ ἔστι 27 δηλοῖς 28
mvp-comment-16-2 καλχαίνουσ’ ἔπος τι 29
mvp-comment-16-3
is figuratively used like the Homeric
πορφύρω. In
πορφύρω the idea of trouble precedes that of colour: in
καλχαίνω,
vice versa.
mvp-comment-17-1 οὐ γάρ 30
mvp-comment-17-2 τὼ κασιγνήτω … τὸν μὲν … τὸν δέ 31
mvp-comment-17-3 The place of τάφου 32 προτίσας 33 τάφου 34 ἀτιμάσας 35
mvp-comment-17-4 ἀτιμάσας ἔχει 36
mvp-comment-18-1 σὺν δίκῃ | χρησθεὶς δικαίᾳ καὶ νόμῳ 37 χρησθεὶς 38 σὺν δίκης | χρήσει δικαίᾳ καὶ νόμου 40 δίκης 41 σύν 42 δίκῃ 43 χρήσει 44 χρησθείς 45 χρῆσθαι δικαιῶν 46
mvp-comment-18-2 νόμου 47
mvp-comment-19-1 τοῖς ἔνερθεν ἔντιμον νεκροῖς 48 πᾶσι κλεινός 49
mvp-comment-20-1 θανόντα … Πολυνείκους νέκυν 50
mvp-comment-21-1 ἐκκεκηρῦχθαι 51
mvp-comment-21-2 τὸ μὴ … καλύψαι 52
mvp-comment-22-1 ἐᾶν δ’ 53 ἄταφον ἄκλαυτον 54
mvp-comment-23-1 θησαυρόν 55
mvp-comment-23-2 εἰσορῶσι 56 εἰσορμῶσι 57
mvp-comment-23-3 Take πρὸς χάριν βορᾶς 58
mvp-comment-23-4 πρὸς χάριν 59
mvp-comment-24-1 σοί 60 κἀμοί 61 κηρύξαντ’ ἔχειν 62
mvp-comment-24-2 τὸν ἀγαθόν 63
mvp-comment-24-3 λέγω γὰρ κἀμέ 64
mvp-comment-24-4 Two other explanations may be noticed. Both make σοι 65 σοι 66 τοιαῦτα 67 κἀμοί 68 σοι 69 σοι 70 ἀγαθόν 71
mvp-comment-25-1 νεῖσθαι 72
mvp-comment-25-2 τοῖσι μὴ εἰδόσιν 73
mvp-comment-26-1 παρ’ οὐδέν 74 ὡς 75
mvp-comment-26-2 ὃς ἂν … δρᾷ 76
mvp-comment-27-1 προκεῖσθαι 77
mvp-comment-27-2 δημόλευστον 78
mvp-comment-28-1 σοι 79
mvp-comment-28-2 ἐσθλῶν 80
mvp-comment-29-1 ὦ ταλαῖφρον 81
mvp-comment-29-2 εἰ τάδ’ ἐν τούτοις 82 ἐν τούτοις 83
mvp-comment-30-1 λύουσ’ … ἢ ’φάπτουσα 84 εἵθ’ ἅπτουσα 85
mvp-comment-30-2 προσθείμην 86
mvp-comment-30-3 πλέον 87
mvp-comment-31-1 ξυμπονήσεις 88 ξυνεργάσει 89
mvp-comment-31-2 ποῖόν τι κινδύνευμα 90
mvp-comment-31-3
Read
ποῦ γνώμης...εἶ (from
εἶναι): cp.
El. 390
ποῦ ποτ’ εἶ φρενῶν. The question between
ποῦ
91
ποῖ
92
mvp-comment-32-1 εἰ 93 ξὺν τῇδε χερί 94
mvp-comment-32-2 κουφιεῖς 95
mvp-comment-32-3 ἦ γὰρ 96
mvp-comment-32-4 σφε 97
mvp-comment-32-5 ἀπόρρητον 98
mvp-comment-32-6 πόλει 99
mvp-comment-33-1 τὸν γοῦν ἐμὸν 100 ἐμόν 101 καὶ τὸν σόν, ἢν σὺ μὴ θέλῃς 102 τὸν ἐμόν 103 τὸν σόν 104 ἀδελφόν 105 γοῦν 106 τὸν … ἐμὸν καὶ τὸν σόν 107 καὶ 108 ἤν 109
mvp-comment-34-1 ἀδελφὸν … ἁλώσομαι 110 ἀδελφόν 111 οὐ γὰρ δή 112
mvp-comment-35-1 ὦ σχετλία 113
mvp-comment-35-2
σχετλία τόλμης. (
b) ‘Suffering,’=
τλήμων, as
Aesch.
PV 644
(of Io),
Eur.
Hec. 783
. Neither Homer nor Soph. has this use. (2) Of
things, ‘cruel,’ ‘wretched,’—a use common to all the poets: so
Ai. 887
σχέτλια γάρ (‘'tis cruel’),
Tr. 879
.
mvp-comment-36-1 οὐδέν 114 μέτα 115 τῶν ἐμῶν 116 εἴργειν 117
mvp-comment-37-1 νῷν 118 ἀπώλετο 119 ἀπεχθής 120 ἀπώλετο 121 ἔπειτα 122
mvp-comment-38-1 πρὸς … ἀμπλακημάτων … ἀράξας 123
mvp-comment-38-2 αὐτοφώρων 124
mvp-comment-38-3 ἀράξας 125
mvp-comment-38-4 αὐτὸς αὐτουργῷ χερί 126 αὐτός 127 αὐτ. χερί 128
mvp-comment-39-1 διπλοῦν ἔπος 129 πάθος 130
mvp-comment-39-2 ἀρτάναισι 131
mvp-comment-40-1 δύο … μίαν 132
mvp-comment-40-2 αὐτοκτονοῦντε 133
mvp-comment-41-1 κατειργάσαντ’ 134
mvp-comment-41-2 ἐπαλλήλοιν χεροῖν 135 ἐπ’ ἀλλήλοιν 136 χεροῖν 137 οιν 138 ἐπαλλήλοιν 139 χεροῖν 140
mvp-comment-42-1 νῦν δ’ αὖ 141 δ’ 142 νῦν αὖ 143 αὖ 144
mvp-comment-42-2 μόνα δή 145
mvp-comment-43-1 ψῆφον 146
mvp-comment-43-2 τυράννων 147
mvp-comment-43-3 κράτη 148 ἢ 149 καὶ 150
mvp-comment-44-1 τοῦτο μὲν 151 ἐννοεῖν 152 ἔπειτα δ’ 153
mvp-comment-44-2 ὡς 154 οὐ μαχουμένα 155
mvp-comment-45-1 οὕνεκ’ 156
mvp-comment-45-2 ἐκ 157
mvp-comment-45-3 ἀκούειν 158 ταῦτα 159 ἀλγίονα 160
mvp-comment-46-1 ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν 161
mvp-comment-46-2 τοὺς ὑπὸ χθονός 162
mvp-comment-46-3 βιάζομαι τάδε 163
mvp-comment-47-1 τοῖς ἐν τέλει βεβῶσι 164 βεβῶσι 165
mvp-comment-47-2 τὸ γὰρ | ...πράσσειν 166
mvp-comment-47-3 περισσὰ πρ 167
mvp-comment-47-4 οὐκ ἔχει νοῦν οὐδ. 168
mvp-comment-48-1 ἔτι 169
mvp-comment-48-2 πράσσειν … δρῴης 170 δρῴης 171 ἄν 172 ἡδέως 173 γε 174 ἡδέως γε ἂν ἐμοῦ 175 <)μοῦ 176 γε 177 ἐμοί γ’ 178 μέτα 179 ἀσμένης 180 ἡδέως 181 ἐμοῦ γε 182
mvp-comment-49-1 ἴσθ’ 183
mvp-comment-49-2 όποία σοι δοκεῖ 184 ἴσθ’ 185 ὁποῖά σοι δοκεῖ 186
mvp-comment-50-1 θάψω 187
mvp-comment-50-2 φίλη … φίλου 188
mvp-comment-50-3 μετ’ αὐτοῦ κείσομαι 189 μετά 190
mvp-comment-51-1 ὅσια πανουργήσασ’ 191 ὅσια 192
mvp-comment-51-2 ἐπεὶ κ.τ.λ. 193
mvp-comment-51-3 τῶν ἐνθάδε 194
mvp-comment-52-1 κείσομαι 195
mvp-comment-52-2 σοὶ δ’ 196 σὺ δ’ 197 εἰ δοκεῖ 198
mvp-comment-52-3 τὰ τῶν θεῶν ἔντιμα 199
mvp-comment-52-4 ἀτιμάσασ’ ἔχε 200
mvp-comment-53-1 ἐγὼ 201 μέν 202 δέ 203
mvp-comment-53-2 ἄτιμα ποιοῦμαι 204
mvp-comment-53-3 τὸ δὲ | ...δρᾶν 205
mvp-comment-54-1 τάδ’ ἂν προὔχοιο 206
mvp-comment-54-2 δὴ 207
mvp-comment-54-3 τάφον χώσουσ’ 208
mvp-comment-55-1 Join οἴμοι ταλαίνης 209
mvp-comment-55-2 μὴ ’μοῦ προτάρβει 210 τὸν σόν 211 μὴ ’μοῦ 212 προτάρβει 213
mvp-comment-55-3 ἐξόρθου 214
mvp-comment-56-1 ἀλλ’ οὖν … γε 215 ἀλλά 216 οὖν 217
mvp-comment-56-2 κρυφῆ δέ 218
mvp-comment-56-3 σὺν δ’ 219
mvp-comment-56-4 αὔτως 220
mvp-comment-57-1 καταύδα 221
mvp-comment-57-2 πολλόν 222 πολλὸν 223
mvp-comment-57-3 σιγῶσ’ 224 ἐὰν … τάδε 225 πᾶσι 226
mvp-comment-58-1 θερμὴν ἐπὶ ψυχροῖσι 227 ἐπί 228 θερμήν 229
mvp-comment-59-1 ἁδεῖν 230
mvp-comment-60-1 εἰ καὶ δυνήσει γ’ 231 καὶ 232 δυνήσει 233 εἰ καί 234
mvp-comment-61-1 Since οὐκοῦν 235 δὴ 236 ὅταν 237
mvp-comment-61-2 πεπαύσομαι 238
mvp-comment-62-1 ἀρχήν 239
mvp-comment-63-1 ἐχθαρεῖ 240
mvp-comment-63-2 ἐξ ἐμοῦ 241
mvp-comment-64-1 ἐχθρὰ...τῷ θανόντι προσκείσει δίκῃ 242 προσκείσει 243 ἐχθρά 244
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 245
mvp-comment-65-2 τὴν ἐξ ἐμοῦ δυσββουλίαν 246
mvp-comment-65-3 τὸ δεινὸν τοῦτο 247
mvp-comment-65-4 πείσομαι γὰρ οὐ 249
mvp-comment-65-5 μὴ οὐ 250
mvp-comment-66-1 τοῖς φίλοις δ’ ὀρθῶς φίλη 251 ἴσθι 252
mvp-comment-68-1 ἀελίου 253
mvp-comment-68-2 τὸ κάλλιστον ...φάος 254
mvp-comment-68-3 ἑπταπύλῳ 255
mvp-comment-68-4 τῶν προτέρων 256
mvp-comment-69-1 ἐφάνθης 257
mvp-comment-69-2 χρυσέας 258
mvp-comment-69-3 βλέφαρον 259
mvp-comment-69-4 Διρκαίων 260
mvp-comment-70-1 τὸν λεύκασπιν...φῶτα 261
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
262
Ἰναχόθεν
263
mvp-comment-71-1 πανσαγίᾳ 264
mvp-comment-71-2 φυγάδα πρ. 265 κινήσασα 266
mvp-comment-71-3 πρόδρομον 267
mvp-comment-71-4 ὀξυτέρῳ...χαλινῷ 268
mvp-comment-71-5 ὀξυτέρῳ 269
mvp-comment-72-1 The MSS. have ὃν...Πολυνείκης 270 ὃς ...Πολυνείκους 271
mvp-comment-72-2 Πολυνείκους … νεικέων 272
mvp-comment-72-3 ἀρθείς 273
mvp-comment-72-4 νεικ. ἐξ ἀμφιλόγων 274
mvp-comment-73-1 ὀξέα κλάζων 275
mvp-comment-73-2 αἰετὸς εἰς γᾶν ὣς ὑπερέπτα 276 ὥς 277
mvp-comment-73-3 ὑπερέπτα 278
mvp-comment-74-1 λευκῆς χιόνος πτ. 279
mvp-comment-74-2 στεγανός 280
mvp-comment-74-3 ὅπλων … κορύθεσσι 281 ξύν 282 μετά 283 ξύν 284
mvp-comment-75-1 In στὰς δ’ ὑπὲρ μελάθρων 285 πτάς 286
mvp-comment-75-2 The words φονώσαισιν ἀμφιχανὼν... λόγχαις 287
mvp-comment-75-3 φονώσαισιν 288
mvp-comment-75-4 ἑπτάπυλον στόμα 289
mvp-comment-76-1 ἔβα 290
mvp-comment-76-2 πρίν ποθ’ 291 αἱμάτων 292
mvp-comment-76-3 γἑνυσιν 293 πλησθῆναι 294 τε 295 τε 296
mvp-comment-76-4 στεφάνωμα 297
mvp-comment-76-5 πευκάενθ’ Ἥφαιστον 298
mvp-comment-77-1 τοῖος 299
mvp-comment-77-2 ἐτάθη 300
mvp-comment-77-3 πάταγος 301
mvp-comment-77-4 ἀντιπάλῳ δυσχείρωμα δράκοντος 302 ἀντιπάλῳ ... δράκοντι 303 ἀντιπάλου … δράκοντος 304 ἀντιπάλῳ … δράκοντος 305
mvp-comment-77-5 The interpretation of the passage turns primarily on two points.
