Sophocles Ajax 114

mvp-comment-168-1 οἰκεῖα πάθη ¹

mvp-comment-168-2 παραπράξαντος ²

mvp-comment-168-3 ὑποτείνει ³

mvp-comment-169-1 πέπαυται ⁴ εὐτυχεῖν ⁵

mvp-comment-169-2 φρούδου γὰρ ⁶ λόγος ⁷

mvp-comment-170-1 πότερα ⁸

mvp-comment-171-1 The words κοινὸς ἐν κοινοῖσι ⁹

mvp-comment-172-1 τὸ … διπλάζον ¹⁰

mvp-comment-173-1 Though οὐ νοσοῦντος ¹¹ οὐ νοσοῦντες ¹²

mvp-comment-173-2 ἀτώμεσθα ¹³

mvp-comment-174-1 πῶς … ὅπως ¹⁴

mvp-comment-175-1 οἷσιν εἴχετ’ ἐν κακοῖς ¹⁵

mvp-comment-175-2 φρονοῦντας ¹⁶ βλέποντας ¹⁷ κακοῖς ¹⁸

mvp-comment-176-1 κἀνέπνευσε ¹⁹ ἔληξε ²⁰

mvp-comment-177-1 Instead of κεῖνος ²¹

mvp-comment-177-2 πᾶς ²²

mvp-comment-177-3 ἐλήλαται ²³

mvp-comment-178-1 ἆῤ ²⁴

mvp-comment-178-2 δὶς τός’ ²⁵ ἐξ ἁπλῶν ²⁶

mvp-comment-179-1 δέδοικα μὴ … ἥκῃ ²⁷ ἥκει ²⁸ ἥκῃ ²⁹ ἥκοι ³⁰

mvp-comment-179-2 πῶς γάρ ³¹

mvp-comment-179-3 εἰ πεπαυμένος ³²

mvp-comment-179-4 μηδέν τι ³³

mvp-comment-180-1 ὡς ὧδ’ ἐχόντων ³⁴

mvp-comment-181-1 τίς γάρ ³⁵

mvp-comment-181-2 προσέπτατο ³⁶

mvp-comment-181-3 From the Homeric

( Il. 13. 592 , etc.) Tragedy borrows this non-thematic aor. (of which the active form would be ): cp. 693 . The aor. of in Attic Comedy and prose is usu. (see Veitch, Irreg. Verbs, 2nd ed., p. 530): and of this we have the inf. in O. T. 17 ,—again in accord with Homeric precedent ( Il. 4. 126 ).

mvp-comment-181-4 τύχας ³⁷ δήλωσον ³⁸ τύχαις ³⁹ ξυναλγοῦσιν ⁴⁰

mvp-comment-182-1 κεῖνος γὰρ ⁴¹

mvp-comment-182-2 ἄκρας νυκτός ⁴²

mvp-comment-183-1 λαμπτῆρες ⁴³

mvp-comment-183-2 For this mode of indicating the time, cp. Her. 7. 215

: Propert. 3. 8. 1

ad extremas..lucernas

: Aul. Gellius 3. 2

post primam facem.

mvp-comment-184-1 ἔγχος ⁴⁴

mvp-comment-184-2 ἐξόδους ἕρπειν ⁴⁵

mvp-comment-184-3 κενάς ⁴⁶

mvp-comment-185-1 The general word, ἄκλητος ⁴⁷ οὔτε ⁴⁸

mvp-comment-185-2 ἀφορμᾷς ⁴⁹ πεῖραν ⁵⁰

mvp-comment-185-3 σάλπιγγος ⁵¹

mvp-comment-185-4 πᾶς εὕδει στρατός ⁵²

mvp-comment-186-1 ὑμνούμενα ⁵³

mvp-comment-186-2 γυναιξὶ ⁵⁴

mvp-comment-186-3 κόσμον ⁵⁵

mvp-comment-187-1 μαθοῦς’ ⁵⁶

mvp-comment-187-2 ἐσσύθη ⁵⁷

mvp-comment-188-1 τὰς ἐκεῖ … πάθας ⁵⁸ τύχας ⁵⁹

mvp-comment-189-1 κύνας βοτῆρας ⁶⁰

mvp-comment-189-2 εὔερον ⁶¹ εύκερων ⁶²

mvp-comment-190-1 ηὐχένιζε ⁶³

mvp-comment-190-2 ἄνω τρέπων ⁶⁴

mvp-comment-190-3 ἔσφαζε ⁶⁵

mvp-comment-190-4 κἀρράχιζε ⁶⁶

mvp-comment-190-5 δεσμίους ⁶⁷

mvp-comment-190-6 ὥστε ⁶⁸

mvp-comment-190-7 φῶτας ⁶⁹

mvp-comment-191-1 ὑπᾴξας ⁷⁰ ἀπᾴξας ⁷¹ ἐπᾴξας ⁷²

mvp-comment-191-2 σκιᾷ τινὶ ⁷³

mvp-comment-191-3 λόγους ἀνέσπα ⁷⁴

mvp-comment-191-4 Ἀτρειδῶν κάτα ⁷⁵

mvp-comment-192-1 ἀμφ’ Ὀδυσσεῖ ⁷⁶

mvp-comment-192-2 συντιθεὶς γέλων πολύν ⁷⁷

mvp-comment-192-3 γέλων ⁷⁸ τ ⁷⁹

mvp-comment-193-1 ὕβριν ⁸⁰

mvp-comment-193-2 ἐκτείσαιτο ⁸¹ ἐκτείσοιτο ⁸² αὐτῶν ⁸³

mvp-comment-193-3 ἰών ⁸⁴

mvp-comment-194-1 ἐπᾴξας ⁸⁵ ἀπᾴξας ⁸⁶

mvp-comment-194-2 αὖθις … πάλιν ⁸⁷

mvp-comment-195-1 μόλις πως ⁸⁸

mvp-comment-196-1 ἄτης ⁸⁹

mvp-comment-197-1 )θώϋξεν ⁹⁰

mvp-comment-197-2 ἐρειπίοις ⁹¹ νεκρῶν ⁹² ἀρνείου φόνου ⁹³

mvp-comment-197-3 ἐρειφθεὶς ⁹⁴ ἐρεισθεὶς ⁹⁵ ἐρειφθεὶς ⁹⁶ ἐρειπίοις ⁹⁷

mvp-comment-198-1 ἀπρὶξ … συλλαβὼν ⁹⁸

mvp-comment-198-2 ὄνυξι … χερί ⁹⁹

mvp-comment-199-1 καὶ τὸν μὲν ἧστο πλεῖστον ¹⁰⁰

mvp-comment-200-1 τὰ δείν’ … ἔπη ¹⁰¹

mvp-comment-201-1 φανοίην ¹⁰² ιη ¹⁰³

mvp-comment-202-1 ἐν τῷ πράγματος ¹⁰⁴

mvp-comment-203-1 The words κἀγώ, φίλοι, δείσασα ¹⁰⁵

mvp-comment-204-1 πρὸς γὰρ κακοῦ τε ¹⁰⁶

mvp-comment-204-2 βαρυψύχου ¹⁰⁷

mvp-comment-204-3 ἐξηγεῖτ’ ¹⁰⁸

mvp-comment-205-1 ἀψόφητος … κωκυμάτων ¹⁰⁹ ὑπεστέναζε ¹¹⁰

mvp-comment-205-2 ὀξέων ¹¹¹

mvp-comment-205-3 ταῦρος ὣς βρυχώμενος ¹¹² βριμώμενος ¹¹³

mvp-comment-206-1 νῦν δ’ ¹¹⁴

mvp-comment-207-1 ἄσιτος ¹¹⁵

mvp-comment-207-2 σιδηροκμῆσιν ¹¹⁶

mvp-comment-208-1 ὥς τι δρασείων ¹¹⁷

mvp-comment-208-2 δρασείων ¹¹⁸

mvp-comment-209-1 τοιαῦτα ¹¹⁹ πως ¹²⁰

mvp-comment-209-2 καὶ λέγει κὠδύρεται ¹²¹ ἥσυχος ¹²²

mvp-comment-209-3 The verse is rejected by Nauck and others as though it were inconsistent with v. 325, and had been patched up from v. 383. There is no ground for this view. On the other hand, after

in 325, the fear expressed in 326 would be unintelligible, if no reason were subjoined. Bergk, who joins in condemning the verse, allows that Sophocles is usually careful of logical coherence in drama (‘pflegt .. sorgfältig zu motiviren’); but suggests that here the neglect of it might be ‘a mark of the archaic style’ ( Jahr. f. Class. Phil. 97. 378).

mvp-comment-210-1 ἐστάλην ¹²³

mvp-comment-210-2 εἰσελθόντες ¹²⁴

mvp-comment-211-1 λόγοις ¹²⁵ φίλοι ¹²⁶

mvp-comment-212-1 Τελεύταντος ¹²⁷

mvp-comment-212-2 ἡμῖν ¹²⁸ λέγεις ¹²⁹

mvp-comment-212-3 διαπεφοιβάσθαι ¹³⁰ κακοῖς ¹³¹

mvp-comment-213-1 ἰώ μοί μοι ¹³²

mvp-comment-214-1 μᾶλλον ¹³³

mvp-comment-214-2 ἢ οὐκ ¹³⁴

mvp-comment-214-3 Αἴαντος, οἵαν ¹³⁵ θωΰσσει ¹³⁶

mvp-comment-215-1 τοῖς πάλαι νοσήμασι ξυνοῦσι ¹³⁷ ξυνοῦσι ¹³⁸

mvp-comment-215-2 παρών ¹³⁹

mvp-comment-216-1 ἰὼ παῖ παῖ ¹⁴⁰ Τεῦκρον καλῶ ¹⁴¹

mvp-comment-216-2 Prof. Campbell understands

as meaning Teucer, whom an elder brother might so address. Tecmessa, at least, did not so take the words.

mvp-comment-217-1 ὤμοι τάλαιν’ ¹⁴²

mvp-comment-217-2 Εὐρύσακες ¹⁴³

mvp-comment-217-3 ἀμφὶ σοὶ ¹⁴⁴

mvp-comment-217-4 ποῦ ποτ’ εἶ ¹⁴⁵

mvp-comment-218-1 Τεῦκρον ¹⁴⁶

mvp-comment-218-2 τὸν εἰσαεὶ … χρόνον ¹⁴⁷ λεηλατήσει ¹⁴⁸

mvp-comment-219-1 ἀνοίγετε ¹⁴⁹

mvp-comment-219-2 αἰδῶ … λάβοι ¹⁵⁰

mvp-comment-219-3 κἀπ’ ἐμοὶ ¹⁵¹ βλέψας ¹⁵²

mvp-comment-220-1 διοίγω ¹⁵³

mvp-comment-220-2 πράγη ¹⁵⁴

mvp-comment-220-3 The

is now pushed on through the central door. It was a small stage, but large enough to allow of Ajax being shown surrounded by some of the slaughtered animals. The word in 347, and the language of vv. 351 ff., show that the carnage was represented. The other plays in which Soph <*>es has used the eccyclema are the Antigone (1294, where see n.), and the Electra (1464 f., n.).

mvp-comment-220-4 Ajax, sitting among his victims, and meditating his own destruction, was the subject of a famous picture by Timomachus of Byzantium. Philostratus ( Vit. Apoll. 2. 22 § 5) thus describes it:

[cp. v. 325 ], . The picture was at Cyzicus in 70 B.C. ( Cic. In Verr. 2. 4. 60 ), but was afterwards bought by Julius Caesar for the Temple of Venus Genetrix in Rome ( N. H. 7. 38 § 126). See Introduction § 20.

mvp-comment-221-1 This kommos serves, like the last (201—262), as a lyric expression of tragic pathos; after which the situation is further developed, as in the former case, by iambic dialogue. But in one respect this kommos differs from its predecessor. In order to bring the mind of Ajax into fuller relief, the lyrics are given to him alone, while the Chorus and Tecmessa speak only trimeters.

mvp-comment-221-2 The structure is as follows:—1st strophe 348—355=1st antistr. 356—363: 2nd str. 364—378=2nd ant. 379—393: 3rd str. 394—411=3rd ant. 412—429. For the metres see Metrical Analysis.

