Sophocles Ajax 165

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

mvp-comment-175-2 φρονοῦντας ² βλέποντας ³ κακοῖς ⁴

mvp-comment-176-1 κἀνέπνευσε ⁵ ἔληξε ⁶

mvp-comment-177-1 Instead of κεῖνος ⁷

mvp-comment-177-2 πᾶς ⁸

mvp-comment-177-3 ἐλήλαται ⁹

mvp-comment-178-1 ἆῤ ¹⁰

mvp-comment-178-2 δὶς τός’ ¹¹ ἐξ ἁπλῶν ¹²

mvp-comment-179-1 δέδοικα μὴ … ἥκῃ ¹³ ἥκει ¹⁴ ἥκῃ ¹⁵ ἥκοι ¹⁶

mvp-comment-179-2 πῶς γάρ ¹⁷

mvp-comment-179-3 εἰ πεπαυμένος ¹⁸

mvp-comment-179-4 μηδέν τι ¹⁹

mvp-comment-180-1 ὡς ὧδ’ ἐχόντων ²⁰

mvp-comment-181-1 τίς γάρ ²¹

mvp-comment-181-2 προσέπτατο ²²

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 ²³ δήλωσον ²⁴ τύχαις ²⁵ ξυναλγοῦσιν ²⁶

mvp-comment-182-1 κεῖνος γὰρ ²⁷

mvp-comment-182-2 ἄκρας νυκτός ²⁸

mvp-comment-183-1 λαμπτῆρες ²⁹

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 ³⁰

mvp-comment-184-2 ἐξόδους ἕρπειν ³¹

mvp-comment-184-3 κενάς ³²

mvp-comment-185-1 The general word, ἄκλητος ³³ οὔτε ³⁴

mvp-comment-185-2 ἀφορμᾷς ³⁵ πεῖραν ³⁶

mvp-comment-185-3 σάλπιγγος ³⁷

mvp-comment-185-4 πᾶς εὕδει στρατός ³⁸

mvp-comment-186-1 ὑμνούμενα ³⁹

mvp-comment-186-2 γυναιξὶ ⁴⁰

mvp-comment-186-3 κόσμον ⁴¹

mvp-comment-187-1 μαθοῦς’ ⁴²

mvp-comment-187-2 ἐσσύθη ⁴³

mvp-comment-188-1 τὰς ἐκεῖ … πάθας ⁴⁴ τύχας ⁴⁵

mvp-comment-189-1 κύνας βοτῆρας ⁴⁶

mvp-comment-189-2 εὔερον ⁴⁷ εύκερων ⁴⁸

mvp-comment-190-1 ηὐχένιζε ⁴⁹

mvp-comment-190-2 ἄνω τρέπων ⁵⁰

mvp-comment-190-3 ἔσφαζε ⁵¹

mvp-comment-190-4 κἀρράχιζε ⁵²

mvp-comment-190-5 δεσμίους ⁵³

mvp-comment-190-6 ὥστε ⁵⁴

mvp-comment-190-7 φῶτας ⁵⁵

mvp-comment-191-1 ὑπᾴξας ⁵⁶ ἀπᾴξας ⁵⁷ ἐπᾴξας ⁵⁸

mvp-comment-191-2 σκιᾷ τινὶ ⁵⁹

mvp-comment-191-3 λόγους ἀνέσπα ⁶⁰

mvp-comment-191-4 Ἀτρειδῶν κάτα ⁶¹

mvp-comment-192-1 ἀμφ’ Ὀδυσσεῖ ⁶²

mvp-comment-192-2 συντιθεὶς γέλων πολύν ⁶³

mvp-comment-192-3 γέλων ⁶⁴ τ ⁶⁵

mvp-comment-193-1 ὕβριν ⁶⁶

mvp-comment-193-2 ἐκτείσαιτο ⁶⁷ ἐκτείσοιτο ⁶⁸ αὐτῶν ⁶⁹

mvp-comment-193-3 ἰών ⁷⁰

mvp-comment-194-1 ἐπᾴξας ⁷¹ ἀπᾴξας ⁷²

mvp-comment-194-2 αὖθις … πάλιν ⁷³

mvp-comment-195-1 μόλις πως ⁷⁴

mvp-comment-196-1 ἄτης ⁷⁵

mvp-comment-197-1 )θώϋξεν ⁷⁶

mvp-comment-197-2 ἐρειπίοις ⁷⁷ νεκρῶν ⁷⁸ ἀρνείου φόνου ⁷⁹

mvp-comment-197-3 ἐρειφθεὶς ⁸⁰ ἐρεισθεὶς ⁸¹ ἐρειφθεὶς ⁸² ἐρειπίοις ⁸³

mvp-comment-198-1 ἀπρὶξ … συλλαβὼν ⁸⁴

mvp-comment-198-2 ὄνυξι … χερί ⁸⁵

mvp-comment-199-1 καὶ τὸν μὲν ἧστο πλεῖστον ⁸⁶

mvp-comment-200-1 τὰ δείν’ … ἔπη ⁸⁷

mvp-comment-201-1 φανοίην ⁸⁸ ιη ⁸⁹

mvp-comment-202-1 ἐν τῷ πράγματος ⁹⁰

mvp-comment-203-1 The words κἀγώ, φίλοι, δείσασα ⁹¹

mvp-comment-204-1 πρὸς γὰρ κακοῦ τε ⁹²

mvp-comment-204-2 βαρυψύχου ⁹³

mvp-comment-204-3 ἐξηγεῖτ’ ⁹⁴

mvp-comment-205-1 ἀψόφητος … κωκυμάτων ⁹⁵ ὑπεστέναζε ⁹⁶

mvp-comment-205-2 ὀξέων ⁹⁷

mvp-comment-205-3 ταῦρος ὣς βρυχώμενος ⁹⁸ βριμώμενος ⁹⁹

mvp-comment-206-1 νῦν δ’ ¹⁰⁰

mvp-comment-207-1 ἄσιτος ¹⁰¹

mvp-comment-207-2 σιδηροκμῆσιν ¹⁰²

mvp-comment-208-1 ὥς τι δρασείων ¹⁰³

mvp-comment-208-2 δρασείων ¹⁰⁴

mvp-comment-209-1 τοιαῦτα ¹⁰⁵ πως ¹⁰⁶

mvp-comment-209-2 καὶ λέγει κὠδύρεται ¹⁰⁷ ἥσυχος ¹⁰⁸

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 ¹⁰⁹

mvp-comment-210-2 εἰσελθόντες ¹¹⁰

mvp-comment-211-1 λόγοις ¹¹¹ φίλοι ¹¹²

mvp-comment-212-1 Τελεύταντος ¹¹³

mvp-comment-212-2 ἡμῖν ¹¹⁴ λέγεις ¹¹⁵

mvp-comment-212-3 διαπεφοιβάσθαι ¹¹⁶ κακοῖς ¹¹⁷

mvp-comment-213-1 ἰώ μοί μοι ¹¹⁸

mvp-comment-214-1 μᾶλλον ¹¹⁹

mvp-comment-214-2 ἢ οὐκ ¹²⁰

mvp-comment-214-3 Αἴαντος, οἵαν ¹²¹ θωΰσσει ¹²²

mvp-comment-215-1 τοῖς πάλαι νοσήμασι ξυνοῦσι ¹²³ ξυνοῦσι ¹²⁴

mvp-comment-215-2 παρών ¹²⁵

mvp-comment-216-1 ἰὼ παῖ παῖ ¹²⁶ Τεῦκρον καλῶ ¹²⁷

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’ ¹²⁸

mvp-comment-217-2 Εὐρύσακες ¹²⁹

mvp-comment-217-3 ἀμφὶ σοὶ ¹³⁰

mvp-comment-217-4 ποῦ ποτ’ εἶ ¹³¹

mvp-comment-218-1 Τεῦκρον ¹³²

mvp-comment-218-2 τὸν εἰσαεὶ … χρόνον ¹³³ λεηλατήσει ¹³⁴

mvp-comment-219-1 ἀνοίγετε ¹³⁵

mvp-comment-219-2 αἰδῶ … λάβοι ¹³⁶

mvp-comment-219-3 κἀπ’ ἐμοὶ ¹³⁷ βλέψας ¹³⁸

mvp-comment-220-1 διοίγω ¹³⁹

mvp-comment-220-2 πράγη ¹⁴⁰

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 ¹⁴¹

mvp-comment-221-4 ἐμμένοντες ¹⁴²

mvp-comment-221-5 ὀρθῷ νόμῳ ¹⁴³

mvp-comment-222-1 ἴδεσθέ μ’ ¹⁴⁴

mvp-comment-222-2 κῦμα ¹⁴⁵ ζάλης ¹⁴⁶ φοινίας ¹⁴⁷

mvp-comment-222-3 ἀμφίδρομον ¹⁴⁸ κυκλεῖται ¹⁴⁹ κυκλοῦται ¹⁵⁰

mvp-comment-223-1 οἴμ’ ¹⁵¹

mvp-comment-223-2 ἀφροντίστως ἔχει ¹⁵²

mvp-comment-224-1 ναΐας ἀρωγὸν τέχνας ¹⁵³

mvp-comment-225-1 ἅλιον ὃς ἐπέβας ¹⁵⁴ ἁλίαν ὃς ἐπέβας ¹⁵⁵ ὃς ἁλίαν ἔβας ¹⁵⁶

mvp-comment-225-2 ὃς ¹⁵⁷ γένος ¹⁵⁸

mvp-comment-225-3 ἐπέβας ¹⁵⁹

mvp-comment-225-4 ἐλίσσων ¹⁶⁰

mvp-comment-226-1 πημονὰν ἐπαρκέσοντ’ ¹⁶¹ ἀπαρκέσοντ’ ¹⁶²

mvp-comment-226-2 The traditional reading ποιμένων ¹⁶³ πημονὰν ¹⁶⁴

mvp-comment-227-1 ἀλλά ¹⁶⁵ με ¹⁶⁶

mvp-comment-227-2 συνδάϊξον ¹⁶⁷

mvp-comment-228-1 εὔφημα φώνει ¹⁶⁸ κακὸν κακῷ διδοὺς ἄκος ¹⁶⁹ τὸ πῆμα τῆς ἄτης ¹⁷⁰

mvp-comment-229-1 θρασύν ¹⁷¹ εὐκάρδιον ¹⁷² ἄτρεστον ¹⁷³

mvp-comment-230-1 ἀφόβοις ¹⁷⁴

mvp-comment-230-2 δεινὸν χέρας ¹⁷⁵

mvp-comment-231-1 οἴμοι γέλωτος ¹⁷⁶

mvp-comment-232-1 δέσποτ’ ¹⁷⁷

mvp-comment-233-1 οὐκ ἐκτός; οὐκ ἄψορρον ¹⁷⁸ οὐκ ἐκτὸς ἄψορρον ἐκνεμεῖ πόδα ¹⁷⁹

mvp-comment-233-2 For ἐκτὸς ¹⁸⁰

mvp-comment-233-3 ἄψορρον ¹⁸¹

mvp-comment-233-4 ἐκνεμεῖ ¹⁸² ἐκνεμεῖς ¹⁸³

mvp-comment-234-1 ὦ πρὸς θεῶν ¹⁸⁴

mvp-comment-235-1 ὢ δύσμορος ¹⁸⁵

mvp-comment-235-2 ὃς ¹⁸⁶

mvp-comment-235-3 χερὶ μὲν μεθῆκα ¹⁸⁷ χερὶ ¹⁸⁸

mvp-comment-235-4 τοὺς ἀλάστορας ¹⁸⁹

mvp-comment-235-5 κλυτοῖς ¹⁹⁰

mvp-comment-235-6 αἰπολίοις ¹⁹¹

mvp-comment-235-7 ἐρεμνὸν ¹⁹²

mvp-comment-235-8 αἷμ’ ἔδευσα ¹⁹³

mvp-comment-236-1 ἐπ’ ἐξειργασμένοις ¹⁹⁴

mvp-comment-236-2 οὐ γὰρ γένοιτ’ ἂν ¹⁹⁵ ὅπως ¹⁹⁶

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

(n.).

mvp-comment-237-1 πάνθ’ ὁρῶν ¹⁹⁷

mvp-comment-237-2 ἁπάντων τ’ ¹⁹⁸ τ’ ¹⁹⁹ δ’ ²⁰⁰ δ’ ²⁰¹

mvp-comment-237-3 κακῶν ὄργανον ²⁰²

mvp-comment-238-1 ἄλημα ²⁰³

mvp-comment-239-1 ἦ που ²⁰⁴

mvp-comment-239-2 ἄγεις ²⁰⁵

mvp-comment-240-1 ξὺν τῷ θεῷ ²⁰⁶

mvp-comment-240-2 ἵδοιμι ²⁰⁷

mvp-comment-241-1 μηδὲν· μέγ’ εἴπῃς ²⁰⁸

mvp-comment-242-1 προπάτωρ ²⁰⁹ πάτερ ²¹⁰ χεροῖν ²¹¹

mvp-comment-242-2 πῶς ἂν … θάνοιμι ²¹²

mvp-comment-243-1 δισσάρχας ²¹³

mvp-comment-243-2 ὀλέσσας ²¹⁴

mvp-comment-243-3 βασιλῆς ²¹⁵

mvp-comment-243-4 θάνοιμι καὐτός ²¹⁶

mvp-comment-244-1 σκότος ²¹⁷ ἔρεβος ²¹⁸

mvp-comment-244-2 ὡς ἐμοί ²¹⁹

mvp-comment-245-1 ἕλεσθ’ ἕλεσθέ μ’ ²²⁰

mvp-comment-246-1 γένος ²²¹ ὄνασιν ²²² εἰς ²²³

mvp-comment-246-2 ἄξιος ²²⁴

mvp-comment-246-3 βλέπειν ²²⁵

mvp-comment-247-1 ἁ Διὸς … θεὸς ²²⁶

mvp-comment-247-2 ὀλέθριον ²²⁷ οὔλιον ²²⁸

mvp-comment-248-1 φύγῃ … μενῶ ²²⁹

mvp-comment-249-1 εἰ τὰ μὲν φθίνει ²³⁰

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’ ²³¹ τινα ²³² ὁμοῦ πέλας ²³³

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’ ²³⁴ τοῖσδ’ ²³⁵ τοιοῖσδ’ ὁμοῦ βοτοῖς ²³⁶

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 ²³⁷

mvp-comment-250-2 μώραις ²³⁸ μωραῖς ²³⁹

mvp-comment-251-1 δίπαλτος ²⁴⁰

mvp-comment-252-1 φωνεῖν ²⁴¹

mvp-comment-252-2 ἔτλη ²⁴²

mvp-comment-253-1 πόροι ἁλίρροθοι ²⁴³ πάραλα ἄντρα ²⁴⁴

mvp-comment-254-1 νέμος ²⁴⁵

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 ²⁴⁶

mvp-comment-255-2 δὴ ²⁴⁷ δαρόν ²⁴⁸

mvp-comment-256-1 ἀμπνοὰς ἔχοντα ²⁴⁹

mvp-comment-257-1 Σκαμάνδριοι … ῥοαί ²⁵⁰

mvp-comment-258-1 εὔφρονες Ἀργείοις ²⁵¹

mvp-comment-259-1 οὐκέτ’ ἄνδρα μὴ τόνδ’ ἴδητ’ ²⁵²

mvp-comment-260-1 ἐξερῶ ²⁵³ ἐξερέω ²⁵⁴

mvp-comment-260-2 Join οὔτινα ²⁵⁵ στρατοῦ ²⁵⁶

mvp-comment-260-3 χθονὸς μολόντ’ ἀπὸ | Ἑλλανίδος ²⁵⁷

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 ²⁵⁸ πρόκειται ²⁵⁹ ἄνδρα … τόνδε ²⁶⁰

mvp-comment-262-1 οὔτοι … οὐδ’ ²⁶¹ οὐ … οὔτε ²⁶²

mvp-comment-262-2 ὅπως ἐῶ ²⁶³

mvp-comment-263-1 ἂν … ᾤεθ’ ²⁶⁴

mvp-comment-263-2 ἐπώνυμον ²⁶⁵ ξυνοίσειν ²⁶⁶

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 ²⁶⁷

mvp-comment-264-2 τοιούτοις γὰρ ²⁶⁸

mvp-comment-265-1 πατὴρ ²⁶⁹

mvp-comment-265-2 τὰ πρῶτα καλλιστεἶ ἀριστεύσας ²⁷⁰

mvp-comment-266-1 τόπον Τροίας ²⁷¹

mvp-comment-266-2 ἐπελθὼν ²⁷²

mvp-comment-267-1 ἀρκέσας ²⁷³

mvp-comment-267-2 441—

mvp-comment-268-1 τοσοῦτόν γ’ ἐξεπίστασθαι ²⁷⁴ εἰ ζῶν ²⁷⁵

mvp-comment-268-2 εἰ … κρίνειν ἔμελλε ²⁷⁶ οὐκ ἄν τις ἔμαρψεν ²⁷⁷

mvp-comment-268-3 ὅπλων τῶν ὧν πέρι ²⁷⁸

mvp-comment-268-4 κρίνειν … κράτος ἀριστείας ²⁷⁹

mvp-comment-268-5 ἔμαρψεν ²⁸⁰

mvp-comment-268-6 ἀντ’ ἐμοῦ ²⁸¹

mvp-comment-269-1 νῦν δ’ ²⁸²

mvp-comment-269-2 παντουργῷ ²⁸³

mvp-comment-269-3 ἔπραξαν ²⁸⁴

mvp-comment-269-4 ἀπώσαντες ²⁸⁵

mvp-comment-269-5 κράτη ²⁸⁶

mvp-comment-270-1 τόδ’ ὄμμα ²⁸⁷

mvp-comment-270-2 τῆς ἐμῆς ²⁸⁸

mvp-comment-270-3 οὐκ ἄν ποτε … ἐψήφισαν ²⁸⁹ κατ’ ἄλλου φωτὸς ²⁹⁰ δίκην ἐψήφισαν ²⁹¹