mvp-comment-77-6 (1) The δράκων 306
mvp-comment-77-7 (2) The δυς 307 δυσχείρωμα 308
mvp-comment-77-8 Those who read ἀντιπάλῳ … δράκοντι 309 ὲτάθη 310
mvp-comment-77-9 Those who read ἀντιπάλου … δράκοντος 311
mvp-comment-78-1 μεγάλης 312
mvp-comment-78-2 ῥεύματι 313 ῥεύματι πολλῷ 314
mvp-comment-79-1 χρυσοῦ καναχῆς ὑπεροπλίαις 315
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 316
mvp-comment-80-1 παλτῷ πυρί 317
mvp-comment-80-2 βαλβίδων ἐπ’ ἄκρων 318
mvp-comment-80-3 ὁρμῶντα 319
mvp-comment-80-4 νίκην 320 ἀλαλάξαι 321
mvp-comment-81-1 ἀντιτύπᾳ 322
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 323
mvp-comment-82-1 πυρφόρος 324
mvp-comment-82-2 βακχεύων 325
mvp-comment-82-3 ῥιπαῖς...ἀνέμων 326
mvp-comment-83-1 εἶχε δ’ ἄλλᾳ τὰ μέν 327 εἶχε δ’ ἄλλαι τὰ μὲν ἄλλαι τὰ δ’ ἐπ’ ἄλλοις 328 τὰ μέν 329 ἄλλα δέ 330 τὰ μέν 331 ἄλλᾳ 332
mvp-comment-83-2 ἐπενώμα 333 στυφελίζων 334
mvp-comment-83-3 δεξιόσειρος 335
mvp-comment-83-4 The old v.l. δεξιόχειρος 336
mvp-comment-84-1 ἑπτὰ λοχαγοί 337
mvp-comment-84-2 ἴσοι πρὸς ἴσους 338
mvp-comment-84-3 Ζηνὶ τροπαίῳ 339
mvp-comment-84-4 πάγχαλκα τέλη 340
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 341 πατρός 342
mvp-comment-85-2 καθ’ αὑτοῖν 343
mvp-comment-85-3 δικρατεῖς λόγχας 344
mvp-comment-85-4 στήσαντε 345
mvp-comment-86-1 ἀλλὰ γάρ 346 γάρ 347 γάρ 348
mvp-comment-86-2 μεγαλώνυμος 349
mvp-comment-86-3 πολυαρμάτῳ 350
mvp-comment-86-4 ἀντιχαρεῖσα 351
mvp-comment-87-1 ἐκ...πολέμων τῶν νῦν 352 ἐκ 353 νῦν 354
mvp-comment-87-2 θέσθαι 355 θέσθε 356 παννυχίοις 357
mvp-comment-87-3 ὁ Θήβας 358 ἐλελίχθων 359
mvp-comment-87-4 Βάκχιος 360
mvp-comment-87-5 ἄρχοι 361
mvp-comment-88-1 ἀλλὰ … γάρ 362 Κρέων 363
mvp-comment-88-2 Μενοικέως 364
mvp-comment-88-3 νεοχμὸς νεαραῖσι 365
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 366 κρείων 367 ἄρχων 368 ταγός 369
mvp-comment-88-5 θεῶν … συντυχίαις 370 ἐπί 371
mvp-comment-89-1 μῆτιν ἐρέσσων 372
mvp-comment-89-2 σύγκλητον 373
mvp-comment-89-3 προὔθετο 374 λέσχην 375
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
376
mvp-comment-89-5 κοινῷ κ. πέμψας 377
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’ 378
mvp-comment-91-3 πόλεος 379 πολλῷ σάλῳ σείσαντες 380
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 381
mvp-comment-92-1 ἐκ πάντων 382 δίχα 383
mvp-comment-92-2 ἔστειλ’ ἱκέσθαι 384 τοῦτο μέν 385
mvp-comment-92-3 σέβοντας 386
mvp-comment-92-4 θρόνων . . κράτη 387
mvp-comment-93-1 ἡνίκ’ Οἰδίπους 388 κείνων 389 κείνων παῖδας 390 ἡνίκ’ . . ὤρθου πόλιν 391 ἐπεὶ διώλετο 392 τοῦτο μέν . . τοῦτ’ αὖθις 393
mvp-comment-93-2 καί 394 καί 395
mvp-comment-93-3 ἐμπέδοις φρονήμασιν 396 ἐμπέδους 397 ἐμπέδοις 398
mvp-comment-94-1 ὅτε 399
mvp-comment-94-2 πρὸς διπλῆς μ. 400 διπλῆς . . μίαν 401
mvp-comment-94-3 παίσαντες . . πληγέντες 402
mvp-comment-94-4 αὐτόχειρι … μιάσματι 403
mvp-comment-95-1 ἐγὼ . . δή 404
mvp-comment-95-2 κράτη 405
mvp-comment-95-3 γένους κατ’ ἀγχιστεῖα τῶν ὀλ. 406
mvp-comment-96-1 ἀμήχανον δέ 407 δέ 408 δέ 409
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 410 φρόνημα 411 γνώμην 412
mvp-comment-98-1 ἀρχαῖς 413 νόμοισιν 414
mvp-comment-98-2 ἐντριβής 415
mvp-comment-98-3 φανῇ 416
mvp-comment-99-1 ἐμοὶ γάρ 417 γάρ 418 πᾶσαν … πόλιν 419
mvp-comment-99-2 μὴ … ἅπτεται 420 ὅστις μὴ ἅπτεται 421
mvp-comment-99-3 ἐκ φ. του 422
mvp-comment-99-4 ἐγκλῄσας ἔχει 423
mvp-comment-99-5 νῦν τε καὶ πάλαι 424
mvp-comment-100-1 μείζον’ 425 ἀντὶ τῆς...πάτρας 426 ἤ 427 μεῖζον 428
mvp-comment-100-2 οὐδαμοῦ λέγω 429
mvp-comment-101-1 ἐγὼ γάρ 430 γάρ 431 τοῦτο γιγνώσκων 432 ἴστω 433
mvp-comment-102-1 οὔτ’ ἂν σιωπήσαιμι 434
mvp-comment-103-1 στείχουσαν ἀστοῖς 435 ὁμοῦ 436
mvp-comment-103-2 ἀντὶ τῆς σωτηρίας 437 τῆς 438
mvp-comment-104-1 ἄνδρα δυσμενῆ χθονός 439
mvp-comment-104-2 ἐμαυτῷ 440 φίλον 441 θείμην 442
mvp-comment-105-1 ἡ σῴζουσα 443
mvp-comment-105-2 ταύτης 444 ὀρθῆς 445
mvp-comment-105-3 τοὺς φίλους ποιούμεθα 446
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 447
mvp-comment-106-2 αὔξω 448
mvp-comment-107-1 ἀδελφὰ τῶνδε 449
mvp-comment-107-2 τῶν ἀπ’ Οἰδίπου 450
mvp-comment-108-1 δορί 451 δόρει 452
mvp-comment-109-1 τὰ πάντ’ ἐφαγνίσαι 453 ἐπί 454 ἐφαγνίσαι 455 ἀφαγνίσαι 456 ἀπό 457
mvp-comment-110-1 τοῖς ἀρίστοις 458
mvp-comment-110-2 ἔρχεται κάτω 459
mvp-comment-111-1 L has Πολυνείκην 460
mvp-comment-111-2 λέγω 461
mvp-comment-112-1 γτ=ν πατρῴαν . . καὶ θεοὺς . . πρῆσαι 462
mvp-comment-112-2 θ. τοὺς ἐγγενεῖς 463
mvp-comment-112-3 κατελθών 464
mvp-comment-112-4 γ)θέλησε μέν … ἠθέλ. δέ 465 ἠθέλησε μὲν 466
mvp-comment-112-5 πρῆσαι 467
mvp-comment-112-6 κατ’ ἄκρας 468
mvp-comment-112-7 αἵματος κ. πάσασθαι 469
mvp-comment-112-8 τοὺς δὲ … ἄγειν 470
mvp-comment-113-1 The traditional ἐκκεκηρῦχθαι τάφῳ 471 ἐκκεκήρυκται τάφῳ 472 ἐκκεκηρῦχθαι λέγω 473 τάφῳ 474 κτερίζειν 475 τάφῳ 476 κτερίζειν 477 μήτε 478 κωκῦσαι 479 τάφῳ 480 λέγω 481 τάφῳ 482 ἐκκεκ 483
mvp-comment-114-1 ἐᾶν δ 484 ἄθαπτον, αἰκισθέντ’ ἰδεῖν 485 δέμας καὶ πρὸς οἰωνῶν καὶ πρὸς κυνῶν ἐδεστόν 486 αἰκισθέντ 487 αἰκισθέντ 488 ἐδεστόν 489 αἰκισθέν τ’, δέμας 490
mvp-comment-114-2 δέμας 491
mvp-comment-114-3 ἰδεῖν 492
mvp-comment-115-1 φρόνημα 493
mvp-comment-115-2 ἔκ γ’ ἐμοῦ 494
mvp-comment-116-1 The MSS. have τιμὴν προέξουσ’ ..τῶν ἐνδ. 495 τιμήν 496 τιμῆ 497 προσέξους 498
mvp-comment-117-1 τιμήσεται 499
mvp-comment-118-1 I print Dindorf's κἀς 500 καὶ 501 σοὶ ταῦτ’ ἀρέσκει 502 Κρέον 503 ταὔτ 504 ταῦτ’ 505
mvp-comment-119-1 In παντί πού γ’ 506 σοί γ’ … που 507 ἔνεστι 508 χὡπόσοι ζῶμεν 509 πέρι 510
mvp-comment-120-1 ὡς ἂν … ἦτε 511 πῶς ἂν … εἶτε 512
mvp-comment-120-2 σκοποί 513
mvp-comment-120-3 νυν 514 νῦν 515
mvp-comment-120-4 τῶν εἰρ 516
mvp-comment-121-1 πρόθες τοῦτο 517 βαστάζειν 518
mvp-comment-121-2 τοῦ νεκροῦ γ’ 519
mvp-comment-122-1 τί δῆτ’ ἂν … ἐπεντέλλοις 520
mvp-comment-122-2 The reading ἄλλῳ 521 τοῦτο 522
mvp-comment-122-3 ἐπιχωρεῖν 523
mvp-comment-122-4 ἀπιστοῦσιν 524
mvp-comment-122-5 τάδε, 525
mvp-comment-123-1 ὃς 526 ἐρᾷ 527
mvp-comment-123-2 καὶ μὴν 528 γε 529 μισθός 530