mvp-comment-221-3 ἰὼ φίλοι ναυβάται ¹⁵⁵

mvp-comment-221-4 ἐμμένοντες ¹⁵⁶

mvp-comment-221-5 ὀρθῷ νόμῳ ¹⁵⁷

mvp-comment-222-1 ἴδεσθέ μ’ ¹⁵⁸

mvp-comment-222-2 κῦμα ¹⁵⁹ ζάλης ¹⁶⁰ φοινίας ¹⁶¹

mvp-comment-222-3 ἀμφίδρομον ¹⁶² κυκλεῖται ¹⁶³ κυκλοῦται ¹⁶⁴

mvp-comment-223-1 οἴμ’ ¹⁶⁵

mvp-comment-223-2 ἀφροντίστως ἔχει ¹⁶⁶

mvp-comment-224-1 ναΐας ἀρωγὸν τέχνας ¹⁶⁷

mvp-comment-225-1 ἅλιον ὃς ἐπέβας ¹⁶⁸ ἁλίαν ὃς ἐπέβας ¹⁶⁹ ὃς ἁλίαν ἔβας ¹⁷⁰

mvp-comment-225-2 ὃς ¹⁷¹ γένος ¹⁷²

mvp-comment-225-3 ἐπέβας ¹⁷³

mvp-comment-225-4 ἐλίσσων ¹⁷⁴

mvp-comment-226-1 πημονὰν ἐπαρκέσοντ’ ¹⁷⁵ ἀπαρκέσοντ’ ¹⁷⁶

mvp-comment-226-2 The traditional reading ποιμένων ¹⁷⁷ πημονὰν ¹⁷⁸

mvp-comment-227-1 ἀλλά ¹⁷⁹ με ¹⁸⁰

mvp-comment-227-2 συνδάϊξον ¹⁸¹

mvp-comment-228-1 εὔφημα φώνει ¹⁸² κακὸν κακῷ διδοὺς ἄκος ¹⁸³ τὸ πῆμα τῆς ἄτης ¹⁸⁴

mvp-comment-229-1 θρασύν ¹⁸⁵ εὐκάρδιον ¹⁸⁶ ἄτρεστον ¹⁸⁷

mvp-comment-230-1 ἀφόβοις ¹⁸⁸

mvp-comment-230-2 δεινὸν χέρας ¹⁸⁹

mvp-comment-231-1 οἴμοι γέλωτος ¹⁹⁰

mvp-comment-232-1 δέσποτ’ ¹⁹¹

mvp-comment-233-1 οὐκ ἐκτός; οὐκ ἄψορρον ¹⁹² οὐκ ἐκτὸς ἄψορρον ἐκνεμεῖ πόδα ¹⁹³

mvp-comment-233-2 For ἐκτὸς ¹⁹⁴

mvp-comment-233-3 ἄψορρον ¹⁹⁵

mvp-comment-233-4 ἐκνεμεῖ ¹⁹⁶ ἐκνεμεῖς ¹⁹⁷

mvp-comment-234-1 ὦ πρὸς θεῶν ¹⁹⁸

mvp-comment-235-1 ὢ δύσμορος ¹⁹⁹

mvp-comment-235-2 ὃς ²⁰⁰

mvp-comment-235-3 χερὶ μὲν μεθῆκα ²⁰¹ χερὶ ²⁰²

mvp-comment-235-4 τοὺς ἀλάστορας ²⁰³

mvp-comment-235-5 κλυτοῖς ²⁰⁴

mvp-comment-235-6 αἰπολίοις ²⁰⁵

mvp-comment-235-7 ἐρεμνὸν ²⁰⁶

mvp-comment-235-8 αἷμ’ ἔδευσα ²⁰⁷

mvp-comment-236-1 ἐπ’ ἐξειργασμένοις ²⁰⁸

mvp-comment-236-2 οὐ γὰρ γένοιτ’ ἂν ²⁰⁹ ὅπως ²¹⁰

mvp-comment-236-3 For the sentiment, cp. Tr. 742

(n.).

mvp-comment-237-1 πάνθ’ ὁρῶν ²¹¹

mvp-comment-237-2 ἁπάντων τ’ ²¹² τ’ ²¹³ δ’ ²¹⁴ δ’ ²¹⁵

mvp-comment-237-3 κακῶν ὄργανον ²¹⁶

mvp-comment-238-1 ἄλημα ²¹⁷

mvp-comment-239-1 ἦ που ²¹⁸

mvp-comment-239-2 ἄγεις ²¹⁹

mvp-comment-240-1 ξὺν τῷ θεῷ ²²⁰

mvp-comment-240-2 ἵδοιμι ²²¹

mvp-comment-241-1 μηδὲν· μέγ’ εἴπῃς ²²²

mvp-comment-242-1 προπάτωρ ²²³ πάτερ ²²⁴ χεροῖν ²²⁵

mvp-comment-242-2 πῶς ἂν … θάνοιμι ²²⁶

mvp-comment-243-1 δισσάρχας ²²⁷

mvp-comment-243-2 ὀλέσσας ²²⁸

mvp-comment-243-3 βασιλῆς ²²⁹

mvp-comment-243-4 θάνοιμι καὐτός ²³⁰

mvp-comment-244-1 σκότος ²³¹ ἔρεβος ²³²

mvp-comment-244-2 ὡς ἐμοί ²³³

mvp-comment-245-1 ἕλεσθ’ ἕλεσθέ μ’ ²³⁴

mvp-comment-246-1 γένος ²³⁵ ὄνασιν ²³⁶ εἰς ²³⁷

mvp-comment-246-2 ἄξιος ²³⁸

mvp-comment-246-3 βλέπειν ²³⁹

mvp-comment-247-1 ἁ Διὸς … θεὸς ²⁴⁰

mvp-comment-247-2 ὀλέθριον ²⁴¹ οὔλιον ²⁴²

mvp-comment-248-1 φύγῃ … μενῶ ²⁴³

mvp-comment-249-1 εἰ τὰ μὲν φθίνει ²⁴⁴

mvp-comment-249-2 (1) The antistrophic verses, 423—427 (

), appear sound. The changes which have been proposed in them have all been designed to suit some emendation in 405 ff., and would have no probability if verses 423 ff. were considered simply on their own merits.

mvp-comment-249-3 (2) There is only one real discrepancy of metre between the traditional text here and that of the antistrophe; viz., that τοῖσδ’ ²⁴⁵ τινα ²⁴⁶ ὁμοῦ πέλας ²⁴⁷

mvp-comment-249-4 (3) If, then, we assume that the antistrophe is sound, we may conclude that the fault in the strophe lies within the words

. A very slight change will restore the metre, viz. τοιοῖσδ’ ²⁴⁸ τοῖσδ’ ²⁴⁹ τοιοῖσδ’ ὁμοῦ βοτοῖς ²⁵⁰

mvp-comment-249-5 (4) Whatever may have been the original form of the words

, it is at least highly probable that their general sense was, ‘If my old renown is perishing.’ This is suggested by the other passages where we find the same sequence of ideas,— i.e., the thought of his past glory closely followed by that of his present disgrace; see (1) 421—427: (2) 437—456: (3) 612—621.

mvp-comment-249-6 (5) Those who believe that the antistrophic verses 423—427 are corrupt have a freer hand for emendation here; and, as will be seen in the Appendix, some of the proposed restorations have been very bold. But such remedies pass into the region of pure guess-work.

mvp-comment-250-1 προσκείμεθα ²⁵¹

mvp-comment-250-2 μώραις ²⁵² μωραῖς ²⁵³

mvp-comment-251-1 δίπαλτος ²⁵⁴

mvp-comment-252-1 φωνεῖν ²⁵⁵

mvp-comment-252-2 ἔτλη ²⁵⁶

mvp-comment-253-1 πόροι ἁλίρροθοι ²⁵⁷ πάραλα ἄντρα ²⁵⁸

mvp-comment-254-1 νέμος ²⁵⁹

mvp-comment-254-2 As I have noted in writing on the Troad elsewhere, ‘nearly all the plains and hills are more or less well-wooded. Besides the valonia oak, the elm, willow, cypress and tamarisk shrub abound. Lotus, galingale, and reeds are still plentiful, as in Homeric days, about the streams in the Trojan plain.’ ( Encyc. Brit., art. ‘Troad,’ vol. XXIII. p. 578.)

mvp-comment-255-1 πολὺν πολύν με ²⁶⁰

mvp-comment-255-2 δὴ ²⁶¹ δαρόν ²⁶²

mvp-comment-256-1 ἀμπνοὰς ἔχοντα ²⁶³

mvp-comment-257-1 Σκαμάνδριοι … ῥοαί ²⁶⁴

mvp-comment-258-1 εὔφρονες Ἀργείοις ²⁶⁵

mvp-comment-259-1 οὐκέτ’ ἄνδρα μὴ τόνδ’ ἴδητ’ ²⁶⁶

mvp-comment-260-1 ἐξερῶ ²⁶⁷ ἐξερέω ²⁶⁸

mvp-comment-260-2 Join οὔτινα ²⁶⁹ στρατοῦ ²⁷⁰

mvp-comment-260-3 χθονὸς μολόντ’ ἀπὸ | Ἑλλανίδος ²⁷¹

mvp-comment-260-4 This vaunt of Ajax (modified only by the half-apologetic

) is epic in tone; thus Achilles says of himself ( Il. 18. 105),

τοῖος ἐὼν οἷος οὔτις Αχαιῶν χαλκοχιτώνων

: Odysseus, ( Od. 9. 19,)

ὃς πᾶσι δόλοισιν

ἀνθρώποισι μέλω, καί μευ κλέος οὐρανὸν ἵκει

. Such a tone is better suited, indeed, to epos (in which speech is sometimes little more than audible thought) than to drama. But here, at least, as in the case of Heracles ( Tr. 1101 f.), it has the excuse of being prompted by the anguish of a sudden overthrow. (Cp. n. on O. T. 8 , where Oedipus speaks of himself as .)

mvp-comment-261-1 πρόκειμαι ²⁷² πρόκειται ²⁷³ ἄνδρα … τόνδε ²⁷⁴

mvp-comment-262-1 οὔτοι … οὐδ’ ²⁷⁵ οὐ … οὔτε ²⁷⁶

mvp-comment-262-2 ὅπως ἐῶ ²⁷⁷

mvp-comment-263-1 ἂν … ᾤεθ’ ²⁷⁸

mvp-comment-263-2 ἐπώνυμον ²⁷⁹ ξυνοίσειν ²⁸⁰

mvp-comment-263-3 Pindar adopts the derivation of

from : I. 5. 53 . This was the popular etymology (schol. Apoll. Rh. 1. 1289 ; schol. Theocr. 13. 37 : Apollod. 3. 12 § 7 ). But the association of with appears in the legend that a hyacinth (on whose petals the letters AI were supposed to be legible, Moschus 3. 6) sprang from the blood of Ajax, as it had sprung from that of Hyacinthus: Ov. Met. 13. 397:

Littera communis mediis pueroque viroque | Inscripta est foliis; haec nominis (Ajax), illa querelae

(the wail of Hyacinthus).

mvp-comment-263-4 So Odysseus was associated with

( Od. 1. 62 ; imitated by Soph. , fr. 880): Pentheus, with ( Eur. Bacch. 507 ): Polyneices, with ( Aesch. Th. 577 , etc., Soph. Ant. 110 f.): Meleager, with ( Eur. fr. 517): Sidêro with ( Soph. fr. 597): and Helen is , etc. ( Aesch. Ag. 689 ).

mvp-comment-263-5 Such play on names did not seem to the Greeks unworthy of grave poetry, because to them the omens conveyed by words (

) were so serious. In modern poetry, too, it has sometimes been used with tragic pathos. Thus Dante Purg. XIII. 109 and Shakesp. Rich. II. act 2 sc. 1. 73 (Gaunt) etc. The king asks, , is the reply,

mvp-comment-263-6 The real etymology of

is uncertain. Vase-inscriptions show that the original form was , and Sonne (in Kuhn's Zeitschr. 10 p. 126) compares Indog. aiva, Skr. eva (‘course’)—a derivation which Brugmann approves ( Stud. z. griech. u. lat. Gramm. 4. 180). The sense, ‘swift runner,’ would suit better than the son of Telamon: and it is not improbable (as Fleischer suggests in Roscher's Lex.p. 139) that the names of the two heroes, though identical in form, were of distinct origin.

