151-215.
mvp-comment-104-1
Outstretched in fear we listen awfully for thy propitious voice, oh sweet-tongued utterance of Heaven. Paean, be our speed! What thing new or old in season due dost thou disclose? Tell us, thou voice, child of bright Hope divine. Athena, Goddess, daughter of the Highest, first hear our cry; thou, Artemis, on thine encircled throne, and archer Phoebus, come in threefold might to save! if ever heretofore ye banished sorrow from our state, now too appear! For, oh! I am overwhelmed; all my host is in disarray; and there is no thought to save; Earth's buds are nipped, and human births prevented by the pains of death: soul after soul takes flight with fearful speed, and poor uncared-for corpses choke with pestilence our unpeopled clime. Wives, mothers, sadly suppliant, at various altars groan; the voice of lamentation mingles with the thrilling hymn. Athena, send us help. and cause yon flaming author of destruction, who with dire noise advances, quickly to reverse his speed and fly our land, whether to Ocean or the restless Pontic sea. Day ruins what night spares. O Father, blast the plague-god with thy lightning. Let thine arrows, O Apollo, be showered to protect us, and Artemis' bright torches from the Lycian hills; and thou, O ruddy crowned Bacchus of the joyous rout, with trooping Maenads, patron of Thebes, draw near. and flash thy brand against the god whom gods disown.' The opening of this parodos is of the nature of a paean (1. 186), or hymn to Apollo as the god of victory or salvation. The stately dactylic measures, corresponding in strophe and antistrophe even to the division of the words (cp. 153, 162, 158, 166), are only once interrupted, as the chorus march towards the altar, by the more meditative iambic rhythm (11. 152, 160), and by the anacrusis in ll. 154, 163. The increasing excitement of the chorus is shown in the second strophe and antistrophe, by iambic and trochaic rhythms with resolution of the arsis, by the union of dactyls and trochees in logaoedic lines, and by the more frequent anacruses. The bright Paean notes give way to tones of sadness, echoing the στονόεσσα γήρυς (11. 186-187). The scheme of στρ. and ἀντ. β'. is the following (ll. 167-178=11. 179-189) :- LÚC CCC CICI lúc Ca CICICCICCICCIK ICC ICC ICC ICC 기 100 100 100 CUCCICCIC CICCICCIC LUCCICCICC ICICII In the concluding strophe and antistrophe (γ'.) there is only one dactylic line, just as there was one iambic in the first. The other rhythms are iambic and trochaic, with occasional syncope of the thesis (or change to the cretic rhythm). The movement, though still full of excitement, becomes more energetic and determined towards the close. The scansion is as follows:- C CCICICICIC- 기 つ つ 기 00 ト KCICICI トー 1くらいCICICII The rhythm of the whole ode, which is unusually wild and full of transitions, shows a progress from flowing dactylic numbers to iambics and trochaics, which are interrupted here and there by syncope of the thesis, or in other words, by an antispastic effect, corresponding to the distraction of the thought.
159.
mvp-comment-111-1
πρῶτά σε κεκλόμενος Α
pendent construction, resumed from ἁζόμενος supr. 155. See Essay on Language § 15. p. 21. The flow of the sentence is broken by the sudden interjection and apostrophe, ἰὼ .. προφάνητέ μοι, which is interposed instead of στέργω προφανῆναι, or the like. Cp. Tr. 96, foll., ἅλιον αἰτῶ | τοῦτο καρύξαι .. ὦ λαμπρᾷ στεροπᾷ φλεγέθων . . εἴπ᾽, ὦ κρατιστεύων κατ᾿ ὄμμα. Cp. Plat. Legg. 6. 769 С, θνητὸς ὢν .. σμικρόν τινα χρόνον αὐτῷ πόνος παραμενεῖ παμπολύς. The converse change from the 2nd to the 3rd person is more frequent, e. g. Aj. 862-863. κρῆναί τε ποταμοί θ᾽ οἶδε καὶ τὰ Τρωικὰ πεδία προσαυδῶ. Athena, with her two temples (1. 20), Artemis, conspicuous in the Agora, and Ismenian' Apollo, are the presiding deities of Thebes (11. 19-22). As γῆ often = πόλις, so γαιάοχος here = πολισσοῦχος.
161.
mvp-comment-112-1
κυκλόεντ᾿ ἀγορᾶς θρόνον
Who sitteth in the circle of the Agora, that is filled with her praise.
161.
mvp-comment-112-2
κυκλόεντ' i.e. either (1)
whose seat is the round Agora, or (2)
whose seat is in the round Agora. In either case κυκλόεντα belongs rather to ἀγορᾶs than to θρόνον. Essay on Language p. 80. κυκλόεσσαν ἀγορὰν θακεῖ would have been an imperfect expression, and is supplemented by θρόνον, which is cogn. accus. The words suggest a sitting statue raised so as to command the Agora, over which the goddess presides. εὐκλέα, because she is celebrated there with dance and song. εὐκλέα is acc. sing. for εὐκλεᾶ. Cp. the Epic ἀκλέα, δυσκλέα, εὐκλέ᾿ ἀγοράν, Pind. Fr. 53. 5. ναὸν εὐκλέα, Pyth. 8, 62. Εύκλεια, or the goddess of good fame, was another name for Artemis, who was worshipped under this designation in every Boeotian town. Pausanias mentions a temple of Artemis Eucleia, which existed in his time at Thebes. For the double epithet κυκλόεντ' .. εὐκλέα, see Essay on Language § 23. P. 37.
165.
mvp-comment-113-1
εἴ ποτε, κ.τ.λ Cp. the Homeric formula, II. 1. 39, εἴ ποτέ τοι, κ.τ.λ.
165.
mvp-comment-113-2
ἄτας ὕπερ] Το avert calamity. For ὑπέρ in this sense, cp. 1. 187, ὧν ὕπερ (but see note): Aesch. S. c. T. 107, δουλοσύνας ὕπερ. The sense would be made clearer by expressing ἐλθόντες or προφανέντες, which is dropped.
165.
mvp-comment-113-3
ὀρνυμένας πόλει
Rushing at the state. Cp. Aesch. S. c. T. 87, ὄρνυται ἐπὶ πόλιν. For this direct use of the dative, see Essay on Language § 12. p. 18.
166.
mvp-comment-114-1
ἠνύσατ᾿ ἐκτοπίαν
Ye banished utterly.
166.
mvp-comment-114-2
φλόγα πήματος Cp. 1. 27. πυρφόρος θεύς: Αj. 196, ἄταν οὐρανίαν φλέγων.
167.
mvp-comment-115-1
γάρ Either (1) connects the sentence with the preceding, ὦ πόποι being merely interposed (cp. 1. 1198, ὦ Ζεῦ, κατὰ μὲν φίσας, κ.τ.λ.); or (2) is explanatory of the interjection. The former is more likely, because less abrupt.