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 531
mvp-comment-123-5 διώλεσεν 532
mvp-comment-124-1 ἐρῶ μὲν οὐχ 533
mvp-comment-124-2 ὅπως 534
mvp-comment-124-3 τάχους ὕπο 535 τάχους 536
mvp-comment-125-1 ἐξάρας 537
mvp-comment-125-2 φροντίδων 538 ἐπιστάσεις 539
mvp-comment-125-3 ὁδοῖς 540
mvp-comment-125-4 κυκλῶν 541
mvp-comment-126-1 ψυχὴ γὰρ ηὔδα 542 πολλὰ 543 μυθουμένη 544
mvp-comment-127-1 τάλας … τλήμων 545
mvp-comment-127-2 μένεις 546 μενεῖς 547 αὖ 548
mvp-comment-127-3 πῶς … οὐκ 549
mvp-comment-127-4 ἀλγυνεῖ 550
mvp-comment-128-1 ἑλίσσων 551
mvp-comment-128-2 ἤνυτον 552
mvp-comment-128-3 σχολῇ βραδύς 553
mvp-comment-129-1 τέλος γε μέντοι 554
mvp-comment-129-2 ἐνίκησεν 555
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 556 μολεῖν 557 σοί 558 φράσων 559 φράσω δ 560 κεἰ 561 κεἴ σοι 562 σοί. 563
mvp-comment-130-2 τὸ μηδέν 564
mvp-comment-131-1 τῆς ἐλπίδος 565
mvp-comment-131-2 δεδραγμένος 566 πεφραγμένος 567 πεπραγμένος 568
mvp-comment-131-3 τὸ μὴ παθεῖν ἄν 569
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 570
mvp-comment-132-1 ἀνθ’ οὗ 571
mvp-comment-132-2 τὸ γὰρ | πρᾶγμ’ 572 γάρ 573
mvp-comment-133-1 εὖ γε στοχάζει 574 στοχάζει 575 ἀποφράγνυσαι 576 στοχάζομαι 577
mvp-comment-133-2 κἀποφράγνυσαι 578
mvp-comment-133-3 τὸ πρᾶγμα 579
mvp-comment-134-1 δηλοῖς δ’ ὥς τι ς. 580
mvp-comment-135-1 τὰ δεινά 581 γάρ 582
mvp-comment-135-2 ποτ 583
mvp-comment-135-3 ἀπαλλαχθείς 584
mvp-comment-136-1 καὶ δή 585
mvp-comment-136-2 θάψας 586 κἀπί 587
mvp-comment-136-3 διψίαν 588
mvp-comment-136-4 κἀφαγιστεύσας 589 ἃ χρή 590
mvp-comment-137-1 ἀνδρῶν 591
mvp-comment-137-2 οὔτε του γενῇδος … οὐ δικέλλης 592 οὔτε … οὐ 593 γενῄς 594 γενῄς 595 δίκελλα 596
mvp-comment-137-3 δικ. ἐκβολή 597 ἐκβ. 598 στύφλος 599 χέρσος 600 ἀρρώξ 601
mvp-comment-137-4 ἐπημαξευμένη 602 ἐπ‐ 603 ἐφ‐ 604
mvp-comment-137-5 ἀλλ’ ὁ ἐργάτης ἄσημός τις ἦν 605
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 606 ἡμεροσκ. 607
mvp-comment-138-2 δείκνυσι … παρῆν 608
mvp-comment-138-3 δυσχερές 609
mvp-comment-139-1 ὁ μὲν 610
mvp-comment-139-2 τυμβήρης μὲν οὔ 611 τυμβ. 612 λεπτὴ δ’ … ἐπῆν 613
mvp-comment-139-3 ἄγος φεύγοντος ὥς 614 ἄγος 615
mvp-comment-140-1 θηρός 616
mvp-comment-140-2 του 617 θηρός 618
mvp-comment-140-3 οὐ σπάσαντος 619 οὐ 620 σπάσαντος 621 σπάσαντος οὐδ’ ἐλθόντος 622
mvp-comment-141-1 λόγοι δ’ … φύλακα 623 λόγοι κακοὶ ἐρρόθουν 624 ἐρρόθουν 625
mvp-comment-141-2
γλώσσης ῥόθος, of an unintelligible jargon.
mvp-comment-141-3 ἐλέγχων 626
mvp-comment-141-4 κἂν ἐγίγνετο 627
mvp-comment-141-5 τελευτῶς 628
mvp-comment-141-6 ὁ κωλύσων 629
mvp-comment-142-1 ἦν … οὑξειργ. 630
mvp-comment-142-2 ἐναργής 631
mvp-comment-142-3 ἀλλ’ 632
mvp-comment-142-4 ἕφευγε μὴ εἰδέναι 633
mvp-comment-142-5 μὴ 634 εἰδέναι 635
mvp-comment-143-1 μύδρους 636
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 637
mvp-comment-144-2 θεοὺς ὁρκ. 639
mvp-comment-144-3 τὸ μήτε δρ 640
mvp-comment-144-4 μήτ’ είργασμένῳ 641 μηδ 642
mvp-comment-145-1 πλέον 643
mvp-comment-145-2 λέγει 644
mvp-comment-145-3 τις εἷς 645
mvp-comment-146-1 προὔτρεψεν 646
mvp-comment-146-2 οὐ γὰρ εἴχομεν 647
mvp-comment-146-3 As ἀντιφωνεῖν 648 δρῶντες 649 ὅπως δρῶντες 650 εἴχομεν 651
mvp-comment-147-1 σοί 652
mvp-comment-147-2 ταῦτ’ ἐνίκα 653
mvp-comment-147-3 πάλος 654 καθαιρεῖ 655
mvp-comment-147-4 τἀγαθόν 656 —ἄκων οὐχ ἑκοῦσιν 657
mvp-comment-148-1 ἐμοί 658 βουλεύει 659 μή 660
mvp-comment-148-2 τι 661
mvp-comment-148-3 θεήλατον, 662
mvp-comment-148-4 ἡ ξύννοια 663
mvp-comment-148-5 πάλαι 664
mvp-comment-149-1 πρὶν ὀργῆς καί με μεστῶσαι 665 καί 666 πρίν 667 μεστῶσαι 668 καί 669 με 670
mvp-comment-149-2 κἀμέ 671
mvp-comment-149-3 μεστῶσαι 672
mvp-comment-150-1 πότερον 673 ἔκρυπτον 674
mvp-comment-150-2 ἀμφικίονας ναούς 675
mvp-comment-150-3 κἀναθήματα 676
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 677 πυρώσων 678
mvp-comment-150-6 νόμους διασκεδῶν 679
mvp-comment-150-7 διασκεδῶν 680
mvp-comment-151-1 τοὺς κακοὺς τιμῶντας … θεούς; 681
mvp-comment-152-1 ταῦτα 682 μόλις φέροντες 683 καὶ πάλαι 684
mvp-comment-152-2 πόλεως ἄνδρες 685
mvp-comment-152-3 ἐρρόθουν 686
mvp-comment-152-4 ἐμοί 687
mvp-comment-152-5 κάρα σείοντες 688
mvp-comment-152-6 ὑπὸ ζυγῷ 689
mvp-comment-152-7 λόφον 690
mvp-comment-152-8 δικαίως 691
mvp-comment-152-9
equal poise’ (
New Crat. 371).—
ὡς = ὥστε (
O. T. 84
):
στέργειν
692
mvp-comment-153-1 τῶνδε 693 ἐκ 694
mvp-comment-153-2 τούτους, 695
mvp-comment-153-3 εἰργάσθαι 696 ἐξεπίσταμαι 697 παρηγμένους 698
mvp-comment-154-1 νόμισμ’ 699
mvp-comment-154-2 ἔβλαστε 700
mvp-comment-154-3 πορθεῖ 701
mvp-comment-154-4 τόδ’ 702 ἄνδρας 703
mvp-comment-155-1 τόδ’ ἐκδ. καὶ παραλλάσσει 704 ἵστασθαι 705 καὶ παραλλάσσει 706
mvp-comment-155-2 ἵστασθαι πρός τι 707
mvp-comment-156-1 πανουργίας … ἔχειν 708
mvp-comment-156-2 εἰδέναι 709 παντὸς ἔργου δυσσέβ. 710 παντὸς ἔργ 711 πανουργίας 712
mvp-comment-157-1 ἤνυσαν 713
mvp-comment-157-2 χρόνῳ ποτέ 714 δοῦναι δίκην 715
mvp-comment-157-3 ἐξέπραξαν ὡς 716
mvp-comment-158-1 Ζεύς 717
mvp-comment-158-2 ὅρκιος 718
mvp-comment-158-3 τὸν αὐτόχειρα 719 τάφου = ταφῆς 720
mvp-comment-159-1 μοῦνος 721 πρὶν ἂν . . δηλώσητε 722 κρεμαστοί 723 ζῶντες κρεμαστοί 724
mvp-comment-159-2 δηλώσηθ’ 725
mvp-comment-159-3 ὕβριν 726
mvp-comment-160-1 ἵν’ … ἁρπάζητε 727
mvp-comment-160-2 τὸ κέρδος 728 ἔνθεν οἰστέον 729
mvp-comment-160-3 μάθηθ’ 730
mvp-comment-160-4 ἐξ ἅπαντος 731 τὸ κερδαίνειν 732
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 733
mvp-comment-161-2 δέ 734 δώσεις 735
mvp-comment-161-3 οὕτως 736
mvp-comment-161-4 ἴω 737
mvp-comment-161-5 καὶ νῦν ὡς 738 ἀνιαρῶς 739 ι— 740
mvp-comment-162-1 ἐν 741 ὠσίν 742
mvp-comment-162-2 ἐπί 743
mvp-comment-163-1 τί δὲ 744 τί δαὶ 745
mvp-comment-163-2 ῥυθμίζεις 746 ὅπου 747 ὅπου 748
mvp-comment-164-1 τὰς φρένας...τὰ δ’ ὦτ’ 749 σε 750
mvp-comment-164-2 οἴμ’ ὡς 751
mvp-comment-164-3 λάλημα 752 ἄλημα 753 ἄλημα 754
mvp-comment-164-4 δῆλον, 755
mvp-comment-165-1
‘At any rate (
οὖν—babbler or not) I certainly have not done this deed.’