mvp-comment-264-1 καὶ δὶς … καὶ τρίς ²⁸¹

mvp-comment-264-2 τοιούτοις γὰρ ²⁸²

mvp-comment-265-1 πατὴρ ²⁸³

mvp-comment-265-2 τὰ πρῶτα καλλιστεἶ ἀριστεύσας ²⁸⁴

mvp-comment-266-1 τόπον Τροίας ²⁸⁵

mvp-comment-266-2 ἐπελθὼν ²⁸⁶

mvp-comment-267-1 ἀρκέσας ²⁸⁷

mvp-comment-267-2 441—

mvp-comment-268-1 τοσοῦτόν γ’ ἐξεπίστασθαι ²⁸⁸ εἰ ζῶν ²⁸⁹

mvp-comment-268-2 εἰ … κρίνειν ἔμελλε ²⁹⁰ οὐκ ἄν τις ἔμαρψεν ²⁹¹

mvp-comment-268-3 ὅπλων τῶν ὧν πέρι ²⁹²

mvp-comment-268-4 κρίνειν … κράτος ἀριστείας ²⁹³

mvp-comment-268-5 ἔμαρψεν ²⁹⁴

mvp-comment-268-6 ἀντ’ ἐμοῦ ²⁹⁵

mvp-comment-269-1 νῦν δ’ ²⁹⁶

mvp-comment-269-2 παντουργῷ ²⁹⁷

mvp-comment-269-3 ἔπραξαν ²⁹⁸

mvp-comment-269-4 ἀπώσαντες ²⁹⁹

mvp-comment-269-5 κράτη ³⁰⁰

mvp-comment-270-1 τόδ’ ὄμμα ³⁰¹

mvp-comment-270-2 τῆς ἐμῆς ³⁰²

mvp-comment-270-3 οὐκ ἄν ποτε … ἐψήφισαν ³⁰³ κατ’ ἄλλου φωτὸς ³⁰⁴ δίκην ἐψήφισαν ³⁰⁵

mvp-comment-271-1 ἡ Διὸς … θεὰ ³⁰⁶

mvp-comment-271-2 γοργῶπις ³⁰⁷

mvp-comment-271-3 ἀδάματος ³⁰⁸

mvp-comment-272-1 ἐπεντύνον<*> ³⁰⁹ ἐπευθύνοντ’ ³¹⁰

mvp-comment-273-1 λυσσώδη νόσον ³¹¹

mvp-comment-274-1 ἐπεγγελῶσιν ³¹²

mvp-comment-275-1 ἐμοῦ μὲν ³¹³

mvp-comment-275-2 βλάπτοι ³¹⁴

mvp-comment-276-1 ὅστις ³¹⁵

mvp-comment-276-2 μισεῖ δέ μ’ ³¹⁶ πεδία ³¹⁷

mvp-comment-277-1 πότερα ³¹⁸

mvp-comment-277-2 ναυλόχους … ἕδρας ³¹⁹

mvp-comment-277-3 μόνους τ’ Ἀτρείδας ³²⁰

mvp-comment-278-1 καὶ ποῖον ³²¹

mvp-comment-278-2 ὄμμα ³²²

mvp-comment-279-1 γυμνὸν ³²³

mvp-comment-279-2 ὧν … εὐκλείας στέφανον ³²⁴

mvp-comment-280-1 ἀλλὰ δῆτ’ ³²⁵

mvp-comment-280-2 ἔρυμα ³²⁶

mvp-comment-280-3 μόνος μόνοις ³²⁷ μόνοις ³²⁸

mvp-comment-280-4 δρῶν τι χρηστόν ³²⁹

mvp-comment-281-1 Ἀτρείδας … εὐφράναιμί που ³³⁰

mvp-comment-282-1 οὐκ ἔστι ταῦτα ³³¹

mvp-comment-283-1 δηλώσω … γεγώς ³³²

mvp-comment-283-2 μή τοι φύσιν γ’ ³³³ τοι ³³⁴ γε ³³⁵ οὔ τοι ³³⁶ μή τοι ³³⁷

mvp-comment-283-3 ἄσπλαγχνος ³³⁸

mvp-comment-284-1 τοῦ μακροῦ … βίου ³³⁹

mvp-comment-284-2 κακοῖσιν … μηδὲν ἐξαλλάσσεται ³⁴⁰ μηδὲν ³⁴¹

mvp-comment-285-1 παρ’ ἦμαρ ἡμέρα ³⁴² προσθεῖσα ³⁴³

mvp-comment-285-2 προσθεῖσα ³⁴⁴

mvp-comment-285-3 κἀναθεῖσα ³⁴⁵

mvp-comment-286-1 πριαίμην ³⁴⁶

mvp-comment-286-2 λόγου ³⁴⁷

mvp-comment-287-1 τεθνηκέναι ³⁴⁸

mvp-comment-287-2 πάντ’ ἀκήκοας λόγον ³⁴⁹

mvp-comment-288-1 ὑπόβλητον ³⁵⁰

mvp-comment-289-1 γε μέντοι ³⁵¹ κρατῆσαι ³⁵²

mvp-comment-290-1 τῆς ἀναγκαίας τύχης ³⁵³

mvp-comment-291-1 εἴπερ τινὸς σθένοντος ³⁵⁴

mvp-comment-291-2 ἐν πλούτῳ ³⁵⁵

mvp-comment-292-1 θεοῖς ³⁵⁶

mvp-comment-292-2 μάλιστα ³⁵⁷

mvp-comment-293-1 τοιγαροῦν ³⁵⁸

mvp-comment-293-2 τὸ σὸν λέχος ξυνῆλθον ³⁵⁹

mvp-comment-293-3 τὰ σά ³⁶⁰

mvp-comment-294-1 ἐφεστίου Διὸς ³⁶¹

mvp-comment-295-1 συνηλλάχθης ³⁶²

mvp-comment-296-1 βάξιν λαβεῖν … ὑπ’ ἐχθρῶν ³⁶³

mvp-comment-296-2 χειρίαν ³⁶⁴

mvp-comment-296-3 ἐφεὶς ³⁶⁵

mvp-comment-297-1 ᾗ γὰρ θάνῃς σὺ ³⁶⁶ ᾗ ³⁶⁷ εἰ ³⁶⁸

mvp-comment-297-2 ἀφῇς ³⁶⁹

mvp-comment-298-1 ξυναρπασθεῖσαν ³⁷⁰ δουλίαν ³⁷¹ δούλιν ³⁷²

mvp-comment-298-2 τροφή ³⁷³

mvp-comment-299-1 καί τις ³⁷⁴

mvp-comment-299-2 πικρὸν πρόσφθεγμα … ἐρεῖ ³⁷⁵ πικρὸν ³⁷⁶

mvp-comment-299-3 λόγοις ἰάπτων ³⁷⁷ λόγοις ³⁷⁸ ἰάπτων ³⁷⁹

mvp-comment-300-1 ἵσχυσε ³⁸⁰

mvp-comment-300-2 οἵας … ὅσου ³⁸¹

mvp-comment-300-3 ζήλου ³⁸²

mvp-comment-300-4 τρέφει ³⁸³

mvp-comment-301-1 κἀμὲ μὲν ³⁸⁴ σοὶ δ’ αἰσχρὰ ³⁸⁵ ἐλᾷ ³⁸⁶

mvp-comment-301-2 αἰσχρὰ ³⁸⁷

mvp-comment-302-1 αἴδεσαι … προλείπων ³⁸⁸ προλείπων ³⁸⁹

mvp-comment-302-2 κληροῦχον ³⁹⁰

mvp-comment-302-3 ἀρᾶται ³⁹¹

mvp-comment-303-1 οἴκτιρε ³⁹² εἰ ³⁹³

mvp-comment-303-2 διοίσεται ³⁹⁴ σοῦ … μόνος ³⁹⁵

mvp-comment-304-1 ὑπ’ ὀρφανιστῶν ³⁹⁶

mvp-comment-304-2 The word

(found only here) = , ‘guardian.’ Eustathius (p. 533. 30), on Il. 5. 158 , explains as those who administered the property of persons who left no direct heirs ( ); adding, . Apparently, then, he knew the word only from this verse. (The verb usu.=to make .)

mvp-comment-304-3 μὴ φίλων ³⁹⁷

mvp-comment-304-4 Compare Andromachè's description, in her lament over Hector, of the lot in store for her child,

, ‘the day of orphanhood makes a child companionless,’ etc.: Il. 22. 490 —498.

mvp-comment-305-1 βλέπω ³⁹⁸

mvp-comment-305-2 ᾔστωσας ³⁹⁹

mvp-comment-305-3 δορί ⁴⁰⁰ δόρει ⁴⁰¹

mvp-comment-306-1 ἄλλη μοῖρα ⁴⁰²

mvp-comment-307-1 καθεῖλεν … οἰκήτορας ⁴⁰³ Ἅιδου, θανασίμους ⁴⁰⁴

mvp-comment-308-1 πατρίς ⁴⁰⁵

mvp-comment-308-2 ἐν σοὶ … σῴζομαι ⁴⁰⁶ πᾶς’ ⁴⁰⁷

mvp-comment-309-1 κἀμοῦ ⁴⁰⁸

mvp-comment-309-2 προσεῖναι ⁴⁰⁹

mvp-comment-309-3 τερπνὸν εἴ τί που πάθοι ⁴¹⁰

mvp-comment-310-1 χάρις χάριν γάρ ⁴¹¹

mvp-comment-310-2 τίκτους’ ⁴¹²

mvp-comment-311-1 ἀπορρεῖ ⁴¹³

mvp-comment-311-2 γένοιτ’ ⁴¹⁴

mvp-comment-312-1 ἔχειν σ’ ἂν … θέλοιμ’ ἄν ⁴¹⁵

mvp-comment-312-2 ὡς κἀγὼ ⁴¹⁶

mvp-comment-313-1 καὶ κάρτ’ ⁴¹⁷

mvp-comment-313-2 τὸ ταχθὲν ⁴¹⁸

mvp-comment-313-3 τολμᾷ ⁴¹⁹

mvp-comment-313-4 For the alliteration (

) cp. 1112 : O.T. 371 (n.).

mvp-comment-314-1 ἀλλ’ ⁴²⁰

mvp-comment-315-1 ὡς ἴδω ⁴²¹

mvp-comment-316-1 καὶ μὴν φόβοισί γ’ ⁴²² γε ⁴²³ φόβοισι ⁴²⁴ καὶ μήν … γε ⁴²⁵ γε ⁴²⁶

mvp-comment-316-2 φόβοισι ⁴²⁷

mvp-comment-316-3 ἐξελυσάμην ⁴²⁸

mvp-comment-316-4 The conjecture ἐξερρυσάμην ⁴²⁹

mvp-comment-317-1 κακοῖσιν ⁴³⁰

mvp-comment-318-1 μὴ σοί γε ⁴³¹ σοί ⁴³²

mvp-comment-319-1 πρέπον γέ τἂν ἦν ⁴³³

mvp-comment-319-2 δαίμονος ⁴³⁴

mvp-comment-320-1 ἀλλ’ οὖν ⁴³⁵ γε ⁴³⁶

mvp-comment-320-2 )φύλαξα ⁴³⁷

mvp-comment-320-3 ἀρκέσαι ⁴³⁸

mvp-comment-321-1 ἐπῄνες’ ⁴³⁹

mvp-comment-321-2 ἔθου ⁴⁴⁰

mvp-comment-322-1 ὡς ἐκ τῶνδ’ ⁴⁴¹ ἐκτῶνδε ⁴⁴² ὡς ⁴⁴³

mvp-comment-323-1 καὶ μὴν ⁴⁴⁴

mvp-comment-323-2 γε ⁴⁴⁵ πέλας. ⁴⁴⁶

mvp-comment-323-3 προσπόλοις ⁴⁴⁷

257. mvp-comment-186-1 οὐκέτι] Sc. ἴσχει νιν ἡ μανία. 'He may be approached with safety now.' λαμπρᾶς, κ.τ.λ.] 'For he, like a Southern storm, after a sharp outburst, ceases to rage, and the lightning plays no more.' ἄτερ, κ.τ.λ. is to be taken proleptically = ὥστε ἄτερ στεροπῆς εἶναι. E. on L. § 38. p. 70. Otherwise the words might mean, 'He desists without lightning:' i.e. his violence comes to an end without doing irreparable harm. Cp. Eur. Med. 93, 4, οὐδὲ παύσεται | χόλου, σάφ' οἶδα, πρὶν κατασκῆψαί τινα: Shak. King John, 4. 2, 'So foul a sky clears not without a storm.' But although Tecmessa is for the moment relieved, her apprehensions are not sufficiently calmed to make this natural.

