Sophocles Antigone 171

mvp-comment-763-1 This

is composed of four strophes and four antistrophes, which correspond as follows. (1) 1st strophe 1261—1269=1st antistr. 1284—1292. (2) 2nd str. 1271—1277 =2nd ant. 1294—1300. (3) 3rd str. 1306—1311=3rd ant. 1328—1333. (4) 4th str. 1317—1325=4th ant. 1339— 1347.

mvp-comment-763-2 The lyric strophes and antistrophes are divided from each other by iambic trimeters, spoken by the Chorus or by the Messenger.—See Metrical Analysis.

mvp-comment-763-3 φρενῶν δυσφρόνων ¹

mvp-comment-763-4 στερεά ²

mvp-comment-764-1 ὦ … βλέποντες ³

mvp-comment-764-2 κτανόντας ⁴ θανόντας ⁵

mvp-comment-764-3 ἐμφυλίους ⁶

mvp-comment-765-1 ἐμῶν ἄνολβα βουλευμάτων ⁷ ἄνολβα ⁸

mvp-comment-766-1 νέος νέῳ ξυν μόρῳ ⁹ νέῳ ¹⁰

mvp-comment-767-1 ἀπελύθης ¹¹

mvp-comment-768-1 ἐμαῖς οὐδὲ σαῖσι ¹²

mvp-comment-769-1 ἔχω μαθὼν ¹³ με ¹⁴ μέγα βάρος ἔχων ¹⁵ ἐν δ’ ἐμῷ κάρᾳ ¹⁶ ἔπαισε ¹⁷ με ¹⁸ κάρᾳ ¹⁹

mvp-comment-769-2 ἐν δ’ ἔσεισεν ²⁰

mvp-comment-769-3 ἀγρίαις ὁδοῖς ²¹

mvp-comment-770-1 λακπάτητον ²² κ ²³ ξπ ²⁴ κ ²⁵

mvp-comment-770-2 ἀντρέπων ²⁶

mvp-comment-771-1 φεῦ φεῦ, ὦ ²⁷

mvp-comment-771-2 πόνοι .. δύσπονοι ²⁸

mvp-comment-772-1 ὡς ἔχων τε καὶ κεκτημένος ²⁹ ἔχων ³⁰ κεκτημένος ³¹

mvp-comment-773-1 πρὸ χειρῶν ³²

mvp-comment-773-2 τάδε ³³

mvp-comment-773-3 τὰ δ’ ἐν δόμοις ³⁴ τὰ μὲν … φέρων ³⁵ ἔοικας ἥκειν ³⁶ καὶ τάχ’ ὄψεσθαι ³⁷

mvp-comment-773-4 Since τὰ δ’ ἐν δόμοις ³⁸ ἥκειν καὶ ³⁹

mvp-comment-773-5 (

) . Others, indeed, take καὶ τάχα ⁴⁰

mvp-comment-774-1 τί δ’ ἔστιν ⁴¹ ἦ ⁴²

mvp-comment-774-2 (2) Transposing αὖ ⁴³ ἤ ⁴⁴ ἦ ⁴⁵

mvp-comment-774-3 (3) Canter gave,

; The change of to would have been peculiarly easy before initial (KAKIONEKAKON for KAKIONEKKAKON). For ἐκ ⁴⁶

mvp-comment-774-4 reading. The comparat. κάκιον ⁴⁷

mvp-comment-775-1 παμμήτωρ ⁴⁸

mvp-comment-775-2 νεοτόμ ⁴⁹ ἄρτι ⁵⁰

mvp-comment-776-1 δυσκάθαρτος Ἅιδου λιμήν ⁵¹ λιμήν ⁵²

mvp-comment-777-1 κακάγγελτα ⁵³

mvp-comment-777-2 προπέμψας ⁵⁴

mvp-comment-778-1 ἐπεξειργάσω ⁵⁵

mvp-comment-779-1 ὦ παῖ ⁵⁶

mvp-comment-779-2

(instead of ), has not much palaeographical probability. It gives, indeed, a closer correspondence with 1266. But the form of dochmiac which the MS. reading gives here is equally correct. (See Analysis. Met.) Seidler was certainly right in omitting (see cr. n.): and that remedy suffices.

