For this the slaves that lead her shall be taught
Antigone. Sophocles. Robert Potter (Translator). London. 1820.
Antigone. Sophocles. Robert Potter (Translator). London. 1820.
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) (English) (English (Robert Potter, 1788))
Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.
mvp-comment-570-1 οὕτω 1
mvp-comment-570-2 ἀνθηρόν 2
mvp-comment-570-3 ἀποστάζει 3
mvp-comment-571-1 ἐπέγνω τὸν θεόν, μανίαις ψαύων 4
mvp-comment-571-2 μανίαις 5
mvp-comment-571-3 ψαύων 6
mvp-comment-571-4 ἐν 7
mvp-comment-571-5 γλώσσαις 8
mvp-comment-572-1 παύεσκε 9
mvp-comment-572-2 ἐνθέους γυναῖκας 10
mvp-comment-572-3 εὔιον … πῦρ 11
mvp-comment-573-1 Μούσας 12
mvp-comment-573-2
save the nymph by changing her into a vine; and behind him stand his followers. At the extreme left are three Muses—Urania, with globe; Clio, with roll; Euterpè, prob. with flutes. (Zoega seems clearly right in thus explaining the three women: others have made them Moirae.)—The close relation of Dionysus with the Muses is marked by one of his Attic titles,
mvp-comment-573-3 The monuments relating to the myth of Lycurgus have been critically treated by Michaelis ( Annal. Inst. 1872, pp. 248— 270). The Italian vase-paintings follow a version different from that of Soph. , viz. that the frenzy of Lycurgus was wreaked on his own son and wife. A large Neapolitan vase gives two pictures: in one, we see his murderous rage; in the other, Dionysus sits on his throne in calm majesty, stroking his panther.
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,
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
mvp-comment-574-5 παρὰ δὲ Κυανεᾶν πελάγει δ. ἁλός 13 πετρῶν 14
mvp-comment-574-6
of
mvp-comment-574-7 L's accent, πελάγεων 15 πελάγει 16 παρά 17 πελάγει 18 Κυανεᾶν 19
mvp-comment-575-1 ἀκταὶ Βοσπόριαι 20 Θρῃκῶν 21 ἄξενος 22 κλῄζεται 23 ἠδ’ 24
mvp-comment-576-1 ἀγχίπολις Ἄρης 25 ἀγχίπτολις 26 Ἄρης 27 ἀρχαιογόνων 28
mvp-comment-577-1 Φινεΐδαις 29
mvp-comment-577-2 ἀρατόν 30
mvp-comment-577-3 ἕλκος τυφλωθέν 31
mvp-comment-577-4 ἐξ 32
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
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
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.