εἰμί
756
οὔκουν … γε
757
mvp-comment-166-1 ‘Yes, (you have done it,) and that, too, at the cost of betraying,’ etc. The particle γε 758 καὶ ταῦτα 759 προδούς 760
mvp-comment-167-1 ἦ δεινόν 761 καὶ 762 γε 763
mvp-comment-168-1 κόμψευε . . τὴν δόξαν 764
mvp-comment-168-2 τὴν δόξαν 765
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 766 νῦν 767 ταῦτα … τοὺς δρῶντας = τοὺς ταῦτα δρῶντας 768
mvp-comment-169-1 δειλά 769
mvp-comment-169-2 δεινά 770 ν 771
mvp-comment-170-1 ἀλλ’ 772 εὑρεθείη 773 καὶ 774
mvp-comment-171-1 καὶ 775 γάρ 776
mvp-comment-171-2 γνώμης 777
mvp-comment-173-1 πολλὰ … κοὐδέν 778
mvp-comment-173-2 καί 779
mvp-comment-173-3 τὰ δεινά 780
mvp-comment-174-1 τοῦτο 781 πέραν 782 πέρα 783
mvp-comment-175-1 χειμερίῳ νότῳ 784
mvp-comment-176-1 περιβρ … ὑπ’ οἴδμασιν 785
mvp-comment-177-1 ὑπερτάταν 786
mvp-comment-178-1 ἀκαμάταν 787
mvp-comment-178-2 ἀποτρύεται 788
mvp-comment-179-1 ἰλλομένων ἀρότρων, 789 ἀρότων 790
mvp-comment-179-2 ἔτος εἰς ἔτος 791 εἰς 792
mvp-comment-180-1 ἱππείῳ γένει 793
mvp-comment-180-2 πολεύων 794 τοῦτο 795
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 796
mvp-comment-181-5 ἀμφιβαλὼν 797
mvp-comment-182-1 πόντου … εἰναλίαν φύσιν 798
mvp-comment-183-1 περιφραδής 799
mvp-comment-184-1 μηχαναῖς 800 ἀγραύλου 801 ὀρεσσιβάτα 802
mvp-comment-185-1 λασιαύχενά θ’ 803
mvp-comment-186-1 ὀχμάζεται 804 ἀμφὶ λόφον ζυγῶν 805
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
806
mvp-comment-187-1 φθέγμα 807
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 808
mvp-comment-188-1 ἀστυνόμους ὀργάς 809
mvp-comment-189-1 ἐδιδάξατο 810
mvp-comment-190-1 πάγων 811
mvp-comment-190-2 ἐναίθρεια 812
mvp-comment-190-3 βέλη 814
mvp-comment-191-1 παντοπόρος 815
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 816 μόνου 817 φεῦξιν — ἐπάξεται 818
mvp-comment-193-1 ἀμηχάνων 819
mvp-comment-193-2 φυγάς 820
mvp-comment-193-3 ξυμπέφρασται 821
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 822
mvp-comment-194-3 τὸ μηχανόεν τ 823
mvp-comment-195-1 τοτὲ μὲν … ἄλλοτ’ 824
mvp-comment-195-2 ἐπ’ 825
mvp-comment-196-1 γεραίρων 826
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 827
mvp-comment-198-1 ὑψίπολις 828
mvp-comment-198-2 ἄπολις 829
mvp-comment-198-3 τὸ μὴ καλόν 830 τόλμας χάριν 831
mvp-comment-199-1 παρέστιος 832
mvp-comment-199-2 ἴσον φρονῶν 833
mvp-comment-200-1 ἔρδει 834 ἔρδοι 835
mvp-comment-202-1 The choral ode has closed with an allusion to the unknown man ( ὅς 836 ἀμφινοῶ 837 ἐς 838
mvp-comment-202-2 δαιμόνιον τέρας 839
mvp-comment-203-1 πῶς εἰδὼς 840
mvp-comment-203-2 ἀντιλογήσω 841
mvp-comment-204-1 ὦ δύστηνος 842
mvp-comment-204-2 δ. πατρός 843
mvp-comment-204-3 Οἰδιπόδα— 844
mvp-comment-205-1 τί ποτ’ 845
mvp-comment-205-2 οὐ δή που 846
mvp-comment-205-3 ἀπιστοῦσαν 847
mvp-comment-205-4 ἄγουσι 848
mvp-comment-205-5 colloquialism, it would be nearly as bad as, ‘Have they taken you up?’
mvp-comment-205-6 καὶ 849 ἀπιστοῦσαν 850 καθελόντες 851
mvp-comment-206-1
Second
ἐπεισόδιον. Antigone, brought before Creon, avows and justifies her deed. Creon declares that she shall die. Ismene, when led in (531), associates herself with the act, but is not permitted by her sister to claim any part in it. Creon orders that both sisters shall be kept prisoners.
mvp-comment-206-2 ἐκείνη 852
mvp-comment-206-3 τοὔργον ἡ ’ξειργ 853
mvp-comment-207-1 ἐς δέον 854
mvp-comment-208-1 ξύμμετρος 855
mvp-comment-209-1 ἀπώμοτον 856
mvp-comment-210-1 ψεύδει 857
mvp-comment-210-2 ἡ ’πίνοια 858
mvp-comment-211-1 ἐξηύχουν ἄν 859 σχολῇ ἥξειν ποτὲ δεῦρο 860
mvp-comment-211-2 σχολῇ 861
mvp-comment-212-1 ταῖς σαῖς ἀπειλαῖς 862
mvp-comment-212-2 ἐχειμάσθην 863
mvp-comment-213-1 ἡ...ἐκτὸς 864 ἐκτός 865
mvp-comment-214-1 οὐδὲν ἔοικε μῆκος 866 α+λλῃ ἡδονῇ 867 οὐδέν 868 μῆκος 869 ἔοικε 870
mvp-comment-215-1 δῑ ὅρκων … ἀπώμοτος 871
mvp-comment-216-1 καθῃρέθη 872
mvp-comment-216-2 τάφον κοσμοῦσα 873
mvp-comment-216-3 ἐπάλλετο 874 ἕρμαιον 875
mvp-comment-217-1 κρῖνε 876
mvp-comment-217-2 δίκαιός εἰμι 877
mvp-comment-217-3 ἀπηλλάχθαι 878
mvp-comment-218-1
Observe the order of the words as marking his amazement. For the double interrog. cp.
Il. 21.150
τίς πόθεν ει<*>=ς ἀνδρῶν;
Ph. 243
τίνι | στόλῳ προσέσχες τήνδε γῆν, πόθεν πλέων;
mvp-comment-218-2 πάντ’ ἐπίστασαι 879
mvp-comment-219-1 ἦ καὶ 880
mvp-comment-219-2 ὀρθῶς 881
mvp-comment-219-3 mean to say? (Not, merely, ‘truly,’ i.e. in accordance with the fact: cp. 99 n.)
mvp-comment-220-1 τὸν νεκρόν 882
mvp-comment-221-1 ἆρ’ ἔνδηλα 883
mvp-comment-222-1 ὁρᾶται...ᾑρέθη 884
mvp-comment-222-2 ἐπίληπτος 885
mvp-comment-223-1 ἥκομεν 887
mvp-comment-224-1 τὰ δείν’ ἐκεῖν’ 888
mvp-comment-224-2 τὸν | νέκυν 889
mvp-comment-225-1 καθήμεθ’ 890
mvp-comment-225-2 ἄκρων ἐκ πάγων 891
mvp-comment-225-3
ἐξ Οὐλύμποιο ἀπὸ ῥίου. Here,
ἀπὸ ῥίου goes with
εἰσεῖδε: but
ἐξ Οὐλύμποιο, however much
εἰσεῖδε may have influenced it, at least cannot be disjoined from
στᾶσ’. (2)
Eur.
Phoen. 1009
ἀλλ’ εἶμι καὶ στὰς ἐξ ἐπάλξεων ἄκρων | σφάξας ἐμαυτὸν σηκὸν εἰς μελαμβαθῆ | δράκοντος, ἔνθ’ ὁ μάντις ἐξηγήσατο, | ἐλευθερώσω γαῖαν. It is impossible to sever
στάς from
ἐξ ἐπ., even if we partly explain
ἐξ by
σφάξας. (3)
ib. 1224
Ἐτεοκλέης δ’ ὑπῆρξ’ ἀπ’ ὀρθίου σταθεὶς | πύργου κελεύσας σῖγα κηρῦξαι στρατῷ. The position of
σταθείς forbids us to sever it from
ἀπ’ ὀρθ. π., even though
ὑπῆρξε or
κελεύσας is used to explain
ἀπό. (4)
Eur.
