994.
mvp-comment-639-1
This last heavy-hearted journey dates not from the warning of Calchas,
supr. 750 foll., but from the rumour that quickly followed it. The exceptional rhythm of this line, without caesura, expresses the painfulness of the way.
997.
mvp-comment-640-1
The participles are to be taken closely with
ἔβην; 'Following up and searching out thy doom, when I perceived that it was come':-viz. on hearing the rumour.
998.
mvp-comment-641-1
ὀξεῖα] 'Swift': i.e. not only suddenly arriving, but spreading instantaneously.
998.
mvp-comment-641-2
σου] Objective genitive =
περί σου. Essay on L. § 9. p. 12.
βάξις]· 'Talk, bruit, 'noise.'
βάξις is generally something disagreeable.
ὡς θεοῦ τινος] 'Seeming to come from some god.' Genitive of the agent (Essay on L. § 10. p. 14): sc.
πέμψαντος, or the like. On the source of this rumour, see above, note on l. 826. The messenger returning to the camp after l. 814 would bring word that Ajax was dead.
1000.
mvp-comment-642-1
The antecedent to
ἁ and object of
ὁρῶν, viz. 'thy death,' is to be gathered from the meaning of the two preceding lines.
Cp. O. T. 6.
1003.
mvp-comment-643-1
ἴθ᾽, ἐκκάλυψον]
Cp. supr. 915, 16. If Tecmessa is gone, according to the note on
supr. 985, these words are spoken either (1) to the coryphaeus, who on her departure might naturally take his station by the corpse; or (2) to an attendant of Teucer.
Cp. El. 1468,
χαλάτε πᾶν κάλυμμ᾽ ἀπ᾿ ὀφθαλμῶν, ὅπως | τὸ συγγενές τοι κἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ θρήνων τύχῃ.
1004.
mvp-comment-644-1
'O sight intolerable! telling of a rash and cruel deed.'
ὄμμα here is not merely the person of Ajax as an object of vision, but the whole harrowing spectacle, from which Teucer passes naturally in the next line to Ajax himself. For the genitive
τόλμης, 'implying rashness,' cp. Thuc. 3. 45. § 7.
πολλῆς εὐηθείας, ὅστις οἴεται.
πικρᾶς] Not merely 'passionate,' but 'cruel,' because causing so much pain.
1005.
mvp-comment-645-1
The participial phrase
ὅσας .. κατασπείρας has the chief stress.
1008.
mvp-comment-646-1
The omission of
με in all the MSS. is a strong proof of the loss of the sense of quantity in Byzantine times. The line was scanned
ἢ ποῦ τελᾶμῶν without suspicion.
τ' ἴσως in the Laurentian reading (understood as 'equally') has come in from the next line, and there is no reason to doubt that
θ' ἅμα is the genuine reading. Emphatic fulness in dwelling on such relationships is common in Greek, and is especially natural in Teucer.
1008-1010.
mvp-comment-647-1
The iteration of
ἢ που ἴσως .. πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ; is expressive of Teucer's bitterness of soul.
1010-1011.
mvp-comment-648-1
'Who will not smile any the more sweetly, no, not even if good fortune come to him.' The idiomatic force of the comparative can hardly be rendered in translation. Lit. 'Even though fortunate, to smile none the more pleasantly (on that account)'. For
πάρα, cp.
supr. 904,
αἰάζειν πάρα:
infr. 982,
πάρα στενάζειν.
1011.
mvp-comment-649-1
There is a slight irony in
ἥδιον. The Laurentian reading,
μηδὲν ἵλεων γελᾶν, is not Greek, and
ἥδιον, the reading of Par. A and several other MSS., is further supported by the unintelligible reading
ἴδιον c. gl. οἰκεῖον in V', which is clearly a corruption of
ἥδιον, and may have given rise to
ἵλεων. See Phil. 1392, and v. rr. Others explain the words to mean, 'Whose custom it is not to smile pleasantly when fortunate.' But such a meaning of
παρεῖναι is doubtful, and the comparative is then without point. The line, as above interpreted, may remind us of the story of Henry the First of England, who is said never to have smiled again after the death of his son, William the Aetheling. For the sorrow of Telamon, cp. Fr. 516 (from the 'Teucer'),
ὡς ἄρ᾽, ὦ τέκνον, κενὴν | ἐτερπόμην σου τέρψιν εὐλογουμένου | ὡς ζῶντος· ἡ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἐν σκότῳ λαθοῦσά με | ἕσαιν᾿ Ἐρινὺς ἡδοναῖς ἐψευσμένον.
1012.
mvp-comment-650-1
τί κρύψει;] 'Over what will he draw the veil?' i. e. He will not soften the shame of my birth, though it reflects on himself.
1013.
mvp-comment-651-1
By a slight prolepsis the evil that is supposed to be predicated is made part of the subject. 'What evil will he not speak of me,-of the base-born issue of his spear?' i. e. Will he not call me so?
Cp. Il. 8. 283 (of Telamon),
ὅ σ᾽ ἔτρεφε τυτθὸν ἐόντα | καί σε νόθον περ ἐόντα κομίσσατο.
