παρὰ δὲ Κυανεᾶν πελάγει διδύμας ἁλὸς
Antigone. Sophocles. ed. Francis Storr. London. 1912.
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Current edition Experimental
Ἀντιγόνη (Greek) (Sophocles, Volume 1. Storr, Francis, editor. London; New York: William Heinemann Ltd.; The Macmillan Company, 1912.)
Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.
Editions (11)
Greek (L. Benloew, 1858) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (L. Benloew, 1858)) — 966 focus
εἶδεν ἀρατὸν ἕλκος,
Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 966 focus
τοιαῦτα παιδὸς τοῦδ᾽ ἐμάνθανον πάρα
Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 966 focus
Βορεὰς, ἅμιππος ὀρθόποδος ὑπὲρ πάγου,
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 966 focus
παρὰ δὲ Κυανεᾶν *σπιλάδων διδύμας ἁλὸς
Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 966 focus
παρὰ δὲ Κυανέων πελάγει διδύμας ἁλὸς
Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 966.mvp-line-955 focus
παρὰ δὲ Κυανέων πελάγει διδύμας ἁλὸς
Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979)) — 966 focus
παρὰ δὲ κυανέων †πελαγέων
πετρῶν† διδύμας
Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 966 focus
κλαῖον, ματρὸς ἔχοντες ἀνύμφευτον γονάν · ἃ
Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906)) — 966 focus
παρὰ δὲ Κυανεᾶν πελάγει διδύμας ἁλὸς
1
Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 966.mvp-line-958 focus
παρὰ δὲ κυανέαιν σπιλάδοιν διδύμας ἁλὸς
Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 966 focus
ἁλὸς
Translations (2)
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 966 focus
An der kyanischen Flut des verschwisterten Meeres hin
1
Dehnt sich Bosporos' Strand und der Thrakier Salmydessos,
945
Wo Ares, im Land waltend als Gott,
An Phineus' zwei Söhnen
Schaute die grause Wunde,
Nachdem die ruchlose Gattin blendend
Der Augen Sterne beiden nicht mit dem Speere, nein,
950
Ergrimmt ausstach mit blut'gen Händen,
Mit ihrer Webschiffe scharfen Spizen.
Zweite Gegenstrophe.
Und es vergingen die Armen im Leid und beweinten ihr
An der kyanischen Flut des verschwisterten Meeres hin
1
Dehnt sich Bosporos' Strand und der Thrakier Salmydessos,
945
Wo Ares, im Land waltend als Gott,
An Phineus' zwei Söhnen
Schaute die grause Wunde,
Nachdem die ruchlose Gattin blendend
Der Augen Sterne beiden nicht mit dem Speere, nein,
950
Ergrimmt ausstach mit blut'gen Händen,
Mit ihrer Webschiffe scharfen Spizen.
Und es vergingen die Armen im Leid und beweinten ihr
English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904)) — 944-985 focus
Chorus
So too endured Danae in her beauty to change
the light of the sky for brass-bound walls, and in that chamber, both burial and bridal, she was held in strict confinement. And yet was she of esteemed lineage, my daughter,
945
and guarded a deposit of the seed of Zeus that had fallen in a golden rain. But dreadful is the mysterious power of fate—there is no deliverance from it by wealth or by war, by towered city, or dark, sea-beaten ships.
950
So too endured Danae in her beauty to change
the light of the sky for brass-bound walls, and in that chamber, both burial and bridal, she was held in strict confinement. And yet was she of esteemed lineage, my daughter,
945
and guarded a deposit of the seed of Zeus that had fallen in a golden rain. But dreadful is the mysterious power of fate—there is no deliverance from it by wealth or by war, by towered city, or dark, sea-beaten ships.
950
Chorus
And Dryas’s son, the Edonian king swift to rage, was tamed in recompense for his frenzied insults, when, by the will of Dionysus, he was shut in a rocky prison. There the fierce and swelling force of his madness trickled away.
955
That man came to know the god whom in his frenzy he had provoked with mockeries. For he had sought to quell the god-inspired women and the Bacchanalian fire,
960
and he angered the Muses who love the flute.
965
And Dryas’s son, the Edonian king swift to rage, was tamed in recompense for his frenzied insults, when, by the will of Dionysus, he was shut in a rocky prison. There the fierce and swelling force of his madness trickled away.