259. mvp-comment-187-1 Φρόνιμος] Sc. ὤν. Essay on L. § 39. Ρ. 72. φρόνιμον (sc. ὄντα) is a v. r. or MS. conjecture.

260. mvp-comment-188-1 οἰκεῖα πάθη] Troubles all one's own.' i.e. both as home-felt and self-wrought. Cp. El. 215, οἰκείας εἰς ἄτας.

261. mvp-comment-189-1 παραπράξαντος] «Having assisted.' Cp. παραδράω ( οἷά τε τοῖς ἀγαθοῖσι παραδρώωσι χέρηες, Od. 15, 324).

262. mvp-comment-190-1 μεγάλας ὀδύνας ὑποτείνει] 'Causes intense grief within.' ὑποτείνει, 1.2. ὑπέχει ἐντεταμένως. Cp. Pind. O1. 2. 100, βαθεῖαν ὑπέχων μέριμναν ἀγροτέραν.

263. mvp-comment-191-1 'But if he hath ceased' (from his madness), 'he must be surely happy.' Others take εὐτυχεῖν impersonally, as in Oed. Tyr 88, πάντ᾽ ἂν εὐτυχεῖν, –‘All must be well.'

264. mvp-comment-192-1 'For trouble counts for less when it is gone.' The gen. is first absolute, and then in regimen with λόγος. Cp. infr. 1161, 2, κἀμοὶ γὰρ αἴσχιστον κλύειν | ἀνδρὸς ματαίου φλαῦρ᾽ ἔπη μυθουμένου.

265. mvp-comment-193-1 αἵρεσιν] Sc. τούτων, viz. ll. 266, 7, which πότερα anticipates.

266. mvp-comment-194-1 ἔχειν] Supr. 203.

267. mvp-comment-195-1 κοινὸς ἐν κοινοῖσι] Essay on L. § 44. p. 83. Or to be with others and mingle your sorrow with theirs.' ξυνών marks that while Ajax was delirious, he stood apart from the grief which others felt for him.

269. mvp-comment-196-1 'Our case, then, since the madness left us, is grown more desperate.' Tecmessa identifies her lot with that of Ajax. Compare infr. 791, μῶν ὀλώλαμεν; A few lines below (273-6) she speaks of herself in the plural as contrasted with him.

272. mvp-comment-197-1 οἶσιν. . κακοῖς] i. e. κακοῖς ἐν οἶσιν εἴχετο. Cp. infr. 1144, 5, ἡνίκ᾽ ἐν κακῷ | χειμῶνος εἴχετ'.

275. mvp-comment-198-1 πᾶς ἐλήλαται] 'Is vexed to the uttermost.' πᾶς is adverbial. See Essay on L. § 23. p. 38, and cp. infr. 519, ἐν σοὶ πᾶσ᾽ ἔγωγε σώζομαι. The perfect, as in πεφόβημαι, supr. 139, expresses a completed state.

277. mvp-comment-199-1 ἆρ'..;] Essay on L. § 29. p. 50. 'What is this but to have the sorrow doubled that before was single?' Cp. Constance in King John, 3. 4. 'I am not mad; - I would to heaven I were! For then 'tis like I should forget myself: O, if I could, what grief should I forget!'

278-279. mvp-comment-200-1 μὴ ἐκ θεοῦ | πληγή τις ἥκει] 'That a calamity is really come from Heaven.' The chorus before admitted as a possibility ( supr. 186, ἥκοι γὰρ ἂν θεία νόσος) what now appears to be too certain. Hence the indicative is more forcible here, although the subjunctive ( ἥκῃ) is more regular and may be the true reading.

282-283. mvp-comment-201-1 'In what wise lighted on you the commencement of the trouble? Tell us, who grieve with you at the misfortune, what it is.' τύχας, continuing the notion of κακοῦ, is governed either (1) both of δήλωσον and of ξυναλγοῦσιν, or (2) of ξυναλγοῦσιν only.

284. mvp-comment-202-1 ὡς κοινωνὸς ὤν] 'As you are no less interested.'

285. mvp-comment-203-1 ἄκρας νυκτός] 'At dead of night.' That this, and not 'on the verge of night,' is the meaning here, appears from the context. The flames lighted at evening were burnt out, so that all was dark. ἄκρᾳ σὺν ἑσπέρᾳ in Pind. Pyth. 11. 16, is explained by Dissen 'ad seram vesperam.'

286. mvp-comment-204-1 Cp. Od. 18. 307, αὐτίκα λαμπτῆρας τρεῖς ἵστασαν ἐν μεγάροισιν, | ὄφρα φαείνοιεν, περὶ δὲ ξύλα κάγκανα θῆκαν καὶ δᾷδας μετέμισγον: ib. 19. 64, φύως ἔμεν ἠδὲ θέρεσθαι.

287. mvp-comment-205-1 κενάς] «Objectless;' i.e. without apparent cause. Tecmessa knows little of what Ajax does abroad. But she knows that there is something strange in his going forth at night without a summons.

289. mvp-comment-206-1 ἄκλητος is expanded with οὔτε-οὔτε, 'neither-nor.'

291. mvp-comment-207-1 ἀλλά] i. e. 'Instead of there being an alarm of any kind.'

292. mvp-comment-208-1 βαί, ἀεὶ δ᾽ ὑμνούμενα] 'Few words, but to a well-known tune.' Eur. Phoen. 438, πάλαι μὲν οὖν ὑμνηθέν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως ἐρῶ: Plat. Rep. 8. 549 D, ὅσα φιλοῦσιν αἱ γυναῖκες περὶ τῶν τοιούτων ὑμνεῖν.

293. mvp-comment-209-1 Cp. Fr. 61, ἄλλως τε καὶ κόρῃ τε κἀργείᾳ γένος, | αἷς κόσμος ἡ σιγή τε καὶ τὰ παῦρ᾽ ἔπη.

294. mvp-comment-210-1 μαθοῦσ᾽] 'When I perceived,' viz. that he was not to be reasoned with. The unusual division of the line marks the reluctant desistence of Tecmessa. Cp. O. T. 1513, ib. 110, and notes.

295. mvp-comment-211-1 πάθας] 'Misfortunes.' The word is used with a vague sense of the horror of a scene, in which Ajax was no less unfortunate than his victims.

297. mvp-comment-212-1 εὔκερών τ᾿ ἄγραν] The horns of the sheep are the most conspicuous object as they are seen in front and from above. The objection 'that the bulls were also horned' is absurdly logical. There is no sufficient reason for preferring the conj. εὔερον. The word describes all the cattle, small and great, excepting the bulls, which have been mentioned separately.

298. mvp-comment-213-1 τοὺς μέν] The bulls.

299. mvp-comment-214-1 ἐρράχιζε] 'Clove in twain.'

299-300. mvp-comment-215-1 τοὺς δὲ δεσμίους | ᾐκίζεθ᾽] 'Others, as his prisoners, he tormented at his pleasure.' ὥστε φῶτας] 'As if human creatures.' ἐν ποίμναις πίτνων] 'Making onsets on the cattle.' Cp. supr. 185.

301. mvp-comment-216-1 ὑπάξας διὰ θυρῶν] 'Issuing suddenly through the doorway.' ὑπό = 'from beneath the tent.' σκιᾷ τινί «In converse with some shadow.' The dative as with διαλέγεσθαι. Tecmessa, not seeing or hearing Athena, supposes Ajax to be addressing some 'bodiless creation' of his brain. Cp. Shak. Hamlet, 3, 4, 'How is't with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy, And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?'

302. mvp-comment-217-1 ἀνέσπα] «Heaved forth.' Cp. Plat. Theaet. 180 Α, ὥσπερ ἐκ φαρέτρας ῥηματίσκια αἰνιγματώδη ἀνασπῶντες ἀποτοξεύουσιν : Αr. Ran. 903, ῥήματα γομφοπαγή. πινακηδὸν ἀποσπῶν.

303. mvp-comment-218-1 συντιθείς] Sc. τοῖς λόγοις. Εp. προστίθημι.

304. mvp-comment-219-1 ὅσην. . ἰών] 'What insults he had gone and wreaked upon them.' This clause depends at once on λόγους and on γέλων. The participle adds liveliness,-'how he had gone and paid them.'

305. mvp-comment-220-1 ἐπάξας] L. has ἀπάξας both here and supr. 301. Supposing this were right, the same word would be used in two different senses, 'rushing off' and 'rushing back;' but the two words, ὑπάξας, ἐπάξας, seem more appropriate.

306. mvp-comment-221-1 μόλις πως] ‘By slow stages.' The phrase recalls the anxiety with which Tecmessa had watched the gradual awakening. Cp. Thuc. 8. 86, § 2, ἔπειτα μέντοι μόλις ἡσυχάσαντες ἤκουσαν.

307. mvp-comment-222-1 'As he cast his eye along the room, and saw that it was full of ruin.' ἄτη is calamity caused by infatuation. Cp. infr. 351 foll.

308-309. mvp-comment-223-1 ἐν δ᾽ ἐρειπίοις . . ἀρνείου φόνου] 'Amidst the carnage of the flock he sate, a ruin amongst ruins.' The tautology, ἐν ἐρειπίοις ἐρειφθείς, is here expressive. The 2nd genitive, ἀρνείου φόνου (see Essay on L. § 23. p. 37 a), is added to give greater distinctness to ἐρειπίοις νεκρῶν as a single notion.

310. mvp-comment-224-1 'With clenched nails grasping his hair with his hand.' ὄνυξι adds force to ἀπρίξ.

311. mvp-comment-225-1 The order (Essay on L. § 41. p. 76) shows that πλεῖστον is an afterthought. 'For some while, indeed for most of the time.'

312. mvp-comment-226-1 τὰ δείν᾽ . . ἔπη] 'Those dreadful words,' which I remember so vividly. Cp. Ant. 408, τὰ δείν᾽ ἐκεῖν᾽ ἐπηπειλημένοι. Not merely, 'Words that are dreadful.'

313. mvp-comment-227-1 φανοίην] Fut. opt. Ajax' words were εἰ μὴ φανεῖς.

314. mvp-comment-228-1 ἐν τῷ πράγματος] Cp. Trach. 375, ποῦ ποτ᾽ εἰμὶ πράγματος;

315. mvp-comment-229-1 δείσασα,] 'Being overcome with fear.' As the deprecating φίλοι shows, Tecmessa is excusing herself to the chorus for having told Ajax, under the influence of his threats, that which only plunged him into fresh sorrow. For the participle thus used without an express object, cp. Ant. 1005, δείσας δ' εὐθὺς ἐμπύρων ἐγευόμην. Hermann punctuates as in the text. Others join δείσασα τοὐξειργασμένον, which is less simple.

316. mvp-comment-230-1 ὅσονπερ ἐξηπιστάμην] For this limitation, cp. supr. 295, καὶ τὰς ἐκεῖ μὲν οὐκ ἔχω λέξαι πάθας.