mvp-comment-779-3 Construe: τίνα νέον σφάγιον γυναικεῖον μόρον λέγεις ἀμφικεῖσθαί μοι ἐπ’ ὀλέθρῳ ⁵⁷

mvp-comment-779-4 But another version is possible, if

is taken with : ‘besetting me,’ , for (my) ruin. Cp. 1285 ; For , cp. Thuc. 4.86

οὐκ ἐπὶ κακῷ, ἐπ’ ἐλευθερώσει δέ

. The difficulty is that cannot well be said of one sorrow (Eurydicè's death), and that, therefore, we have to evolve from the epithet the notion of a circle of woes of which this is one. Thus the image would be much more obscurely expressed than that in Ai. 351 , , (‘behold what a surge hath but now burst around me and hemmed me in, under stress of a deadly storm,’) where Ajax is sitting in the midst of the carnage which he has wrought. It is altogether improbable that alludes to Eurydicè's corpse having been brought (by the ) into such a position that Creon stood between it and Haemon's. See 1298, where Creon speaks of her as being .

mvp-comment-780-1 ὁρᾶν πάρεστιν ⁵⁸

mvp-comment-780-2 three or four persons; and was low enough to admit of an actor stepping off it with ease. It was pushed on through the central stage entrance, and was usually brought sufficiently far forward to allow of actors entering or making their exit behind it. Here, the corpse of Eurydicè is evidently in full view of the house ( cp. 1299 ). Soph. has used the

in two other plays: El. 1458 (the corpse of Clytaemnestra, with Orestes and Pylades beside it); and in Ai. 344 (Ajax in his tent among his victims). See Albert Müller, Gr. Bühnenalterthümer, pp. 142 ff. (1886).

mvp-comment-780-3 Recent explorations in the Dionysiac theatre at Athens have given rise to a theory that there was no permanent raised stage or proscenium before the Roman age. Even if this could be proved, it would still, however, remain certain that some such expedient as the

was used in the fifth century. This is proved by the texts of Aesch. , Soph. , and Eur. , as well as by the two scenes of Ar. where the tragic is parodied ( Ar. Ach. 408 —479; Thesm. 95—238). Ar. has the words and . Wecklein thinks that the was employed when a part of the interior of the house was to be disclosed, but the when merely a single object was to be shown; and that the was used here ( N. Jahrb. 1870, vol. 101, p. 572: Philol. 31. 451). The meaning of is, however, doubtful.

mvp-comment-781-1 χείρεσσιν ⁵⁹

mvp-comment-782-1 ἔναντα ⁶⁰

mvp-comment-783-1 ἥδ’ ⁶¹ βωμία ⁶² βωμία ⁶³

mvp-comment-783-2 ξίφει ⁶⁴

mvp-comment-783-3 Next to Arndt's, the best conjecture seems that of Blaydes, ἥδ’ ὀξυθήκτῳ σφαγίδι βωμίᾳ πέρι ⁶⁵

mvp-comment-784-1 λύει κελαινὰ βλέφαρα ⁶⁶ μύει ⁶⁷

mvp-comment-785-1 Μεγαρέως ⁶⁸

mvp-comment-785-2 κλεινὸν λάχος ⁶⁹ λάχος ⁷⁰ λέχος ⁷¹

mvp-comment-786-1 κακὰς πράξεις ⁷²

mvp-comment-786-2 ἐφυμνής. ⁷³

mvp-comment-787-1 ἀνέπταν ⁷⁴ φόβῳ ⁷⁵

mvp-comment-787-2 ἀνταίαν ⁷⁶

mvp-comment-788-1 δείλαι^ος ⁷⁷

mvp-comment-788-2

.—The following are a few among many instances of αι^ ⁷⁸ ο ⁷⁹

mvp-comment-788-3 συγκέκραμαι ⁸⁰

mvp-comment-789-1 ὡς αἰτίαν … ἔχων ⁸¹

mvp-comment-789-2 τῶνδε … μόρων ⁸² κἀκείνων ⁸³

mvp-comment-789-3 ἐπεσκήπτου ⁸⁴

mvp-comment-790-1 κἀπελύσατ’ ⁸⁵ καί ⁸⁶ ἐν φοναῖς ⁸⁷

mvp-comment-791-1 ὑφ’ ἦπαρ ⁸⁸

mvp-comment-791-2 ὀξυκώκυτον ⁸⁹

1262. mvp-comment-709-1 στερεά may be explained, either with Dindorf, (1) Propter duram et inexorabilem Creontis mentem, = Stubborn, by hypallage for στερεῶν φρενῶν ἁμαρτήματα, or more simply (2) as Pindar speaks of στερεαὶ ὀδυναί, = * Hard to endure.' The first (1) is best.