955
That man came to know the god whom in his frenzy he had provoked with mockeries. For he had sought to quell the god-inspired women and the Bacchanalian fire,
960
and he angered the Muses who love the flute.
965
Chorus
And by the waters of the Dark Rocks, the waters of the twofold sea, are the shores of
Bosporus
and the Thracian city Salmydessus,
where Ares, neighbor of that city, saw the accursed, blinding wound inflicted on the two sons of Phineus by his savage wife. It was a wound that brought darkness to the hollows, making them crave vengeance
970
for the eyes she crushed with her bloody hands and with her shuttle for a dagger.
975
And by the waters of the Dark Rocks, the waters of the twofold sea, are the shores of
Bosporus
and the Thracian city Salmydessus,
where Ares, neighbor of that city, saw the accursed, blinding wound inflicted on the two sons of Phineus by his savage wife. It was a wound that brought darkness to the hollows, making them crave vengeance
970
for the eyes she crushed with her bloody hands and with her shuttle for a dagger.
975
Chorus
Wasting away in their misery, they bewailed their miserable suffering
and their birth from their mother stripped of her marriage. But she traced her descent from the ancient line of the Erechtheids, and in far-distant caves she was raised amidst her father’s gusts. She was the child of Boreas,
980
running swift as horses over the steep hills, a daughter of gods. Yet she, too, was assailed by the long-lived Fates, my child.
985
Wasting away in their misery, they bewailed their miserable suffering
and their birth from their mother stripped of her marriage. But she traced her descent from the ancient line of the Erechtheids, and in far-distant caves she was raised amidst her father’s gusts. She was the child of Boreas,
980
running swift as horses over the steep hills, a daughter of gods. Yet she, too, was assailed by the long-lived Fates, my child.
985
Commentary
Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))
mvp-comment-574-1
Cleopatra is the third example. Her father was the wind-god, Boreas: her mother, the Athenian Oreithyia, whom he carried off to his wild home in Thrace. Cleopatra married Phineus, king of the Thracian Salmydessus, on the W. coast of the Euxine, not far from the entrance to the Bosporus. She bore him two sons. He afterwards put her away, and imprisoned her. Her imprisonment is not directly mentioned here: but cp.
Diod. 4. 44
, who says of Heracles, when serving with the Argonauts,
τὴν Κλεοπάτραν ἐκ τῆς φυλακῆς προαγαγεῖν. Phineus then married Eidothea, sister of Cadmus. Eidothea put out the eyes of Cleopatra's two sons, and caused them also to be imprisoned.
mvp-comment-574-2 It is the fate of Cleopatra herself which Soph. means to compare with Antigone's: this is plain from 986. The fate of the sons is made so prominent only because nothing else could give us so strong a sense of the savage hatred which pursued the mother.
mvp-comment-574-3 Soph. supposes the outline of the story to be familiar. Cleopatra has already been divorced and imprisoned. The poet chooses the moment at which Cleopatra's sons are being blinded by Eidothea, with the sharp shuttle in her blood-stained hands. Ares, the god of cruel bloodshed, beholds with joy a deed so worthy of his Thracian realm.
mvp-comment-574-4
The name of Cleopatra (like that of Capaneus, 133) is not mentioned. Two strophes are given to this theme, partly, perh., as having an Attic interest (982). Soph. wrote two plays called
Φινεύς. We know only that Cleopatra's sons were there called
Ὄαρθος (?
Παρθένιος H. Weil) and
Κράμβος: and that the subsequent blindness of Phineus was represented as a punishment of his cruelty (schol. Apoll. Rhod. 2. 178). Eidothea was mentioned by Soph. in his
Τυμπανισταί (schol. on 980),—a play which perh. concerned the Dionysiac worship, since the
τύμπανον (kettle-drum) was used in his
ὄργια as well as in those of Cybelè. Another version called her Idaea, daughter of Dardanus.
mvp-comment-574-5 παρὰ δὲ Κυανεᾶν πελάγει δ. ἁλός 1 πετρῶν 2
mvp-comment-574-6
of
πελαγέων into
σπιλάδων is also erroneous.
mvp-comment-574-7 L's accent, πελάγεων 3 πελάγει 4 παρά 5 πελάγει 6 Κυανεᾶν 7
Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus
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
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.