mvp-comment-271-1 ἡ Διὸς … θεὰ ²⁹²

mvp-comment-271-2 γοργῶπις ²⁹³

mvp-comment-271-3 ἀδάματος ²⁹⁴

mvp-comment-272-1 ἐπεντύνον<*> ²⁹⁵ ἐπευθύνοντ’ ²⁹⁶

mvp-comment-273-1 λυσσώδη νόσον ²⁹⁷

mvp-comment-274-1 ἐπεγγελῶσιν ²⁹⁸

mvp-comment-275-1 ἐμοῦ μὲν ²⁹⁹

mvp-comment-275-2 βλάπτοι ³⁰⁰

mvp-comment-276-1 ὅστις ³⁰¹

mvp-comment-276-2 μισεῖ δέ μ’ ³⁰² πεδία ³⁰³

mvp-comment-277-1 πότερα ³⁰⁴

mvp-comment-277-2 ναυλόχους … ἕδρας ³⁰⁵

mvp-comment-277-3 μόνους τ’ Ἀτρείδας ³⁰⁶

mvp-comment-278-1 καὶ ποῖον ³⁰⁷

mvp-comment-278-2 ὄμμα ³⁰⁸

mvp-comment-279-1 γυμνὸν ³⁰⁹

mvp-comment-279-2 ὧν … εὐκλείας στέφανον ³¹⁰

mvp-comment-280-1 ἀλλὰ δῆτ’ ³¹¹

mvp-comment-280-2 ἔρυμα ³¹²

mvp-comment-280-3 μόνος μόνοις ³¹³ μόνοις ³¹⁴

mvp-comment-280-4 δρῶν τι χρηστόν ³¹⁵

mvp-comment-281-1 Ἀτρείδας … εὐφράναιμί που ³¹⁶

mvp-comment-282-1 οὐκ ἔστι ταῦτα ³¹⁷

mvp-comment-283-1 δηλώσω … γεγώς ³¹⁸

mvp-comment-283-2 μή τοι φύσιν γ’ ³¹⁹ τοι ³²⁰ γε ³²¹ οὔ τοι ³²² μή τοι ³²³

mvp-comment-283-3 ἄσπλαγχνος ³²⁴

mvp-comment-284-1 τοῦ μακροῦ … βίου ³²⁵

mvp-comment-284-2 κακοῖσιν … μηδὲν ἐξαλλάσσεται ³²⁶ μηδὲν ³²⁷

mvp-comment-285-1 παρ’ ἦμαρ ἡμέρα ³²⁸ προσθεῖσα ³²⁹

mvp-comment-285-2 προσθεῖσα ³³⁰

mvp-comment-285-3 κἀναθεῖσα ³³¹

mvp-comment-286-1 πριαίμην ³³²

mvp-comment-286-2 λόγου ³³³

mvp-comment-287-1 τεθνηκέναι ³³⁴

mvp-comment-287-2 πάντ’ ἀκήκοας λόγον ³³⁵

mvp-comment-288-1 ὑπόβλητον ³³⁶

mvp-comment-289-1 γε μέντοι ³³⁷ κρατῆσαι ³³⁸

mvp-comment-290-1 τῆς ἀναγκαίας τύχης ³³⁹

mvp-comment-291-1 εἴπερ τινὸς σθένοντος ³⁴⁰

mvp-comment-291-2 ἐν πλούτῳ ³⁴¹

mvp-comment-292-1 θεοῖς ³⁴²

mvp-comment-292-2 μάλιστα ³⁴³

mvp-comment-293-1 τοιγαροῦν ³⁴⁴

mvp-comment-293-2 τὸ σὸν λέχος ξυνῆλθον ³⁴⁵

mvp-comment-293-3 τὰ σά ³⁴⁶

mvp-comment-294-1 ἐφεστίου Διὸς ³⁴⁷

mvp-comment-295-1 συνηλλάχθης ³⁴⁸

mvp-comment-296-1 βάξιν λαβεῖν … ὑπ’ ἐχθρῶν ³⁴⁹

mvp-comment-296-2 χειρίαν ³⁵⁰

mvp-comment-296-3 ἐφεὶς ³⁵¹

mvp-comment-297-1 ᾗ γὰρ θάνῃς σὺ ³⁵² ᾗ ³⁵³ εἰ ³⁵⁴

mvp-comment-297-2 ἀφῇς ³⁵⁵

mvp-comment-298-1 ξυναρπασθεῖσαν ³⁵⁶ δουλίαν ³⁵⁷ δούλιν ³⁵⁸

mvp-comment-298-2 τροφή ³⁵⁹

mvp-comment-299-1 καί τις ³⁶⁰

mvp-comment-299-2 πικρὸν πρόσφθεγμα … ἐρεῖ ³⁶¹ πικρὸν ³⁶²

mvp-comment-299-3 λόγοις ἰάπτων ³⁶³ λόγοις ³⁶⁴ ἰάπτων ³⁶⁵

mvp-comment-300-1 ἵσχυσε ³⁶⁶

mvp-comment-300-2 οἵας … ὅσου ³⁶⁷

mvp-comment-300-3 ζήλου ³⁶⁸

mvp-comment-300-4 τρέφει ³⁶⁹

mvp-comment-301-1 κἀμὲ μὲν ³⁷⁰ σοὶ δ’ αἰσχρὰ ³⁷¹ ἐλᾷ ³⁷²

mvp-comment-301-2 αἰσχρὰ ³⁷³

mvp-comment-302-1 αἴδεσαι … προλείπων ³⁷⁴ προλείπων ³⁷⁵

mvp-comment-302-2 κληροῦχον ³⁷⁶

mvp-comment-302-3 ἀρᾶται ³⁷⁷

mvp-comment-303-1 οἴκτιρε ³⁷⁸ εἰ ³⁷⁹

mvp-comment-303-2 διοίσεται ³⁸⁰ σοῦ … μόνος ³⁸¹

mvp-comment-304-1 ὑπ’ ὀρφανιστῶν ³⁸²

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 ³⁸³

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 ³⁸⁴

mvp-comment-305-2 ᾔστωσας ³⁸⁵

mvp-comment-305-3 δορί ³⁸⁶ δόρει ³⁸⁷

mvp-comment-306-1 ἄλλη μοῖρα ³⁸⁸

mvp-comment-307-1 καθεῖλεν … οἰκήτορας ³⁸⁹ Ἅιδου, θανασίμους ³⁹⁰

mvp-comment-308-1 πατρίς ³⁹¹

mvp-comment-308-2 ἐν σοὶ … σῴζομαι ³⁹² πᾶς’ ³⁹³

mvp-comment-309-1 κἀμοῦ ³⁹⁴

mvp-comment-309-2 προσεῖναι ³⁹⁵

mvp-comment-309-3 τερπνὸν εἴ τί που πάθοι ³⁹⁶

mvp-comment-310-1 χάρις χάριν γάρ ³⁹⁷

mvp-comment-310-2 τίκτους’ ³⁹⁸

mvp-comment-311-1 ἀπορρεῖ ³⁹⁹

mvp-comment-311-2 γένοιτ’ ⁴⁰⁰

mvp-comment-312-1 ἔχειν σ’ ἂν … θέλοιμ’ ἄν ⁴⁰¹

mvp-comment-312-2 ὡς κἀγὼ ⁴⁰²

mvp-comment-313-1 καὶ κάρτ’ ⁴⁰³

mvp-comment-313-2 τὸ ταχθὲν ⁴⁰⁴

mvp-comment-313-3 τολμᾷ ⁴⁰⁵

mvp-comment-313-4 For the alliteration (

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

mvp-comment-314-1 ἀλλ’ ⁴⁰⁶

mvp-comment-315-1 ὡς ἴδω ⁴⁰⁷

mvp-comment-316-1 καὶ μὴν φόβοισί γ’ ⁴⁰⁸ γε ⁴⁰⁹ φόβοισι ⁴¹⁰ καὶ μήν … γε ⁴¹¹ γε ⁴¹²

mvp-comment-316-2 φόβοισι ⁴¹³

mvp-comment-316-3 ἐξελυσάμην ⁴¹⁴

mvp-comment-316-4 The conjecture ἐξερρυσάμην ⁴¹⁵

mvp-comment-317-1 κακοῖσιν ⁴¹⁶

mvp-comment-318-1 μὴ σοί γε ⁴¹⁷ σοί ⁴¹⁸

mvp-comment-319-1 πρέπον γέ τἂν ἦν ⁴¹⁹

mvp-comment-319-2 δαίμονος ⁴²⁰

mvp-comment-320-1 ἀλλ’ οὖν ⁴²¹ γε ⁴²²

mvp-comment-320-2 )φύλαξα ⁴²³

mvp-comment-320-3 ἀρκέσαι ⁴²⁴

mvp-comment-321-1 ἐπῄνες’ ⁴²⁵

mvp-comment-321-2 ἔθου ⁴²⁶

mvp-comment-322-1 ὡς ἐκ τῶνδ’ ⁴²⁷ ἐκτῶνδε ⁴²⁸ ὡς ⁴²⁹

mvp-comment-323-1 καὶ μὴν ⁴³⁰

mvp-comment-323-2 γε ⁴³¹ πέλας. ⁴³²

mvp-comment-323-3 προσπόλοις ⁴³³

mvp-comment-324-1 μὴ οὐ ⁴³⁴ τί μέλλει ⁴³⁵

mvp-comment-324-2 παρουσίαν ἔχειν ⁴³⁶

mvp-comment-325-1 εὐθύνων ⁴³⁷

mvp-comment-326-1 ἕρποντι φωνεῖς ⁴³⁸

mvp-comment-326-2 λελειμμένῳλόγων ⁴³⁹

mvp-comment-327-1 καὶ δὴ ⁴⁴⁰

mvp-comment-328-1 αἶρε δεῦρο ⁴⁴¹

mvp-comment-328-2 ταρβήσει γὰρ οὒ ⁴⁴²

mvp-comment-329-1 νεοσφαγῆ … φόνον ⁴⁴³ που ⁴⁴⁴ τοῦ ⁴⁴⁵ τοῦτόν γε ⁴⁴⁶ του ⁴⁴⁷

mvp-comment-330-1 δικαίως ⁴⁴⁸

mvp-comment-330-2 τὰ πατρόθεν ⁴⁴⁹

mvp-comment-331-1 ὠμοῖς … ἐν νόμοις ⁴⁵⁰

mvp-comment-331-2 πωλοδαμνεῖν ⁴⁵¹

mvp-comment-331-3 κἀξομοιοῦσθαι ⁴⁵² φύσιν ⁴⁵³

mvp-comment-332-1 ὦ παῖ ⁴⁵⁴

mvp-comment-332-2 τὰ δ’ ἄλλ’ ὅμοιος ⁴⁵⁵

mvp-comment-333-1 καίτοι … καὶ νῦν ⁴⁵⁶

mvp-comment-333-2 σε ⁴⁵⁷ σὲ ⁴⁵⁸

mvp-comment-333-3 τοῦτό γε ⁴⁵⁹

mvp-comment-333-4 οὐδὲν ⁴⁶⁰ ἐπαισθάνει ⁴⁶¹

mvp-comment-334-1 ἐν τῷ φρονεῖν μηδὲν ⁴⁶²

mvp-comment-334-2 554 b [ τὸ μὴ φρονεῖν γὰρ ⁴⁶³

mvp-comment-335-1 ἕως ⁴⁶⁴

mvp-comment-336-1 ἵκῃ πρὸς τοῦτο ⁴⁶⁵

mvp-comment-336-2 δεῖ σ’ ὅπως … δείξεις ⁴⁶⁶

mvp-comment-337-1 τέως ⁴⁶⁷

mvp-comment-337-2 κούφοις πνεύμασιν ⁴⁶⁸

mvp-comment-337-3 νέαν ψυχὴν ἀτάλλων ⁴⁶⁹

mvp-comment-337-4 The word

may have been suggested to Sophocles by a trait in the scene between Hector and Andromachè: Il. 6. 400 .

mvp-comment-337-5 χαρμονήν ⁴⁷⁰ χαρμονή ⁴⁷¹

mvp-comment-337-6 560 It is strange that exception should have been taken to the parenthetic οἶδα ⁴⁷²

mvp-comment-337-7 οὔτοι … μή ⁴⁷³

mvp-comment-338-1 τοῖον ⁴⁷⁴

mvp-comment-338-2 πυλωρὸν ⁴⁷⁵

mvp-comment-339-1 τροφῆς ἄοκνον ⁴⁷⁶

mvp-comment-339-2 ἔμπα ⁴⁷⁷ κεἰ ⁴⁷⁸

mvp-comment-340-1 τηλωπὸς ⁴⁷⁹

mvp-comment-340-2 οἰχνεῖ ⁴⁸⁰

mvp-comment-340-3 θήραν ἔχων ⁴⁸¹

mvp-comment-341-1 ἀσπιστῆρες ⁴⁸²

mvp-comment-341-2 χάριν ⁴⁸³

mvp-comment-342-1 ὅπως … δείξει ⁴⁸⁴

mvp-comment-342-2 Ἐριβοίᾳ λέγω ⁴⁸⁵

mvp-comment-343-1 μέχρις οὗ ⁴⁸⁶

mvp-comment-344-1 μήτ’ … θήσους’ ⁴⁸⁷

mvp-comment-344-2 ἀγωνάρχαι ⁴⁸⁸

mvp-comment-344-3 μήθ’ ὁ λυμεὼν ἐμός ⁴⁸⁹

mvp-comment-344-4 No correction is very probable. We cannot read

, since, though can represent the possessive pron., such a use of would be unexampled. (See Krüger, Gr. Sprachlehre, § 47. 9. 13.) The dat. is also untenable. It is possible that the poet wrote μήτε λυμεὼν ἐμός ⁴⁹⁰

mvp-comment-345-1 αὐτό ⁴⁹¹

mvp-comment-345-2 ἐπώνυμον ⁴⁹²

mvp-comment-346-1 πολυρράφου … πόρπακος ⁴⁹³

mvp-comment-346-2 But a loop at the edge of the shield, such as the

offered to the warrior's hand ( Helen. 1376 ), would not suffice to give him control. Hence, in the vasepainting noticed above, we see the combined with another contrivance, viz., a band (of metal, or wood), placed vertically across the inside of the shield, and furnished at the middle with an arrangement of small bars, forming a support for the arm just below the elbow. This band was the or .—See Appendix.

mvp-comment-346-3 πολυρράφου ⁴⁹⁴

mvp-comment-346-4 ἑπτάβοιον ⁴⁹⁵

mvp-comment-347-1 τεθάψεται ⁴⁹⁶

mvp-comment-347-2

is here adv.: cp. Ant. 546 .

mvp-comment-348-1 πάκτου ⁴⁹⁷

mvp-comment-348-2 ἐπισκήνους ⁴⁹⁸

mvp-comment-348-3 φιλοίκτιστον ⁴⁹⁹

mvp-comment-349-1 πύκαζε ⁵⁰⁰

mvp-comment-349-2 οὐ πρὸς ἰατροῦ ⁵⁰¹

mvp-comment-349-3 θρηνεῖν ἐπῳδὰς ⁵⁰²

mvp-comment-349-4 τομῶντι ⁵⁰³

mvp-comment-350-1 προθυμίαν ⁵⁰⁴

mvp-comment-350-2 ἀρέσκει ⁵⁰⁵

mvp-comment-350-3 τεθηγμένη ⁵⁰⁶

mvp-comment-351-1 δρασείεις ⁵⁰⁷

mvp-comment-351-2 φρενί ⁵⁰⁸

mvp-comment-352-1 κρῖνε ⁵⁰⁹

mvp-comment-353-1 οἴμ’ ὡς ⁵¹⁰

mvp-comment-353-2 μὴ προδοὺς γένῃ ⁵¹¹

mvp-comment-354-1 ἄγαν γε λυπεῖς ⁵¹²

mvp-comment-354-2 ἀρκεῖν ⁵¹³

mvp-comment-354-3 ὀφειλέτης ⁵¹⁴

mvp-comment-355-1 εὔφημα φώνει ⁵¹⁵

mvp-comment-355-2 τοῖς ἀκούουσιν λέγε ⁵¹⁶

mvp-comment-355-3 The division of the verse between two speakers (

) is here used for the first time in the play, to mark the tension of feeling.

mvp-comment-356-1 ξυνέρξεθ’ ⁵¹⁷

mvp-comment-357-1 ἄρτι ⁵¹⁸

mvp-comment-357-2 Ajax is now withdrawn into the tent on the eccyclema (

), and the entrance is closed. Tecmessa and her child retire by another door into the part of the dwelling which is supposed to represent the . They re-enter after the Choral ode, and are present while Ajax speaks (see 684 ff.). Some, indeed, suppose that they remain on the scene during the ode; but the command of Ajax to Tecmessa in 579 f., , is against this.

mvp-comment-357-3 Welcker thinks that not only Tecmessa (with the child), but Ajax also, remain present during the ode. ( Rhein. Mus. for 1829, part 3, p. 87.) It is clear, however, from v. 593 that Ajax withdraws into the tent.

mvp-comment-358-1 ναίεις ⁵¹⁹

mvp-comment-358-2 ἁλίπλακτος ⁵²⁰

mvp-comment-358-3 πᾶσιν περίφαντος ἀεί ⁵²¹

mvp-comment-359-1 παλαιὸς ἀφ’ οὗ χρόνος ⁵²²

mvp-comment-359-2 601—

mvp-comment-360-1 Ἰδαῖα ⁵²³

mvp-comment-360-2 1. The metre (logaoedic) is clear: no suspicion rests on the antistrophic verses, 613—615

. Metre proves, then, that ( a) instead of L's , we require --u, which is given by . ( b) Instead of we require --uu-u, which is satisfied by . ( c) Instead of , we require ---.

mvp-comment-360-3 2. εὐνῶμαι ⁵²⁴ μίμνων ⁵²⁵

mvp-comment-360-4 3. μηνῶν ⁵²⁶ μηνῶν ἀνήριθμος ⁵²⁷

mvp-comment-360-5 What remains doubtful, then, is only how we should correct the words,

. Now, in favour of , let it be noted that, if was the genuine word, then the corruption of into μήλων ⁵²⁸

mvp-comment-360-6 The construction then is,

, ‘I am encamped in quarters on the fields of Ida,’ , ‘through countless months.’ For the acc. with , cp. such phrases as (249 n.), ( Ph. 144 f.). For with ref. to camping, cp. Il. 10. 408 : Aesch. Ag. 559 —a passage which Sophocles may have had in mind.

mvp-comment-360-7 For other views of the passage, and other emendations, see Appendix.

mvp-comment-361-1 χρόνῳ ⁵²⁹

mvp-comment-362-1 ἐλπίδ’ ⁵³⁰ κακάν ⁵³¹

mvp-comment-363-1 ἔτι ⁵³²

mvp-comment-363-2 με ⁵³³ ἀνύσειν … Ἅιδαν ⁵³⁴

mvp-comment-363-3 τὸν ἀπότροπον ⁵³⁵

mvp-comment-363-4 ἀΐδηλον Ἅιδαν ⁵³⁶

mvp-comment-364-1 ἔφεδρος ⁵³⁷

mvp-comment-364-2 Prof. Campbell pronounces this interpretation ‘untenable,’ and renders

‘fixed at my side,’ because ‘Ajax had remained sitting throughout the previous scene,’ and had now apparently relapsed into sullen inaction within his tent.