1265. mvp-comment-710-1 A confusion of ὤμοι ἐμῶν βουλευμάτων, ὡς ἄνολβα, and ὤμοι ἐγὼ ἄνολβος τῶν ἐμῶν βουλευμάτων. Ε. on L. pp. 17, 67.

1266. mvp-comment-711-1 νέῳ ξὺν μόρῳ By a strange doom.

1268. mvp-comment-712-1 ἀπελύθης Thou wast cut off. The word has some something of the notion of Shuffling off this mortal coil. Cp. 559.

1273. mvp-comment-713-1 θεὸς .. ἔπαισεν A God held and smote me with mighty force. ἔχων is almost pleonastic, and μέγα βάρος adverbial. But there is some difficulty in the construction of ἐν ἐμῷ κάρᾳ with ἔπαισεν. Qy. μέγα βάρος πεσών? As the words stand, the whole expression μέγα .. ἔπαισεν must be taken as = ἐνήλατο.

1274. mvp-comment-714-1 ἐν δ᾽ ἔσεισεν This use of language (implying 'furious driving') recurs in Plut. Phoc. 23, ἐνσείειν τὴν πόλιν εἰς πόλεμον. A similar expression occurs in El. 737. See also Eur. Or. 255.

1275. mvp-comment-715-1 λακπάτητον is proleptic. Overturning and trampling upon.' 1277. ὡς is to be construed with ἔοικας ἥκειν, which is postponed to the participle, as in Phil. 971, πρὸς κακῶν δ᾽ ἀνδρῶν μαθὼν ἔοικας ἥκειν αἰσχρά: and the meaning is, O master, how truly thou wouldst seem, having at τέθνηκε Α. once in hand and also in possession, to have come hither bearing one load of evil in thine arms, while there is another burden which thou wilt quickly behold within the palace. The address, ὦ δέσποτα, suggests the words ἔχων τε καὶ κεκτημένος (Creon is lord 'of dire mischance'), in which there is the distinction afterwards adopted in philosophy between ἕξις and κτῆσις.

1280. mvp-comment-716-1 By an attraction from ἔοικας, ἥκειν ὀψόμενος, or ἥκων ὄψεσθαι, is changed to ἥκειν καὶ ὄψεσθαι. Cp. Ο. Τ. 413.

1281. mvp-comment-717-1 And what worse evil is there? or what more of evil?' Some would read τί δ᾽ ἔστιν; ἢ κάκιον αὖ κακῶν ἔτι;

1282. mvp-comment-718-1 παμμήτωρ The royal mother. For this use of παν in composition, see Essay on Language § 55. p. 101; and cp. O. Τ. 930, παντελὴς δάμαρ.

1284. mvp-comment-719-1 δυσκάθαρτος Ἅιδου λιμήν] O harbour of Hades, hard to cleanse; i. e. Choked with the dead. Cp. Hell has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure.'

1289-1292. mvp-comment-720-1 What new thing dost thou tell me? that the slaughter of a wife is heaped upon the previous ruin?' ὦ παῖ is probably a corruption of alaî, suggested by the general thought that Creon is lamenting for his son.

1293. mvp-comment-721-1 The dead body of Eurydice is disclosed by an ἐκκύκλημα. This line is what ancient commentators called παρεπιγραφή, i. e. an implicit stagedirection.

1296. mvp-comment-722-1 τίς ἄρα .. περιμένει; The same fearful looking for of further woe is still more finely given in the OО. Т. 1456, 7, οὐ γὰρ ἂν | θνήσκων ἐσώθην, μὴ πί τῳ δείνῳ κακ.

1301. mvp-comment-723-1 ἡ δέ δέ opposes the case of Eurydice to that of Haemon, whose dead body is in the arms of Creon.