1017.
mvp-comment-652-1
ἀνὴρ. βαρύς] ‘A passionate man, whom old age makes dangerous.' Telamon had always been irascible (this helps to account for the impetuosity of his son), and a bad temper is not improved by age. We may infer, too, from Teucer's fear of Telamon, that Ajax was the favourite son.
1018.
mvp-comment-653-1
πρὸς οὐδὲν θυμούμενος] Either (1) connecting
εἰς ἔριν with with
θυμούμενος, ‘Angered into strife at nothing;' or (2) joining
οὐδὲν εἰς ἔριν, ‘Angered at what is no cause of quarrel.' For (2), cp. Eur. Phoen. 598,
κατα σὺν πολλοῖσιν ἦλθες πρὶς τὸν οὐδὲν ἐς μαχήν, where
οὐδέν taken alone does not answer sufficiently to
δειλὸν καὶ φιλόψυχον in the preceding line: Plat. Phil. 17 C,
εἰς ταῦτα οὐδενὸς ἄξιος ἔσει.
1020.
mvp-comment-654-1
λόγοισιν φανείς] 'Proclaimed,' i. e. by Telamon, who would declare Teucer to be the son of a slave-woman, and therefore ineligible for the succession.
1022.
mvp-comment-655-1
Although there is some confusion in the MSS. here, the reading of this line is tolerably certain.
1023.
mvp-comment-656-1
He resumes what he had said in l. 1005, and thus returns from himself to Ajax, and to the duties of the present hour.
1024-1025.
mvp-comment-657-1
πῶς. κνώδοντος] 'How shall I disengage thee from this cruel, gleaming blade?' The first notion of
κνώδων (cp.
κνώδαξ) seems to be 'a projecting point' or 'tooth.' Here the point of the sword, projecting through the body of Ajax, is clearly meant, as this alone could be seen. The mantle (
supr. 899, 915) has been removed at l. 1003.
αἰόλου may mean 'discoloured,' as in Phil. 1157,
ἐμᾶς σαρκὸς αἰόλας, or 'bright in part,' the sheen of the newly whetted blade remaining where not obscured by the blood.
1026.
mvp-comment-658-1
φονέως] Teucer, like Ajax,
supr. 815, personifies the weapon, which, as the gift of Hector, is imagined to be instinct with enmity. His mind is in sympathy with his brother's, and he falls into a similar train of reasoning.
1027.
mvp-comment-659-1
Cp. Trach. 1162, 3,
ὅδ᾽ οὖν ὁ θὴρ Κενταύρος, ὡς τὸ θεῖον ἦν | πρύφαντον, οὕτω ζῶντά μ' ἔκτεινεν θανών.
ἀποφθίσειν has been changed to
ἀποφθιεῖν, as the Attic form. But it must remain uncertain how far this was required by the tragic dialect.
1029-1031.
mvp-comment-660-1
This variation from the story of the Iliad is followed by Quintus Smyrnaeus, and was probably that adopted by the author of the Ilias minor. See Introduction, and cp. Eur. Andr. 399,
σφαγὰς . . Ἕκτορος τροχηλάτους. The exchange of presents occurs in Il. 7. 303-5,
ὡς ἄρα φωνήσας δῶκε ξίφος ἀργυρόηλον, | σὺν κολεῷ τε φέρων καὶ ἐϋτμήτῳ τελαμῶνι· | Αἴας δὲ ζωστῆρα δίδου φοίνικι φαεινόν.
1029.
mvp-comment-661-1
πρισθείς] « Gallingly tied;' i. e, not only bound fast, but cut by the strained cords as he hung.
Cp. El. 862,
τμητοῖς ὁλκοῖς ἐγκῦρσαι.
1031.
mvp-comment-662-1
ἐκνάπτετ'] 'His flesh was frayed,' upon the stones as he was dragged along.
Cp. especially, Plat. Rep. B. 10. p. 616 Α,
εἶλκον .. ἐπ᾿ ἀσπαλάθων κνάπτοντες.
βίον is added for the sake of definiteness, as
ἀποψύξαι alone may mean 'to swoon.'
1033.
mvp-comment-663-1
πρὸς τοῦδ᾽] Sc.
τοῦ κνώδοντος,
supr. 1025. The masculine gender is resumed, after
τήνδε δωρεάν, as more appropriate to the personification of the sword.
πεσήματι, like
πηδήματι,
supr. 833, refers to the act of falling on the sword.
1035.
mvp-comment-664-1
κἀκεῖνον] Sc.
τὸν ζωστῆρα.
1036.
mvp-comment-665-1
μὲν οὖν evades a direct answer to the preceding question. Any one is free to deny that this is the work of the Erinys and of Hades. As for Teucer, he will always refer every event to a Divine Power. And to what Powers but these can the present events be referred?
1039.
mvp-comment-666-1
ἐκεῖνα] Sc.
ἃ φίλα αὐτῷ τυγχάνει ὄντα. For this vague pronoun, cp. Eur. Alc. 867, 8,
ζηλῶ φθιμένους, κείνων ἔραμαι, | κεῖν᾽ ἐπιθυμῶ δώματα ναίειν.