mvp-comment-365-1 θείᾳ ⁵³⁸

mvp-comment-366-1 ἐξεπέμψω … θουρίῳ ⁵³⁹

mvp-comment-366-2 πρὶν δή ποτε ⁵⁴⁰

mvp-comment-366-3 Ἄρει ⁵⁴¹ α— ⁵⁴²

mvp-comment-367-1 φρενὸς οἰοβώτας ⁵⁴³

mvp-comment-368-1 ηὕρηται ⁵⁴⁴

mvp-comment-369-1 ἔργα χεροῖν … ἀρετᾶς ⁵⁴⁵

mvp-comment-370-1 ἄφιλα παρ’ ἀφίλοις ⁵⁴⁶

mvp-comment-370-2 ἄφιλα … ἔπεσε ⁵⁴⁷

mvp-comment-370-3 ἔπεσ’ ἔπεσε ⁵⁴⁸

mvp-comment-371-1 σύντροφος ⁵⁴⁹ ἔντροφος ⁵⁵⁰

mvp-comment-371-2 παλαιᾷ … ἁμέρᾳ ⁵⁵¹

mvp-comment-371-3 λευκῷ ⁵⁵² λευκὰ ⁵⁵³ μὲν ⁵⁵⁴ δὲ ⁵⁵⁵

mvp-comment-372-1 νοσοῦντα φρενομόρως ⁵⁵⁶

mvp-comment-373-1 αἴλινον ⁵⁵⁷

mvp-comment-373-2 ἀηδοῦς ⁵⁵⁸

mvp-comment-374-1 ὀξυτόνους ⁵⁵⁹

mvp-comment-375-1 χερόπλακτοι … δοῦποι ⁵⁶⁰

mvp-comment-376-1 ἄμυγμα ⁵⁶¹

mvp-comment-377-1 κρείσσων … κεύθων ⁵⁶²

mvp-comment-377-2 Elmsley's emendation,

, instead of (the reading of the MSS.), is specious; for Sophocles has that phrase in O. T. 972 and in O. C. 1572 ; but here he may have been thinking of Il. 23. 244 . The personal sense of Hades easily passes into the local; thus we have not only ( Tr. 4 ), but ( El. 833 ). For the simple dat., cp. El. 174 (n.).

mvp-comment-377-3 κεύθων ⁵⁶³

mvp-comment-377-4 ὁ νοσῶν μάταν ⁵⁶⁴

mvp-comment-378-1 ἐκ πατρῴας ἥκων γενεᾶς ἄριστος … Ἀχαιῶν ⁵⁶⁵ ἥκων ⁵⁶⁶ ἄριστος ⁵⁶⁷ ἄριστος ⁵⁶⁸

mvp-comment-378-2 The ingenious conjecture of Burges,

, would mean, ‘fortunate ( ) in his descent ( ) with regard to paternal lineage’ (the gen. as in , Her. 5. 62 , etc.). But this is tame; and is also prosaic: nor does it account for the gen. . Wecklein, reading , understands, ‘fortunate in his lineage, — most so, indeed, of the Achaeans’: so that defines .

mvp-comment-378-3 πολυπόνων ⁵⁶⁹

mvp-comment-379-1 συντρόφοις ὀργαῖς ⁵⁷⁰ ἔμπεδος ⁵⁷¹

mvp-comment-379-2 ἐκτὸς ὁμιλεῖ ⁵⁷² ἐκτὸς ⁵⁷³ ὁμιλεῖ ⁵⁷⁴ ὁμιλεῖ ⁵⁷⁵

mvp-comment-380-1 τλᾶμον ⁵⁷⁶

mvp-comment-381-1 δύσφορον ⁵⁷⁷

mvp-comment-382-1 ἔθρεψεν ⁵⁷⁸

mvp-comment-382-2 αἰὼν ⁵⁷⁹ δίων ⁵⁸⁰

mvp-comment-383-1 ὁ μακρὸς … χρόνος ⁵⁸¹

mvp-comment-383-2 φύει τ’ ⁵⁸² φύει ⁵⁸³ φαίνει ⁵⁸⁴

mvp-comment-383-3 κρύπτεται ⁵⁸⁵

mvp-comment-384-1 ἄελπτον ⁵⁸⁶

mvp-comment-384-2 ἁλίσκεται ⁵⁸⁷ δεινὸς ⁵⁸⁸

mvp-comment-384-3 περισκελεῖς ⁵⁸⁹

mvp-comment-385-1 τὰ δείν’ ⁵⁹⁰ τότε ⁵⁹¹

mvp-comment-385-2 βαφῇ σίδηρος ὥς ⁵⁹²

mvp-comment-385-3 ἐθηλύνθην στόμα ⁵⁹³ στόμα ⁵⁹⁴ βαφῇ σίδηρος ὥς ⁵⁹⁵

mvp-comment-386-1 οἰκτίρω … λιπεῖν ⁵⁹⁶

mvp-comment-387-1 πρός τε λουτρὰ ⁵⁹⁷

mvp-comment-387-2 λύμαθ’ ἁγνίσας ⁵⁹⁸

mvp-comment-387-3 ἐξαλύξωμαι ⁵⁹⁹ ἐξαλεύσωμαι ⁶⁰⁰

mvp-comment-388-1 μολών … ἔνθ’ ⁶⁰¹

mvp-comment-388-2 κίχω ⁶⁰²

mvp-comment-388-3 κρύψω ⁶⁰³

mvp-comment-388-4 γαίας ⁶⁰⁴

mvp-comment-388-5 ἔνθα μή τις ὄψεται ⁶⁰⁵

mvp-comment-389-1 ἀλλ’ αὐτὸ ⁶⁰⁶

mvp-comment-390-1 χειρὶ ⁶⁰⁷

mvp-comment-390-2 The exchange of gifts between the two heroes is told in Il. 7. 303 ff.: Hector gave ‘his silver-studded sword (

), with scabbard and well-cut baldrick; and Ajax gave his girdle bright with purple.’

mvp-comment-390-3 ἔσχον ⁶⁰⁸

mvp-comment-391-1 ἡ βροτῶν παροιμία ⁶⁰⁹

mvp-comment-391-2 ἐχθρῶν ἄδωρα δῶρα ⁶¹⁰

mvp-comment-392-1 τοιγὰρ ⁶¹¹

mvp-comment-392-2 τὸ λοιπὸν ⁶¹² εἰσόμεσθα ⁶¹³ μαθησόμεσθα ⁶¹⁴

mvp-comment-393-1 τί μήν ⁶¹⁵ τί μήν ⁶¹⁶ τί μή ⁶¹⁷ τί μή ⁶¹⁸

mvp-comment-394-1 τὰ δεινὰ ⁶¹⁹

mvp-comment-394-2 τιμαῖς ⁶²⁰

mvp-comment-394-3 τοῦτο μὲν ⁶²¹

mvp-comment-394-4 νιφοστιβεῖς χειμῶνες ⁶²²

mvp-comment-395-1 ἐξίσταται ⁶²³

mvp-comment-395-2 αἰανὴς ⁶²⁴ αἰανὴς ⁶²⁵ κύκλος ⁶²⁶

mvp-comment-395-3 τῇ λευκοπώλῳ ⁶²⁷ φέγγος … φλέγειν ⁶²⁸

mvp-comment-396-1 ἐκοίμισε ⁶²⁹

mvp-comment-396-2 Lobeck, though he refrains from changing δεινῶν ⁶³⁰ λείων ⁶³¹ ἐκοίμισε ⁶³²

mvp-comment-396-3 ἐν δ’ ⁶³³

mvp-comment-397-1 γνωσόμεσθα ⁶³⁴

mvp-comment-398-1 ἔγωγ)· ⁶³⁵

mvp-comment-398-2 The vulgate

may have come from in 677. It requires us to suppose that the poet was going to write ( ), ,—and then changed the constr. This is awkward. On the other hand, with , we could not supply .

mvp-comment-399-1 ὅ τ’ ἐχθρὸς ἡμῖν ⁶³⁶

mvp-comment-399-2 Arist. Rhet. 2. 13 § 4 (old men)

. Bias , of Prienè in Ionia, one of the , is said to have flourished about 550 B.C. For other references to this famous maxim, see Appendix.

mvp-comment-400-1 ἔς τε τὸν φίλον ⁶³⁷ ὑπουργῶν ⁶³⁸

mvp-comment-400-2 βουλήσομαι ⁶³⁹

mvp-comment-401-1 τοῖς πολλοῖσι γὰρ ⁶⁴⁰

mvp-comment-401-2 ἑταιρείας ⁶⁴¹ ἑταιρίας ⁶⁴²

mvp-comment-402-1 ἀμφὶ … τούτοισιν ⁶⁴³ διὰ τάχους ⁶⁴⁴

mvp-comment-403-1 ταὐτὰ τῇδε ⁶⁴⁵

mvp-comment-403-2 τάδε τιμᾶτε ⁶⁴⁶

mvp-comment-404-1 μέλειν ⁶⁴⁷

mvp-comment-405-1 ἐκεῖς’ ⁶⁴⁸ κεῖς’ ⁶⁴⁹

mvp-comment-406-1 τάχ’ ἄν … ἴσως ⁶⁵⁰ σεσωσμένον ⁶⁵¹

mvp-comment-407-1 ἔφριξ’ ⁶⁵² ἔρωτι ⁶⁵³

mvp-comment-407-2 ἀνεπτάμαν ⁶⁵⁴

mvp-comment-407-3 694 ff. Pan was a domestic deity to Salaminians, since one of his reputed haunts was the islet of Psyttaleia, lying between

, a tongue of land on the E. side of Salamis, and the Peiraeus. Aesch. mentions it ( Aesch. Pers. 448 f.):

mvp-comment-407-4 ἁλίπλαγκτε ⁶⁵⁵

mvp-comment-407-5 Κυλλανίας … δειράδος ⁶⁵⁶

mvp-comment-407-6 χιονοκτύπου ⁶⁵⁷

mvp-comment-408-1 θεῶν χοροποἴ ἄναξ ⁶⁵⁸

mvp-comment-408-2 Νύσια ⁶⁵⁹

mvp-comment-408-3 Κνώσια ⁶⁶⁰

mvp-comment-408-4 αὐτοδαῆ ⁶⁶¹

mvp-comment-408-5 ἰάψῃς ⁶⁶²

mvp-comment-409-1 χορεῦσαι ⁶⁶³

mvp-comment-410-1 Ἰκαρίων … πελαγέων ⁶⁶⁴

mvp-comment-410-2 πελαγέων ⁶⁶⁵ ὑπὲρ ⁶⁶⁶

mvp-comment-410-3 Ἀπόλλων ⁶⁶⁷

mvp-comment-410-4 Δάλιος ⁶⁶⁸

mvp-comment-410-5 εὔγνωστος ⁶⁶⁹ εὔγνωτος ⁶⁷⁰

mvp-comment-410-6 διὰ παντὸς ⁶⁷¹

mvp-comment-411-1 ἔλυσεν … Ἄρης ⁶⁷²

mvp-comment-411-2 αἰνὸν ἄχος ⁶⁷³

mvp-comment-411-3 ἀπ’ ὀμμάτων ⁶⁷⁴

mvp-comment-412-1 πάρα ⁶⁷⁵

mvp-comment-412-2 λευκὸν … φάος ⁶⁷⁶ εὐάμερον φάος ⁶⁷⁷

mvp-comment-412-3 πελάσαι ⁶⁷⁸

mvp-comment-412-4 θοᾶν ⁶⁷⁹

mvp-comment-413-1 λαθίπονος ⁶⁸⁰

mvp-comment-414-1 πάνθυτα θέσμἰ ἐξήνυς’ ⁶⁸¹ πάνθυτα ⁶⁸²

mvp-comment-414-2 εὐνομίᾳ ⁶⁸³

mvp-comment-415-1 μαραίνει ⁶⁸⁴

mvp-comment-416-1 ἀναύδατον ⁶⁸⁵

mvp-comment-417-1 ἐξ ἀέλπτων ⁶⁸⁶

mvp-comment-418-1 μετανεγνώσθη ⁶⁸⁷ μετανεγνώθη ⁶⁸⁸

mvp-comment-419-1 θυμοῦ τ’. θυμῶν ⁶⁸⁹ Ἀτρείδαις ⁶⁹⁰

mvp-comment-420-1 τὸ πρῶτον ⁶⁹¹ τὸ πρῶτον ⁶⁹²

mvp-comment-421-1 Μυσίων … κρημνῶν ⁶⁹³

mvp-comment-421-2 στρατήγιον ⁶⁹⁴ μέσον ⁶⁹⁵

mvp-comment-422-1 κυδάζεται ⁶⁹⁶ Ἀργείοις ⁶⁹⁷

mvp-comment-423-1 στείχοντα ⁶⁹⁸ ἐν κύκλῳ ⁶⁹⁹ πρόσωθεν ⁷⁰⁰ μαθόντες ⁷⁰¹

mvp-comment-424-1 ἤρασσον ⁷⁰²

mvp-comment-424-2 ἔνθεν κἄνθεν ⁷⁰³

mvp-comment-424-3 οὔτις ἔσθ’ ὃς οὔ ⁷⁰⁴

mvp-comment-425-1 τὸν τοῦ μανέντος ⁷⁰⁵

mvp-comment-425-2 κἀπιβουλευτοῦ στρατοῦ ⁷⁰⁶ στρατοῦ ⁷⁰⁷ στρατῷ ⁷⁰⁸

mvp-comment-425-3 ἀποκαλοῦντες ⁷⁰⁹

mvp-comment-425-4 ὡς οὐκ ἀρκέσοι τὸ μὴ οὐ … θανεῖν ⁷¹⁰

mvp-comment-425-5 καταξανθεὶς ⁷¹¹

mvp-comment-426-1 ὥστ’ ⁷¹² ὥστε ⁷¹³ τοσοῦτον ⁷¹⁴

mvp-comment-426-2 κολεῶν … ξίφη ⁷¹⁵ ἐρυστά ⁷¹⁶ κουλεῶν ⁷¹⁷

mvp-comment-427-1 δραμοῦσα τοῦ προσωτάτω ⁷¹⁸

mvp-comment-427-2 ἐν ξυναλλαγῇ λόγου … γερόντων ⁷¹⁹ ἐν ⁷²⁰

mvp-comment-428-1 ἡμὶν ⁷²¹

mvp-comment-428-2 τοῖς κυρίοις ⁷²²

mvp-comment-429-1 νέας βουλὰς ⁷²³ νέοισιν … τρόποις ⁷²⁴ ἐγκαταζεύξας ⁷²⁵

mvp-comment-430-1 ἰοὺ ἰού ⁷²⁶

mvp-comment-430-2 βραδεῖαν ⁷²⁷ ἡμᾶς … πέμπων ὁδόν ⁷²⁸ )φάνην ⁷²⁹

mvp-comment-431-1 χρείας τῆσδ’ ⁷³⁰

mvp-comment-431-2 ὑπεσπανισμένον ⁷³¹

mvp-comment-432-1 ἀπηύδα ⁷³²

mvp-comment-432-2 τύχῃ ⁷³³ τύχοι ⁷³⁴

mvp-comment-433-1 οἴχεται ⁷³⁵

mvp-comment-433-2 τὸ κέρδιστον ⁷³⁶ τὸ κέρδιον ⁷³⁷

mvp-comment-433-3 θεοῖσιν … χόλου ⁷³⁸

mvp-comment-434-1 εὖ φρονῶν ⁷³⁹

mvp-comment-435-1 πάρει ⁷⁴⁰ πέρι ⁷⁴¹

mvp-comment-436-1 τοσοῦτον ⁷⁴² οἶδα ⁷⁴³ παρὼν ⁷⁴⁴ καὶ παρὼν ἐτύγχανον ⁷⁴⁵

mvp-comment-437-1 συνέδρου καὶ τυρ. κύκλου ⁷⁴⁶

mvp-comment-437-2 750 Calchas is present at this council, as he is at that in the first book of the Iliad ( Il. 1. 69 ). He knew by inspiration that, if Ajax could be kept in his tent for that one day, all would be well. Leaving the circle of the chiefs, he went to Teucer, who was awaiting the result in the neighbourhood. They sat down apart ( cp. 780 ). The messenger was near them, and heard what Calchas said to Teucer.

mvp-comment-437-3 οἶος Ἀτρειδῶν δίχα ⁷⁴⁷

mvp-comment-438-1 φιλοφρόνως ⁷⁴⁸

mvp-comment-439-1 παντοίᾳ τέχνῃ ⁷⁴⁹

mvp-comment-440-1 εἶρξαι ⁷⁵⁰

mvp-comment-440-2 ἦμαρ τοὐμφανὲς τὸ νῦν τόδε ⁷⁵¹

mvp-comment-441-1 ὑπὸ σκηναῖσι ⁷⁵²

mvp-comment-441-2 μηδ’ ἀφέντ’ ἐᾶν ⁷⁵³

mvp-comment-442-1 ἐκεῖνον ⁷⁵⁴ Αἴαντα ⁷⁵⁵

mvp-comment-442-2 ποτέ ⁷⁵⁶

mvp-comment-443-1 ἐλᾷ ⁷⁵⁷

mvp-comment-443-2 τῇδε θἡμέρᾳ ⁷⁵⁸

mvp-comment-444-1 ὡς ἔφη λέγων ⁷⁵⁹

mvp-comment-445-1 τὰ γὰρ περισσὰ ⁷⁶⁰ περισσὰ κανόνητα ς<*>ματα ⁷⁶¹

mvp-comment-445-2 It is not without reason, then, that the reading κἀνόνητα ⁷⁶² κἀνόητα ⁷⁶³ σώματα ⁷⁶⁴

mvp-comment-446-1 ὅστις ⁷⁶⁵

mvp-comment-446-2 φύσιν βλαστὼν ⁷⁶⁶

mvp-comment-446-3 φρονῇ ⁷⁶⁷

mvp-comment-447-1 κεῖνος δ’ ⁷⁶⁸

mvp-comment-447-2 καλῶς λέγοντος ⁷⁶⁹

mvp-comment-448-1 αὐτὸν ἐννέπει ⁷⁷⁰

mvp-comment-449-1 σὺν θεῷ ⁷⁷¹

mvp-comment-450-1 ὁ μηδὲν ὢν ⁷⁷²

mvp-comment-451-1 καὶ δίχα κείνων ⁷⁷³

mvp-comment-452-1 ἐπισπάσειν κλέος ⁷⁷⁴

mvp-comment-453-1 δίας Ἀθάνας ⁷⁷⁵

mvp-comment-453-2 Other explanations are the following. (1) The poet meant to add something to the effect of

, but changed the form of the sentence. (2) stands for a gen. absol., . (3) The gen. depends on in 773, ‘a saying about her,’ like ( Ant. 11 ).

