944-987.
mvp-comment-537-1
The chorus, in the manner of Pindar, moralise on the fate of Antigone through examples drawn from the circle of mythology and legend; and thus suggest the same cold comfort as in their mention of Niobe. The effect of this ode is to repress the excitement and solemnize the thoughts of the spectator. 'Danaë, though of royal lineage, and entrusted with the golden shower, was bound by all-constraining destiny in her brazen cell. 'Bound, too, in a prison of rock, was Lycurgus, who provoked the God. He knew his madness when it was too late.
And on the Thracian promontory Phineus sons, blinded by their father's wife (Idothea), bewailed their rejected mother Cleopatra's hapless lot, who, descended from an ancient line, and endowed with swiftness by her divine sire, was notwithstanding overtaken by the long-lived fates.' Danae and Cleopatra were, like Antigone, of royal birth, and, like Antigone, were bound in a living tomb. So also was the son of Dryas, himself a king: and this, in his case, was the penalty of an impetuous and defiant spirit. Sophocles seems to have followed one version of the obscure and variable legend of Phineus, according to which Cleopatra did not die, but was rejected by Phineus for Idothea, and imprisoned in a cave, from which she was afterwards released by Heracles. The sons were blinded by their step-mother. The first strophe and antistrophe are choriambic with an iambic close; the second, logaoedic. The choriambi here were probably chanted slowly, so as to have a weighty, solemn effect. The scheme is as follows: a'. First strophe and antistrophe. IILUCI LUCILー LUCILIITUCICートに IICClluclトー IIICCILUCIトに ICICICI KLCICICI CトートUICIK β'. Second strophe and antistrophe. UCCTCCICCI IICCICCII!یں ILU TUCI くいくいトCICIK Cトートしーーー ―トビトCICIK CÚCCICICICC
944.
mvp-comment-538-1
φῶς | ἀλλάξαι 'Το exchange the light' (for gloom), i. e. To lose the light. Cp. Phil. 1262, ἀμείψας ..
944.
mvp-comment-538-2
στέγας.
945.
mvp-comment-539-1
δέμας
Form. This word reminds us of the beauty of Danaë, which increased the pathos of her fate.
945.
mvp-comment-539-2
ἐν χαλκοδέτοις αὐλαῖς
In a brassbound room. The compound of δέω merely suggests the general notion of confinement (Essay on Language § 55. 3, p. 101), and has nothing to do with the riveting of brazen plates to the walls.
949.
mvp-comment-540-1
γενεᾷ τίμιος Because descended from Danaus the grandson of Poseidon.
951.
mvp-comment-541-1
ὁ μοιριδία τις δύνασις
The mysterious power of fate. For the combination of the article and indefinite pronoun, see Essay on Language § 22. p. 36.
952.
mvp-comment-542-1
*ὄλβος is Erfurdt's ingenious and probable correction of ὄμβρος. He compares Bacchylides ap. Stob. Ecl. Phys. 1. 166, θνατοῖσι δ᾽ οὐκ αὐθαίρετοι | οὔτ᾽ ὄλβος οὔτ᾽ ἀκάματος Ἄρης οὔτε πάμφθερσις στάσις.
953.
mvp-comment-543-1
Cp. Hor. Od. 2. 16, 21,
Scandit aeratas vitiosa naves | Cura.
ἁλίκτυποι is passive:
Sea-beaten.
954.
mvp-comment-544-1
κελαιναί The Epic νῆες μέλαιναι: i. e. Looking dark against the sea and sky.
955-957.
mvp-comment-545-1
The punishment of Lycurgus was the subject of an Aeschylean trilogy. It was variously related. Sophocles chooses the version of the story that suits his purpose. For the earliest description of the crime, see Il. 6. 130-140.
955.
mvp-comment-546-1
ζεύχθη resumes κατεζεύχθη, supr. 947.
955.
mvp-comment-546-2
ὀξύχολος The very probable conjecture of Scaliger for ὀξυχόλως.