1301. mvp-comment-723-2 ὀξύθηκτος Infuriated (ὀργῇ χρω μένη, Ο. Τ. 1241). Cp. Aesch. S. c. T. 715, τεθηγμένον τοί μ᾽ οὐκ ἀπαμβλυνεῖς λόγῳ. The Scholion, ὀξεῖαν λαβούσα πληγήν, seems to imply a v. τ. ὀξύπληκτος (or ὀξύδηκτος, a vox nihili), which, however, gives a poorer sense.

1301. mvp-comment-723-3 ἥδε Pointing to the corpse, which has just been rolled into view by the ἐκκύκλημα.

1301. mvp-comment-723-4 βωμία At, or on the altar,' as in Eur. Suppl. 93, μητέρα γεραίαν βωμίαν ἐφημένην. Cp. Tr. 904, where Deianira, before her suicide, falls on the altar, βωμοῖσι προσπίπτουσα.

1301. mvp-comment-723-5 †πέριξ, if not spurious, must be explained as an epexegesis of βωμία = περιπετής. No satisfactory emendation has been proposed. Arndt suggested ἡ δ' ὀξυθήκτῳ βωμία περὶ ξίφει. Others, reading πτέρυξ, suppose the Exangelus to display the altar-knife which had given the wound. See L. and S. s. v.

1301. mvp-comment-723-6 πτέρυξ, 11. 5.

1302. mvp-comment-724-1 λύει κελαινὰ βλέφαρα Relaxes her darkened eye. λύειν is used here as in λῦσε δὲ γυῖα and the like expressions in Homer. κελαινά might quite well be used proleptically = σκοτεινά = ἐν σκότῳ. But this, like other words of colour in Sophocles, has usually a picturesque force, and here is probably intended to suggest the darkness of passionate grief and despair which oppressed her eyes in their last looks before the final darkness of death.

1303. mvp-comment-725-1 It has been suggested that the λέχος of Megareus and Haemon is the place which received each of them in death. Euripides speaks of Menoeceus, who flung himself into the serpent's lair, σηκὸν ἐς μελαμβαθῆ δράκοντος δράκοντος (Phoen. 1017), as θαλάμαις .. σφαγέντα VOL. I. 00 (ib. 938 ff.). If Megareus is Menoeceus, as would appear from Aesch. S. c. T. 474 ff., and if the body was left in the deep cavern where it lay. Eurydice may speak of this as at once her son's grave and bride-bed (for he was ἠθεος): and as κλεινόν, because earning him his country's gratitude. And although Haemon was not buried in the cell where he died, the word borrowed from the preceding clause may be less exact in its application to him. Bothe's conj. λάχος is accepted by Dindorf.

1304-1305. mvp-comment-726-1 λοίσθιον δὲ . . παιδοκτόνῳ And lastly uttering a strain of calamitous import against thee, the slayer of thy children. The expression signifies rather a prophecy than a mere imprecation of woe.

1307. mvp-comment-727-1 ἀνέπταν φόβῳ I am startled with dread. The metaphor is taken from a frightened bird.

1311. mvp-comment-728-1 συγκέκραμαι See Essay on Language pp. 102, 105.

1312-1313. mvp-comment-729-1 τῶνδε κἀκείνων.. μόρων The deaths of Haemon and Megareus.

1313. mvp-comment-730-1 ἐπεσκήπτου Thou wast accused. The active of ἐπισκήπτω in this sense, although rare, occurs in Plat. Theaet. 145 C, Aesch. c. Timarch. p. 142, and the passive appears again in Plat. Legg. 11. 937 Β, ἐὰν ἐπισκηφθῇ τὰ ψευδή μαρτυρῆσαι. vom. p. m. Vat. 1328. KP. om. Vat. 1329. μόρων L. μώρων C1. 1330.

1314. mvp-comment-731-1 κἀπελύσατο The aorist has a distinctly middle force, different from ἀπελύθης above, l. 1268 . 'How did she effect her own release in bloody death? This verse may possibly have been spoken by the chorus. It somewhat breaks the flow of Creon's passion.

1316. mvp-comment-732-1 ὀξυκώκυτον She heard not only the words of the messenger (1. 1183), but the cry which was raised in the house, after they had been spoken. This must be supposed to have followed l. 1175.