319-320. mvp-comment-231-1 (1) 'He used to teach us that such complainings indicated a degraded and leaden soul.' The infinitive is added epexegetically to complete the abrupt expression ἐξηγεῖτο τοὺς τοιούσδε γόους πρὸς βαρυψύχου ἀνδρός. For ἔχειν, sc. τοὺς τοιούσδε γόους, cp. Il. 18. 495, αὐλοὶ φόρμιγγές τε βοὴν ἔχον. (2) But an inf. after ἐξηγεῖτο is rather required: cp. Aesch. Eum. 595, ὁ μάντις ἐξηγεῖτό σοι μητροκτονεῖν. Can ἔχειν with the adverbial phrase πρὸς... ἀνδρός be used intransitively (= 'proceed from') ( εἶναι appears as a gloss), or should ἄγειν be read, 'He taught us to esteem'? Cp. Ant. 34, καὶ τὸ πρᾶγμ᾽ ἄγειν | οὐχ ὡς παρ᾿ οὐδέν. For βαρυψύχου it is possible that βραχυψύχου ought to be read.

321. mvp-comment-232-1 ἀλλ᾽ ἀψόφητος, κ.τ.λ.] ἀλλά opposes what follows to the general sense of what precedes. ἀψόφητος ὀξέων κωκυμάτων] ‘Uttering no sound of shrill lamentation.'

322. mvp-comment-233-1 'He breathed deep groans like a lowing bull.' ὑπὸ in comp. implies 'not loud, but deep.'

323. mvp-comment-234-1 νῦν δ'] At first he uttered shrill lamentings, unlike the deep mutterings which before expressed his discontent. 'But now' he is silent. κείμενος] 'Prostrate.' Cp. supr. 207, infr. 427.

325. mvp-comment-235-1 ἥσυχος] « Without sound or motion.' The quietness of Ajax' present mood is ominous. This description prepares the spectator for what he is to see infr. 346.

327. mvp-comment-236-1 τοιαῦτα] Sc. ὥς τι δρασείων κακόν. Tecmessa already apprehends the danger of suicide.

329. mvp-comment-237-1 εἰσελθόντες] When Ajax is discovered by the ἐκκύκλημα, infr. 346, this is equivalent to the scene being changed to within the hut.

330. mvp-comment-238-1 οἱ τοιοίδε] · Men in such mood;' i. e. gloomily bent on self-destruction. λόγοις] This word, to be joined with φίλων, is restored from the quotation of Stobaeus. The reading of the MSS. is hardly possible. λόγοις may have been lost from its similarity to λέγεις in the termination of the next line, and φίλοι may have been added to supply the gap.

331. mvp-comment-239-1 On the order, see Essay on L. § 41. p. 77.

332. mvp-comment-240-1 'That our hero is frenzied with his trouble.' The mariners apprehend that the madness of Ajax is in some way connected with his disappointment. Cp. infr. 925-32. ἡμῖν is dative of the person interested. See Essay on L. § 13. p. 19 f, and cp. supr. 216, ἡμὶν ὁ κλεινὸς | Αἴας ἀπελωβήθη: infr. 733, ἀλλ᾽ ἡμὶν Αἴας ποῦ ᾿στιν, ὡς φράσω τάδε ; κακοῖς] Supr. 275, infr. 532.

333. mvp-comment-241-1 The voice of Ajax is heard from within.

334. mvp-comment-242-1 μᾶλλον] Sc. δεινά σοι λέξω, or γνώσεσθε ταῦτα.

335. mvp-comment-243-1 οἵαν] She judges from the intonation of the cry, which the chorus, infr. 337, do not know whether to interpret as importing madness or grief.

337. mvp-comment-244-1 ἢ τοῖς . . παρών] 'Or to grieve at witnessing the effects of past madness which remain with him.' Cp. supr. 307. The addition of παρών suggests that Ajax, seeing the carnage in the tent, is the eye-witness of his own madness.

339. mvp-comment-245-1 Ajax calls upon Teucer. παῖ is frequently addressed by an elder person to a younger, even by the Corinthian messenger to Oedipus, O. Τ. 1008, and by Electra (under excitement) to the supposed Phocian stranger, El. 1220. The picture in the Iliad, 8. 271, of Teucer retiring behind the shield of Ajax, παῖς ὡς ὑπὸ μητέρα, suggests that Teucer was the younger brother. And it is natural to suppose Ajax to have been born before Telamon's expedition in which he won Hesione, the mother of Teucer.-According to Pindar in the fifth (or sixth) Isthmian ode, Ajax was given to Telamon in answer to the prayer of Heracles before the expedition. But in such details the legends are not constant. See O. C. 375, and note. Lycophr. 445 and schol. -The need of Teucer's presence is Ajax' first thought on coming to himself. Tecmessa at first thinks of the child, until, in l. 342, Ajax calls Teucer by name. He does not ask to see the child till l.530, after his attention has been vividly drawn that way by Tecmessa.

341. mvp-comment-246-1 τάλαιν᾽ ἐγώ] Tecmessa is distracted between the fear of crossing Ajax and the fear of harm to the child. The division of the line helps to mark this distraction of the wife and mother.

343. mvp-comment-247-1 λεηλατήσει] Teucer is gone foraging into the Mysian highlands, infr. 720. Compare Thuc. 1. 11, φαίνεται .. πρὸς γεωργίαν τῆς · Χερσονήσου τραπόμενοι καὶ λῃστείαν τῆς τροφῆς ἀπορίᾳ. ἐγὼ δ'] · While that I.'

345. mvp-comment-248-1 κἀπ᾿ ἐμοὶ βλέψας] ‘Even at me, on seeing me.' The abrupt expression, αἰδῶ λαβεῖν ἐπί τινι, is supplemented by the addition of the participle, i.e. εἰς ἐμὲ βλέψας. αἰδώς is the feeling which prompts σωφροσύνη.

346. mvp-comment-249-1 ἐκκύκλημα. Ajax is disclosed with signs of slaughter about him. He is sitting upright. The slaughtered sheep are the evidence of his situation ( τὰ τοῦδε πράγη): his wild, dishevelled appearance betrays the condition of his mind ( αὐτὸς ὡς ἔχων κυρεῖ).

348. mvp-comment-250-1 The lyrical numbers of this commos are chiefly dochmiac, mixed with iambic and trochaic rhythms, which increase in the third strophe and antistrophe. The scheme is the following...

348. mvp-comment-250-2 The arrangement of the latter part of γ' is rendered doubtful by the manifest corruption of ll. 406, 7. Perhaps- εἰ τἀμὰ μὲν φθίνει, φίλοι, πάλαι· μώραις δ᾽ ἄγραισι ταῖσδ᾽ ὁμοῦ προσκείμεθα. And in the antistrophe, 424, 5, τύδ᾽ ἐξερῶ μέγ᾽ οἷον οὔτινα Τροία στρατοῦ δέρχθη χθονὸς μολόντ' ἀπό. Or, reading τάδε for τά, and omitting τοῖσδ᾽ ὁμοῦ, στρατοῦ, and ἀπό, - εἰ τάδε μὲν φθίνει, φίλοι, πάλαι· μώραις δ᾽ ἄγραις προσκείμεθα, | πᾶς.

348. mvp-comment-250-3 and- ἐξερέω μέγ', οἷον οὔτινα Τροία χθονὸς δέρχθη μολόνθ' | Ἑλ.. See note on 405 foll.

348. mvp-comment-250-4 Ajax at once perceives the mariners. 'The great rage, you see, is killed in him,' but the ground-swell of his passion is still heard.

349. mvp-comment-251-1 μόνοι ἐμῶν φίλων] Sc. παρόντες, or some such word, which is expanded in what follows.

350. mvp-comment-252-1 ὀρθῷ νόμῳ] Sc. τῷ τῆς φιλίας.

351. mvp-comment-253-1 ἴδεσθέ μ᾽ οἷον, κ.τ.λ.] με is to be taken (1) after ἴδεσθε, and (2) after ἀμφίδρομον κυκλεῖται, the latter being a picturesque expansion of ἀμφικυκλεῖται. φοινίας ὑπὸ ζάλης] 'Lashed by a cruel storm.' ζάλη is a squall accompanied with rain or hail. The surge surrounding Ajax is the heap of mangled victims, together with the horror which they symbolize. For the boldness of this image, cp. El. 733, κλύδων᾿ ἔφιππον ἐν μέσῳ κυκώμενον.

354-355. mvp-comment-254-1 'Alas! It is clear thou art too true a witness.' The chorus do not immediately respond to Ajax: but, being horror-struck at what they see, express their reflections on the situation to Tecmessa. The description she has given is only too true. The meaning of μαρτυρεῖν and the coldness of l. 355, as addressed to Ajax, prove this to be the right way of understanding the words.

355. mvp-comment-255-1 ὡς ἀφροντίστως ἔχει] (1) ‘How far he is from sane,' sc. ὁ Alas, replying to supr. 347. Or possibly (2), sc. τοὔργον, 'How little of sane thought is present in it.' 'Indeed, the fact declares that thought has had no part in what is done.' For the transference of a personal attribute from the agent to the act, cp. O. C. 240, 977, τό γ' ἆκον πρᾶγμα: Aesch. Ag. 1377, ἀγὼν . . οὐκ ἀφροντίστως. · Notandus euphemismus pro μανικῶς, Herm. Cp. Shak. King Lear, 4. 6. 81, 'The safer sense will ne'er accommodate | His master thus.'

356. mvp-comment-256-1 γένος .. τέχνας] Ο brother-band of helpers, who help by shipcraft.' ναΐας . τέχνας is a descriptive genitive explaining ἀρωγόν.

357. mvp-comment-257-1 'Who didst go on board the ship and ply' ( ἑλίσσων proleptic) 'the oar of the sea,' viz. in coming to Troy. A change in the MS. reading is necessary. Some prefer to read ὃς ἁλίαν .. ἔβας, 'Who camest plying,' etc. ναῦν, suggested by πλάταν, is to be supplied with ἐπέβας.

360. mvp-comment-258-1 (1) Ajax, although recovering his sanity, is still haunted by the impressions of the night, and the sight of the mariners reminds him of the shepherds, who had failed to defend the flock ( supr. 27,232). Begging for death from them, he bids them do what the shepherds could not. (Shak. Ant. and Cleo. 4. 14, 'Shall I do that which all the Parthian darts | Though enemy, lost aim, and could not?') 'In thee I behold the only shepherd to support the flock; come, lay me dead beside them!' This explanation has the advantage of supposing only one ellipse with both verbs, viz. τῇ ποίμνῃ. In this case μόνον ποιμένων is to be explained as an idiomatic expression, in which, as in μόνος τῶν ἄλλων, the privative word has a negative force: i.e. 'You, and not the shepherds, shall avenge the sheep.' Cp. Ant. 773, ἔρημος.. στίβος. (The sense might be made clearer by reading ποιμνίοις for ποιμένων.) Others (2) suppose 'shepherds' to be put figuratively for 'comforters,' or (3) take ποιμένων as gen. obj. = 'to defend thy lord.' Others conjecture πημονὰν ἐπαρκέσοντ᾽, πημονῶν ἔτ᾿ ἄρκος ὄντ᾽.

363. mvp-comment-259-1 'Do not (1) aggravate the blow of disaster;' or (2) 'Make the sorrow worse than the calamity.' For the whole sentence, cp. Thuc. 5. 65, κακὸν κακῷ ἱᾶσθαι: O. C. 438.

366. mvp-comment-260-1 'Redoubtable in valour amongst harmless beasts.' For ev, cp. infr. 1315, μᾶλλον ἢ ἐν ἐμοὶ θρασύς. The phrase ἀφόβοις θηρσί is clearly an oxymoron, but has been diversely explained either as (1) 'harmless' ( τοῖς μὴ φόβον ἐμο ποιοῦσι, Schol.), or (2) 'game that flies not' (' quibus sanus quisque parcit, non solum quia nihil periculi nobis creant sed etiam quia fidei nostrae confidunt,' Lobeck.) The former is more in point. Ajax had been valiant 'where no fear was.' His prey was even less glorious than the boar or lion, which, though not human, are still formidable.

367. mvp-comment-261-1 οἷον] Sc. γέλωτα. 'What insulting mockery has been heaped on me!'

369. mvp-comment-262-1 The sight of Tecmessa, whom he must abandon, provokes Ajax to new rage. He first breaks forth on her impatiently, and then laments aloud. In what follows he is regardless both of her and the chorus.