955.
mvp-comment-546-3
παῖς ὁ Δρύαντος So Pind. O1. 8. 31, παῖς ὁ Λατούς.
956.
mvp-comment-547-1
κερτομίοις όργαῖς Dative of the cause.
957.
mvp-comment-548-1
ἐκ Διονύσου
By the will of Dionysus. Cp. infr. 1219.
958-961.
mvp-comment-549-1
So dire is the excess of rage that flows from madness. He learned at length that it was in madness that he provoked the God with biting speech.' The emphatic reivos applies the γνώμη to the case of Lycurgus. There is a stress on μανίαις.
959.
mvp-comment-550-1
τᾶς μανίας Genitive of derivation, partly governed by ἀπό in comp.
959.
mvp-comment-550-2
ἀποστάζει For the metaphorical use, cp. Aesch. Ag. 178, στάζει ἐν θ᾽ ὕπνῳ πρὸ καρδίας | μνησιπήμων πόνος. Others render,
trickles away, i.e. comes to nought. But οὕτω is more naturally joined with the adjectives, whose position shows that they are emphatic, than with the verb.
960.
mvp-comment-551-1
ἀνθηρόν 'Blooming, and so reaching its height: cp. Tr. 1089, ἤνθηκεν, ἐξώρμηκεν.
A fury so over-powering, i.e. Leading inevitably to such calamitous issues.
960.
mvp-comment-551-2
ἐπέγνω
He recognised afterwards, i.e. when punished.
960.
mvp-comment-551-3
μανίαις Dative of manner, expressing the predicate, quasi ἐν μανίαις. Essay on Language $ 14. pp. 20, 21. The v. r. μανίας (acc. plur.) is not so good.
961.
mvp-comment-552-1
ψαύων In the rather unusual sense of Tempting, Provoking' (= έρε θίζων, cp. καθάπτεσθαι), and hence used, πρὸς τὸ σημαινόμενον, with the accusative. For the language of this passage, cp. Plat. Polit. 310 D, ἐξανθεῖν παντάπασι μανίαις: ib. 273 D, τελευτώντος δ᾽ ἐξανθεῖ τοῦ χρόνου : Legg. 6. 783 Α, διαπυρωτάτους . . μανίαις : ib. 9. 881 Β, μὴ μανίαις ἐχόμενος. And for the construction of κεῖνος.. θεόν, cp. Pind. Pyth. 8. 12, τὰν οὐδὲ Πορφυρίων μάθεν παρ' αἶσαν ἐξερεθίζων. For ἐν, of the instrument, see Essay on Language § 19. p. 27.
964.
mvp-comment-553-1
The Bacchic fire,' i.e. The lighted torches of the Bacchanalian rout. Cp. O. T. 214: Eurip. Bacch. 146.
965.
mvp-comment-554-1
Μούσας
Inter Bacchi comites a Diodoro 4. 4, recensentur Musae.
(Musgrave.) They are associated by Plato in the Laws, B. 2, p. 672 C. The Muses are here lovers of the flute, i.e. of the Phrygian orgiastic music.
966-968.
mvp-comment-555-1
And hard by Cyanean rocks that divide the seas, are the cliffs of the Bosphorus and the Thracian promontory of Salmydessus, where,' etc. The genitive gives indefiniteness to the notion of place, and παρά implies neighbouring extent.
966.
mvp-comment-556-1
πελαγέων, see v. rr., although metrically allowable (πελᾶγεων), is condemned by the vagueness of the meaning and the tautology in πελαγέων .. ἁλός. The ingenious conjecture of Wieseler is therefore adopted. It is confirmed by the gloss πετρῶν. The 1st syllable of Ἄρης is long in arsi supr. 139.
969.
mvp-comment-557-1
The lost cretic has been differently supplied: ἄξevos Boeckh, ήτων Meineke. A verb is more wanted, e. g.
969.
mvp-comment-557-2
ἵσταται, κλήζεται.