mvp-comment-453-3 The most attractive remedy is Mehlhorn's, δίαν Ἀθάναν ⁷⁷⁶

mvp-comment-453-4 If, on the other hand, δίας Ἀθάνας ⁷⁷⁷ δεύτερον ⁷⁷⁸

mvp-comment-454-1 τοῖς ἄλλοισιν Ἀργείων ⁷⁷⁹ πέλας ⁷⁸⁰

mvp-comment-454-2 καθ’ ἡμᾶς ⁷⁸¹

mvp-comment-454-3 οὔποτ’ ἐκρήξει μάχη ⁷⁸²

mvp-comment-455-1 τοιοῖσδέ τοι ⁷⁸³ τοῖς ⁷⁸⁴ τοι ⁷⁸⁵

mvp-comment-455-2 ἀστεργῆ ⁷⁸⁶

mvp-comment-455-3 ἐκτήσατ’ ὀργήν ⁷⁸⁷

mvp-comment-455-4 οὐ κατ’ ἄνθρωπον φρονῶν ⁷⁸⁸

mvp-comment-456-1 ἔστι ⁷⁸⁹ αὐτοῦ … σωτήριοι ⁷⁹⁰

mvp-comment-456-2 σὺν θεῷ ⁷⁹¹

mvp-comment-457-1 ὁ δ’ … Τεῦκρος ⁷⁹²

mvp-comment-457-2 εὐθὺς ἐξ ἕδρας ⁷⁹³ εὐθὺς ⁷⁹⁴

mvp-comment-457-3 Teucer sends a messenger, instead of going himself, probably because he hopes that his mediation with the chiefs may do some good. What he dreads is simply that Ajax should leave the tent; and a message could prevent that. He has no cause to suspect that Ajax meditates suicide.

mvp-comment-458-1 ἐπιστολὰς ⁷⁹⁵

mvp-comment-458-2 φυλάσσειν ⁷⁹⁶

mvp-comment-458-3 ἀπεστερήμεθα ⁷⁹⁷ ἀφυστερήμεθα ⁷⁹⁸ εἰ δ’ ἄρ’ ὑστερήσαμεν ⁷⁹⁹

mvp-comment-459-1 δαΐα ⁸⁰⁰

mvp-comment-459-2 γένος ⁸⁰¹

mvp-comment-459-3 θροεῖ ⁸⁰²

mvp-comment-460-1 ξυρεῖ … ἐν χρῷ ⁸⁰³ ἐν χρῷ ⁸⁰⁴ χρῷ ⁸⁰⁵

mvp-comment-460-2 μὴ χαίρειν τινά ⁸⁰⁶

mvp-comment-460-3 787 f. Tecmessa, who, at the desire of Ajax (684), had withdrawn into the tent (692), now re-enters, with Eurysaces ( cp. 809 ).

mvp-comment-460-4 ἀτρύτων ⁸⁰⁷

mvp-comment-461-1 πρᾶξιν ⁸⁰⁸ βάξιν ⁸⁰⁹ φέρων … πρᾶξιν ⁸¹⁰

mvp-comment-462-1 ἄνθρωπε ⁸¹¹ ὀλώλαμεν ⁸¹²

mvp-comment-463-1 Αἴαντος ⁸¹³ πέρι ⁸¹⁴

mvp-comment-464-1 καὶ μὴν ⁸¹⁵ γ’ ⁸¹⁶ θυραῖος ⁸¹⁷

mvp-comment-464-2 ὠδίνειν τί φής ⁸¹⁸

mvp-comment-465-1 εἴργειν ⁸¹⁹

mvp-comment-465-2 ἐξεφίεται ⁸²⁰

mvp-comment-465-3 σκηνῆς ὕπαυλον ⁸²¹

mvp-comment-466-1 κἀπὶ τῷ ⁸²²

mvp-comment-467-1 τήνδε δ’ ἔξοδον … φέρειν ⁸²³

mvp-comment-467-2 Nor can we render: ‘He (Teucer) forebodes that this going-forth, which he announces, will be fatal to Ajax.’

could be said only of the messenger— not of the man who sends him. Paley's conjecture, , meets the point as to , but the change to the first person is too harsh. Bothe's ἐλπίζειν φέρει ⁸²⁴ ἐλπίζει κυρεῖν ⁸²⁵

mvp-comment-467-3 Could ὀλεθρίαν Αἴαντος ⁸²⁶ Αἴαντος εἰς ὄλεθρον ⁸²⁷

mvp-comment-468-1 τοῦ Θεστορείου μάντεως ⁸²⁸

mvp-comment-468-2 ὅτ’ αὐτῷ … φέρει ⁸²⁹ ὅτ’ ⁸³⁰ ὅτ’ ⁸³¹ ὃς ⁸³²

mvp-comment-468-3 If φέρει ⁸³³ φέρει … θάνατον ἢ βίον ⁸³⁴

mvp-comment-468-4 It is possible that

came, under the influence of in 799, from (the subject being Calchas): but we should not be warranted in altering the text. Wecklein and Blaydes, reading θροεῖ ⁸³⁵

mvp-comment-469-1 οἲ )γώ ⁸³⁶

mvp-comment-469-2 πρόστητ’ ⁸³⁷

mvp-comment-469-3 ἀναγκαίας τύχης ⁸³⁸

mvp-comment-470-1 οἱ μὲν ⁸³⁹ οἱ δὲ … οἱ δέ ⁸⁴⁰

mvp-comment-470-2 Τεῦκρον μολεῖν ⁸⁴¹ σπεύσατε ⁸⁴²

mvp-comment-470-3 ἑσπέρους … ἀντηλίους ⁸⁴³

mvp-comment-470-4 ἀγκῶνας ⁸⁴⁴ ζητεῖτ’ ⁸⁴⁵ μολεῖν ⁸⁴⁶

mvp-comment-471-1 φωτὸς ἠπατημένη ⁸⁴⁷

mvp-comment-471-2 χάριτος ⁸⁴⁸ ἐκβεβλημένη ⁸⁴⁹

mvp-comment-472-1 τί δράσω, τέκνον ⁸⁵⁰

mvp-comment-472-2 ὅποιπερ ἂν σθένω ⁸⁵¹

mvp-comment-473-1 ἐγκονῶμεν ⁸⁵²

mvp-comment-473-2 οὐχ ἕδρας ἀκμὴ ⁸⁵³

mvp-comment-473-3 As to the diction of the verse, three points claim notice. (1) The γε ⁸⁵⁴ ἄνδρα ⁸⁵⁵ σπεύδῃ ⁸⁵⁶ θέλοντας ⁸⁵⁷ θέλοντες ⁸⁵⁸

mvp-comment-474-1 ἕτοιμος ⁸⁵⁹ ἔργου ⁸⁶⁰ ποδῶν ⁸⁶¹

mvp-comment-474-2 Tecmessa now leaves the scene by the entrance on the spectator's left, leading to the open country. The Messenger, with the servants of Ajax, goes out on the spectator's right, as being bound for the Greek camp.

mvp-comment-474-3 The Chorus leave the orchestra in two

, one by the on the right, the other by that on the left. The withdrawal of the Chorus from the orchestra during the course of a play was called : their return, . The other extant examples are:—(1) Aesch. Eum.: at v. 231: at v. 299. (2) Eur. Alc.: , Eur. Alc. 746 : , Eur. Alc. 872. (3) Helen. : , 385: , 515. (4) Ar. Eccl.: , Ar. Eccl. 310 : , Ar. Eccl. 478.

mvp-comment-474-4 A change of scene is now supposed to take place, from the ground in front of the tent of Ajax to a lonely spot on the sea-shore, with trees or bushes (

, 892). We do not know how this change was managed. (1) It may have been indicated merely by removing the hangings on the back-wall which represented the of Ajax. This is MA. üller's view ( Gr. Bühnenalterthümer, p. 162). (2) Wecklein supposes that a back-wall, representing the , was drawn back on right and left, disclosing the new scene.—We cannot assume the use of in the poet's time (cp. note at the beginning of the play). Had they been in use, the on the spectator's left could have turned, so as to represent a new locality ( ). The right-hand , indicating the region in which the whole action takes place ( ), would not have been changed.

mvp-comment-474-5 The only other Greek play in which a change of scene is certain is the Eumenides, where the action begins at the temple of the Delphian Apollo, and passes at v. 235 to that of Athena Polias at Athens. This may have been marked merely by substituting a statue of Athena for one of Apollo.

mvp-comment-474-6 815 Ajax is standing at the side of the scene on the spectator's right, near the underwood which screens him when he falls—so that his body is not at first visible to the Chorus when they return to the orchestra, but could be seen by Tecmessa, when she comes on the scene from the left. The point of the sword could probably be seen by the audience. Hesychius quotes Polemon, the sophist in Hadrian's age, as saying that the

was used . It was a short stage-sword, of which the blade ran back; otherwise called (Hesych., which some refer to ), or . Cp. Achilles Tatius 3. 20 .

mvp-comment-474-7 The antithesis to ὁ μὲν σφαγεὺς ⁸⁶² ἐκ δὲ τῶνδε ⁸⁶³

mvp-comment-474-8 σφαγεὺς ⁸⁶⁴

mvp-comment-474-9 τομώτατος ⁸⁶⁵

mvp-comment-475-1 εἴ τῳ καὶ λογίζεσθαι σχολή ⁸⁶⁶

mvp-comment-476-1 δῶρον μὲν ⁸⁶⁷

mvp-comment-476-2 ἀνδρὸς ⁸⁶⁸

mvp-comment-476-3 ξένων ⁸⁶⁹

mvp-comment-477-1 πολεμίᾳ ⁸⁷⁰

mvp-comment-477-2 σιδηροβρῶτι ⁸⁷¹

mvp-comment-477-3 θηγάνῃ ⁸⁷²

mvp-comment-477-4 νεηκονής ⁸⁷³

mvp-comment-478-1 περιστείλας ⁸⁷⁴

mvp-comment-478-2 θανεῖν ⁸⁷⁵

mvp-comment-479-1 εύσχευοῦμεν ⁸⁷⁶

mvp-comment-479-2 ἐκ δὲ τῶνδε ⁸⁷⁷

mvp-comment-479-3 Ζεῦ ⁸⁷⁸

mvp-comment-479-4 καὶ γὰρ εἰκός ⁸⁷⁹

mvp-comment-479-5 αἰτήσομαι ⁸⁸⁰ λαχεῖν ⁸⁸¹

mvp-comment-479-6 μακρὸν ⁸⁸²

mvp-comment-480-1 ἡμῖν ⁸⁸³ ἄγγελον ⁸⁸⁴

mvp-comment-481-1 βαστάσῃ ⁸⁸⁵

mvp-comment-481-2 πεπτῶτα περὶ ξίφει ⁸⁸⁶

mvp-comment-482-1 πρόβλητος ⁸⁸⁷

mvp-comment-482-2 ἕλωρ ⁸⁸⁸

mvp-comment-482-3 Ajax forebodes that, as a public enemy, he will suffer the doom which Achilles assigns to Hector ( Il. 22. 354 ), Creon to Polyneices ( Ant. 205 ), and Electra to Aegisthus ( El. 1487 ). The Atreidae, in fact, so intended (1064 f.).

mvp-comment-483-1 τοσαῦτά σε … προστρέπω ⁸⁸⁹

mvp-comment-483-2 καλῶ δ’ ⁸⁹⁰ καλῶ θ’ ⁸⁹¹

mvp-comment-483-3 832 The sense of πομπαῖον ⁸⁹² χθόνιον ⁸⁹³

mvp-comment-484-1 ἀσφαδάστῳ ⁸⁹⁴

mvp-comment-484-2 The precept to write

(and therefore, as Nauck does, ) dates from Herodian ( c. 160 A.D. ), but is not confirmed by any such independent evidence as exists in the case of ( Soph. O. T. 891 ). Ellendt writes , yet .

mvp-comment-484-3 πηδήματι ⁸⁹⁵ ξὺν ⁸⁹⁶

mvp-comment-485-1 πλευρὰν διαρρήξαντα ⁸⁹⁷

mvp-comment-486-1 τὰς ἀεί τε παρθένους ⁸⁹⁸

mvp-comment-486-2 ἀεί θ’ ὁρώσας ⁸⁹⁹

mvp-comment-486-3 ὁρώσας ⁹⁰⁰

mvp-comment-487-1 σεμνὰς ⁹⁰¹

mvp-comment-487-2 τανύποδας ⁹⁰²

mvp-comment-487-3 839—

mvp-comment-488-1 κάκιστα καὶ πανωλέθρους ⁹⁰³

mvp-comment-488-2 The last two of these four verses are certainly spurious, as three things show.

mvp-comment-488-3 (1) The poet would not have made the dying Ajax pray that the Atreidae may die ‘at the hands of their offspring,’ unless there had been some legend that they so died. But, according to the current mythology, Agamemnon was slain by his wife and her paramour, while Menelaüs and Helen passed, without dying, to Elysium ( Od. 4. 561 ). It is only in later times that we meet with the story of Menelaüs and Helen having been sacrificed by Iphigeneia in the land of the Tauri ( Ptolemy Heph. 4 , cp. Roscher, Lex. p. 1951 ): a myth which the author of these verses may have had in view. Odysseus, indeed, was slain by Telegonus; but he does not come into account here, unless we make the improbable change of

to in 838. [As to the double sense of , with ref. to one who is slain (1) by himself, (2) by a kinsman, see on Ant. 56 .]

mvp-comment-488-4 (2) These two verses confuse the construction, since

( sc. ) refers to what precedes: while in 841 refers to .

mvp-comment-488-5 (3) The form

occurs nowhere else, except as a proper name.

mvp-comment-488-6

is not elsewhere found in Soph. or Eur. : it is, however, used by Aesch. , not only in lyrics ( Aesch. Th. 484 , Suppl. 69, 670, 691), but once, at least, in a trimeter, Th. 637 . We should not, then, insist on as a mark of spuriousness: and is, of course, free from objection ( O. T. 1274 n.). But the case against 841 f. seems conclusive without them.

mvp-comment-488-7 A more difficult question is whether vv. 839, 840 are also spurious. The schol. in L on v. 841 is as follows:—

: . As the lemma, , clearly indicates, refers only to the two verses 841 f., and not (as Dindorf and others have assumed) to all the four verses 839—842. The surmise was, says the scholiast, that vv. 841 f. were added ‘to make the meaning clearer’; i.e., to explain the elliptical phrase, . Such a surmise itself shows that vv. 839, 840 were believed to be older than 841 f. It is indeed plain that all four verses are not by the same author. The incoherent construction noticed above, under (2), was possible for an interpolator whose attention was fixed on , but hardly for one who was forging vv. 839—842 as a whole. If, then, all four verses are condemned, we must assume two independent interpolations.

mvp-comment-488-8 I incline to think that the two verses 839 and 840 are genuine; because, otherwise, the imprecation on the

(844) would follow too abruptly on v. 838. The prayer for the destruction of his chief foes, uttered in 839 f., leads up to the more sweeping denunciation of the Greek army.

mvp-comment-489-1 ἴτ’ ⁹⁰⁴

mvp-comment-489-2 γεύεσθε ⁹⁰⁵

mvp-comment-489-3 πανδήμου στρατοῦ ⁹⁰⁶

mvp-comment-490-1 αἰπὺν ⁹⁰⁷

mvp-comment-490-2 οὐρανὸν διφρηλατῶν ⁹⁰⁸

mvp-comment-491-1 ἴδῃς ⁹⁰⁹

mvp-comment-491-2 χρυσόνωτον ἡνίαν ⁹¹⁰

mvp-comment-492-1 τροφῷ ⁹¹¹

mvp-comment-493-1 ἦ που ⁹¹²

mvp-comment-493-2 ἥσει … κωκυτὸν ⁹¹³

mvp-comment-493-3 ἐν πάσῃ πόλει ⁹¹⁴

mvp-comment-494-1 ἔργον ⁹¹⁵

mvp-comment-494-2 ἀλλ’ … ἀλλ’ ⁹¹⁶

mvp-comment-495-1 Θάνατε ⁹¹⁷

mvp-comment-496-1 κἀκεῖ ⁹¹⁸

mvp-comment-496-2 The absence of caesura gives a more deliberate weight to

: cp. 994 : Ph. 1369 , and ib. 101: Ant. 44.

mvp-comment-497-1 τὸ νῦν σέλας ⁹¹⁹

mvp-comment-497-2 διφρευτὴν ⁹²⁰

mvp-comment-498-1 πανύστατον δὴ ⁹²¹

mvp-comment-498-2 κοὔποτ’ … ὕστερον ⁹²²

mvp-comment-499-1 ἱερὸν ⁹²³

mvp-comment-499-2 πατρῷον ⁹²⁴ βάθρον ⁹²⁵

mvp-comment-500-1 κλειναί ⁹²⁶

mvp-comment-500-2 καὶ τὸ σύντροφον γένος ⁹²⁷

mvp-comment-501-1 κρῆναί τε ποταμοί θ’ οἵδε ⁹²⁸

mvp-comment-501-2 καὶ τὰ Τρ. πεδία προσαυδῶ ⁹²⁹

mvp-comment-501-3 τροφῆς ⁹³⁰

mvp-comment-502-1 Αἴας … θροεῖ ⁹³¹ μυθήσομαι ⁹³²

mvp-comment-502-2 Ajax falls upon his sword. (See n. on 815.)—The actor Timotheus of Zacynthus (says the scholiast) was celebrated in this scene:

.

mvp-comment-503-1 πόνος πόνῳ πόνον ⁹³³

mvp-comment-504-1 κοὐδεὶς … τόπος ⁹³⁴ συμμαθεῖν ⁹³⁵ σφε ⁹³⁶ κοὐδεὶς ἐπίσταταί σφε συνναίειν τόπος ⁹³⁷

mvp-comment-505-1 ἰδού ⁹³⁸

mvp-comment-506-1 ἡμῶν ⁹³⁹ ναὸς … ὁμιλίαν ⁹⁴⁰

mvp-comment-506-2 κοινόπλουν ⁹⁴¹

mvp-comment-507-1 τί οὖν δή ⁹⁴²

mvp-comment-508-1 ἐστίβηται ⁹⁴³

mvp-comment-509-1 ἔχεις οὖν ⁹⁴⁴

mvp-comment-510-1 κοὐδὲν εἰς ὄψιν πλέον ⁹⁴⁵

mvp-comment-511-1 ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ μὲν δὴ ⁹⁴⁶

mvp-comment-511-2 τὴν ἀφ’ ἡλίου βολῶν ⁹⁴⁷

mvp-comment-511-3 δηλοῖ ⁹⁴⁸ κέλευθον ⁹⁴⁹

mvp-comment-512-1 τίς ἂν ⁹⁵⁰ ἁλιαδᾶν ⁹⁵¹

mvp-comment-512-2 ἔχων … ἄγρας ⁹⁵²

mvp-comment-512-3 ἀΰπνους ⁹⁵³ ἀμφ’ ⁹⁵⁴

mvp-comment-513-1 ἢ τίς Ὀλυμπιάδων θεᾶν ⁹⁵⁵ θεᾶν ⁹⁵⁶ ποταμῶν ⁹⁵⁷

mvp-comment-513-2 ῥυτῶν ⁹⁵⁸

mvp-comment-513-3 Βοσπορίων ⁹⁵⁹ ἴδρις ⁹⁶⁰ ποταμῶν ⁹⁶¹

mvp-comment-514-1 εἴ ποθι … λεύσσων ⁹⁶²

mvp-comment-514-2 σχέτλια ⁹⁶³

mvp-comment-514-3 τὸν μακρῶν ἀλάταν πόνων ⁹⁶⁴ οὐρίῳ μὴ πελάσαι δρόμῳ ⁹⁶⁵

mvp-comment-515-1 ἀμενηνὸν ⁹⁶⁶ ὅπου ⁹⁶⁷

mvp-comment-516-1 ἰώ μοί μοι ⁹⁶⁸

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.