Tro. 522
ἀνὰ δ’ ἐβόασεν λεὼς | Τρῳάδος ἀπὸ πέτρας σταθείς. A similar case. In all these passages, a picture is presented, and we have to glance from a remoter to a nearer object. The mental eye is required to measure the space between Hera on the peak of Olympus, and Poseidon on the plain of Troy; between Megareus on the walls of Thebes, and the cavern into which his corpse is to fall. And, in each case,
ἐκ or
ἀπό denotes the
quarter in which the remoter object is to be looked for. This, which might be called the ‘surveying’ use, is distinct from that in which the prep. has a pregnant force, as being directly suggestive of motion (
οἱ ἐκ Σικελίας ἥξουσι); but it springs from the same mental tendency,—viz., to take a rapid glance over the dividing interval. Cp.
ἵστασθαι πρός τινος (‘on his side’). So here: in the foreground of the picture is the corpse, which they have just laid bare. Now look to the hillocks behind it; in that quarter you will see the guards at their post.—I have not cited
Od. 21.419
τόν ῥ’ ἐπὶ πήχει ἑλὼν ἕλκεν νευρὴν γλυφίδας τε | αὐτόθεν ἐκ δίφροιο καθήμενος, because there
ἐκ δίφροιο goes with
ἕλκεν, not with
καθήμενος (he drew the bow, just from the chair, where he sat).
mvp-comment-225-4 ὑπήνεμοι 892
mvp-comment-226-1 βάλῃ 893
mvp-comment-227-1 ἐγερτί 894
mvp-comment-227-2 κινῶν 895
mvp-comment-227-3 ἐπιρρόθοις κακοῖσιν 896
mvp-comment-227-4
the adj. expressing the loud, continuous noise of tongues. The
ἐπι- does not mean ‘bandied to and fro’: see
Tr. 263
πολλὰ μὲν λόγοις | ἐπερρόθησε. In fr. 521
ἐπίρροθα δώματα=‘open to reproach.’ Elsewhere (as with Aesch.)
ἐπίρροθος= ‘helper’ (
ἐπιρροθέω, to come with shouts to the rescue). Cp.
ἐρρόθουν 259 n., Aesch. 290.
mvp-comment-228-1 ἀκηδήσοι 897 ἀφειδήσοι 898
mvp-comment-229-1 The incident of the storm was a dramatic necessity, to account for Antigone reaching the corpse unobserved. A powerful picture is compressed into seven lines. (Cp. O. C. 1315 ff. for a like instance of self-restraint in description.)
mvp-comment-230-1 κατέστη 899
mvp-comment-230-2 χθονὸς 900
mvp-comment-231-1 τυφώς 901 σκηπτός 902
mvp-comment-231-2 οὐράνιον ἄχος 903
mvp-comment-232-1 πίμπλησι 904 αἰκίζων 905
mvp-comment-232-2 ἐν δ’ ἐμεστ 906
mvp-comment-233-1 μύσαντες 907
mvp-comment-233-2 νόσον 908
mvp-comment-233-3 ἐν χρ. μακρ 909
mvp-comment-234-1 πικρᾶς 910
mvp-comment-235-1 εὐνῆς...λέχος 911
mvp-comment-236-1 οὕτω δέ 912
mvp-comment-236-2 ψιλόν 913
mvp-comment-237-1 γόοισιν ἐξῴμωξεν 914
mvp-comment-237-2 ἐκ δ’ … ἠρᾶτο 915
mvp-comment-237-3 διψίαν 916
mvp-comment-238-1 φέρει κόνιν 917
mvp-comment-239-1 The πρόχους 918
mvp-comment-239-2 εὐκρότητος 919
mvp-comment-239-3 ἄρδην 920
mvp-comment-240-1 χοαῖσι 921
mvp-comment-240-2 τρισπόνδ. 922 στέφει 923
mvp-comment-241-1 ἱέμεσθα 924
mvp-comment-241-2 σὺν δὲ … θηρώμεθ’ 925
mvp-comment-242-1 ἠλέγχομεν 926
mvp-comment-242-2 ἄπαρνος … οὐδενός 927
mvp-comment-242-3 καθίστατο 928
mvp-comment-243-1 ἅμ’ 929
mvp-comment-244-1 φίλους 930
mvp-comment-245-1 πάντα ταῦθ’ 931 λαβεῖν 932
mvp-comment-246-1 σὲ δή, 933
mvp-comment-247-1 φὴς δεδρακέναι, ἢ καταρνεῖ μὴ δεδρ 934 καταρνεῖ 935
mvp-comment-248-1 καὶ......κοὐκ 936
mvp-comment-248-2 τὸ μή 937
mvp-comment-249-1 σὺ μέν 938 κομίζοις ἂν ς 939
mvp-comment-249-2 ἔξω 940 β. αἰτίας 941 ἐλεύθερον 942
mvp-comment-250-1 μῆκος 943
mvp-comment-251-1 ᾔδησθα 944 ᾔδης τὰ 945 σθα 946
mvp-comment-251-2 κηρυχθέντα 947
mvp-comment-252-1 ᾔδη 948
mvp-comment-252-2 τί δ’ οὐκ ἔμελλον 949
mvp-comment-252-3 ἐμφανῆ 950 ἐκφανῆ 951
mvp-comment-253-1 καὶ δῆτ’ 952
mvp-comment-254-1 Ζεύς 953
mvp-comment-255-1 τῶν κάτω θεῶν 954 ξύνοικος 955 τοιούσδ’ … ὥρισεν 956 οἳ τούσδ’ … ὥρισαν 957 τάδε 958
mvp-comment-256-1 ἄγραπτα … νόμιμα 959
mvp-comment-256-2
quotes vv. 456 f.) Cp.
O.T. 865 ff.
νόμοι... | ὑψίποδες, οὐρανίαν | δἰ αἰθέρα τεκνωθέντες, with notes there.
Thuc. 2.37
(
νόμοι)
ὅσοι ἄγραφοι ὄντες αἰσχύνην ὁμολογουμένην φέρουσι. When ‘the unwritten laws’ are thus called
νόμοι, the latter word is used figuratively.
νόμιμα
960
mvp-comment-256-3 ἀσφαλῆ 961
mvp-comment-256-4 θνητὸν ὄντ’ 962
mvp-comment-256-5 ὑπερδραμεῖν 963
mvp-comment-257-1 νῦν γε κἀχθές 964
mvp-comment-257-2 ζῇ 965
mvp-comment-257-3 ’φάνη 966
mvp-comment-258-1 τούτων 967 τὴν δίκην 968 τούτων 969
mvp-comment-258-2
shows that, like
ταῦτα just before, it refers to the
νόμιμα: we cannot, therefore, render, ‘the penalty of such an act’ (
sc.
τοῦ ὑπερδραμεῖν).
mvp-comment-258-3 ἐν θεοῖσι 970
mvp-comment-259-1 δώσειν 971
mvp-comment-259-2 θανουμένη γάρ 972
mvp-comment-259-3 τί δ’ οὔ 973
mvp-comment-260-1 κεἰ μὴ σὺ προὐκήρυξας 974
mvp-comment-260-2 τοῦ χρόνου 975
mvp-comment-260-3 αὔτ’ 976
mvp-comment-261-1 φέρει 977
mvp-comment-262-1
Kvičala and Wecklein reject these four verses, despairing of the difficulties found in vv. 466, 467, which have been variously amended; see Appendix. The alleged difficulties are, (1)
παρ’ οὐδὲν ἄλγος: (2) the mention of the mother only: (3) the position of
θανόντ’, which might suggest the sense, ‘slain by my mother’: (4)
ηἰσχόμην (as L has it). Before dealing with these points, I would call attention to a trait which the impugners of these verses have overlooked, and which speaks strongly for the genuineness of the passage as a whole, corrupt though it be in certain words. That trait is the clause
τοῖσδε δ’ οὐκ ἀλγύνομαι
978
mvp-comment-263-1 ἄλγος 979 παρ’ οὐδέν 980
mvp-comment-263-2
adv.: ‘is a pain in no appreciable degree,’ is a pain not worth a thought: as he might have said,
οὐδαμοῦ ἄλγος ἐστί. The normal use of
παρ’ οὐδέν, ‘of no account,’ is either (
a) with the verb
εἶναι, as
O. T. 982
ταῦθ’ ὅτῳ | παρ’ οὐδέν ἐστι, or (
b) with a verb meaning ‘to esteem,’ as above, v. 34,
τὸ πρᾶγμ’ ἄγειν | οὐχ ὡς παρ’ οὐδέν. The only peculiarity here is that, instead of a word in the general sense, ‘
is esteemed’ (
ἄγεται), we have a virtual equivalent, tinged with the special thought of the moment, viz., ‘
is a pain.’ Exactly so in
El. 1327
we have
πότερα παρ’ οὐδὲν τοῦ βίου κήδεσθ’ ἔτι, instead of
πότερα παρ’ οὐδὲν τὸν βίον ἄγετε. Thus the suspicions as to the genuineness of
παρ’ οὐδὲν ἄλγος are illusory.
mvp-comment-263-3 ἀλλ’ ἄν 981
mvp-comment-264-1 ἄθαπτον ἠνσχόμην νέκυν 982 ηἰσχόμην 983 ἠνσχόμην 984
mvp-comment-264-2 In my first edition I placed in the text the emendation of Semitelos (1887) ᾔσχυναν κύνες 985
mvp-comment-264-3
Other emendations will be found in the Appendix. Most of them assume that we must have
ἠνεσχόμην (or
ἀνεσχόμην), and therefore alter the words
θανόντ’ ἄθαπτον and
νέκυν in various ways, —usu. omitting
νέκυν. The verses produced by these processes are wretched, while, from a palaeographical point of view, they are pure conjectures, which do not attempt to account for the tradition in L.—Two points remain. (1)
τὸν ἐξ ἐμῆς | μητρός
986
mvp-comment-264-4
or
μιᾶς (Meineke). (2)
τὸν ἐξ ἐμ. | μητρος θανόντ’
987
mvp-comment-265-1 σχεδόν τι 988
mvp-comment-265-2 μώρῳ μωρίαν 989
mvp-comment-265-3 ὀφλισκάνω 990
mvp-comment-266-1 These two verses give a moment of stillness before the storm breaks forth. So at O. T. 404 four verses of the chorus divide the angry speech of Oedipus from the retort of Teiresias.
mvp-comment-266-2 τὸ γέννημα τῆς παιδός 991 δηλοῖ 992 ὠμόν 993 ἐξ ὠμοῦ πατρός 994 γέννημα 995
mvp-comment-267-1 εἴκειν … κακοῖς 996
mvp-comment-268-1 ἀλλ’ ἴσθι τοι 997
mvp-comment-268-2 πίπτειν 998
mvp-comment-269-1 ὀπτὸν … περισκελῆ 999
mvp-comment-269-2 περισκελής 1000
mvp-comment-269-3 ἐκ πυρός 1001
Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus
1-17. mvp-comment-1-1 The opening speeches reveal the contrast between the sisters, while the affectionate address of Antigone in l. 1 gives greater emphasis to her violent outbreak in l. 69. Cp. О. Т. 85, and note.
