1091.
mvp-comment-699-1
γνώμας ὑποστήσας σοφάς] 'After laying a ground-work of wise maxims.'
Cp. Pind. Pyth. 4. 241-3,
πραὺν δ' Ἰάσων | μαλθακᾷ φωνᾷ ποτιστάζων ὅαρον | βάλλετο κρηπίδα σοφῶν ἐπέων. This line has no caesura.
1092.
mvp-comment-700-1
'Proceed thereupon to be guilty of insolence towards the dead.' For
ἐν θανοῦσιν ὑβριστής, cp.
infr. 1315,
ἐν ἐμοὶ θρασύς.
1096.
mvp-comment-701-1
τοιαῦθ᾽ ἁμαρτάνουσιν.. ἔπη] 'Are guilty of such sinful utterance.'
ἔπη is a cognate accusative similar to
infr. 1107, 8,
τὰ σέμν᾽ ἔπη | κόλαζ᾽ ἐκείνους.
ἐν λόγοις is pleonastic, and simply means, 'When they speak.'
1097.
mvp-comment-702-1
σύ has a strong emphasis: 'Do you profess to have brought Ajax hither as an ally to the Achaeans?' The word
ἄγειν in
supr. 1053 was offensive to Teucer.
1100-1101.
mvp-comment-703-1
ποῦ.. οἴκοθεν] 'Where is your right to command Ajax? or where is your authority to lord it over the troops he led from home?' The adverb of place is transferred to express a logical relation, 'Where do you command?' i. e. 'Show me the ground on which you do so.'
1101.
mvp-comment-704-1
The apparent violation of the Porsonic pause in this line may be remedied by reading
ἤγαγ᾽ οἴκοθεν with Pal. (see v. rr.) In that case
ὧν is genitive by attraction, for
τούτων, οὕς. But just as there are lines without caesura, so there are several instances of this exception to the rule of the cretic. And, as Elmsley suggested, the elision, by forbidding a pause, may have made the exception possible.
1102.
mvp-comment-705-1
This line, like
supr. 861, would find an echo in Athenian national sentiment.
1103.
mvp-comment-706-1
οὐδ᾽ ἔσθ' ὅπου] 'Nor is there any ground on which.'
Cp. supr. l. 1100 and note.
1104.
mvp-comment-707-1
ἀρχῆς ἔκειτο θεσμός] 'Right of command existed.' The past tense refers to the lifetime of Ajax.
1105.
mvp-comment-708-1
ἄλλων] i. e. of Agamemnon.
ὅλων may be either masculine or neuter, (1) 'Of all the troops,' or (2) 'Of the whole expedition.' Parallels for both are quoted by Lobeck. The first seems the more probable. In this case the plural is equivalent to a collective word,
τοῦ στρατοῦ ὅλου, and this may justify the use of
ὅλων for
πάντων.
1106.
mvp-comment-709-1
ὥστ᾽ Αίαντος ἡγεῖσθαί ποτε] This petulant iteration, however natural, is somewhat beneath the level of tragic dignity which is maintained throughout the earlier part of the play.
ποτέ, as in
supr. 183,
οὔ ποτε, gives absoluteness to the denial. 'That could never be!'
1107.
mvp-comment-710-1
ὧνπερ ἄρχεις ἄρχε] ‘Exercise command on those over whom you have command.'
1108.
mvp-comment-711-1
εἴτε μὴ σὺ φής] i. e.
εἴτε σὺ μὴ φής.
1110.
mvp-comment-712-1
δικαίως] 'Rightly,' i.e. 'Abating nothing of what is due to him.'
1112.
mvp-comment-713-1
ὥσπερ οἱ πόνου πολλοῦ πλέῳ] 'Like those poor men who are consumed with toil;' i. e. the Argive soldiery, who are subject to the behests of the Atreidae. In pitying the men under their command, Teucer conveys his scorn both of the meanness and the tyrannical disposition of the two generals, and also his pride in the independence shown by Ajax and himself.
Cp. Il. 9. 348,
ἢ μὲν δὴ μάλα πολλὰ πονήσατο νόσφιν ἐμεῖο:
supr. 637,
πολυπόνων ᾿Αχαιῶν.
1113.
mvp-comment-714-1
Ajax served, not because Helen was Menelaus' wife, but because of his oath to her father Tyndareus.
Cp. Thuc. 1. 9,
τοῖς Τυνδάρεω ὅρκοις κατειλημμένους.
1114.
mvp-comment-715-1
σοῦ δ᾽ οὐδέν] This angry repetition (cp.
supr. 1106) resumes more explicitly what was implied in
σῆς, l. 1111.
οὐ γὰρ .. τοὺς μηδένας] For
ἀξιοῦν with the accusative only, cp. Eur. Heracl. 918 (lyr.),
ὦ Ὑμέναιε, δισσοὺς | παῖδας Διὸς ἠξίωσας.
τοὺς μηδένας] Not
οὐδένας, because the expression is general, i.e. hypothetical, —
εἰ μηδένες εἴησαν.
1115.
mvp-comment-716-1
Menelaus came attended by a single herald.
1116.
mvp-comment-717-1
τὸν στρατηγόν] 'The generalissimo.' In
supr. 1109, to depreciate Agamemnon, Teucer put the two generals on a par: here, to depreciate Menelaus, he makes Agamemnon supreme.
τοῦ.. σοῦ ψόφου] 'For any noise of thine.'
Cp. Eur. Hipp. 1224-6,
οὔτε ναυκλήρου χερὸς | οὔθ' ἱπποδέσμων .. | μεταστρέφουσαι.
1117.
mvp-comment-718-1
οὐκ ἂν στραφείην] 'I will not turn this way or that.'
ὡς ἂν ἧς—οἷός περ εἰ] 'However you may be just what you are.' The sentence ends,
parà prosdokían, after leading the hearer to expect some word like
βασιλικός ('However kingly you may be'). Instead of that, Teucer substitutes
οἷός περ εἶ, “A man like Menelaus, and nothing more.'
Cp. Shak. Ham. 3. 2, 'We shall obey, were she ten times our mother.' For
ὡς ἄν, see E. on L. § 28. p. 47, 4 a.
1118.
mvp-comment-719-1
οὐδ᾽ αὖ] The Chorus contrast their present speech with
supr. 1091, 2.
1119.
mvp-comment-720-1
'For hard words irritate, however deserved they may be.'