373. mvp-comment-263-1 ὃς χερὶ μέν] For the position of μέν, which belongs properly to the verb, see Essay on L. § 41. pp. 78,9. The instrumental dative is used, with a fore-feeling of the latter part of the sentence, for ἐκ χερός. Mr. Jebb understands Ajax to mean that 'he had let off the Greeks in respect of personal chastisement, and merely damaged them in property.' But this softens the antithesis too much. The difficulty may be avoided by reading (with Schndw.) ὃς χεροῖν, and προγύνων πάτερ in the antistrophe, l. 387.

375. mvp-comment-264-1 The epithets here are echoes of the epic style, but possibly with some variation of meaning. 'Goodly,' which is the meaning of κλυτός in such expressions as κλυτὰ μῆλα (Od. 9. 308), is not sufficiently pointed here, and the Scholiast may be right in saying κλυτὰ λέγει τὰ αἰπόλια διὰ τὰς ἐν αὐτοῖς ταραχὰς καὶ φωνάς. 'The horned kine and bleating herds of goats.'

376. mvp-comment-265-1 'I rained forth dark-flowing blood.' ἐρεμνόν is another Homeric epithet, not merely signifying 'dark' (and so recalling μέλαν αἷμα), but ' darkling,' with reference to the gloom of night and other circumstances of horror which surrounded the act.

377. mvp-comment-266-1 ὅπως οὐχ ὧδ᾽ ἔχειν] ὅπως is here simply an indefinite ὡs, and is construed with the infinitive as ὡς might have been.

379. mvp-comment-267-1 The former outburst was towards the Atreidae. He now breaks forth against Odysseus.

379. mvp-comment-267-2 πάνθ᾽ ὁρῶν] Cp. supr. 29, Phil. 1013, 4, ἀλλ᾿ ἡ κακὴ σὴδιὰ μυχῶν βλέπουσ᾽' ἀεὶ | ψυχή, κ.τ.λ.

381. mvp-comment-268-1 κακοπινέστατον.. ἄλημα στρατοῦ] 'Abominable misleader of the host.' So the Scholiast seems to understand the words, κακοπινέστατον, 'defiled,' i. e. by continual base practices. Musgrave suggested an allusion to the act of disguising himself as a wandering beggar mentioned in Od. 4. 242 foll., but preferred to derive ἄλημα (= παιπάλη) from ἀλέω. The earlier explanation is here preferable to both these, and in infr. 390, ἄλημα may quite well mean, 'cause of error' ( τῶν Ἑλλήνων, gl. Pal.). Cp. the causative use of ἄλη in Aesch. Ag. 195, δύσορμοι | βροτῶν ἄλαι. The error of which Ajax most complains is the misjudgment about the arms of Achilles.

382. mvp-comment-269-1 ἄγεις] 'Dost prolong.'

383. mvp-comment-270-1 ξὺν τῷ θεῷ] The article is not added to θεός elsewhere in Sophocles without special reason, and the conjecture of Schndw. ξύν τοι θεῷ supplies a article of connexion. But the asyndeton is rather impressive, and τῷ θεῷ may be explained 'the god who gives the laughter or the tears.' 'Laughter and sorrow are in the hands of God;' i. e. 'we must be patient and the position may be reversed.' The chorus reflect that the Divine power which now favours Odysseus and oppresses Ajax may hereafter work the opposite effect. Cp. Trach. 131 foll. ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ πῆμα καὶ χαρὰ | πᾶσι κυκλοῦσιν, οἷον | ἄρκτου στροφάδες κέλευθοι.

384. mvp-comment-271-1 The syllable which has been probably lost from this line has been variously restored, μέν, νῦν, μήν, etc., the Triclinian reading is harmless, and is followed in the text, in the absence of better MS. authority. Ajax prays to see his enemy, that, even ruined as he is, he may avenge himself. Cp. infr. 388-91, Trach. 1107 foll. ἀλλ᾽ εὖ γέ τοι τύδ᾽ ἴστε, κἂν τὸ μηδὲν ὦ, | κἂν μηδὲν ἔρπω, τὴν γε δράσασαν τάδε | χειρώσομαι κἀκ τῶνδε προσμόλοι μόνον, κ.τ.λ. This is more probable than an aposiopesis of ὀδυρόμενον.

384. mvp-comment-271-2 or the like, though this may be suggested by comparing Phil. 1113 foll. ἰδοίμαν δε νιν, | τὸν τάδε μησάμενον, τὸν ἴσον χρόνον | ἐμὰς λαχόντ᾽ ἀνίας.

387. mvp-comment-272-1 προγόνων προπάτωρ] Zeus was only the great-grandsire of Ajax, but the feeling of Sophocles and his age required that the Divine source should seem more remote. For similar vagueness in speaking of the past, cp. Ant. 981, 2, where σπέρμα. ἀρχαιογόνων | ἄντασ᾿ Ερεχθειδᾶν is said of the grand-daughter of Erechtheus. Also supr. 190.

390. mvp-comment-273-1 ὀλέσσας] The σ is doubled Epicè. Cp. Aesch. Pers. 864, ὅσσας δ' είλε πόλεις.

391. mvp-comment-274-1 τέλος θάνοιμι καὐτός] Ajax desires death, but death would be sweeter if he could first be avenged on his enemies. The feeling here is slightly different from Aesch. Choeph. 438, ἔπειτ' ἐγὼ νοσφίσας ὀλοίμαν, where the participle has an exclusive emphasis ('if I could only take their lives'), and there is no real desire of death.

394. mvp-comment-275-1 Ajax, who had once prayed for light, now prays for darkness as his only light.

396. mvp-comment-276-1 φαεννότατον, ὡς ἐμοί] Most brilliant, in my sight.' Cp. Ant. 1161, Κρέων γὰρ ἦν ζηλωτός, ὡς ἐμοί, ποτέ.

397. mvp-comment-277-1 ἕλεσθ᾽ ἔλεσθέ μ'] In the spirit of polytheism the two names σκότος and έρεβος are imagined to denote two beings. Hence the plural. For the middle voice, cp. Ο. Τ. 887, κακά νιν ἔλοιτο μοίρα.

399. mvp-comment-278-1 i. e. οὐκέτι γὰρ ἄξιός εἰμι βλέπειν οὔτε εἰς θεῶν γένος οὔτε εἰς ὄνασιν τινα ἁμερίων ἀνθρώπων. For the omission of the preposition in the former clause, cp. Ant. 789, 90, καί σ' οὔτ᾽ ἀθανάτων φύξιμος οὐδείς, | οὔθ᾽ ἁμερίων ἐπ᾿ ἀνθρώπων : and for βλέπειν εἰς, cp. Ant. 922, 3, τί χρή με τὴν δύστηνον εἰς θεοὺς ἔτι | βλέπειν; Others (see v. rr.) join τινὰ ἀνθρώπων, making εἰς ὅνασιν adverbial, and understand βλέπειν with the accusative to be equivalent to βλέπειν εἰς.

403. mvp-comment-279-1 †ὀλέθριον αἰκίζει] The MS. reading is unmetrical, unless on the somewhat forced supposition that εὔφρονες in the antistrophe may be scanned ἐύφρονες. Wunder conjectured οὔλιον, which restores the metre. But ούλιος is everywhere active, and we can hardly venture to introduce it passively here. All that can be said is that ὀλέθριον has probably taken the place of some equivalent word (such as πάμμορον), unless we may be satisfied with ὀλέθρι', the adverbial plural. Hermann's attempt to scan the two lines thus, ἀλκίμα θεὸς ὁ λέθριον αἰκίζει, -υ-νου-ου- is unusually violent.

404. mvp-comment-280-1 ποῖ . μενῶ] 'Whither shall I go and find rest?' The subjunctive in φύγῃ is excused by the implication of the first person in the third.

405. mvp-comment-281-1 The Scholion, διὰ (τὴν κατὰ L) τὴν κρίσιν τῶν ὅπλων, is not inconsistent with the reading in the text, which admits of being construed thus, 'Seeing that things here are perishing together with these victims by my side.' But the language is at once obscure and feeble, and the metre does not agree with the antistrophe. There must be something wrong. The general meaning is, 'I am finally ruined, and at this moment am involved in ridicule and disgrace.' The simplest change is to read τάδε μέν for τὰ μὲν (Elmsl.), and τίσις δ᾽ for τοῖσδ' (Lobeck), i. e. (405-8) εἰ τάδε μὲν φθίνει φίλοι, τίσις δ᾽ | ὁμοῦ πέλας: and (423-6) ἐξερέω μέγ' οἷον οὔτινα Τροία στρατοῦ. But even so, there is too much of repetition for a lyric passage, and it is reasonable to suppose some deeper corruption. For example, τοῖσδ᾽ ὁμοῦ may have grown out of πέλας, and this may be a corruption of πάλαι. Then supposing (with Schndw.) that στρατοῦ and ἀπό are excrescences in the antistrophe, we might read (405-8), εἰ τάδε μὲν φθίνει, φίλοι, πάλαι, | μώραις δ' ἄγραις προσκείμεθα, and (423-6), εξερέω μέγ', οἷον οὔτινα | Τροία χθονὸς δέρχθη μολόνθ' | etc. See note on l. 348. But nothing can be asserted confidently about this passage. For προσκείμεθα, cp. El. 1040, ᾧ σὺ πρόσκεισαι κακῷ.

408. mvp-comment-282-1 Cp. supr. 251. δίπαλτος] «With spears in both hands' - δύο δοῦρε παλλόμενοι. On this use of the adjective, see Essay on L. § 5.3. p. 98, also § 42. p. 80y; and cp. esp. El. 1494, κού πρόχειρος εἶ κτανεῖν: Aesch. Ag. 1652, πρόκωπος.. θανεῖν. ἂν.. φονεύοι] The sentence, although introduced with el, is continued independently of the hypothetical construction.

410. mvp-comment-283-1 χρήσιμον] 'Serviceable,' here answers to the Epic βοὴν ἀγαθός, ‘good at need.' The essential value of Ajax' services to the army is emphasized throughout. Cp. esp. supr. 119, 20.

413. mvp-comment-284-1 πόροι ἁλίρροθοι] 'Paths of the surging sea,' i. e. either generally, or with reference to the narrow seas of the Aegean, called πόντιαι αὐλῶνες in Trach. 100, which separated Ajax from his home; or, possibly, to the Hellespont, which had witnessed his exploits, and is called by Xerxes, in Hdt. 7.35, ἁλμυρὸς ποταμός. Cp. infr. 884, Aesch. Pers. 367.

414. mvp-comment-285-1 πάραλά τ᾽ ἄντρα, κ.τ.λ.] These were especially familiar to Ajax from his position at the end of the line towards Rhoeteum.

416. mvp-comment-286-1 ἀμπνοὰς ἔχοντα] i. e. 'If you keep me here, it will not be in life.'

417. mvp-comment-287-1 φρονῶν] ‘If he have sense to perceive.'

420. mvp-comment-288-1 εὔφρονες ᾿Αργείοις] i.e. 'Kind to me no longer, but to my enemies.' In a different mood he afterwards ( infr. 863) bids farewell to the rivers of Troy as his nurses.

424. mvp-comment-289-1 οἷον, κ.τ.λ.] In Homeric fashion Ajax boasts himself to be the bravest of the Greeks. Cp. II. 18. 104, 5, τοῖος ἐὼν οἷος οὔτις᾿ Ἀχαιῶν χαλκοχιτώνων | ἐν πολέμῳ. That he is the bravest next to Achilles is the Homeric tradition, and he is acknowledged to be so by his enemy Odysseus, infr. 1341. The arrangement of this part of the antistrophe must be adapted to the change made in the strophe. See note on 405 foll. For μέγα, cp. Pind. Nem. 6. 45, 6, ἔλπομαι μέγα εἰπὼν σκοποῦ ἄντα τυχεῖν.

425. mvp-comment-290-1 The hiatus after ἀπό at the end of the (lyric) iambic line is doubtful.

427. mvp-comment-291-1 The reading πρόκειται is not wholly impossible.

428. mvp-comment-292-1 οὔθ᾽ ὅπως] Elmsley would read οὐδ᾽, because there is no te preceding. But this is too strict.