970.
mvp-comment-558-1
ἀγχίπτολις Ἄρης This can only mean
The War-god whose temple is near the city (of Salmydessus). Cp. Aesch. S. c. T. 501. The details of the legend as accepted by Sophocles are unknown to us, and hence we can hardly judge of the appropriateness of the epithet. The Thracian worship of Ares is well known.
971.
mvp-comment-559-1
δισσοῖσι Φινεΐδαις Dative of direct reference depending on τυφλωθέν. Essay on Language § 12. p. 18.
972.
mvp-comment-560-1
ἀρατόν
Accursed; i.e. Bringing a curse on Phineus and Idothea.
972.
mvp-comment-560-2
ἕλκος τυφλωθέν. The blinding wound inflicted.' The 'cognate verb᾽ τυφλωθέν is substituted for ποιηθέν or the like. Essay on Language § 17. p. 25, c.
973.
mvp-comment-561-1
ἐξ ἀγρίας δάμαρτος For the preposition, see Essay on Language $ 19. p. 28, 2.
973.
mvp-comment-561-2
δάμαρτος Idothea, who had been made the wife of Phineus through the repudiation of Cleopatra. 974- ἀλαὸν ἀλαστόροισιν ὀμμάτων κύκλοις] Sightless (i. e. producing blindness) on the vengeful orbits of their eyes. For the causative use of ἀλαόν, see Essay on Language §. 53. p. 98.
973.
mvp-comment-561-3
ἀλαστόροισιν Bringing vengeance,' i. e. Pleading successfully though silently for retribution. The dative is partly dative of place and partly of direct reference.
Causing blindness in or to the eyes.
975.
mvp-comment-562-1
*ἀραχθέντων Lachmann's conjecture for ἀραχθὲν ἐγχέων.
When they were smitten. Another is ἄτερθ' ἐγχέων.
976.
mvp-comment-563-1
κερκίδων ἀκμαῖσιν A woman's weapon. The shuttle was sharpened at the point, so as to be inserted between the threads, in order to regulate the density of the web. This process was called κερκίζειν, and the art is named by Plato κερκιστική. Plat. Polit. 282 B, C: Sophist. 226 B: Crat. 388 A.
980.
mvp-comment-564-1
κλαῖον ματρός, | ἔχοντες ἀνύμφευτον γονάν This punctuation is preferred to κλαῖον, ματρὸς ἔχοντες ἀνύμφευτον γονάν, simply because the fate of Cleopatra, and not that of the Phineidae, is the chief point of the illustration.
980.
mvp-comment-564-2
ἔχοντες ἀνύμφευτον γονάν
Having a birth not honoured by wedlock: because their mother's marriage was repudiated, and their legitimacy was therefore not acknowledged. Note the repetition of γονά γονάν in a different sense after yovás in 950.
981.
mvp-comment-565-1
And she in lineage reached even unto the ancient race of the Erechtheidae.' Because her mother Orithyia, whom Boreas rapt from the Ilissus (Plat. Phaedr. 229 B), was a daughter of Erechtheus. Qy. ἀρχαιογενήτων?
983.
mvp-comment-566-1
τηλεπόροις δ᾽ ἐν ἄντροις The exact meaning of the compound epithet is doubtful. Either (1) Far-piercing,' i. e. Extending far into the mountainside: or (2)
Distant, the second part of the epithet being redundant, or merely repeating the notion of a hollow passage implied in ἄντροις, i.e. δι' ὧν τηλόσε πορευόμεθα.
985.
mvp-comment-567-1
Βορεὰς ἅμιππος Cp. Ο. Τ. 466, and note. And for ἅμα, Hom. Il. 19.415.
Keeping pace with the steed over the steep path of the hill. On the compounds of πούς, see Essay on Language $55. p. 101. ὀρθόπους is literally
Raising the foot upright. The second part of the compound is subordinated, but in this connection must have reference to the foot of the climber, and not to the foot of the hill. The words ὀρθόποδος ὑπὲρ πάγου are in construction with the verbal notion in ἅμιππος, sc.
985.
mvp-comment-567-2
ἅμα ταῖς ἵπποις τρέχειν δυναμένη.