7-8. mvp-comment-7-1 πανδήμῳ.. στρατηγόν The Thebans had gone forth πανδημεί under Creon's generalship, and he had made the proclamation as στρατηγός, before assuming the civil power. Cp. Thuc. 5. 60, § 5, τὰς ἀπὸ στρατείας δίκας πρὶν ἐσιέναι κρίνουσιν. The publicity of the edict makes it more painful. Antigone knows what she is doing. Infr. 44, 907.
9. mvp-comment-8-1 τι is adverbial.
10. mvp-comment-9-1 τῶν ἐχθρῶν When evils devised by enemies are threatening those we love. In the vehemence of her resentment she already speaks of Creon as an enemy. Cp. infr. 62. τὰ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐχθρῶν κακά, Schol. According to others τῶν ἐχθρῶν is abl. gen. passing from enemies, i.e. no longer directed towards them, or descriptive, evils which belong to enemies, i. e. which should be confined to them.
11. mvp-comment-10-1 οὐδεὶς μῦθος.. φίλων Νo word concerning any of our friends. Essay on Language § 9. p. 13.
12. mvp-comment-11-1 ἐξ ὅτου Sophocles has not been careful to mark the exact sequence of the events preceding the action of the Play. (See Introduction.) But the death of the brothers is supposed to have taken place some little time before the rout of the Argive host. Infr. 144-148.
14. mvp-comment-12-1 μιᾷ.. διπλῇ Essay on Language p. 69.
17. mvp-comment-13-1 μᾶλλον is redundant, the whole expression being epexegetic of οὐδὲν ὑπέρτερον, and in construction with οἶδα.
18-19. mvp-comment-14-1 καί σ'.. ἐξέπεμπον And it is for this that I have been leading thee forth. Thus a probable reason is given for the appearance of the two maidens before the gate. Their usual seclusion has been somewhat relaxed during the absence of Creon and Eteocles with the army. Infr. 578-579. Cp. El. 517.
20. mvp-comment-15-1 δηλοῖς γάρ τι καλχαίνουσ᾽ ἔπος It is plain that your thoughts are darkening with some troublous word.
20. mvp-comment-15-2 καλχαίνω is formed on a fancied analogy to πορφύρω, as this is used in Homer of the agitation of the sea, and, metaphorically, of the mind. According to others the first notion of καλχαίνω is to stir from the depths, as in dredging for the murex (κάλχη).
21. mvp-comment-16-1 τάφου is genitive of respect with both participles, but chiefly privative genitive ve ἀτιμάσας. See Essay on Language p. 66, 1, 68. She implies that both brothers had been dishonoured by the decree. Cp. infr. 515-517, οὐ μαρτυρήσει ταῦθ᾽ ὁ κατθανὼν νέκυς.. οὐ γάρ τι δοῦλος, ἀλλ᾽ ἀδελφὸς ὤλετο.
23. mvp-comment-17-1 ὡς λέγουσι, resumed in φασιν l. 27, φασι l. 31, points to the fact that the maidens in their seclusion could only know of the edict from hearsay.
23. mvp-comment-17-2 σὺν δίκῃ | †χρησθεὶς δικαίᾳ καὶ νόμῳ χρησθείς has been generally condemned, and ἐχρήσθην only occurs elsewhere in a strictly passive sense. Yet, as Shilleto observes (Journ. of Phil. No. 13, p. 149), ᾐδεσάμην and ᾐδέσθην, the former in lyric verse, the latter in senarii, are found within a few lines of each other in O. T. 647, 651; and χρησάμενος does not occur in Sophocles.
23. mvp-comment-17-3 Ἐτεοκλέα ἔκρυψε, χρησθεὶς (αὐτῷ) σὺν δίκῃ, is not impossible in point of syntax. On the other hand neither χρησθεὶς δίκαια, nor χρηστοῖς δικαίᾳ, nor προσθεὶς δίκαια, can be approved. In 1871 I suggested προθείς. After laying him out in state, with the righteous meed of honour and all customary observance, he has covered him in earth. Cp. Hdt. 1.112-115. 8, τρεῖς μὲν ἡμέρας προτιθέασι τὸν νεκρόν: inf. 196, καὶ τὰ πάντ᾽ ἐφαγνίσαι. This part of the treatment of Eteocles would contrast with the prohibition even to mourn for Polynices. Cp. Thuc. 2. 34, where the words καὶ ἐπιφέρει τῷ αὑτοῦ ἕκαστος ἤν τι βούληται throw some light on the custom implied in σὺν δίκῃ δικαίᾳ καὶ νόμῳ. For the emphatic δικαίᾳ, cp. Αj. 1100, ἐς ταφὰς ἐγὼ θήσω δικαίως: Hdt. 8. 106, νόμῳ δικαίῳ χρεώμενοι. προθείς may have been changed to προσθείς (which Donaldson conjectured), and to this may have been added an interlinear gloss ἃ χρή. Cp. 1. 243. κάφαγιστεύσας ἃ χρή. Another guess is χρῆσθαι δικαιῶν (sc. αὐτῷ). For similar fullness of expression on a solemn occasion, cp. O. T. 219, 259.
25. mvp-comment-18-1 τοῖς .. νεκροῖς Holding his honours amongst the dead; i.e. not ἄτιμος, or deprived of common rights.
26. mvp-comment-19-1 θανόντα .. νέκυν Cp. infr. 515, ὁ κατθανὼν νέκυς.
27. mvp-comment-20-1 ἐκκεκηρύχθαι Passive. That proclamation has been made. Cp. προκεῖσθαι, l. 36 .
29. mvp-comment-21-1 ἐἂν. Sc. πάντας. The affirmative subject is supplied from the negative Cp. the language of the proclamation in O. T. 241, and see Essay on Language p. 59.
29. mvp-comment-21-2 ἄκλαυτον, ἄταφον Cp. Od. 11. 72; Il. 22. 386; Eur. Hec. 30.
29-30. mvp-comment-22-1 οἰωνοῖς .. βορᾶς (1) To the vultures a sweet treasure as they eye him with a view to the gratification of food. Cp. infr. 371 τόλμας χάριν : 908, τίνος νόμου δὴ ταῦτα πρὸς χάριν λέγω; Or, perhaps. (2) To the vultures, eyeing him, a glad store of food to gratify their desire. For πρὸς χάριν in the latter rendering, cp. Phil. 1156, ἀντίφονον κορέσαι στόμα πρὸς χάριν, and for the combination of adverbial phrase and noun, El. 1336, σὺν χαρᾷ βοῆς.
31. mvp-comment-23-1 τὸν ἀγαθὸν Κρέοντα Cp. Phil. 873, ἁγαθοὶ στρατηλάται.
31-32. mvp-comment-24-1 σοι | κάμοί, λέγω γὰρ κἀμέ] Antigone first says, There is Creon's proclamation for you! (σοι unemphatic as in l. 37:) then, going off upon the word, For you, did I say? ay, and for me too, for I count myself also amongst those forbidden. This is said with bitter emphasis, showing that she has fully counted the cost of the act she meditates. The proclamation extends to me-I accept the consequences. For λέγω in this sense, cp. Aesch. Prom. 973, καὶ σὲ δ᾽ ἐν τούτοις λέγω: Cho. 989, Αἰγίσθου γὰρ οὐ λέγω μόρον. Others take κἀμέ as κάμοί, Το me, I say! (whose spirit he little knows).
35. mvp-comment-25-1 ὃς ἄν Essay on Language § 22. p. 35, 2. §39. p. 72.
35. mvp-comment-25-2 τούτων τι For this idiomatic use of τι, cp. Thuc. 5. 13, δρᾶν τι ὧν ἐκεῖνος ἐπενόει.
36. mvp-comment-26-1 δημόλευστον By stoning of the people. Essay on Language p. 98, a, line 15.
38. mvp-comment-27-1 For εὐγενής in the ethical sense, cp. Eur. El. 363, οὔτοι τό γ' ἦθος δυσγενές παρέξομαι. And for the genitive ἐσθλῶν, cp. Αj. 763, ἄνους καλῶς λέγοντος εὑρέθη πατρός.
39-40. mvp-comment-28-1 Alas for thy rash spirit! What help, if things be at this pass, can I afford, either to undo what is done, or to confirm it?' ταλαῖφρον points to the daring spirit of Antigone and to the tone of her last words. For λύουσα, cp. Aesch. S. c. Т. 270, λύουσα πολεμίων φόβον. The choice lies between ἢ 'φάπτουσα and εἴθ' ἅπτουσα. The implied negative is in favour of εἴθ' ἅπτουσα, which comes near the first hand of L. Cp. О. Т. 517, λόγοισιν εἴτ᾿ ἔργοισιν, where, however, ei precedes. But εἴτε is slightly too emphatic, and ἢ ᾿φάπτουσα is an early reading. The expression is proverbial. Cp. Aj. 1317.
42. mvp-comment-29-1 ποῦ γνώμης ποτ' εἶ; Although ποῖ with the verb of motion is not unlikely (cp. El. 922, ὅποι γνώμης φέρει), the future tense does not suit the passage. Hence the reading of Par. A. (with εἶ from εἰμί) is preferable. Cp. Ε1. 390, ποῦ ποτ' εἶ φρενῶν; but see Eurip. Iph. A. 480, for el from εἶμι with present meaning.
43. mvp-comment-30-1 Antigone's first intention is to lift the body with Ismene's help and give it proper burial. Being unable to do this unaided, she sprinkles the dust. Cp. El. 938-1057.
43. mvp-comment-30-2 ξὺν τῇδε .. χερί Aiding this hand, i. e. taking part in my labour. Cp. Ο. Τ. 811 ἐκ τῆσδε χειρός. Essay on Language § 22. p. 34.
44. mvp-comment-31-1 ἀπόρρητον πόλει A thing forbidden to the whole city. ἀπόρρητον is neuter accusative in apposition to the action of θάπτειν. Essay on Language § 17. p. 25.
45-46. mvp-comment-32-1 I will certainly bury my brother and yours, though you do not choose to do your part. The second of these lines has been needlessly suspected. The rejoinder of Ismene comes in more effectively when the στιχομυθία is broken. ἣν = κἄν, cp. Phil. 52, ἄλλ' ἤν τι καινὸν .. κλύῃς, ὑπουργεῖν.
48. mvp-comment-33-1 He has no right in what is mine, to part me from my own. τῶν ἐμῶν is partitive genitive with οὐδὲν μέτα: privative genitive with εἴργειν. Essay on Language p. 61.
50. mvp-comment-34-1 vῷν Ethical dative.
51. mvp-comment-35-1 αὐτοφώρων Self-detected; i. e. Brought to light by his own act. πρός = In consequence of,' connects the phrase with the preceding rather than the following words. Although the action of O. T. is not presupposed, this part of the fable had been already developed by Aeschylus. See S. c. T. 778 ff. Others take αὐτοφώρων to mean clearly proved, manifest to all men: cp. Od. 11.247, ἄφαρ δ᾽ ἀνάπυστα θεοὶ θέσαν ἀνθρώποισιν. But the emphatic repetition of αὐτὸς αὐτουργῷ in the next line agrees better with the more pregnant meaning. αὐτουργῷ = εἰς ἑαυτὸν ταῦτα ἐρξάσῃ.