540. mvp-comment-368-1 παρουσίαν ἔχειν = παρεῖναι. So in Ant. 237, ἔχεις ἀθυμίαν = ἀθυμεῖς, and supr. 139, ὅκνον ἔχω = ὀκνῶ.

541. mvp-comment-369-1 προσπόλων] For this partitive genitive, see Essay on L. § 10. p. 15.

542. mvp-comment-370-1 ὅσπερ κυρεῖς] These words indicate that the child cannot yet go alone.

543. mvp-comment-371-1 ἕρποντι] Sc. τῷ προσπόλῳ, i.e. 'Does he come when you speak?' Essay on L. § 42. p. 80 β. ἢ λελειμμένῳ λόγων] 'Or do your words not reach to him?'

545. mvp-comment-372-1 αἶρε δεῦρο] «Lift him hither.' Said to the attendant who brings in the child, and is to hand him to Ajax over the carcases of the sheep, etc. ταρβήσει γὰρ οὔ] Essay on L. § 41. p. 78 γ.

546. mvp-comment-373-1 For the late position of που, see Essay on L. § 26. p. 44. It is occasioned by the energy with which the emphatic words ταρβήσει.. οὗ are brought into prominence. Dindorf would read τοῦτόν γε, supposing the whole line to be an interpolation. But this is gratuitous, and the excision of the line leaves a sensible gap in the sense.

547. mvp-comment-374-1 δικαίως] 'Truly;' i. e. 'in a manner rightly answering to the description.' Cp. Ο. Τ. 853, φανεί δικαίως ὀρθών: Trach. 1158, φανεῖς ὁποῖος ὢν ἀνὴρ ἐμὸς καλεῖ. In this speech, as well as supr. 487 foll., there is a resemblance to the sixth Iliad (see esp. ll. 476-481).

548. mvp-comment-375-1 ἀλλά opposes what follows (though not in strict logic) to the preceding negative. ὠμοῖς .. ἐν νόμοις πατρὸς .. πωλοδαμνεῖν] Το train him, like a young colt, in his father's rugged ways.' For ὠμοῖς, cp. supr. 205, ὠμοκρατής, and note. And for νόμοις, Ant. 191, τοιοῖσδ᾽ ἐγὼ νόμοισι τήνδ' αὔξω πόλιν. Essay on L. § 47. p. 88.

549. mvp-comment-376-1 κἀξομοιοῦσθαι φύσιν] ‘And that he should have his nature framed by mine.' For the change of subject, see Essay on L. § 36. p. 65 d.

552. mvp-comment-377-1 καὶ νῦν] · Even now, before your lot in life has been determined for good or evil.'

553. mvp-comment-378-1 'That you have no perception of this misery.'

554. mvp-comment-379-1 This line, although quite possibly Sophoclean, has the appearance of a marginal quotation rather than of an integral portion of the text of this passage. It is probably from some lost play, and should be placed amongst the fragments of Greek tragic poetry.

556-557. mvp-comment-380-1 δεῖ σ᾽ ὅπως .. δείξεις] «You must find some way of showing.' The same construction recurs in Phil. 55, τὴν Φιλοκτήτου σε δεῖ | ψυχὴν ὅπως λόγοισιν ἐκκλέψεις λέγων.

557. mvp-comment-381-1 ἐν ἐχθροῖς] For the use of ἐν, cp supr. 366, and note.

558. mvp-comment-382-1 κούφοις πνεύμασιν βόσκου] 'Be nourished by gentle breezes,' like a sapling in a sheltered spot. Plants were supposed to feed upon the air. Dio Chrys. Orat. 12, 30 (quoted by Lobeck), τρεφόμενοι τῇ διηνεκεῖ τοῦ πνεύματος ἐπιρροῇ, ἀέρα ὑγρὸν ἕλκοντες, ὥστε νήπιοι παῖδες. Cp. Trach. 144 foll. τὸ γὰρ νέαζον ἐν τοιοῖσδε βόσκεται | χώροισιν, κ.τ.λ.

559. mvp-comment-383-1 χαρμονήν is accus. in apposition. Essay on L. § 17. p. 25 d.

562. mvp-comment-384-1 τοῖον, κ.τ.λ.] Essay on L. § 22. p. 36. 3. The absence of the demonstrative ending ( τοιόνδε or τοιοῦτον) may arise from the fact that Teucer is absent, and that Ajax is speaking of the future.

562. mvp-comment-384-2 ἀμφί σοι] Τo protect thee.' ἀμφί as in ἀμφιβαίνειν, etc.

563. mvp-comment-385-1 τροφῆς ἄοκνον] 'Unfaltering in care for thee.' τροφῆς is gen. of respect. Essay on L. § 9. p. 13, 3. ἔμπα κεἰ] ἔμπα does not occur elsewhere in Attic Greek. Cp. Pind. N. 4. 58, ἔμπα, καί περ ἔχει, κ.τ.λ.

564. mvp-comment-386-1 τηλωπός] 'Far away.' The latter part of the compound is subordinated. οἰχνεῖ] 'He is wandering.' οἰχνέω, as a derivative of οἴχομαι, seems to have a frequentative force. θήραν ἔχων] · Engaged in pursuit.' A periphrasis like ἔχομεν στοναχάς, supr. 203.

565. mvp-comment-387-1 Confident in the return of Teucer, Ajax bids his comrades give this charge to him. They recall the fact afterwards, l. 990. He also urges them to do their part, l. 566.

566. mvp-comment-388-1 κοινήν] i.e. 'As well as to him.'

569. mvp-comment-389-1 Ἐριβοíą λέγω] Sc ὅπως δείξει. This has been unnecessarily altered to Ἐριβοίαν λέγω. Ajax dwells affectionately on his mother's name. Eurysaces is to honour her, and not Hesione. Cp. Pind. Isthm. 5 (6). 65, παῖδα θρασὺν ἐξ Εριβοίας.

571. mvp-comment-390-1 μέχρις οὐ, or μέχρι οὗ, occurs in Hdt. 1. 180; 2. 19, where the phrase has the force of a single word. This may suggest a possible excuse for the appearance of a divided anapaest, which has caused the rejection of the line in some edd. It may possibly have been interpolated or quoted ( cp. supr. 554) to supplement the vague use of εἰσαεί. But the words are impressive, and the alleged flaw may be remedied by reading ἕως or ἔστ᾽ ἄν for μέχρις οὗ.

572. mvp-comment-391-1 ἀγωνάρχαι] 'Presidents of contest,' such as the Atreidae had been.

573. mvp-comment-392-1 θήσουσ'] Sc. ὡς ἆθλα. The future follows ὅπως, supr. 567. ὁ λυμεὼν ἐμός] On this position of the possessive pronoun, see Essay on L. § 23. p. 37.

574. mvp-comment-393-1 αὐτό] The pronoun anticipates σάκος, which, as the most important piece of armour, is contained in τεύχη. For similar uses of αὐτός, cp. Plat. Soph. 256 D, ὁμολογήσαντες αὐτὰ εἶναι πέντε: 263 Ε, καὶ μὴν ἐν λόγοις αὐτὸ ἴσμεν ὅν. ἐπώνυμον] · Whence thou art named.'

575-576. mvp-comment-394-1 The epithet shows that the πόρπαξ was not of metal, but of embroidered leather. Cp. Eur. Tro. 1196, ὡς ἡδὺς ἐν πόρπακι σὸς κεῖται τύπος.

577. mvp-comment-395-1 κοινά may be either (1) adverbial. as in Ant. 546, μή μοι θάνῃς σὺ κοινά, or (2) predicative, agreeing with τεύχη, probably the latter (2).

579. mvp-comment-396-1 ἐπισκήνους] 'Before the tent,' = ἐπὶ σκηναῖς, supr. 3, and so 'in public.'

580. mvp-comment-397-1 φιλοίκτιστον] i.e. φιλοῦν τὸ οἰκτίζεσθαι, in the sense of inviting commiseration. 'A woman is a very tearful creature.'

581. mvp-comment-398-1 'To whine faint charms over a wound that cries out for the knife.' The desiderative, = τομὴν αἰτοῦντι, here implies the passive meaning of the verbal noun. For the use of charms in assisting surgery, cp. Od. 19. 456-8, ὠτειλὴν δ' Ὀδυσῆος ἀμύμονος, ἀντιθέσιο, | δῆσαν ἐπισταμένως· ἐπαοιδῇ δ᾽ αἷμα κελαινὸν | ἔσχεθον· αἶψα δ' ἵκοντο φίλου πρὸς δώματα πατρός.

583. mvp-comment-399-1 τήνδε τὴν προθυμίαν] ‘This earnest haste,' viz. the impatience of Ajax to be alone. Cp. supr. πύκαζε θάσσον.

586. mvp-comment-400-1 μὴ κρίνε] 'Interrogate not.' Sc. με. Cp. Ant. 399 and note. σωφρονεῖν καλόν) 'Discretion is the better part.' One of the gruff maxims ( βαῖ, ἀεὶ δ᾽ ὑμνούμενα, supr. 292) with which Ajax checks the importunity of Tecmessa's affection. Cp. Il. 6. 490, ἀλλ᾽ εἰς οἶκον ἰοῦσα τὰ σ᾽ αὐτῆς ἔργα κόμιζε.

587. mvp-comment-401-1 καί σε] The conjunction here has a strong pleading force. 'Nay, I entreat thee,' etc. For a somewhat similar transition with καί, cp. supr. 11, καί σ᾽ οὐδὲν εἴσω τῆσδε, κ.τ.λ.

588. mvp-comment-402-1 προδοὺς .. γένῃ] 'Be guilty of forsaking us.' Phil. 773, μὴ σαυτόν θ' ἅμα | κἄμ', ὄντα σαυτοῦ πρόστροπον, κτείνας γένῃ.

589. mvp-comment-403-1 ἄγαν γε λυπεῖς] 'You vex me exceedingly.' These words in Ajax, as in Creon, Ant. 573, show that his feelings are touched more deeply than he chooses to avow. ἐγὼ θεοῖς .. ἔτι] 'I am no longer bound to serve the gods in aught.' If the gods have cast Ajax off, then he 'owes them no subscription.' The position of the words ἐγὼ θεοῖς οὐδέν is very emphatic. Essay on L. § 41. p. 78. ἀρκεῖν, in the sense of praestare, governs an accusative here, as supr. 439,535.

593. mvp-comment-404-1 ξυνέρξετε] 'Shut us in.' This is said to the attendants ( supr. 544). They close the doors on Ajax, who is drawn in by the reversed ἐκκύκλημα. Tecmessa and Eurysaces, perhaps, remain upon the stage.

595. mvp-comment-405-1 ἄρτι] 'At this moment, of all others. Now all of a sudden.'

596. mvp-comment-406-1 While Ajax within the tent is silently whetting his sword ( infr. 820), the chorus express their longing for Salamis, his home and theirs, and their sorrow for the condition of their lord. 'What grief the news will cause to Telamon and Eriboea!' In this ode, the first stasimon, iambic, glyconic, and trochaic rhythms are combined...

596. mvp-comment-406-2 ὦ κλεινά] By an anachronism like that noticed in O. C. 58, ἔρεισμ' ᾿Αθηνῶν, the glory of Salamis is anticipated. Cp. also infr. 861, and note. In Hdt. 7. 143, Themistocles argues from the words ὦ θείη Σάλαμις, in the Pythian response, that the Athenians were to be victorious there.

596-597. mvp-comment-407-1 σὺ . . ναίεις] «Thou, I know, remainest.' που] The indefinite word is pathetically used of what they imagine but may not see. ἁλίπλακτος] There is little doubt of the propriety of this reading. Cp. Aesch. Pers. 307, θαλασσόπληκτον νῆσον Αίαντος. Yet ἁλίπλαγκτος might possibly mean 'wandered round by the billow.'

599. mvp-comment-408-1 The inhabitants of Salamis, which lay off Piraeus and in the 'cheer and comfort' of Athenian eyes, might well feel as if they were observed of all observers, and would have a still deeper feeling of pride and patriotism when, from 480 B.C. onwards, their native place became the eye of the world. περίφαντος may then be taken to imply the renown as well as the conspicuous position of the island.

600. mvp-comment-409-1 παλαιὸς ἀφ᾽ οὐ χρόνος] « Since many a long day.' This phrase takes the place of an adverb with εὐνῶμαι, or whatever is the principal verb.

601. mvp-comment-410-1 †Ἰδαίᾳ μίμνων λειμώνια †ποίᾳ] The manifest corruption in these words seems to be incurable. Neither Hermann's Ἰδαῖα μίμνω λειμώνι᾽ ἄποινα ('Ι wait for my reward in Trojan meadows'), nor Bergk's Ἰδῷδι μίμνω χειμῶνι πόᾳ τε ('I abide winter and summer in the Trojan land'), can be admitted as probable. Mr. Paley, adopting λειμώνι᾽ ἔπαυλα from Seyffert, changes εὐνύμαι to ἐνναίων. Without dogmatizing on a point of great uncertainty, I would propose Ἰδαῖα μίμνων λειμώνι᾿ *ὕπαιθρα, *μηνῶν (Herm.) ἀνάριθμος αἰὲν *εὐνῶμαι (Bergk), 'Abiding out-door hardships in moist Trojan fields, I make my bed there, months without number.' ποίᾳ may be due to the association of λειμώνια, and a further association may have converted μηνῶν into μήλων. The metre a' 4. 5 is then the same as in ß' 1, 2. A similar feeling is more fully expressed infr. 1185-1210. Cp. especially ll. 1206-10, κεῖμαι δ' ἀμέριμνος οὕτως, | ἀεὶ πυκιναῖς δρόσοις | τεγγόμενος κόμας, | λυγρᾶς μνήματα Τροίας. In both places the chorus complain at once of irksome exposure and of a life of inaction. Cp. also Aesch. Agamemnon, ll. 558 foll., τὰ δ' αὐτε χέρσῳ καὶ προσῆν πλέον στύγος εὐναὶ γὰρ ἦσαν δαΐων πρὸς τείχεσιν. | ἐξ οὐρανοῦ δὲ κἀπὸ γῆς λειμώνιαι | δρόσοι κατεψέκαζον, ἔμπεδον σίνος | ἐσθημάτων, τιθέντες ἔνθηρον τρίχα. The Trojan meadows are contrasted with the rocky ground of Salamis. Cp. also Fr. 477, where Menelaus says contemptuously to Agamemnon, who proposes to remain at Troy, σὺ δ᾽ αὖθι μίμνων που κατ᾿ Ἰδαίαν χθόνα | ποίμνας Ὀλύμπου συναγαγὼν θυηπόλει.

604. mvp-comment-411-1 †μηλῶν. Τεὐνόμᾳ] 'I make my bed months without number.' For μηνῶν ἀνήριθμος, cp. El. 232, ἀνάριθμος ὧδε θρήνων. Hdt. 9. 3, ἡ δὲ βασιλέος αἵρεσις ἐς τὴν ὑστεραίην. ἐπιστρατηΐην δεκάμηνος ἐγένετο. The Schol. explains εὐνόμᾳ by εὐκινήτῳ ('fleeting time'), and the Triclinian MSS. have εὐνώμᾳ. For εὐνᾶσθαι, of keeping watch, cp. O. C. 1568 foll., ἀνικάτου | θηρός, ὃν ἐν πύλαισι | φασὶ πολυξέστοις | εὐνᾶσθαι.

605. mvp-comment-412-1 *πόνῳ for χρόνῳ (Martin) is a probable conjecture, as χρόνῳ is weak after παλαιὸς ἀφ᾽ οὗ χρόνος, and xp may have come from the τρ of τρυχόμενος.

606. mvp-comment-413-1 κακὰν ἐλπίδ᾽ ἔχων] ἐλπίς is not here used in the indifferent sense of an expectation; but the phrase is an oxymoron; 'a hope that is a kind of despair.'

607-608. mvp-comment-414-1 'Some day yet to win my way to Hades, the abhorred and dark.' ἀΐδηλον] · Unillumined' rather than 'destroying.' Essay on L. §§ 53. pp. 98.9.

609-611. mvp-comment-415-1 'And I have Ajax on my hands, defying treatment, fixed in the tent, where Heaven-sent madness dwells with him.'

610. mvp-comment-416-1 ἔφεδρος] 'Fixed at my side.' Ajax had remained sitting throughout the previous scene. He had rejected the solicitations of his friends, and apparently returned to his sullen inaction within the tent. Instead of being their hope and pride, he was now an irremovable burden. Cp. supr. 194 foll., ἀλλ᾽ ἄνα ἐξ ἑδράνων, κ.τ.λ. The interpretation of the ancient Scholiast, 'Ready to assail me when other evils are subdued' (an application of the technical use of ἔφεδρος with reference to contests), is untenable. μανίᾳ includes the evidence of Ajax's madness, which is still within the tent. Supr. 337, 8.

613. mvp-comment-417-1 φρενός οἰοβώτας] 'Feeding his will apart;' i. e. either (1) referring to the wilful solitary raid described by Tecmessa, supr. 285 foll.: or (2), as Prof. Jebb explains it, 'One who broods sullenly apart, as did Ajax before the outbreak of his frenzy.' Not 'feeding on his own thoughts' (L. and S.), but 'pasturing his heart on lonely paths.'

615. mvp-comment-418-1 (1) 'He has proved a mighty sorrow to his friends.' Cp. Trach. 1075, θήλυς εὕρημαι τάλας: Aesch. Pers. 743, νῦν κακῶν ἔοικε πηγὴ πᾶσιν εὑρῆσθαι φίλοις. But πένθος is not elsewhere used of a person, and it is possible that εὕρηται may have a middle signification: (2) 'He has procured a mighty sorrow for his friends.' See Veitch, Gr. Irr. V. s. v. εὑρίσκω.

617. mvp-comment-419-1 μεγίστας ἀρετᾶς] 'Evincing' (or 'proceeding from') 'supreme valour.'

620-621. mvp-comment-420-1 'Are fallen to the ground, coldly neglected by the cold, infatuate kings.' παρά is used as in παρὰ δικάσταις, etc.; L. and S. s. v. παρά, Β. ΙΙ. 3. For πίπτειν, “To come to nought,' cp. Hdt. 7. 18, οἷα ἄνθρωπος ἰδὼν ἤδη πολλά τε καὶ μεγάλα πεσόντα πρήγματα ὑπὸ ἡσσόνων.

