Sophocles Antigone 441

mvp-comment-246-1 σὲ δή, ¹

mvp-comment-247-1 φὴς δεδρακέναι, ἢ καταρνεῖ μὴ δεδρ ² καταρνεῖ ³

mvp-comment-248-1 καὶ......κοὐκ ⁴

mvp-comment-248-2 τὸ μή ⁵

mvp-comment-249-1 σὺ μέν ⁶ κομίζοις ἂν ς ⁷

mvp-comment-249-2 ἔξω ⁸ β. αἰτίας ⁹ ἐλεύθερον ¹⁰

mvp-comment-250-1 μῆκος ¹¹

mvp-comment-251-1 ᾔδησθα ¹² ᾔδης τὰ ¹³ σθα ¹⁴

mvp-comment-251-2 κηρυχθέντα ¹⁵

mvp-comment-252-1 ᾔδη ¹⁶

mvp-comment-252-2 τί δ’ οὐκ ἔμελλον ¹⁷

mvp-comment-252-3 ἐμφανῆ ¹⁸ ἐκφανῆ ¹⁹

mvp-comment-253-1 καὶ δῆτ’ ²⁰

mvp-comment-254-1 Ζεύς ²¹

mvp-comment-255-1 τῶν κάτω θεῶν ²² ξύνοικος ²³ τοιούσδ’ … ὥρισεν ²⁴ οἳ τούσδ’ … ὥρισαν ²⁵ τάδε ²⁶

mvp-comment-256-1 ἄγραπτα … νόμιμα ²⁷

mvp-comment-256-2 quotes vv. 456 f.) Cp. O.T. 865 ff.

, with notes there. Thuc. 2.37 ( ) . When ‘the unwritten laws’ are thus called , the latter word is used figuratively. νόμιμα ²⁸

mvp-comment-256-3 ἀσφαλῆ ²⁹

mvp-comment-256-4 θνητὸν ὄντ’ ³⁰

mvp-comment-256-5 ὑπερδραμεῖν ³¹

mvp-comment-257-1 νῦν γε κἀχθές ³²

mvp-comment-257-2 ζῇ ³³

mvp-comment-257-3 ’φάνη ³⁴

mvp-comment-258-1 τούτων ³⁵ τὴν δίκην ³⁶ τούτων ³⁷

mvp-comment-258-2 shows that, like

just before, it refers to the : we cannot, therefore, render, ‘the penalty of such an act’ ( sc. ).

mvp-comment-258-3 ἐν θεοῖσι ³⁸

mvp-comment-259-1 δώσειν ³⁹

mvp-comment-259-2 θανουμένη γάρ ⁴⁰

mvp-comment-259-3 τί δ’ οὔ ⁴¹

mvp-comment-260-1 κεἰ μὴ σὺ προὐκήρυξας ⁴²

mvp-comment-260-2 τοῦ χρόνου ⁴³

mvp-comment-260-3 αὔτ’ ⁴⁴

mvp-comment-261-1 φέρει ⁴⁵

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)

: (2) the mention of the mother only: (3) the position of , which might suggest the sense, ‘slain by my mother’: (4) (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 ⁴⁶

mvp-comment-263-1 ἄλγος ⁴⁷ παρ’ οὐδέν ⁴⁸

mvp-comment-263-2 adv.: ‘is a pain in no appreciable degree,’ is a pain not worth a thought: as he might have said,

. The normal use of , ‘of no account,’ is either ( a) with the verb , as O. T. 982

ταῦθ’ ὅτῳ | παρ’ οὐδέν ἐστι

, or ( b) with a verb meaning ‘to esteem,’ as above, v. 34, . The only peculiarity here is that, instead of a word in the general sense, ‘ is esteemed’ ( ), we have a virtual equivalent, tinged with the special thought of the moment, viz., ‘ is a pain.’ Exactly so in El. 1327 we have , instead of . Thus the suspicions as to the genuineness of are illusory.

mvp-comment-263-3 ἀλλ’ ἄν ⁴⁹

mvp-comment-264-1 ἄθαπτον ἠνσχόμην νέκυν ⁵⁰ ηἰσχόμην ⁵¹ ἠνσχόμην ⁵²

mvp-comment-264-2 In my first edition I placed in the text the emendation of Semitelos (1887) ᾔσχυναν κύνες ⁵³

mvp-comment-264-3 Other emendations will be found in the Appendix. Most of them assume that we must have

(or ), and therefore alter the words and in various ways, —usu. omitting . 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 ⁵⁴

mvp-comment-264-4 or

(Meineke). (2) τὸν ἐξ ἐμ. | μητρος θανόντ’ ⁵⁵

mvp-comment-265-1 σχεδόν τι ⁵⁶

mvp-comment-265-2 μώρῳ μωρίαν ⁵⁷

mvp-comment-265-3 ὀφλισκάνω ⁵⁸

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.