53. mvp-comment-36-1 διπλοῦν ἔπος A two-fold name, suggesting the horror of the double relationship. Cp. Ο. Τ. 928, γυνὴ δὲ μήτηρ ἥδε τῶν κείνου τέκνων.
54. mvp-comment-37-1 λωβᾶται βίον Destroys her own life. Cp. Tr. 887, τάνδ᾽ ὕβριν.
56. mvp-comment-38-1 αὐτοκτονούντε By mutual fratricidal slaughter. αὐτός in composition here is partly reciprocal and partly, as in αὐτόχειρ, suggestive of the murder of kindred: cp. 1. 172. The same is true of κοινόν: cp. 1. 147.
57. mvp-comment-39-1 ἐπαλλήλοιν Mutual. The read. ing of L and Hermann is justified by the awkwardness of the double genitive dual and the doubtful use of ἐπί in the other reading.
58. mvp-comment-40-1 δή emphasizes μόνα with reference to what precedes. Thus left alone.
60. mvp-comment-41-1 ψῆφον τυράννων ἢ κράτη The will or authority of the ruler. 64. For the epexegesis, see Essay on Language § 33. p. 57. And for the accusative, to obey in this, cp. infr. 666-667.
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.
382. mvp-comment-217-1 *ἀπάγουσι Sc. εἰς κρίσιν.
385. mvp-comment-218-1 εἵλομεν The v. r. εἴδομεν is supported by infr. 404, 406, 423, and εἴλομεν, the reading of L, etc., may have been occasioned by καθελόντες in the nearer context. But see v. rr. on 655.
386. mvp-comment-219-1 ἐς δέον Cp. Ο. Τ. 1416, εἰς δέον πάρεστι. εἰς μέσον, which Seyffert has restored from L, although having the authority of the chief MS, is more like a MS. conjecture than eἰς δέον. The same may be said of ἐξέβην, as compared with προὔβην. Seyffert reads ξύμμετρ᾽ ἐξέβην τύχῃ.
388. mvp-comment-220-1 οὐδέν ἐστ᾿ ἀπώμοτον This γνώμη first occurs in the fragment of Archilochus about the eclipse (76 Bergk), χρημάτων ἄελπτον οὐδέν ἐστιν οὐδ᾽ ἀπώμοτον. Cp. Pind. Ol. 13. 83, παρ' ὅρκον καὶ παρ' ἐλπίδα κούφαν.
389. mvp-comment-221-1 ψεύδει .. γνώμην 'For second thoughts bely one's resolutions.' ου 390. ἄv belongs grammatically to the verb ἐξηύχουν, but in meaning rather modifies the infinitive.
391. mvp-comment-222-1 ταῖς .. τότε When my soul was shaken with the tempest of your former threatenings.᾿ ἀπειλαῖς is dative of the occasion or accompaniment, assisted by attraction. Essay on Language § 11. p. 18, с. Ср. 1. 691.
392. mvp-comment-223-1 ἐκτὸς καὶ παρ᾿ ἐλπίδας i. e.
392. mvp-comment-223-2 ἐκτὸς ἐλπίδος (supr. 1. 330) καὶ παρ᾿ ἐλπίδας.
393. mvp-comment-224-1 ἔοικεν.. μήκος οὐδέν Sc. οὐδὲν ἔοικε μήκος, i. e. εἰς τὸ μέγεθος, as the Scholiast says.
395. mvp-comment-225-1 καθευρέθη is not to be rejected because of the rarity of the compound. See Essay on Language p. 90. But the conjecture of Nauck, καθῃρέθη, is favoured by καθελόντες in l. 383.
398. mvp-comment-226-1 ὡς θέλεις In arresting Antigone the watchman has done not his own will but Creon's. Infr. 438. 399,
400. mvp-comment-227-1 ἐγὼ δ'. κακῶν But I have a full right to be "away and clear" from this bad business.
401. mvp-comment-228-1 This maiden! where, and how, did you arrest her?' The emphatic order of words expresses the profound astonishment of Creon. Essay on Language § 41. p. 77.
403. mvp-comment-229-1 λέγεις ὀρθῶς Do you say it with a clear mind? i. e. Have you your wits when you say this? CСр. О. Т. 528, ἐξ ὀμμάτων δ᾽ ὀρθῶν τε καὶ ὀρθῆς φρενός | κατηγορεῖτο τοὐπίκλημα τοῦτό μου;
404. mvp-comment-230-1 ὃν σὺ τόν The collocation of antecedent and relative is peculiar, and perhaps characteristic of the rustic emphasis of the Φύλαξ. See notes on supr. 238, 269, and cp. infr. 409.
406. mvp-comment-231-1 And how was she discovered, caught, and taken ?"
407. mvp-comment-232-1 τοιοῦτον (1) As you say: she was seen (1. 423), surprised (1.432), and caught (1.433). Or (2) As follows,' = τοιόνδε.
409-410. mvp-comment-233-1 τὸν | νέκυν Α remarkable instance of synapheia. Cp. 1. 238. Essay on Language § 21. p. 33. Supr. 238.
410. mvp-comment-234-1 μυδῶν Dank: referring rather to the state of the corpse (cp. 412) than to the remains of the libation, which would be soon dried by the sun.
410. mvp-comment-234-2 εὐ Carefully. For the order, see Essay on Language p. 78, and cp. О. Т. 308, μαθόντες εὖ.
411. mvp-comment-235-1 We sat just below the top of the rising ground, in the lee of the wind, so escaping the incidence of the odour from the dead. Supposing the corpse to be exposed on a slope of the high ground, surrounded by hillocks, they would select a point of observation on the lee-side of one of these hillocks, and to the windward of the corpse, which they would have full in view.
411. mvp-comment-235-2 ἐκ = On this side of and looking from. Essay on Language § 19. p. 27. Infr. 1110, εἰς ἐπόψιον τόπον : 1197, πεδίον ἐπ᾿ ἄκρον. πικρᾶς] ι in erasure of v? by recent hand Vat.
412. mvp-comment-236-1 This line is not necessarily connected with the preceding: i.e. They may be supposed to select a spot, (1) out of the wind, (2) out of the way of the smell. But the explanation above given (411 note) is more probable. In either case the point is that in attending to their watch they were mightily careful of their own comfort.
412. mvp-comment-236-2 βάλῃ Changed by Stephanusto βάλοι, because of the past time and the optative following. But the subj. is more vivid.
413-414. mvp-comment-237-1 Rousing each his fellow with noisy altercation, reviling him who should take this labour easily. εἴ τις, κ.τ.λ. depends on the verbal notion implied in κακοῖσιν = κακῶς λέγοντες.
413-414. mvp-comment-237-2 ἀφειδεῖν, ‘Το be unsparing, and so To be negligent, To treat lightly, To act without circumspection. For an approach to this meaning, cp. Thuc. 4.26 § 7. Bonitz conj. ἀκηδήσοι.
415-417. mvp-comment-238-1 This lasted till the sun had reached his station in mid-sky with unclouded splendour, and the heat was glowing.' Cp. the Homeric ὄφρα μὲν ἠέλιος μέσον οὐρανὸν ἀμφιβεβήκει.
417. mvp-comment-239-1 When suddenly from the earth the Storm-god raised a squall, that saddened all the sky, and filled the plain, tearing the tresses of the orchard groves, and the wide heaven was choked withal.' The chief discomfort of such a visitation would be the cloud of dust, forcing men to close their eyes, and wrapping even near objects from sight. The watchman is explaining why they lost sight of the corpse. The poet also provides a motive for the act by which Antigone is betrayed. She fears that the corpse, lying in an exposed situation, may have been disturbed by the violence of the wind.
418. mvp-comment-240-1 οὐράνιον ἄχος may mean either (1) A trouble from the sky, or (2) A trouble reaching to the sky. The latter is best, as the word χθονός indicates that the whirlwind seemed to rise out of the ground.
420. mvp-comment-241-1 ἐν δ' See Essay on Language p. 26. § 18, a.
421. mvp-comment-242-1 μύσαντες .. νόσον Closing lips and eyes, we endured the Divine visitation.
422. mvp-comment-243-1 ἐν χρόνῳ μακρῷ After lasting a long while: giving time for Antigone to come out of her concealment, with the libation ready. 423, foll. κἀνακωκύει] ‘And raises a shrill wailing cry, like the voice of the despairing bird. For the descriptive genitive, see Essay on Language § 9. p. 12.
422. mvp-comment-243-2 πικρᾶς Embittered, 'Full of bitterness: the quality of the object is transferred to the subject: i.e. πικρᾶς, ἅτε πασχούσης πικρά. Also the bitterness of anger is joined to that of grief. Cp. the Latin dolor. For the genitive, cp. Trach. 768, ὥστε τέκτονοs. And for the omission of ὡs, which is supplied in the following clause, cp. supr. 114, λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανός. G. Wolff reads ὅ. δ. φθόγγον ὥς, ὅταν κ. But this yields a less probable rhythm.
424-425. mvp-comment-244-1 As when it sees robbed of its young ones the desolated couch of its nest. For the pleonasm, see Essay on Language § 40. p. 75.
426. mvp-comment-245-1 οὕτω δέ The apodosis is resumed, as so often happens after a comparison. Essay on Language p. 75. Cp. Aesch. Cho. 252.
427. mvp-comment-246-1 γόοισιν Essay on Language p. 75.
427. mvp-comment-246-2 ἐκ δ᾽.. ἠρᾶτο Essay on Language § 18. p. 27.
430. mvp-comment-247-1 ἄρδην.. στέφει Slightly condensed from ἄρδην ἔχουσα στέφει. στέφει, She decorates, Honours. Metaphorical, as in Od. 8. 170, ἀλλὰ θεὸς μορφὴν ἔπεσι στέφει. Cp. καταστέφειν in Eur. Phoen. 1632, and Sophron ap. Athen. 479 B. She leaves out no jot of the ceremony: ὡς οὐδὲν ὑφιεμένη τῷ κρηύγματι.
431. mvp-comment-248-1 Od. 11. 26, ἀμφ᾿ αὐτῷ δὲ χοὰς χέομεν πᾶσιν νεκύεσσι, | πρῶτα μελικρήτῳ, μετέπειτα δὲ ἡδέϊ οἴνῳ, | τὸ τρίτον αὐθ᾽ ὕδατι.
432. mvp-comment-249-1 σὺν δέ νιν | θηρώμεθ' For this tmesis, see Essay on Language § 18. p. 26. συν as in συλλαμβάνω.
435. mvp-comment-250-1 Cp. Hdt. 3. 66, ἔξαρνος ἦν μὴ μὲν ἀποκτεῖναι Σμέρδιν: 3. 99, ἄπαρνός ἐστι μὴ μὲν νοσέειν.