621. mvp-comment-421-1 For the reproachful tone in μελέοις, cp. infr. 1156, ἄνολβον: Hdt. 7. 140, ὦ μέλεοι, τί καθῆσθε, κ.τ.λ.

622-623. mvp-comment-422-1 παλαιᾷ .. γήρᾳ] 'His mother sunk in years and overtaken by hoary eld.' The opposition with μέν and δέ is merely rhetorical. Not ἔντροφος, but some simpler word, such as οὖσα, is to be supplied with γήρᾳ, which is dative of circumstance. Essay on L. § 11. p. 18 c. λευκὰ δὲ γήρᾳ is a plausible but needless correction.

625-626. mvp-comment-423-1 νοσοῦντα | φρενομόρως] «Fatally afflicted in his mind.' Although the madness of Ajax is relieved, its ZZZZconsequences remain, and he is to be slain not by his madness, but for it.

625-626. mvp-comment-423-2 effects are permanent, and his despair is no less a mental affliction than his madness was.

626. mvp-comment-424-1 αἴλινον αἴλινον] This word is governed by a verb, for which ἥσει is substituted as the sentence proceeds.

627. mvp-comment-425-1 οὐδέ] 'But not.' The 'instant burst of clamour' Eriboea would make is contrasted with the sustained melodious wailing of the nightingale, to which such continuous mourning as that of Electra is fitly compared,-El. 107.

628. mvp-comment-426-1 ὄρνιθος ἀηδοῦς] Cp. Ant. 423, 4, πικρᾶς | ὄρνιθος ὀξὺν φθόγγον.

631-634. mvp-comment-427-1 χερόπληκτοι .. δοῦποι] 'Noise of smiting hands.' πλήσσειν δοῦπον, «Το make a noise in smiting' would be a legitimate cognate accusative. Hence the passive form. Essay on L. § 53. p. 98.

633. mvp-comment-428-1 ἐν.. πεσοῦνται] i. e. ἐμπεσοῦνται.

634. mvp-comment-429-1 πολιᾶς *ἄμυγμα χαίτας] Sc. ἐγγενήσεται, or some general notion resumed from the preceding verb.

635. mvp-comment-430-1 For ῞Αιδα κεύθων, cp. Il. 23. 244, εἰσόκεν αὐτὸς ἐγὼν ῎Αϊδι κεύθωμαι. Elmsley needlessly corrected γὰρ Ἅιδᾳ to παρ' Ἅιδα. ὁ νοσῶν μάταν] (1) - 'One hopelessly afflicted.' μάταν (as in O. C. 1567, πολλῶν γὰρ ἂν καὶ μάταν | πημάτων ἱκνουμένων, | πάλιν σε δαίμων δίκαιος αὔξοι) means 'with no good end.' Others take μάταν here to mean, (2) ‘idly,' i. e. 'with idle or vain imaginations;' comparing Ar. Pax 95, τί πέτει; τί μάτην οὐχ ὑγιαίνεις; Either is possible.

637-638. mvp-comment-431-1 ὃς .. ᾿Αχαιών] 'Who, by the family from which he came, was, and proved to be, the noblest of the toilworn Achaeans.' ἐκ is at once 'because of' and 'in accordance with.' ἥκων is used in a double sense: 'Come forth from his father's home,' and 'Come forth,' i. e. 'proved, as bravest.' Ср. О. Т. 1519, ἔχθιστος ἥκω. ἄριστος was found by Triclinius in an 'old' MS., but may be merely due, as Blaydes remarks, to the words of the Scholiast, ἄριστα ἥκων· λείπει γὰρ τὸ ἄριστος. Another possible reading is ἄριστα. πολυπόνων] Infr. 1186 foll.

639-640. mvp-comment-432-1 'No longer remains in his habitual frame of mind, but abides outside of it,' i.e. he is no longer in his mind, but out of his mind. For this somewhat strained oxymoron, cp. Eur. Hipp. 102, πρόσωθεν αὐτὴν ἁγνὸς ὡν ἀσπάζομαι: Aesch. Pers. 756, ἔνδον αἰχμάζειν : also Ant. 773, ἔρημος ἔνθ᾽ ἂν ῇ βροτῶν στίβος, where the privative ἔρημος is equivalent to a negative.

641. mvp-comment-433-1 As his mother will utter the shrill cry of maternal agony, so his father will mourn over the dishonour of the race.

644-645. mvp-comment-434-1 'A calamity such as no life of any son of Aeacus hath ever known, but only he.' Bergk's conj., δίων Αἰακιδᾶν, has been widely received. But αἰών involves only an ordinary use of abstract for concrete, and agrees better with the figurative word ἔθρεψεν.

646. mvp-comment-435-1 If the conjecture advanced on l. 593 supr. is correct. Tecmessa and the child Eurysaces have remained on the stage in silence during the first stasimon. Ajax now unexpectedly comes forth, sword in hand, and addresses the chorus. That he dissembles with them, so far as to lead them to believe that he has abandoned his purpose of suicide, is obvious, because necessary to the situation, and is further evident on comparing 667 foll. with 835 foll., where his inmost feeling is expressed. But, just as the speech of Deianira which deceives Lichas, Trach. 436-69, contains a real indication of her character, so the studiously ambiguous words of Ajax here are the expression of an actual change of mood, -a new phase in the progress of mental recovery. The act which he contemplates is the same which he has intended from the moment of his first awakening, but he regards it in a different temper. Calm resolution has taken the place of rage, and proud submission to the inevitable that of rebellious fury. ( Cp. supr. 389.) And like Antigone, when the struggle is past, he feels the pain of parting from what has brightened life for him; he knows what is implied in leaving Tecmessa and the child. With exquisite truth as well as subtlety, Sophocles has made Ajax express his feeling and intention in words which essentially convey his true meaning, but successfully veil it from those who, if they had divined it, would have interfered. ( Supr. 329, 483). They, on the other hand, are only too readily deceived, -Tecmessa through the difficulty of believing that Ajax is hiding truth from her, and both she and the chorus through their wishes being stronger than their fears. To dissemble under any circumstances has been thought inconsistent with the native dignity of Ajax. But if this be so, it only renders the tragic contrast between his nature and his circumstances more complete. Concealment is no doubt foreign to the original bent of such a proud heroic soul. But Destiny has brought him to a point where it is inevitable, and the more so because of his first undisguised utterance, supr. 470, foll. Let a man's native character be what it will, the passion of suicide brings with it the means for its own realization. The time that Ajax has spent within the tent appears 'like an age' to him, and he begins by reflecting generally, in a meditative tone, on the changes that are wrought by Time. He wonders at his own calmness, and professes to wonder at his change of mind.

647. mvp-comment-436-1 φύει ἄδηλα] 'Rears out of darkness.' Cp. Hes. Op. 6, καὶ ἄδηλον ἀέξει. The present is used of a continual process, as in Il. 6. 147, 8, φύλλα τὰ μέν τ' ἄνεμος χαμάδις χέει, ἄλλα δε θ' ὕλη | τηλεθύωσα φύει. E. on L. § 32. p. 54. ἄδηλα (sc. ὄντα) may be regarded as = ἐξ ἀδήλων (E. on L. § 38. p. 71), but also expresses the obscurity of the first beginnings and early preparations of all things. Cp. Shak. 2 Hen. IV. 3. 1, 'Things | As yet not come to life, which in their seeds | And weak beginnings lie intreasured, Such things become the hatch and brood of time.' As in supr. 476, προσθεῖσα κἀναθεῖσα, the latter part of the antithesis is most dwelt upon, viz. καὶ φανέντα κρύπτεται, ‘And buries them in himself, after they are come into being,' although the suppression of the old purpose is virtually the revelation of the new. For φανέντα, cf. Ο. C. 974, φανεὶς δύστηνος, ὡς ἐγὼ 'φάνην. On the meaning of the middle voice, see Essay on L. § 31. p. 53 (where ἑαυτήν should be ἑαυτόν-not Earth but Time), and cp. Aesch. Cho. 127, καὶ γαῖαν αὐτήν, ἢ τὰ πάντα τίκτεται ('brings forth of herself').

648. mvp-comment-437-1 ἄελπτον] An allusion to Archil. Fr. 76, χρημάτων ἄελπτον οὐδέν ἐστιν οὐδ᾽ ἀπώμοτον. Cp. Ant. 388, ἄναξ, βροτοῖσιν οὐδὲν ἐστ᾽ ἀπώμοτον. ἁλίσκεται] 'Is overcome.' Cp. the use of αἱρέω in Ant. 606, τὰν οὔθ᾽ ὕπνος αἱρεῖ ποθ' ὁ παντογήρως.

649. mvp-comment-438-1 'Even ( καί) the awe-inspiring oath and steeled resolve.' Neither men's resolutions, nor the sanctions by which they try to strengthen them, are permanent. Cp. Thuc. 3. 83, οὐ γὰρ ἦν ὁ διαλύσων οὔτε λόγος ἐχυρὸς οὔτε ὅρκος φοβερός. καί has been changed to χαί, perhaps rightly, but see Essay on L. § 21. p. 33 b.

650-651. mvp-comment-439-1 'Since even I, who then ( supr. 470 foll.) showed such awful resolve, hard as iron hardened in the surge-even I have lost my manhood's edge, being softened by this woman.' The clause with ws relates to what precedes, as in Phil. 202 foll. προὐφάνη κτύπος, φωτὸς σύντροφος ὡς τειρομένου *του. τὰ δεινά is cogn. accus.; cp. Ant. 408, πρὸς σοῦ τὰ δείν᾽ ἐκεῖν᾽ ἐπηπειλημένοι. Ιη βαφή there is perhaps a reminiscence of supr. 351, 2, οἷον ἄρτι κῦμα φοινίας ὑπὸ ζάλης ἀμφίδρομον κυκλεῖται. βαφῇ, an instrumental dative, depends on the idea of hardening contained in ἐκαρτέρουν. For similar datives with active verbs, cp. Ant. 335, χειμερίῳ νότῳ χωρεῖ, ibid. 589, Θρῄσσαισιν .. ἐπιδράμῃ πνοαῖς. The abruptness of this construction goes for nothing when weighed against the absurdity of joining βαφῇ σιδηρὸς ὡς ἐθηλύνθην στόμα, 'My edge is abated, as that of iron is by the surge': although much ingenuity has been spent in defending this way of taking the words. στόμα, as Ajax intends his speech to be apprehended, can only mean 'edge,' i.e. 'resolution,' although by a mental reservation he may understand himself to mean 'my speech (only) is softened.'

652-653. mvp-comment-440-1 'I am wrung with pity at the thought of leaving her,' i.e. as he wishes to be understood, 'I cannot leave her for pity,' as he understands himself, 'I feel pity in leaving her.'

654-655. mvp-comment-441-1 πρὸς λειμώνας] ‘Τo the bathing-place in the meadow by the cliff,' i. e. where the level ground narrows towards the promontory of Rhoeteum. It is probably meant that Ajax really bathes in fresh water before his last solemn act. Cp. Eur. Alc. 159, ὕδασι ποταμίοις. . ἐλούσατ᾽.

655-656. mvp-comment-442-1 ἁγνίσας.. ἐξαλεύσωμαι] Το the chorus and Tecmessa ἁγνίσας means 'by purging away,' viz in the fresh running water; to Ajax himself, 'after washing off.' Cp. Shak. Macbeth, 2.2. 67, 'A little water clears us of this deed.'

657. mvp-comment-443-1 'And having gone to a place where I may find a place untrodden.' χώρον is first acc. of place after μολών, and secondly ἀστιβῆ χῶρον is accusative with κίχω. Essay on L. § 36. pp. 66, 7.

658. mvp-comment-444-1 τόδ' ἔγχος τούμόν] ‘This my sword.' Cp. infr. 815-22, 834,899.909. 1025, 1034. Does Ajax destroy himself with the sword with which he slew the cattle? There would be a certain plausibility in his professing an intention of burying the offending weapon ( ἔχθιστον βελῶν) out of sight. But this is nowhere distinctly indicated, and the elaborate reasons connected with Hector tend rather to show that the blade had not previously been used. It is the possession and not the employment of it that is dwelt upon as of evil omen.

658-659. mvp-comment-445-1 κρύψω.. ὀρύξας] There is again an intentional ambiguity between 'I will bury out of sight' and 'I will hide' (in my body) 'after planting' (in the earth). γαίας, 'Somewhere in earth,' a partitive genitive of place, to be resumed with ἕνθα. Essay on L. § 10. p. 15. A construction is easily obtained by supplying που, the antecedent of ἔνθα. ἔχθιστον is ambiguous between 'most hostile,' cp. infr. 817 foll., and 'most hateful.'

660. mvp-comment-446-1 These words are purposely ominous of Ajax' real intention. The imperative continues the prohibitive notion of μή in the preceding line. Cp. El. 436 foll. κρύψον νιν, ἔνθα μή ποτ᾽ εἰς εὐνὴν .. | .. πρόσεισι .. ἀλλ᾽ ὅταν θάνῃ | κειμήλι᾿ αὐτῇ . . σωζέσθω.

661. mvp-comment-447-1 The vivid χειρί brings before us the scene of the exchange described by Teucer infr. 1029 foll.

665. mvp-comment-448-1 Cp. Eur. Med. 618, κακοῦ γὰρ ἀνδρὸς δῶρ᾽ ὄνησιν οὐκ ἔχει.

666. mvp-comment-449-1 τοιγάρ] «Therefore,' since I am thus out of favour and pursued by divine displeasure, supr. 656, 663.

667. mvp-comment-450-1 Ajax understands in his own mind, 'I will not submit to them except in death.' Cp. Ant. 926, παθόντες ἂν ξυγγνοῖμεν ἡμαρτηκότες.

668. mvp-comment-451-1 τί μή;] Cp. Aesch. Ag. 672, λέγουσιν ἡμᾶς ὡς ὀλωλότας· τί μή; The v. r. τιμῆ (V Pal., i.e. τιμῇ), suggested by τιμαῖς in infr. 670, is a curious instance of the uncertainty that crept in when the quantities of syllables were forgotten.

669. mvp-comment-452-1 τὰ δεινὰ καὶ τὰ καρτερώτατα] 'Things dread and masterful,' such as Winter, Night, and Tempest: τὰ δεινά as in Ant. 334, πολλὰ τὰ δεινά. For the thought, cp. esp. Heraclitus, Fragm. 29 (ed. Bywater), ἥλιος οὐχ ὑπερβήσεται μέτρα· εἰ δὲ μή, ἐρινύες μιν δίκης ἐπίκουροι ἐξευρήσουσι: Plat. Rep. 6. 500 C, εἰς τεταγμένα ἄττα καὶ κατὰ ταὐτὰ ἀεὶ ἔχοντα ὁρῶντας καὶ θεωμένους οὔτ᾽ ἀδικοῦντα οὔτ᾽ ἀδικούμενα ὑπ᾿ ἀλλήλων, κόσμῳ δὲ πάντα καὶ κατὰ λόγον ἔχοντα, ταῦτα μιμεῖσθαι. As Schndw. observes, these common-places from Ajax' lips have a peculiarly ironical significance.

670. mvp-comment-453-1 τιμαῖς] «Το authority:' literally, 'to official rank.' For τιμή of an official appointment, cp. Hdt. 7. 36, οἶσι προσεκέετο αὕτη ἡ ἄχαρις τιμή: Ar. Pol. 3. 10, 4, τιμὰς λέγομεν τὰς ἀρχάς. For τοῦτο μέν with only δé to follow, cp. Ο. C. 440, τοῦτο μὲν.. οἱ δ᾽ ἐπωφελεῖν, κ.τ.λ. νιφοστιβεῖς | χειμῶνες] «The wintry months whose track is marked with snow.' This (= νιφόεντας ἔχων τοὺς στίβους) agrees better with the meaning of other compounds such as χθονοστιβής (O.T. 301), and with the personification in ἐκχωροῦσιν, than · 'piled with snows' (L. and S.)-'Winter withdraws his snowy footsteps.'

672. mvp-comment-454-1 νυκτὸς αἰανὴς κύκλος] 'The weary round of Night,' which like other periods of time, is imagined as a moving sphere. Cp. ἐνιαυτοῦ κύκλον, Eur. Or. 1645. αἰανής] Here, as in l. 8, εὔρινος, it is doubted whether the adj. is in the nominative or genitive, αἰανής or αἰανῆς. Both forms ( αἰανής, -és and aἰανός, -ή, -όν), occur in tragedy, and the balance of the sentence is rather in favour of the nominative. See Essay on L. § 42. p. 80. αἰανής, if derived from aleí, has also a false association from aủaî. See Essay on L. § 54. p. 99.

673. mvp-comment-455-1 'For Day with his white steeds ( λευκόπωλος ἡμέρα, Aesch. Pers. 386) to make his light arise.' (L. and S. s. v. φλέγω, Α. ⅱ.)

674. mvp-comment-456-1 ἐκοίμισε] 'Allows to rest.' Gnomic aorist. As, in δειλίαν ἀρεῖς, supr. 75, a passive state is expressed actively (Essay on L. § 30. p. 52), so here a negative or privative act is conceived as positive. Cp. λύει, infr. 676. This helps the vividness of the personification. As is observed by Schndw. and G. Wolff, contrary powers are naturally assigned to the same divine being. Thus Aeolus in Od. 10. 21 is ταμίης ἀνέμων. ἠμὲν παυέμεναι ἠδ᾽ ὀρνύμεν ὅν κ᾽ ἐθέλῃσιν, and Horace says of the South wind, ' quo non arbiter Hadriae major, tollere seu ponere vult freta.' In Il. 8. 486. the light of the setting sun is described as ἕλκον νύκτα μέλαιναν ἐπὶ ζείδωρον ἄρουραν.

675. mvp-comment-457-1 ἐν δ'] 'And moreover.' Sleep is not originally thought of as amongst the 'dread and masterful powers,' but is now added to the list.

678. mvp-comment-458-1 * ἐγῷδα] ‘I am sure of it'-(that I shall know how to act with moderation). The common reading, ἐγὼ δ' ἐπίσταμαι γάρ-can only be justified by supposing ἡμεῖς in 677 to mean mankind in general, in which case the opposition with dé is possible, though not very clear. But with μαθησόμεσθα preceding (l. 667), ἡμεῖς (unless with further explanation, as in supr. 125) must be equivalent to ἐγώ. And the use of δὲ .. γάρ without apodosis is not supported by Aesch. Cho. 66, ἐμοὶ δ᾽ ἀναγκὰν γὰρ ἀμφίπτολιν, κ.τ.λ., which is the nearest parallel. (For a superfluous ἐγώ with δé in apodosi, cp. Hdt. 4. 99, ὃς δὲ.. μὴ παραπέπλωκε, ἐγὼ δὲ ἄλλως δηλώσω.) Porson's conjecture, which is here received, requires a very slight alteration, ῶι for ὡ. ἐγῷδα is idiomatic, and the form of asseveration suits with the dissembling nature of the speech. ἐπίσταμαι γὰρ ἀρτίως] ‘For I have lately learnt '-Ajax continues the vein of commonplace, with which his real feelings are interwoven. In his own heart he means that the judgment of the arms has taught him the hollowness of friendship. But by putting the other side of the antithesis foremost he veils this sentiment under the general maxim which counsels moderation in love and hatred- ἀθάνατον ἔχθραν μὴ φύλασσε, θνητὸς ὤν.