430. mvp-comment-293-1 For a ῥῆσις similarly following μέλη ἀπὸ σκηνῆς, cp. El. 254 foll.; Trach. 1046 foll.; O. T. 1369 foll.; O. C. 258 foll. Ajax, in his solitude (for he hardly feels the presence of Tecmessa) in passing to a more collected mood, first utters the note of sadness, and then is struck by the correspondence of the repeated syllable with his own name. Many poets have observed how the mind in moments of intense feeling becomes engaged with trifles:- 'Strange, that the mind, when fraught With a passion so intense One would think that it well Might drown all life in the eye That it should, by being so overwrought, Suddenly strike on a sharper sense For a shell, or a flower, little things, Which else would have been past by.' TENNYSON's Maud. The cry of woe, alaî, sounds to Ajax like the reverberation of his name, and with the superstitious feeling which attached to words casually spoken, he dwells on the resemblance. 'Ay me! -Who ever could have thought that my name would thus be the appropriate expression for my woes?' Cp. esp. Fr. 877, ὀρθῶς δ' Ὀδυσσεύς εἰμ', ἐπώνυμος κακοῖς· | πολλοὶ γὰρ ὠδύσαντο δυσμενεῖς ἐμοί. And see Essay on L. § 44. p. 83, Lersch, Sprach-philosophie, vol. 3. pp. 3 foll. ἐπώνυμον supplements the predication of ξυνοίσειν, 'Agree in the way of naming.' (The conj. ξυνάσειν, although ingenious, is quite unnecessary.)

432. mvp-comment-294-1 δίς refers to the repetition of the syllable in alaῖ.

433. mvp-comment-295-1 τοιούτοις] Sc. ὥστε πρέπον εἶναι πολλάκις αἰάζειν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς.

434. mvp-comment-296-1 ὅτου] For this pathetic use of ὅστις, cp. esp. Ο.Τ. 1184, ὅστις πέφασμαι, κ.τ.λ. The clauses with μέν and dé do not quite correspond. In l. 437 the sentence passes out of the relative construction.

435. mvp-comment-297-1 'Having won from all the host by his supreme valour the fairest prize.' καλλιστεία can hardly be taken as equivalent to ἀριστεῖα. It is probably used with an inaccurate sense of its derivation from κάλλιστος: - i. e. 'the prize of beauty' is understood to mean, not the prize given to the most beautiful, but the most beautiful given as a prize. The accusative is cognate after ἀριστεύσας, i.e. ἀριστεύσας κάλλιστα ἀριστεία. Cp. Eur. Phoen. 214, 5, πόλεος ἐκπροκριθεῖσ᾽ ἐμᾶς | καλλιστεύματα Λοξία.

437. mvp-comment-298-1 The bisected line following the smooth preceding verses has a grating effect, which is here expressive.

438. mvp-comment-299-1 For the genitive Τροίας, see E. on L. § 10. p. 17, 6. ἐπελθών] 'Coming in my turn.'

438. mvp-comment-299-2 οὐκ ἐλάσσονι σθένει] In saying that he was not less in might or in achievements than Telamon, Ajax has the same feeling that is expressed by Sthenelus in the Iliad, 4. 405, ἡμεῖς τοι πατέρων μέγ᾿ ἀμείνονες εὐχόμεθ᾽ εἶναι.

439. mvp-comment-300-1 ἀρκέσας] «Having achieved.' In Thuc. 2. 47, οὔτε γὰρ ἰατροὶ ἤρκουν θεραπεύοντες ἀγνοίᾳ, ἀρκεῖν is used absolutely 'to avail.' Here in the same sense it takes a 'cognate' accusative of that in which effort is successful. Cp. infr. 535, τοῦτό γ᾽ ἀρκέσαι : Aesch. Pers. 278, οὐδὲν γὰρ ἤρκει τόξα.

440. mvp-comment-301-1 The dative is to be joined with ἄτιμος, = πρὸς ᾿Αργείων and ἐν ᾿Αργείοις. The Argives are at once the agents and the witnesses of Ajax' dishonour. His mind reverts to the critical moment- the judgment of the arms.

442-443. mvp-comment-302-1 'Were Achilles alive, and had he to decide the question of his arms and to adjudge the meed of valour to some one.'

444. mvp-comment-303-1 αὔτ᾽] αὐτά. ἔμαρψεν] "Grasped.' The vivid word expresses Ajax' sense of his right to the arms, and of the violent usurpation of Odysseus. ἄλλος ἀντ᾿ ἐμοῦ] · Another and not I.' Essay on L. § 40. p. 75, 5.

445. mvp-comment-304-1 φωτί παντουργῷ φρένας] « Το an all-accomplished rogue.' Although παντουργῷ is said contemptuously, it is not necessary to suppose that it has all the associations of πανουργός. φρένας has probably an emphasis in opposition to κράτη in l. 446. Ajax speaks with scorn of those varied mental resources of which he does not feel the need.

446. mvp-comment-305-1 ἔπραξαν] «Made them over,' or, as we say in common parlance. 'jobbed them.' πράσσειν often means to 'intrigue' in a bad sense. Cp. esp. O. T. 124, 5, εἴ τι μὴ ξὺν ἀργυρῷ ἐπράσσετ' ἐνθένδ', and note. ἀπώσαντες] 'Setting aside my deeds of valour,' i. e. rejecting from consideration my valiant services.

447-448. mvp-comment-306-1 διάστροφοι | γνώμης ἀπῇξαν] 'Started aside from my purpose.' διάστροφοι is (1) supplem. predicate, or perhaps (2) = διάστροφοι οὖσαι. Ср. supr. 258.

449. mvp-comment-307-1 ἐψήφισαν] 'Determined by vote.' The judges would be said ψηφίζεσθαι, 'to give their votes.' The generals, who conducted the voting, are said ψηφίζειν, 'to manage by votes,' as Menelaus is accused of having done dishonestly, infr. 1135. On rare uses of the active voice in Soph., see Essay on L. § 30. p. 516; § 53. p. 98.

450. mvp-comment-308-1 Instead of γλαυκώπις, the usual epithet for Athena, Ajax resentfully uses γοργῶπις, with some recollection of the grim appearance of the goddess as she hounded him to the mad onset, supr. 59, 60. ἀδάματος is 'invincible,' not merely 'unwedded,' though the latter notion may be contained in the word.

451. mvp-comment-309-1 ἐπευθύνοντ'] 'In act of stretching forth.' Ajax ( supr. 49) was at the tent-door of the Atreidae, and had little more to do than to stretch out his hand. The v. r. ἐπεντύνοντα would mean 'arming,' but he was already armed. ἐπεντείνοντα is better, but is probably a correction of ἐπεντύνοντ',

453. mvp-comment-310-1 τοιοίσδε is said with a rueful glance at the slaughtered animals, which in his delirium he had taken for his enemies.

455. mvp-comment-311-1 ἐμοῦ μὲν οὐχ ἑκόντος] ‘Not with my will, indeed.' The will of Ajax is not crushed. He still protests against the Providence that has spared his foes, whom he regards as his inferiors, though they have triumphed.

457-458. mvp-comment-312-1 ὅστις.. ἐχθαίρομαι] We are afterwards informed, infr. 756, that the Divine anger against Ajax is not permanent. For ὅστις, without distinct antecedent, see Essay on L. § 39. p. 72, 2.

459. mvp-comment-313-1 πεδία τάδε] Above all, for last night's violence.

461. mvp-comment-314-1 μόνους τ' ᾿Ατρείδας] 'And (leaving) the Atreidae to fight alone,' i. e. unsupported by Ajax, whose valour outweighs all others.

462. mvp-comment-315-1 καί] 'Then,' 'in that case.' καί here introduces an objection, as in καὶ πῶς; Cp. esp. Ant. 449, καὶ δῆτ᾽ ἐτόλμας τούσδ᾽ ὑπερβαίνειν νόμους; ποῖον ὄμμα.. Τελαμώνι] • How shall I come before my father Telamon, and meet his eye?' As in O. Τ. 1371, ὄμμασιν ποίοις, the adjective has an adverbial force.

464. mvp-comment-316-1 γυμνὸν .. ἄτερ] For the pleonasm, see Essay on L. § 40. p. 75, 5.

465. mvp-comment-317-1 'Which he won for a glorious garland of renown.' ὧν is an appositional genitive. Essay on L. § 10. p. 17, 6.

466. mvp-comment-318-1 ἀλλὰ δῆτ'] Cp. Phil. 1352, ἀλλ᾽ εἰκάθω δῆτα;

467. mvp-comment-319-1 μόνος μόνοις] 'In single opposition' = οἰόθεν οἷος. The word is repeated for emphasis, without weighing the exact meaning. E. on L. § 44. p. 83 foll. Cp. Shak. Cor. 1. 4. 'He is himself alone, | To answer all the city.'

469. mvp-comment-320-1 Ajax, who has withdrawn from battle out of resentment against the Atreidae, cannot stultify himself in his last act of all.

471. mvp-comment-321-1 τοιάδ᾽, ἀφ᾿ ἧς] Cp. Phil. 17, τοιάδ᾽, ἵν᾽ ἐν ψύχει, κ.τ.λ.

472. mvp-comment-322-1 The use of μή is occasioned by the notion of purpose which pervades the sentence. φύσιν γ'] 'In my real nature,' though I am a craven in their estimation who have placed me beneath Odysseus. For similar emphatic use of φύσιν, cp. O. C. 270, πῶς ἐγὼ κακὸς φύσιν;

473. mvp-comment-323-1 He has sufficiently indicated his intention of suicide, and now gives his reason for it. τοῦ μακροῦ.. βίου] The article is added as with words of number or quantity. Cp. Ο. Τ. 518, βίου τοῦ μακραίωνος, and for the sentiment, Fr. 867, ὅστις γὰρ ἐν κακοῖσιν ἱμείρει βίου, ἢ δειλός ἐστιν ἡ δυσάλγητος φρένας : Plato, Phaedo 117 Α, γέλωτα ὀφλήσειν παρ᾿ ἐμαυτῷ, γλιχόμενος τοῦ ζῆν καὶ φειδόμενος, οὐδενὸς ἔτι ἐνόντος.

474. mvp-comment-324-1 'Who in a life of evils finds no release from them.' κακοῖσιν is dative of circumstance. (E. on L. § 14. p. 20 a.) Cp. Eur. Suppl. 1042, τοῖς παρεστῶσιν κακοῖς. ἐξαλλάσσεται, sc. τῶν κακῶν.

475-476. mvp-comment-325-1 'For what pleasure is there in day following day? Can it add to or take away anything from death?' For the variation in παρ᾽ ἦμαρ ἡμέρα, cp. Ant. 596, γενεὰν γένος : Eur. Hec. 410, παρείαν .. παρηΐδι. The meaning is not here alternate days, but 'day after day,' i. e. the extension of time, 'To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow.' Cp. Shak. J. C. 3. 1, 'That we shall die, we know: 'tis but the time And drawing days out, that men stand upon.' τὸ κατθανεῖν is the fact, i.e. the certainty of death. The opposites προσθεῖσα κάν-αθεῖσα are both mentioned, although the latter only is in point. For this, cp. Ant. 39, λύουσ᾽ ἂν ἡ 'φάπτουσα; and for the disjunctive καί, Thuc. 5. 23, ἣν δέ τι δοκῇ.. προσθεῖναι καὶ ἀφελεῖν. For the meaning, cp. 'Come he slow or come he fast, It is but Death that comes at last.' Sir W. Sсотт, Lord of the Isles. Also El. 1485, 6, τί γὰρ βροτῶν ἂν σὺν κακοῖς μεμιγμένων | θνήσκων ὁ μέλλων τοῦ χρόνου κέρδος φέροι; As in Pind. Οl. 7. 110, ἂμ πάλον μέλλεν θέμεν, ἀνατιθέναι is here used in the sense of 'to retract,' in which ἀνατίθεσθαι often occurs. The absence of personal reference accounts for the active voice being preferred to the middle, as in supr. 449, ἐψήφισαν: infr. 1037, μηχανᾶν. Essay on L. § 31. p. 51 6. τί (or τι) is to be resumed with the second clause, 'What pleasure can time give, by retracting what (or anything)?' Other explanations of these difficult lines are the following :-(1) 'What joy can one day bring more than another, since it can only (ye) bring a man near to death and then reprieve him from it?' (2) 'What joy is brought by day succeeding day, since all that it can do is to add something of death or to defer it?' (3) 'What joy is there in days which alternately bring near and defer the doom of death?'