436. mvp-comment-251-1 ἀλλ᾽.. ἅμα ἀλλά is to be explained as pointing the antithesis after the negative. Her attitude was not that of denial, but one to me at least pleasant and painful as well. The adverb modifies a word which is to be supplied from καθίστατο. ἡδέως ἐμοί, i. e. ὥστε ἐμὲ ἥδεσθαι, Essay on Language § 24. p. 40. There is a certain point in this which is lost in the emendation of Dindorf, ἅμ᾽ ἡδέως, in which, however, the repetition of ἅμα may be defended from Plat. Gorg. 497 Α, ἅμα διψῶν τε ἕκαστος ἡμῶν πέπαυται καὶ ἅμα ἡδόμενος διὰ τοῦ πίνειν. Schneidewin quotes also Gorg. 496 C, ὧν ἅμα τε ἀπαλλάττεται ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἅμα ἔχει, which is not really parallel.
439-440. mvp-comment-252-1 ἀλλὰ .. σωτηρίας (1) But all these things are to me by nature less important to obtain than my own safety. λαβεῖν epexegetic, like ἔχειν in Ο. Τ. 592, τυραννὶς ἡδίων ἔχειν. Cp. inf. 638, μείζων φέρεσθαι: Εl. 1015-1016, προνοίας οὐδὲν ἀνθρώποις ἔφυ | κέρδος λαβεῖν ἄμειvov. Or, possibly, (2) It is in my nature to take less account of all this than of my own safety. For the meaning thus given to ἐμοὶ πέφυκ cp. Εl. 860, πᾶσι θνατοῖς ἔφυ μύρος. And for λαβεῖν = To weigh or estimate, cp. Thuc. 2. 42, § 5, τὴν δὲ τῶν ἐναντίων τιμωρίαν ποθεινοτέραν αὐτῶν λαβόντες.
441. mvp-comment-253-1 For σὲ δή, sc. λέγω, cp. Aesch. Prom. 944, σὲ τὸν σοφιστήν, κ.τ.λ.: Soph. El. 1445, σε τοι, σὲ κρίνω, κ.τ.λ.: Eur. Hel. 546. And for ἐς πέδον κάρα νεύειν, cp. supr. 269.
441. mvp-comment-253-2 Creon misinterprets the action of Antigone. She fixes her eyes upon the ground, not from fear or shame, but because she is out of sympathy with all present, and her thoughts are in the other world. The hidden fire flashes out in ll. 450, foll., which are certainly not spoken with averted eyes. Cp. Ο. Τ. 1121.
442. mvp-comment-254-1 καταρνεῖ The unusual compound, introduced, perhaps, partly for the sake of metre, has also a special sense of blame. Cp. καταμελέω, καταξιόω, καταπειλέω, καταπροδίδωμι, καταργυρόω, κατασπείρω, κατασχολάζω.
445. mvp-comment-255-1 Free and exempt from grievous imputation.
446. mvp-comment-256-1 μήκος Adverbial, cp. O. С. 92, κέρδη μὲν οἰκήσαντα τοῖς δεδεγμένοις.
446. mvp-comment-256-2 'Tell us, no long tale, but briefly, knew you of the edict that forbade this deed? I knew; 'twas plain enough. How could I fail to know? And were you, then, so hardy as to transgress our law? That edict came not to me from the mouth of Zeus, nor from the Right, whose throne is with the Gods below. They also have appointed unto men a law. Methought your edict could not so prevail, as that a mortal should overleap the silent irrefragable ordinances of heaven. Their life is not of to-day or yesterday. They are eternal. None knoweth of a time when they began. I feared not so the mind of any man, as to incur before the Gods the penalty of that law. I knew, forsooth, without your edict, that I was to die. And if I am to die before the time, I count it gain. For he must surely gain by death who lives, as I do, midst abounding woes. And so for me to meet this doom is a grief I reck not of. If I had borne to leave unburied the corpse, fallen in carnage, of my mother's son, that had been a grief to me, but this is no grief. And if I seem to you to be now doing foolishly, it comes to this;-I am condemned of folly by a fool.'
447. mvp-comment-257-1 τὰ κηρυχθέντα The proclamation made. Cobet's conjecture ᾔδησθα κηρυχθέντα (Νov. Lect. 1858. p. 215), while restoring the recognised Attic form, is unobjectionable in point of syntax. But the use of the article in pointing to his own decree is characteristic of Creon, and if ἠείδης is retained in the Iliad, 22. 280, why not ᾔδης in Tragedy?
449. mvp-comment-258-1 καὶ δῆτα And then. Cp. Plat. Theaet. 142 C, καὶ δῆτα προπέμψας αὐτόν, ἀπιὼν πάλιν, κ.τ.λ.
449. mvp-comment-258-2 τούσδε . . νόμους These laws, i. e. The laws whose majesty is vested in me. For this use of the demonstrative, see Essay on Language § 22. p. 34.
450. mvp-comment-259-1 I obeyed no decree of yesterday, but the eternal law. That cannot be annulled by any enactment of a mere man. It may be that I shall die for what I have done. But it needed not your proclamation to tell me that I must die. And to die before the term appointed me is to lose so much of sorrow.
451. mvp-comment-260-1 For the mythological fancy, cp. О. С. 1381-1382, εἴπερ ἐστὶν ἡ παλαίφατος | Δίκη ξύνεδρος Ζηνὸς ἀρχαίοις νόμοις.
452. mvp-comment-261-1 This line is rightly explained by the Scholiast and Donaldson, Ἡ δίκη, φησί, καὶ ὁ Ζεὺς ὥρισαν ὥστε θάπτεσθαι τοὺς νεκρούς.. θέλει δὲ εἰπεῖν ὅτι ἀπὸ τῆς φύσεως δίκαιον ἤγημαι θάπτειν τὸν ἀδελφόν. (Schol.) She replies, that she did not consider his proclamations as emanating from Zeus, the supreme God, or from that justice which regulated the rights of the dead, who, she says, have established these laws, namely, the laws of sepulture, which do not need any enactment, but have their ὅροι set up in the human heart. (Donaldson.) The iteration of τούσδε, in contrasting the law which she obeyed with the edict of Creon, is dramatically appropriate, and there is no difficulty in the vague use of the demonstrative. See Essay on Language § 22. p. 34. Cp. Od. 10. 326, τάδε φάρμακα.
454. mvp-comment-262-1 ἄγραπτα κἀσφαλῆ Unwritten and sure. Ср. О. Т. 865 ff., and note. ἀσφαλῆ is not only Never failing to apply, but also Never failing to vindicate their authority. Cp. II. 456 ff.
455. mvp-comment-263-1 θνητὸν ὄντα Sc. σέ, understood from τὰ σὰ κηρύγματα. That a mortal man should run beyond the silent irrefragable ordinances of the Gods. Cp. Eur. Ion 973, καὶ πῶς τὰ κρείσσω θνητός οὖσ᾽ ὑπερδράμω; Ο.Τ. 476-482
456. mvp-comment-264-1 νῦν .. κἀχθές To-day or yes- terday. The particle γε, ay, serves to connect the sentences, and τε is unnecessary, as appears from the similar expression, χθὲς καὶ πρώην, in Plat. Legg. 3. 677 D.
456. mvp-comment-264-2 ἀεί ποτε means Everlastingly, without any clear distinction of past or future. πότε gives the effect of indefiniteness or infinity.
457. mvp-comment-265-1 ζῇ Are in force. Cр. О. Т. 481, ἀεὶ ζῶντα περιποτᾶται.
457. mvp-comment-265-2 ἐξ ὅτου 'φάνη Since when they came into being. Cp. Tr. 1, λόγος ..
457. mvp-comment-265-3 ἀρχαῖος φανείς.
458-459. mvp-comment-266-1 τούτων.. τὴν δίκην The penalty to be exacted in vindication of these. The Gods might be said δίκην ἐπιτιθέναι τῶν παραβαθέντων νόμων, although the word in the genitive after δίκη more frequently signifies the offence for which punishment is awarded. Cp. infr. 1074, τούτων σε λωβητῆρες ὑστεροφθόροι, κ.τ.λ.
458-459. mvp-comment-266-2 ἀνδρός Of a mere man. Cp. O. C. 567, ἔξοιδ᾽ ἀνὴρ ὤν. 461 ff. Shak. Julius Caesar, 3. 1, 'Bru. That we shall die, we know; 'tis but the time | And drawing days out, that men stand upon. | Cass. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life | Cuts off so many years of fearing death. | Bru. Grant that, and then is death a benefit: | So are we Caesar's friends, that have abridged His time of fearing death.'
458-459. mvp-comment-266-3 τοῦ χρόνου, sc. ἐν ᾧ μ᾿ ἐχρῆν θανεῖν.
462. mvp-comment-267-1 κέρδος αὔτ᾽ ἐγὼ λέγω αὔτ᾽, i. e. αὐτό, although not necessary to the construction, as appears from Plat. Apol. 40 Ε., κέρδος ἔγωγε λέγω, is better here than αὖτe, which weakens κέρδος.
463. mvp-comment-268-1 ὡς ἐγώ Supr. ll. 4-6.
466. mvp-comment-269-1 παρ᾿ οὐδὲν ἄλγος Is a grief of no account. Cp. supr. 35.
466. mvp-comment-269-2 ἐμῆς Meineke conj. ἐκ μιᾶs, Seyffert ὁμῆς, unnecessarily. The emphatic use of ἐμós is frequent in Sophocles.
467. mvp-comment-270-1 ἄθαπτον *ἠνσχόμην ἠνσχόμην (1) may be defended by the analogy of the syncopated ἀνσχήσεσθαι, ἄνσχεο, in Epic Greek. Otherwise (2) νέκυν may be cancelled as a gloss, and ἄθαπτον *ὄντ᾿ ἠνεσχόμην read, according to the conj. of Prof. E. L. Lushington. Or (3) ἐσχόμην may be read in the sense of ἠνεσχόμην. Ε. on L. § 55, 4. p. 101. But this is doubtful.
470. mvp-comment-271-1 μώρῳ i.e. One whose judgment is self-condemned, because opposed to the eternal laws. The word is not prompted by mere petulance, but is uttered with profound conviction.
471. mvp-comment-272-1 'The maiden's lineage declares itself in the fierce vein that comes to her from her fierce sire.' Phil. 1045-1046.
472. mvp-comment-273-1 ἐπίσταται Sc. ἡ παῖς.
473. mvp-comment-274-1 σκληρά Unbending, and so Stubborn, Obstinate.
473. mvp-comment-274-2 The self-will of Creon appears with increasing distinctness. (1) He asserts his confidence in the use of power to suppress insubordination. (2) He speaks of his ward, whom he does not care to name, as in the place of a slave (479): (3) he implies that to cede an inch of authority is to give the sovereignty to another (485). (4) He throws the tie of kindred to the winds. The first words of his speech are ominous of his own doom. See Introduction.
475. mvp-comment-275-1 ὀπτὸν .. περισκελή Baked to exceeding hardness. Cp. Aj. 649, καὶ περισκελεῖς φρένες.