680. mvp-comment-459-1 In expressing his real feeling, Ajax passes out of the impersonal mode of speaking.

682. mvp-comment-460-1 Ср. О. С. 612, 3, καὶ πνεῦμα ταὐτόν, κ.τ.λ.

682. mvp-comment-460-2 τοῖς πολλοῖσι γὰρ..] He recollects his cue, and again generalizes. Cp. Aesch. Ag. 838-840, εἰδὼς λέγοιμ' ἄν, εὐ γὰρ ἐξεπίσταμαι, | ὁμιλίας κάτοπτρον, εἴδωλον σκιᾶς, | δοκοῦντας εἶναι κάρτα πρευμενεῖς ἐμοί.

684. mvp-comment-461-1 ἀμφὶ .. τούτοισιν] 'For what concerns this, viz. my relation to the Atreidae, 'all shall go well.' Tecmessa need not fear lest the pride of Ajax should lead him into farther trouble.

685-686. mvp-comment-462-1 εἴσω . . κέαρ] εἴσω ἐλθοῦσα εὔχου θεοῖς τελεῖσθαι διὰ τέλους (ἐκεῖνα) ὧν τὸ ἐμὸν κέαρ ἐpᾷ. Tecmessa will pray that Ajax may escape from the wrath of Athena. In doing so she will unconsciously pray for the consummation of his present desires in death. The solemn phrase διὰ τέλους .. τελεῖσθαι is prompted by the latter feeling.

687-688. mvp-comment-463-1 ταὐτὰ τῇδέ μοι τάδε | τιμᾶτε] 'Honour these my wishes equally with her.' ταὐτά, an adverbial accusative, like κοινά in Ant. 546, μή μοι θάνῃς σὺ κοινά. The eightfold alliteration with τ in these two lines gives the effect of suppressed earnestness.

689. mvp-comment-464-1 In this veiled manner Ajax conveys his last request to Teucer. Cp. supr. 567, infr. 827, 8, 990, 1.

690. mvp-comment-465-1 The intentional vagueness, by which Ajax conceals his purpose from Tecmessa and the chorus, has an impressive solemnity for the spectator.

691. mvp-comment-466-1 τάχ᾽ ἂν.. ἴσως] ‘Ere long, methinks.'

692. mvp-comment-467-1 σεσωσμένον] His hearers understand, 'Freed from further evil,' as having appeased the gods and submitted to the Atreidae: to himself he means, 'Having done with evils, because no trouble can affect the dead.' Exit Ajax towards the country. Tecmessa and the child withdraw into the hut. The proscenium is vacant.

693-718. mvp-comment-468-1 The following ode is the clearest instance in Sophocles of the hyporchema, or song accompanied with dancing. In substance it may be compared with Trach. 205-224, Ο. Τ. 1086-1109, Ant. 1115-1154. The metrical scheme of στρ. and ἀντ. is as follows:...

693. mvp-comment-469-1 'My heart is thrilled with a new hope, and mounts on wings of joy.' For the aorist (of the immediate past), see Essay on L. § 32. p. 55. ἔρως is here used of a sudden and intense hope. Cp. Ant. 617, πολλοῖς δ᾽ ἀπάτα κουφονόων ἐρώτων (sc. & .. ἐλπίς).

695. mvp-comment-470-1 Pan is associated both with Marathon and Salamis, where Psyttaleia was his haunt according to Aeschylus: Pers. 448, ἣν ὁ φιλόχορος | Πὰν ἐμβατεύει. ἁλίπλαγκτε] As in the invocation to Sleep in Phil. 828, εὐαὲς . . ἔλθοις, the attribute which is part of the prayer is put in the vocative. 'Come, roving over the sea, leaving the snow-smitten ridges of Cyllene.' Cyllene is clearly visible from the Acropolis, and in spring and early summer (1874) is covered with snow. The side it presents to Athens is long and precipitous.

697. mvp-comment-471-1 θεῶν χοροποί᾽ ἄναξ] ( θεων). 'Thou lord, who of the gods art he that frames the dance.' For this partitive genitive, cp. O. C. 868, 9, θεῶν | ὁ πάντα λεύσσων ἥλιος. ὅπως μοι .. ξυνὼν ἰάψεις] «Το fling into... I pray thee, along with me.' μοι is dativus ethicus, but to be resumed with ξυνών.

698. mvp-comment-472-1 Νύσια Κνώσσια] Nysa, whether imagined as in Euboea or elsewhere, and Cnossus in Crete, were associated with the legend of Dionysus. Cp. the Cnossian dancing ground of Ariadne in Il. 18. 591, οἷον ποτ᾿ ἐνὶ Κνωσῷ εὐρείῃ | Δαίδαλος ἤσκησεν καλλιπλοκάμῳ ᾿Αριάδνῃ. 'Wilde Tänze fänden zu Ehren Dionys zu Nysa Statt, und an der Theodaisien Anfangs April zu Knossos auf Kreta' (G. Wolff). αὐτοδαῆ] 'Spontaneous,' said with reference to Pan, 'which no man hath taught thee,' cp. Aesch. Prom. 301, αὐτόκτιτ᾽ ἄντρα, 'caves formed by thyself' (said to Oceanus).

700. mvp-comment-473-1 ἰάπτειν = 'to set in sudden and swift motion.'

703. mvp-comment-474-1 πελαγέων] πελαγεῶν. For the Icarian sea, cp. Hdt. 6. 95, 6.

704. mvp-comment-475-1 εὔγνωστος] 'Easy to be known;' i. e. ἐναργής, in his proper, unmistakable form: 'Nunquam humeris positurus arcum, | Qui rore puro Castaliae lavit | Crines solutos, qui Lyciae tenet | Dumeta natalemque silvam, | Delius et Patareus Apollo' (Hor. Carm. 3. 4. 60). Cp. Trach. 207, τὸν εὐφαρέτραν.

706. mvp-comment-476-1 (1) The dangerous condition of Ajax was like a dark veil upon the eyes of the Salaminians, saddening for them even the light of day. ('A web is woven across the sky,' Tennyson, In Memoriam.) Cp. especially supr. 139, 140, 200. 'Now the cruel power has withdrawn the dreadful sorrow that oppressed our eyes.' Ares, as in O. T. 189, is the god of destruction, with an association from the violent rage in which Ajax' troubles began. Or (2) the Salaminians, like Tecmessa, supr. 269, identify themselves with Ajax, from whose eyes ( supr. 51, 447) the distraction caused by his vehement rage is now removed. For the expression in either case, cp. supr. 674 and note: Il. 13. 444, ἔνθα δ᾽ ἔπειτ᾿ ἀφίει μένος όβριμος Άρης.

708. mvp-comment-477-1 (1) 'Now, Zeus, thou shalt bring near bright genial day to our swift sea-going ships.' The meaning is half figurative, half literal. It is still morning ( καὶ ἀέξεται ἱερὸν ἦμαρ), and the Salaminians feel that the return of day-light is in keeping with the return of cheerfulness within them. For the figurative meaning, cp. especially Aesch. Cho. 961, 972, πάρα τὸ φῶς ἰδεῖν: Pers. 301. Otherwise, (2) πελάσαι may be intransitive, 'Light shall come near the ships,' in which case ὦ Zeῦ is an ejaculation. For this, cp. Phil. 400, ἰὼ μάκαιρα, κ.τ.λ.

711-712. mvp-comment-478-1 The Chorus in their delight at the pious intentions expressed by Ajax, supr. 655, 6, 666, 7, describe them in exaggerated language, and speak of them as already performed.

714. mvp-comment-479-1 These words are an echo of Ajax' reflection, supr. ll. 646, 7. The words τε καὶ φλέγει, which are added in the MSS., are not improbable in themselves. Cp. supr. 476 and note. But there is nothing to correspond to them in the strophe, and the metre as it stands in the text is more probable than it would be with the addition of 10-2. The interpolation may be accounted for by supposing a marginal quotation, as in 554 supr.

715. mvp-comment-480-1 ἐξ ἀέλπτων] 'When we had despaired.' Cp. supr. 648.

716. mvp-comment-481-1 μετανεγνώσθη] 'Has been converted.' Ajax, supr. 651, attributed the change in himself to the persuasion of Tecmessa.

717. mvp-comment-482-1 θυμῶν] This reading, which occurs in some MSS., is nearer to θυμόν, the reading of L, than the conj. θυμοῦ T', which has been commonly adopted. For the poetical plural, 'outbursts of wrath,' cp. Trach. 882, τίνες νόσοι; and see Essay on L. § 20. p. 30. The plural of θυμός occurs in Plat. Phil. 40 E: Legg. 11. 934 Α, ὁ δὲ .. ἐν φόβοις δειλίας, ἡ τισιν ἐπιθυμίαις ἡ φθόνοις ἢ θυμοῖς δυσιάτοις γιγνόμενος. ( νεικέων.)

719. mvp-comment-483-1 The proscenium has been vacant during the preceding ode. A single figure is now seen approaching from the opposite direction to that in which Ajax went forth. The man proves to be Teucer's forerunner. The effect of the following scene is twofold. On the one hand, the Chorus and Tecmessa are roused from their security, and go anxiously in search of Ajax. We are thus made aware that the crisis of the drama is approaching. But, on the other hand, the bearing of the prophet to Teucer, as reported by the messenger, and the tenor of his prophecy, assure the spectator that the anger of Athena against Ajax is not lasting, and hold forth a vague promise of final peace. ἄνδρες φίλοι] The messenger, who is one of Teucer's men, thus assures the mariners of his continued friendship in their master's hour of need. τὸ πρῶτον stands in apposition with the sentence, Τεύκρος παρέστι, which, as Hermann says, must be held as equivalent to Teῦκρον παρεῖναι. Ср. О. Т. 1234, 5, ὁ μὲν τάχιστος τῶν λόγων εἰπεῖν τε καὶ | μαθεῖν, τέθνηκε θεῖον Ἰοκάστης κάρα. The abruptness of this gives some colour to Musgrave's conjecture, ἄνδρες, φίλον τὸ πρῶτον ἀγγεῖλαι θέλω.

724-725. mvp-comment-484-1 'For when they knew him from afar off as he approached, they surrounded him.' Cp. infr. 1046, μαθεῖν γὰρ ἐγγὺς ὧν οὐ δυσπετής.

726. mvp-comment-485-1 κἀπιβουλευτοῦ στρατοῦ] 'And who was guilty of plotting against the army.' στρατοῦ is genitive of the object.

727. mvp-comment-486-1 ὡς connects οὐκ ἀρκέσοι, κ.τ.λ. with ἤρασσον, the clause τὸν .. ἀποκαλοῦντες being parenthetical. They said, ὦ τοῦ μανέντος .. ξύναιμε, οὐκ ἀρκέσεις, κ.τ.λ. The verb ἀρκεῖν is used absolutely in the original sense of 'to ward off danger,' and this uncommon use is supplemented by the epexegetic clause.

730. mvp-comment-487-1 διεπεραιώθη] Lit. 'were passed from either side,' ie. 'crossed blades.' Not merely 'were unsheathed.'

731. mvp-comment-488-1 δραμοῦσα τοῦ προσωτάτω] 'When it had run to an extreme.' The partitive genitive is merely idiomatic, and does not limit the force of the expression. Essay on L. § 10. p. 16 (bis).

732. mvp-comment-489-1 'Through elders interposing with their words.' For ev instrumental, see Essay on L. § 19. p. 28, and cp. Trach. 887, στονόεντος ἐν τομᾷ σιδάρου.

733. mvp-comment-490-1 'Where is our Ajax?' ἡμίν is dative of the person interested. Ср. supr. 332, ἡμῖν τὸν ἄνδρα διαπεφοιβάσθαι κακοίς.

734. mvp-comment-491-1 τοῖς κυρίοις] 'Το those principally concerned.' Cp. Aesch. Cho. 688, 9, εἰ δὲ τυγχάνω | τοῖς κυρίοισι καὶ προσήκουσιν λέγων, | οὐκ οἶδα.

735-736. mvp-comment-492-1 νέας .. τρόποις] 'Having changed his purpose in unison with his change of mood.' The Chorus believe that Ajax, having learnt submission, is gone forth to purify himself in the fresh water at the corner of the bay. Supr. 654 foll.

737. mvp-comment-493-1 ἰοὺ ἰού] The messenger perceives that the fate of Ajax is sealed, and raises the same cry of horror that Oedipus utters (O. T. 1182) when he discovers the truth.

738. mvp-comment-494-1 βραδείαν is predicative and adverbial,= 'too late.' Cp. the use of πικρός, e.g. infr. 1239.

740. mvp-comment-495-1 'And what is there lacking to the fulfilment of the present need?' χρείας τῆσδ', 'the need implied in Teucer's sending you, τήνδε τὴν ὁδόν, supr. 738.

743. mvp-comment-496-1 τοι] 'We can tell you.' τοι here expresses the consciousness of contributing pertinent information.

743-744. mvp-comment-497-1 πρὸς τὸ κέρδιστον.. γνώμης] 'His thoughts having taken the happiest turn.' For the genitive, cp. Trach. 705, ποῖ γνώμης πέσω; Ant. 42, ποῦ γνώμης ποτ' εἶ;

744. mvp-comment-498-1 χόλου] 'In respect of' (lit. 'from') 'their wrath.'

746. mvp-comment-499-1 The name of Calchas, and the thought of his foreknowledge, strike the hearers with an expectant awe.

748. mvp-comment-500-1 καὶ παρὼν ἐτύγχανον] 'For I was there to hear and see.' An expansion of παρών, the coordinate for the participial construction. See Essay on L. § 36. p. 68; also § 32. p. 55.

749. mvp-comment-501-1 Calchas, who alone knows the future, is not carried away by the rage which possesses the host, but simply warns Teucer in a friendly tone that the wrath of the gods is against Ajax for this one day. This attitude of the prophet is emphasized by the pleonastic iteration, ἐκ. κύκλου μεταστὰς οἷος .. δίχα, and by the periphrasis in l. 753. συνέδρου . . κύκλου] 'The circle of the lords who sate in council,' with the ἀγορά of the Achaeans gathered round.

751-752. mvp-comment-502-1 Join δεξιὰν θείς.

752. mvp-comment-503-1 παντοίᾳ τέχνῃ] 'By all manner of means:' to be joined with εἶρξαι.

753. mvp-comment-504-1 κατ᾿ ἡμαρ.. τόδε] 'For the day whose light is with us now and here,' i. e. to-day.

754. mvp-comment-505-1 ἀφέντα agrees with Τεύκρον, the subject of ἐᾶν.

756. mvp-comment-506-1 τῇδε θήμέρᾳ is more probable, because simpler, than τῇδ' ἔθ᾽ ἡμέρᾳ.

757. mvp-comment-507-1 ὡς ἔφη λέγων] · As his words declared.' The messenger is careful to make it clear that the assertion is the prophet's, and not his own. Cp. Creon in Ο. Τ. 110, ἐν τῇδ᾽ ἔφασκε γῇ. For this periphrasis, cp. Hdt. 1. 118, τῷ τε γὰρ πεποιημένῳ, ἔφη λέγων, ἐς τὸν παῖδα τοῦτον ἔκαμνον μεγάλως, κ.τ.λ. Abicht observes that it is commonly used, as here, in passing to direct speech from indirect.

758. mvp-comment-508-1 τὰ.. περισσὰ κἀνόνητα σώματα] 'Men grown too great to be of profit.' Cp. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 1. 2. 149, 50, 'Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, | That he is grown so great?' Ib. I. 1. 77, 8, 'These growing feathers plucked from Caesar's wing, | Will make him fly an ordinary pitch.'

760. mvp-comment-509-1 ὅστις] · 'When any one.' Essay on L. § 22. p. 35, 2.

760-761. mvp-comment-510-1 ἀνθρώπου φύσιν | βλαστών] 'Being but of human mould.' An unusual cognate accusative, to be partly accounted for by the frequent use of φύσιν as an accusative of respect. See Essay on L. § 17. p. 25; and cp. especially Trach. 1062, γυνὴ δέ, θήλυς οὖσα κοὐκ ἀνδρὸς φύσιν.

762. mvp-comment-511-1 εὐθύς belongs in meaning to εὑρέθη in the following line.

763. mvp-comment-512-1 πατρός may be either (1) genitive of derivation, 'A foolish son of a wisely speaking father,' for which, cp. Ant. 38, ἐσθλῶν κακή: or (2) genitive absolute, 'Foolish, although his father advised him well.' The former (1) is nearer to the truth.

764. mvp-comment-513-1 αὐτὸν ἐννέπει] 'Charged him.' Cp. Ο. Τ. 350, ἐννέπω σέ, κ.τ.λ.

765. mvp-comment-514-1 μὲν .. δ΄] The 'paratactic' structure (Essay on L. § 36. p. 68) gives additional emphasis.

769. mvp-comment-515-1 ἐπισπάσειν] 'That I shall cull perforce,' as if plucking a branch from a tree. (Aesch. Pers. 475.) Cp. Shak. 1 Hen. IV. 1.3: 'Hot. By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap | To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon; | Or dive into the bottom of the deep, | Where fathom-line doth never touch the ground, | And pluck up drowned honour by the locks; | So he that doth redeem her thence might wear | Without corrival all her dignities.'

770. mvp-comment-516-1 τοσόνδ' .. μύθον] 'So high the vaunt he uttered.' Cp. supr. 386, μηδὲν μέγ' εἴπῃς: 422, 3, ἔπος | ἐξερέω μέγα.

771. mvp-comment-517-1 δίας ᾿Αθάνας] 'Regarding glorious Athena.' An extreme instance of the genitive of respect. Essay on L. § 9. p. 13, infr. 790, 792. The sentence is changed from δίας Αθάνας ότρυνούσης, or αὐδωμένης.

773. mvp-comment-518-1 ηὐδᾶτ'] For αὐδᾶν, ‘to command,' cp. O. C. 864, αὐδῶ σιωπᾶν, and for the middle v. (of unasked, spontaneous utterance), Phil. 130, οὗ δῆτα, τέκνον, ποικίλως αὐδωμένου. δεινὸν ἄρρητόν τ' ἔπος] ' A fearfully impious word.'