477. mvp-comment-326-1 οὐδενὸς λόγου] ‘At any valuation.'

478. mvp-comment-327-1 κεναῖσιν] 'Vain, because rendered fruitless by the certainty of death.'

479. mvp-comment-328-1 Cp. Il. 15. 511, where Ajax says, βέλτερον ἢ ἀπολέσθαι ἕνα χρόνον ἠὲ βιῶναι.

481. mvp-comment-329-1 ὑπόβλητον] 'False,' i.e. unreal and not your own. Supr. 189, εἰ δ᾽ ὑποβαλλόμενοι | κλέπτουσι μύθους, κ.τ.λ.

482. mvp-comment-330-1 ἀλλὰ τῆς σαυτοῦ φρενός] 'But one proceeding from your inmost thought.'

484. mvp-comment-331-1 γνώμης κρατήσαι] 'To overrule thy purpose.' Cp. supr. 448, γνώμης ἀπῇξαν τῆς ἐμῆς. In Phil. 972, δούς is used absolutely with dat. of the person for 'yielding to advice.' Cp. Trach. 1117, δός μοι σεαυτόν.

485. mvp-comment-332-1 This speech of Tecmessa's has a certain general resemblance to that of Andromache in Il. 6. 407 foll. τῆς ἀναγκαίας τύχης] 'Helpless misfortune.' ἀναγκαία τύχη is the crushing calamity that leaves its victim no chance of extricating himself. The phrase is touchingly expressive of Tecmessa's orphaned and captive state.

488. mvp-comment-333-1 εἴπερ τινός] The hypothetical clause εἴπερ τις is attracted, as a sort of pronoun, into the construction of the clause on which it depends. See E. on L. § 35. p. 60, and cp. ἔνιοι. So in O. C. 734, σθένουσαν.. εἴ τιν' Ἑλλάδος. For σθένοντος ἐν πλούτῳ, cp. Pind. Isthm. 3. 2, σθένει πλούτου; Eur. Εl. 939.

489. mvp-comment-334-1 που] 'I suppose.'

490. mvp-comment-335-1 μάλιστα] 'Above all.' The power of Ajax is more manifest to Tecmessa than that of the gods themselves, and she has learnt to adopt something of his bold way of speaking about them. Cp. infr. 950-3. She knows, too, that it is dangerous in his presence to acknowledge the gods as supreme over him. Cp. infr. 589, 90.

491. mvp-comment-336-1 τὸ σὸν λέχος ξυνῆλθον] Sc. σοί implied in τὸ σόν. 'Since I came to wedlock with thee.' εὐ φρονῶ τὰ σά] 'My thoughts are wholly for thy good.' As she is one with him, she feels that she has a right to speak of what concerns them both.

492-493. mvp-comment-337-1 πρός τ᾽ ἐφεστίου Διὸς | εὐνῆς τε τῆς σῆς] « By Zeus who has watched over our hearth, and by my union with thee.' Tecmessa's claim rests (1) on her having been admitted by Ajax himself to share his home; (2) on the yet closer tie which binds them together.

493. mvp-comment-338-1 'And by thy marriage bed wherein thou wast joined with me.' For τῆς σῆς, cp. Il. 18. 433; Od. 4. 333. ξυναλλάξασθαι is here 'to enter upon a new relation with.' Cp. especially Eur. Ι. Α. 1157, οὗ σοι καταλλαχθεῖσα, κ.τ.λ.

494. mvp-comment-339-1 μή μ᾿ ἀξιώσῃς] 'Have more regard for me than to let me.' βάξιν] For βάζειν, of ill-natured talk, cp. Hes. Op. 184, τοὺς δ᾽ ἄρα μέμψονται χαλεποῖς βάζοντες ἔπεσσι: (Eur.) Rhes. 718, ἑστίαν ᾿Ατρειδᾶν κακῶς | ἔβαζε.

495. mvp-comment-340-1 χειρίαν ἐφεὶς τινί] 'Letting me fall under the hand of some one.' Cp. infr. 1297, ἐφῆκεν ἐλλοῖς ἰχθύσιν διαφθοράν.

496. mvp-comment-341-1 εἰ γὰρ θάνῃς σύ] Cp. Ο. C. 1443, εἴ σου στερηθῶ. Some editors have unnecessarily changed ei to ᾖ. For ταύτῃ, in l. 497, without pronominal correlative, cp. Trach. 719, 20, κεῖνος εἰ σφαλήσεται, | ταύτῃ σὺν ὁρμῇ κἀμὲ συνθανεῖν ἅμα. The slight inexactness is here supplemented by the addition of τῇ τότε. ἀφῆς] Sc. ἡμᾶς.

499. mvp-comment-342-1 δουλίαν .. τροφήν] 'The life of slaves.' For the condition of the captive widow, cp. Od. 8. 526 foll. ἡ μὲν τὸν θνήσκοντα καὶ ἀσπαίροντ᾽ ἐσιδοῦσα, | ἀμφ᾿ αὐτῷ χυμένη λίγα κωκύει· οἱ δὲ τ' ὄπισθεν | κόπτοντες δούρεσσι μετάφρενον ἠδὲ καὶ ὤμους, | εἴρερον εἰσανάγουσι πόνον τ' ἐχέμεν καὶ ὀϊζύν· | τῆς δ᾽ ἐλεεινοτάτῳ ἄχεῖ φθινύθουσι παρειαί, and for that of the orphan, Il. 22. 490, ἦμαρ δ᾽ ὀρφανικὸν παναφήλικα, κ.τ.λ.

500. mvp-comment-343-1 πρόσφθεγμα here is what is spoken not to, but at or about a person.

501. mvp-comment-344-1 λόγοις ἰάπτων] 'Hitting with sharp words.' The construction follows the analogy of βάλλειν τινὰ λίθῳ.

502. mvp-comment-345-1 μέγιστον ἴσχυσε] 'Surpassed all men in might.' So the force of the aorist may be expressed.

503. mvp-comment-346-1 οἷας λατρείας] 'What a life of servitude.' The plural indicates the various menial actions included in λατρείας. ἀνθ᾽ ὅσου ζήλου] 'Instead of being so envied as she was.' ζῆλος in the sense of an envied condition occurs several times in Demosthenes. See L. and S. s. v.

504. mvp-comment-347-1 κἀμὲ μὲν δαίμων ἐλᾷ] ‘And I indeed shall go whither destiny shall drive me.' Tecmessa means to say that her lot, however terrible, matters little, but that the honour of Ajax and his race is in question.

508. mvp-comment-348-1 κληρούχον] 'Inheritress,' i. e. possessor. The specific word is used with a generic meaning. Essay on L. §52. p. 97.

510. mvp-comment-349-1 εἰ] 'To think how.' Essay on L. § 28. p. 46.

510-511. mvp-comment-350-1 νέας.. μόνος] ‘With his young life uncared for, bereaved of you, either (1) 'he will live his life' (see L. and S. s. v. διαφέρω), or (2) ‘he will be torn in pieces' (= διαφορηθήσεται). Against (1), which is the Scholiast's and Musgrave's interpretation, it may be urged that ὑπ᾿ ὀρφανιστῶν = ' at the mercy of guardians,' is rather abrupt after διοίσεται in this sense, and that the only authority for this use of the middle voice of διαφέρω is Hippocrates, Art. 823: against (2), which is substantially Hermann's, it can only be said that strictly passive uses of οἴσομαι are rare. Hesychius and the ancient scholiast support (1). For (2) cp. Dem. contr. Steph. p. 1120, 64, ἐπειδὴ δ᾽ ἀπώλετ᾽ ἐκεῖνος, οὐχ ἥκιστα ὑπὸ τούτου καὶ τῶν τοιούτων διαφορηθείς. For νέα τροφή, cp. Ο. C. 345, 6, ἐξ ὅτου νέας | τροφῆς ἔληξε καὶ κατίσχυσεν δέμας.

512. mvp-comment-351-1 ὑπ᾿ ὀρφανιστῶν μὴ φίλων] Tecmessa bitterly remarks that the only guardians of Eurysaces' orphanhood will not be true guardians, but enemies. ὅσον κακόν, κ.τ.λ.] These words resume the suppressed antecedent of the hypothetical clause, εἰ νέας, κ.τ.λ.

516. mvp-comment-352-1 'And another doom,' etc.; i.e. they were not slain in the destruction of the city. Cp. II. 6. 428. The correction from καὶ μητέρ᾽ ἀλλ᾽ ἡ το καὶ μητέρ᾽ ἄλλη, is not without MS. authority, and is every way necessary; above all as Sophocles thus avoids making Ajax the slayer of Tecmessa's parents. But Hermann's suggestion that a line may have dropped out between 515 and 516, deserves consideration. As he points out, dé rather than καί would seem to be the natural conjunction as the sentence stands.

517. mvp-comment-353-1 θανασίμους is proleptic: 'Laid them low in death and made them inhabitants of the unseen world.'

518-519. mvp-comment-354-1 τίς . . πλοῦτος] « What home or what wealth could be mine instead of you?'

518. mvp-comment-355-1 can e'er be mine to compensate for thee? What fortune?'

519. mvp-comment-356-1 ἐν σοὶ πᾶσ᾽ ἔγωγε σώζομαι] 'My hopes all rest on thee.' For this use of wâs, see Essay on L. § 23. p. 38; and cp. supr. 275.

520. mvp-comment-357-1 Tecmessa, from l. 505 onwards, has tried to put herself out of sight, and to move Ajax by appealing to other interests. But in concluding she returns to the direct personal appeal with which she began. And when this fails to rouse him, she even ventures a word of affectionate reproach.

525-526. mvp-comment-358-1 For av repeated, see Essay on L. § 27. p. 46 e.

527-528. mvp-comment-359-1 The alliteration with T helps to express harshness here. Ajax will not own to feeling pity for Tecmessa, but catches at the word αἰνοίης.

528. mvp-comment-360-1 ἐὰν.. τολμᾷ] Ajax is not thinking of the fears which Tecmessa presently expresses. He simply means, 'I am ready enough to praise her if instead of weak complaints she will bring herself to do what I command.'

531. mvp-comment-361-1 'Oh, it was in my terror-I conveyed him out of the way.' Tecmessa is divided between obedience and fear, and interposes an excuse. The particles, καὶ μὴν.. γε, call attention to something which tends to limit or delay compliance. 'Why, so I can, Sir, but-' (Othello, 3. 4). Cp. Ο. Τ. 749, καὶ μὴν ὀκνῶ μέν: infr. 539.

532. mvp-comment-362-1 By using the general word κακοῖσιν, Ajax avoids specifying the evil, which is too manifest. τί μοι λέγεις;] 'What mean you, pray?' Cp. O. T. 954, τί μοι λέγει; μοι here expresses impatience.

533. mvp-comment-363-1 Tecmessa cannot withhold the truth from Ajax. Cp. supr. 315.

534. mvp-comment-364-1 'That truly would have been in character with my destiny.' The descriptive genitive (= πρὸς δαίμονος τουμοῦ) takes the place of the more usual dative after the participle. Cp. Plat. Polit. 271 Ε, τῆς τοιαύτης .. κατακοσμήσεως ἑπόμενα.

535. mvp-comment-365-1 'Well, my watchfulness did that service at any rate.' Join τοῦτο with ἀρκέσαι, ἱ.ε. τὸ μὴ θανεῖν σφε.

536. mvp-comment-366-1 ἐπῄνεσ'] For this use of the aorist, see Essay on L. § 32, 6. p. 55. Ajax still speaks as a master to a slave, but he feels to the full extent the service rendered in saving the life of his son.

537. mvp-comment-367-1 Tecmessa remains irresolute, till, in 540, Ajax' anger begins to rise.