Ajax. Sophocles. Thomas Francklin (Translator). London. 1758–1759.
English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) (English) (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759))
Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.
mvp-comment-761-1 οὐ δραπέτην 1
mvp-comment-761-2
ἐς μέσον καθείς. μέσον has been suspected; Nauck writes
κρωσσὸν (‘urn’). But the literal sense is simply, ‘having cast down into the midst’—the competitors being imagined as standing round the
κυνῆ. Cp. the phrases
εἰς μέσον τιθέναι, εἰς τὸ μέσον φέρειν, etc.
mvp-comment-761-3 κυνῆς 2
mvp-comment-762-1 σὺν δ’ ἐγὼ παρών 3 σὺν 4
mvp-comment-762-2 ὁ δοῦλος 5
mvp-comment-763-1 δύστηνε 6
mvp-comment-763-2 καὶ θροεῖς 7
mvp-comment-764-1
Construe:
οὐκ οἶσθα ἀρχαῖον Πέλοπα, ὃς σοῦ πατρὸς πατὴρ προὔφυ, ὄντα βάρβαρον, Φρύγα; The phrase
ἀρχαῖον Πέλοπα, ‘Pelops of old,’ indicates him as the founder of Agamemnon's royal house. Others take
ἀρχαῖον adverbially with
ὄντα βάρβαρον, ‘a barbarian
by origin.’ But such a use of
ἀρχαῖος is strange, and seems to be without parallel.
mvp-comment-764-2 Φρύγα 8
mvp-comment-765-1 δυσσεβέστατον 9
mvp-comment-765-2 ἀδελφῷ 10
mvp-comment-766-1 Κρήσσης 11
mvp-comment-767-1 ἐπακτὸν 12
mvp-comment-767-2 ὁ φιτύσας πατήρ 13 πατὴρ 14 σ’ Ἀτρεὺς 15 σ’ ἀνὴρ 16
mvp-comment-768-1 ἐφῆκεν … διαφθοράν 17
mvp-comment-768-2 ἐλλοῖς 18
1284-1287. mvp-comment-820-1 The spirit of these lines agrees with Il. 7. 186-9, ἀλλ᾿ ὅτε δὴ τὸν ἴκανε, φέρων ἀν᾿ ὅμιλον ἁπάντη, | ὅς μιν ἐπιγράψας κυνέῃ βάλε, φαίδιμος Αἴας, | ἤτοι ὑπέσχεθε χεῖρ᾽ ὁ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἔμβαλεν, ἄγχι παραστάς | γνῶ δὲ κλήρου σῆμα ἰδών, γήθησε δὲ θυμῷ.
1285. mvp-comment-821-1 'Not making his lot to sink into the hollow of the helmet, and to skulk there,' i. e. refuse to show itself when the helmet was shaken (as having crumbled away). δραπέτην contains a metaphor from a runaway slave eluding search, and also an allusion to the derivation from πίπτω. Sophocles, or the Cyclic poet before him, here assigns to Odysseus, or some other rival of Ajax, the action elsewhere attributed to Cresphontes at the division of the Peloponnese amongst the Heracleids.
1287. mvp-comment-822-1 κυνῆς] i. e. ἐκ κυνῆς. 'From the helmet.' Cp. especially O. T. 808, ὄχου, and note. ἄλμα κουφιεῖν] 'To spring lightly,' is an example of what in the Essay on L. § 17. p. 25 c, has been called the use of the cognate verb. Cp. Eur. El. 861, πήδημα κουφίζουσα: and, for the sense, Il. 7. 182, ἐκ δ᾽ ἔθορε κλῆρος κυνέης.
1288. mvp-comment-823-1 σὺν δ' ἐγὼ παρών] · 'And I too not far off.' Essay on L. § 18. § 40. p. 75. παρών implies that Teucer was faithful to his post. Cp. Phil. 379, οὐκ ἦσθ᾽ ἵν᾽ ἡμεῖς, ἀλλ᾽ ἀπῆσθ᾽, ἵν᾽ οὔ σ᾽ ἔδει. For Teucer's services, cp. Il. 15. 437, alib.
1290. mvp-comment-824-1 'Poor man! and what can you be thinking of when you say it?' i. e. 'How can you be so blind?' αὐτά refers to the general sense of the preceding words, as constantly in Thucydides. καί is to be taken closely with the interrogative.
1292. mvp-comment-825-1 'That Pelops was originally a barbarian Phrygian.' The adjective, as suppl. pred., has the force of an adverb, i. e. ἀρχῆθεν or τὸ ἀρχαῖον. Cp. Ant. 593, ἀρχαῖα τὰ Λαβδακιδᾶν, κ.τ.λ. Perhaps τἀρχαῖον should be read. For Φρύγα (a word always used contemptuously, as in Eur. Alc. 675, πότερα Λυδὸν ἢ Φρύγα, κ.τ.λ.), cp. Hdt. 7. 11, Πέλοψ ὁ Φρύξ.
1293. mvp-comment-826-1 ὃς αὖ σ᾽ ἔσπειρε] These words, with δέ, point the antithesis to σοῦ πατρὸς μὲν.. πατήρ, supr. 1291. δυσσεβέστατον has been joined with σέ, and by some with ᾿Ατρέα. But for the addition of this epithet to δεῖπνον οἰκείων τέκνων, to which Hermann objects, cp. O. C. 945, 6, οὐδ᾽ ὅτῳ γάμοι | ξυνόντες εὑρέθησαν ἀνόσιοι τέκνων, Ant. 514.
1297. mvp-comment-827-1 'Gave her up to be devoured by dumb fishes.' The ancient Scholiast says: ἡ ἱστορία ἐν ταῖς Κρήσσαις Εὐριπίδου, ὅτι διαφθαρεῖσαν αὐτὴν λάθρα ὑπὸ θεράποντος, ὁ πατὴρ Ναυπλίῳ παρέδωκεν, ἐντειλάμενος ἀποποντῶσαι· ὁ δὲ οὐκ ἐποίησεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐνεγγύησε Πλεισθένει. (It is possible also to suppose ὁ φ. πατήρ to mean Atreus, and ἔπακτον ἄνδρα Thyestes.) For the aggravation of the taunt in ἐλλοῖς ἰχθύσιν, cp. Il. 21. 201-4, τὸν δὲ κατ᾿ αὐτόθι λεῖπεν, ἐπεὶ φίλον ἦτορ ἀπηύρα, | κείμενον ἐν ψαμάθοισι, δίαινε δέ μιν μέλαν ὕδωρ. | τὸν μὲν ἄρ᾽ ἐγχέλυές τε καὶ ἰχθύες ἀμφεπένοντο, | δημὸν ἐρεπτόμενοι ἐπινεφρίδιον κείροντες. διαφθοράν is either (1) accusative in apposition with the sentence, expressing the result of the action, or (2) abstract for concrete, in apposition with αὐτήν understood as the object of ἐφῆκεν. Cp. Aesch. Prom. 582 foll., πυρί με φλέξον .. ἢ ποντίοις δάκεσι δὸς βοράν.