775. mvp-comment-519-1 καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς) 'In my part of the line; κατά, as in Hdt. 2. 121. § 4, ὡς δὲ κατὰ τοὺς φυλάσσοντας ἦν: Xen. Hell. 4. 2. 18, οἱ μὲν ᾿Αθηναῖοι κατὰ Λακεδαιμονίους ἐγένοντο. Hermann renders, 'Per me, quantum in me est,' which is rather = τὸ καθ' ἡμᾶς ( cp. Hdt. 7. 158). οὔποτ' ἐκρήξει] 'Shall never burst forth,' like a river breaking its banks. 'Postquam..duo acies manum aliquandiu conseruerunt, si alterutra subito in fugam se converterit, eleganter pugna ipsa, tanquam obicibus antea coërcita, in eam partem ἐκρήσσειν [ ἐκρῆξαι] dicatur.' Musgr. Cp. the Homeric πολέμοιο γέφυραι, in which the opposing armies are thought of as the sides of a torrent.

776. mvp-comment-520-1 The correction suggested by Hermann, τοι for τοῖς, although not quite necessary (for τοιοίσδε might = τοιοίσδε πεφυκόσιν), is extremely probable.

776-777. mvp-comment-521-1 ἀστεργῆ .. ὀργήν] • He hath won him the unenviable guerdon of the goddess' wrath.' ἀστεργῆ is more forcible when taken thus passively than if supposed to mean 'unloving,' which would add nothing to the notion of ὀργὴν. For ἐκτήσατο, of something bad, cp. especially Aesch. S. c. T. 1017 (of Polynices), ἄγος δὲ καὶ θανὼν κεκτήσεται.

779. mvp-comment-522-1 The genitive αὐτοῦ shows that σωτήριοι has nearly the force of a substantive.

780. mvp-comment-523-1 On this form of the senarius, generally marking some empressement, see above on l. 294. ἐξ ἔδρας] 'From where I sate,' viz. amongst the Achaeans who were looking on at the council.

781. mvp-comment-524-1 τάσδ' ἐπιστολάς] 'This charge,' viz. that implied in supr. 753-5. Teucer remains to watch over his brother's interests in the assembly.

782. mvp-comment-525-1 Τεύκρος]) The proper name is added after the article in further explanation. φυλάσσειν] The epexegetic infinitive is occasioned by the addition of Τεύκρος. εἰ δ᾽ ἀπεστερήμεθα] 'But if we are frustrated;' i. e. if the δαίμων of Ajax has prevented us from carrying out our intention. For ἀποστερεῖν of prevention, cp. Aesch. Suppl. 1063, Ζεὺς ἀποστεροίη γάμον. This meaning is more forcible, although less obvious, than that of Badham's ingenious conjecture, εἰ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ὑστερήκαμεν.

783. mvp-comment-526-1 The idiomatic ἁνὴρ κεῖνος avoids the association of the name Alas with the ill-omened οὐκ ἔστιν.

784. mvp-comment-527-1 'O cruelly vexed Tecmessa, born to woe!' The exact association conveyed in Sata is difficult to seize. Perhaps from meaning 'hostile,' it comes to mean 'treated as an enemy,' and so 'cruelly afflicted' by the gods.

785. mvp-comment-528-1 'Come and see what news this man is telling.' Cp. Phil. 504, χρὴ δ᾽ ἐμὲ | σκοπεῖν ὅπως σου μηδὲν ἐξαμαρτήσω.

814. mvp-comment-529-1 καὶ ποδῶν is added to define ἔργου further. Exeunt Chorus severally by the two side doors. Cp. supr. 805.

815-865. mvp-comment-530-1 The scene is changed to a wooded place ( infr. 892) not far from the camp ( infr. 874-8), where Ajax is disclosed, somewhat retired, but so that both he and the projecting point of the sword which he has planted in the ground, are visible to the spectators.

815. mvp-comment-531-1 ὁ.. σφαγεύς] Either (1) 'the slayer,' or (2) 'the sacrificer;' probably the former (1). ἕστηκεν .. ἄν] 'Stands so as he may prove most keen:' whetted not only with the grind-stone, but with the hate of Hector who gave it, the enmity of the Trojan soil in which it is fixed, the determined will of Ajax and his care in executing that will. The sword thus ordered cannot fail of its effect.

816. mvp-comment-532-1 εἴ τῳ.. σχολή] These words mark Ajax' feeling of the extreme deliberateness of his act. After long repression he is at leisure not only to make elaborate preparations, but also to reason over what he is about to do. For the language, cp. Thuc. 2. 45, εἰ δέ με δεῖ καὶ γυναικείας τι ἀρετῆς . μνησθῆναι, βραχεία παραινέσει ἅπαν σημανῶ. The clause is rather to be connected with what follows than with what precedes. (Others would supply ἦν, and render 'If one had but time to make reflections'). The indefinite Te has an ironical effect, and also somewhat of solemnity, like the impersonal expression in Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 5. 1: 'O, that a man might know | The end of this day's business ere it come!'

817-818. mvp-comment-533-1 ἀνδρὸς ὁρᾶν] 'Of Hector, who of men not Greek was by me most hated and abhorred.' ἀνδρός adds a touch of distinction to the name which follows. Cp El. 45, παρ᾿ ἀνδρὸς Φανοτέως ἥκων. By the addition of ξένων he reserves his chief hatred for the Argives.

820. mvp-comment-534-1 The reading σιδηροβρώτηῃ is not impossible. Cp. Ο. Τ. 80, 1, τύχῃ ·· σωτῆρι, and note. The iteration of ἔπηξα after πέπηγε, supr. 819, strengthens our impression of the firmness with which the sword was fastened in the earth.

821. mvp-comment-535-1 εὖ περιστείλας) 'Carefully securing it.' He had trodden the earth about it, as if planting a young tree.

822. mvp-comment-536-1 εὐνούστατον..θανεῖν] 'So as most kindly to provide for me a speedy death,' εὐνούστατον is supplementary predicate with ἔπηξα. Essay on L. § 23, P. 38, § 38, p. 71. θανεῖν is epexegetic = ὥστε θανείν. Ajax has but two desires, that his death may be (1) certain, (2) swift. His preparation of the sword secures both ends in one.

823. mvp-comment-537-1 οὕτω μὲν εὐσκευοῦμεν] 'So well provided with an instrument am I.' μέν is resumed from supr. 815.

824. mvp-comment-538-1 καὶ γὰρ εἰκός] These words are characteristic of the indomitable hero, who, in his supreme hour, addresses the sovereign of the gods as his kinsman. ( Cp. supr. 387, προγόνων προπάτωρ.)

825. mvp-comment-539-1 λαχεῖν, if the true reading, is epexegetic, the accusative γέρας being governed, primarily, by αἰτήσομαι. But λαβεῖν may be right. See v. rr.

826. mvp-comment-540-1 κακὴν φάτιν] A rumour of evil sound. In the 'clairvoyance' of this moment Ajax imagines the effect which the news of his death would have on Teucer, as also, infr. 850, on his mother. It has been supposed that infr. 998, ὀξεῖα γὰρ .. θανών indicates the answer of Zeus to this prayer. But, although this is possible, such a rumour is sufficiently accounted for by what passes at supr. 749 foll., especially the words in l. 783, οὐκ ἔστιν ἄνηρ κεῖνος.

828. mvp-comment-541-1 περί] Cp. infr. 899, φασγάνῳ περιπτυχής. νεορράντῳ] 'Then freshly streaming.' For this vivid touch, cp. infr. 898, ἀρτίως νεοσφαγής. He does not mention Tecmessa.

830. mvp-comment-542-1 ῥιφθῶ .. ἕλωρ] 'I be cast forth, exposed to dogs and birds for a prey.'

833-834. mvp-comment-543-1 'And that the leap wherewith I plunge this sword into my side may be swift and without a struggle.' πηδήματι has been interpreted of the involuntary spring upwards at the moment of the sword piercing the heart; but it is rather, more simply, the act of falling on the sword. Ajax prays that this may be unattended with convulsions, and may lead directly to the consummation.

835. mvp-comment-544-1 ἀεὶ . . παρθένους] Cp. especially, Aesch. Eum. 69, 70, παλαιαὶ παῖδες, αἷς οὐ μίγνυται | θεῶν τις, οὐδ᾽ ἄνθρωπος, οὐδὲ θήρ ποτε.

836. mvp-comment-545-1 Ср. О. С. 42, τὰς πάνθ᾽ ὁρώσας Εὐμενίδας, κ.τ.λ.

837. mvp-comment-546-1 μαθεῖν] The inf. depends on the general notion in καλῶ, the full expression, καλῶ ἀρωγούς, being partly lost sight of.

839-842. mvp-comment-547-1 See v. rr. The reasons for rejecting these four lines may be briefly given. The allusion to the death of Agamemnon, which is the chief point in them, interferes with the poetical simplicity of the passage, and is moreover not applicable to Menelaus. The emphatic use of αὐτοσφαγής in two different senses in the same line is awkward, and like an imitation. φίλιστος occurs nowhere else, and τώς not elsewhere in Sophocles; and ἐκγόνων seems to have arisen from a confusion of the death of Agamemnon with that of Clytemnestra, together with an attempt to include the fate of Odysseus. ¹

839-842. mvp-comment-547-2 839 ff. καί σφας κακοὺς κάκιστα καὶ πανωλέθρους | ξυναρπάσειαν, ὥσπερ εἰσορῶσ' ἐμὲ | αὐτοσφαγῆι πίπτοντα, τὼς αὐτοσφαγεὶς | πρὸς τῶν φιλίστων ἐκγόνων ὀλοίατο LAL Pal. Vat. ac. (Variants: αὐτοσφαγῆ Α. αὐτοσφαγεῖσ CA. ἐκγονων L. καὐτοσφαγεῖς Pal. τως αὐτοσφαγεῖς Vat. ac. ὣς αὐτοσφαγεῖς V. ἐκγόνων Vat. a.)

844. mvp-comment-548-1 'Flesh yourselves unsparingly on all the populous host.' μὴ φείδεσθε is introduced dià mésou. The πάνδημος στρατός of the Achaeans is contrasted with the Argive chiefs.

847. mvp-comment-549-1 ἐπισχὼν .. ἡνίαν] ‘Checking thy rein.' Instead of saying ἐπέχειν ἅρμα, or ἵππους, the means, or more immediate object, is put into the accusative.

847. mvp-comment-549-2 χρυσόνωτον] ‘Gilded,' viz, having the upper surface studded with gold.

848. mvp-comment-550-1 ἄτας.. ἐμόν] 'My troubles and my fate.' This is not a mere pleonasm. The ἅται may include his first provocation of Athena as well as his wild actions since; the word μόρον is specially applicable to his death.

849. mvp-comment-551-1 τῇ τε δυστήνῳ τροφῷ] Either (1) 'and the unhappy one who nursed my infancy;' or (2) 'and the unhappy one who tends on him.' According to (1) Ajax in thinking of his mother with special tenderness, speaks of her as the one who nursed him at her breast ( ἥ μ' ἔτεχ᾽, ἤ μ᾿ ἔθρεψε, Od. 2. 131.) According to (2) he is thinking of the dreary household at Salamis, where she who had been the wife of Telamon's youth was now the nurse of his declining years. Cp. Od. 24. 211, ἐν δὲ γυνὴ Σικελὴ γρηὺς πέλεν, ἤ ῥα γέροντα | ἐνδυκέως κομέεσκεν ἐπ᾿ ἀγροῦ, νόσφι πόληος.

851. mvp-comment-552-1 Cp. Eur. Med. 1176, εἶτ' ἀντίμολπον ἡκεν ὀλολυγῆς μέγαν | κωκυτόν.

852. mvp-comment-553-1 'But I have nought to do with vain laments for this.' οὐδὲν ἔργον, lit. 'It is no part of the business in hand.'

853. mvp-comment-554-1 σὺν τάχει τινί] 'And that with speed.' The addition of the indefinite pronoun, as in ἀνύσας τι ('with something of haste'), has an effect of peremptoriness.

856. mvp-comment-555-1 τὸ νῦν] By hypallage for τῆς νῦν, giving a lighter rhythm.

857. mvp-comment-556-1 προσεννέπω is introduced by an expansion similar to that in Aesch. Prom. 91, καὶ τὸν πανόπτην κύκλον ἡλίου καλῶ, and then becomes the governing word.

858. mvp-comment-557-1 κοὔποτ᾽ αὖθις] Sc. προσαυδήσω. Cp. Ant. 808, 9, νέατον δὲ φέγγος λεύσσουσαν ἀελίου | κοὔποτ᾽ αὖθις.

859. mvp-comment-558-1 ὦ φέγγος] He passionately resumes his invocation (856-8), and as his heart goes forth with the universal sunlight, he again (as in 846) fixes his thoughts on home.

860. mvp-comment-559-1 πατρῷον ἑστίας βάθρον] 'Hearth-stone of my sire.' See Essay on L. § 42. p. 80 γ.

861. mvp-comment-560-1 κλειναί] Cp. supr. 596, and note. The glory of Athens, like that of Salamis, is anticipated.

861. mvp-comment-560-2 τὸ σύντροφον γένος] 'And ye, her race, among whom I was brought up.' These words, in which Ajax adopts the Athenians as brethren of the Aeacidae, are well calculated to move the Athenian audience.

862-864. mvp-comment-561-1 After bidding farewell to Salamis and Athens, he is returning to his purpose, when his eye falls on the fresh waters in which he has lately bathed ( supr. 654); and they remind him of his Trojan environment of the last ten years. To this also he bids an affectionate farewell.

864. mvp-comment-562-1 The repetition of his own name by Ajax here is significant. Still conscious of his greatness, he imagines all Nature as moved at his departure.

865-866. mvp-comment-563-1 Ajax having fallen upon his sword at the back of the proscenium, and the orchestra as well as the stage being otherwise vacant, the Chorus re-enter by the two side doors, the first ἡμιχορίον coming in on the spectator's left, as if from the east. Before the opening of the strophe, infr. 879, they have taken up their position in the orchestra.

866. mvp-comment-564-1 'Toil upon toil brings only toil.' The dative here is partly governed by the verb. Cp. Eur. Hel. 195, δάκρυα δάκρυσί μοι φέρων. But in Eur. Phoen. 1496, φόνῳ φόνos, by an extension of the idiom, φόνῳ is simply = ἐπὶ φόνῳ.

869. mvp-comment-565-1 'And no spot arrests me that I may share its secret.' Although the causative sense of the middle voice of ἐφίστημι is usually confined to the first aorist, this is not the case with other compounds of ἵστημι, e. g. καθίσταμαι; and in Trach. 339, τοῦ με τήνδ᾽ ἐφίστασαι βάσιν, the active or causative meaning is the most natural. See L. and S. s. v. ἐφίστημι, C. διίσταμαι occurs with active meaning only in Plat. Tim. 63 C, γεώδη γένη διϊστάμενοι. The force of the middle voice comes out if we complete the expression, ἐφίσταταί με συμμαθεῖν ἑαυτῷ. ἐπίσταταί με συμμαθεῖν can only mean 'is aware that I know what it knows.'

870. mvp-comment-566-1 ἴδου] Cp. El. 1410, ἰδοὺ μάλ᾽ αὖ θροεῖ τις.

872. mvp-comment-567-1 Either (1) with a comma after γε, as in the text, 'You hear our sound, your mates of the same ship's crew:' ἡμῶν governed by δοῦπον, and ὁμιλίαν (abstract for concrete) being placed in lax apposition with the preceding words. Or (2) with no stop, supplying κλύεις, 'What you hear is our company, your mates of the same ship's crew.'

874. mvp-comment-568-1 'The coast to westward of the ships hath all been trodden.' πλευρόν, lit. 'the rib,' and hence figuratively the curve, or half-arc, on one side of the bay. νεῶν, not with πλευρόν, but with ἕσπερον, as a genitive of local relation.

877. mvp-comment-569-1 ἀφ᾿ ἡλίου βολῶν] ‘Towards the sunrise;' according to the Greek idiom by which the point of sight is taken as a point of departure. Cp. Hdt. 1. 84, πρὸς τοῦ Τμώλου τετραμμένον, and see L. and S. s. ν. πρός, A. I. 2.

878. mvp-comment-570-1 κέλευθον is accusative of the sphere of motion, Essay on L. § 16. p. 23 c, some such word as ἰοῦσιν being suggested by the context. δηλοῖ] Sc. τὸ ἐρευνώμενον. ‘Reveals the hidden truth by being found.' Ll. 866-878, which are recited before the Chorus have taken their places, are not antistrophic. Ll. 878-914, 925-960, are antistrophic according to the following scheme...

879. mvp-comment-571-1 The correction of δή to δῆτα is necessary for the (dochmiac) metre. τις ἂν = πῶς ἄν τις; Cp. O. C. 1100, τίς ἂν θεῶν . . δοίη;

880. mvp-comment-572-1 ἔχων] 'Employed in.' Cp. supr. 564, δυσμενῶν θήραν ἔχων.

881. mvp-comment-573-1 Ὀλυμπιάδων θεᾶν], 'Nymphs of' (the Mysian) 'Olympus.'

885. mvp-comment-574-1 Βοσπορίων ποταμών] ‘What flowing current of the Hellespont?' Cp. supr. 412, and note. The Hellespont with its various currents might be imagined as tenanted by many river-gods. ἴδρις, which follows these words in most MSS., but not in Mosq. ab., has nothing to correspond to it in the antistrophe, and is unnecessary to the sense.

885. mvp-comment-574-2 τὸν ὠμόθυμον] Cp. supr. 205, and note.

886. mvp-comment-575-1 εἴ ποθι.. λεύσσων] i. e. λεύσσων, εἴ ποθι λεύσσοι. See Essay on L. § 28. p. 47,3; and cp. Thuc. 1. 14. § 4.

887. mvp-comment-576-1 σχέτλια] For the plural use, cp. Ε1. 230, τάδε γὰρ ἄλυτα κεκλήσεται.

888. mvp-comment-577-1 τὸν .. πόνων] 'In this my long-continued wandering toil.'

889. mvp-comment-578-1 'Should not arrive with favourable speed.' πελάσαι, sc. τῷ ζητουμένῳ.

890. mvp-comment-579-1 "But mine eye should fail to find where he is, the vanished one." Although the ordinary sense of ἀμενηνός, ‘without force' ( ἀ-μένος), is sufficient here (cp. especially, Hom. H. Ven. 189-91, μή με ζῶντ᾽ ἀμενηνὸν ἐν ἀνθρώποισιν ἐάσῃς ναίειν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐλέαιρ᾽· ἐπεὶ οὐ βιοθάλμιος ἀνὴρ | γίγνεται, ὅστε, κ.τ.λ.), the context suggests the further association of 'a vanished life,' as if from α, μένω. See Essay on L. § 54. p. 100 c.

891. mvp-comment-580-1 During the strophe, Tecmessa has entered unperceived at the back of the stage, and, still in shadow, raises a sudden cry. The Chorus do not at once see her.