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.
178.
mvp-comment-123-1
ὧν .. ἀνάριθμος
In countless numbers of whom my city is perishing. For the use of the adjective, see Essay on Language § 2.3, 8, 2. p. 38; and for the gen. cp. Αj. 603. *μηνῶν ἀνήριθμος: Εl. 232, ἀνάριθμος ὧδε θρήνων. There is no ellipse of οὖσα; the adjective is a supplementary predicate, or in other words ἀνάριθμος closely follows ὄλλυται. The antecedent to ὧν, sc. τῶν θνησκόντων, must be supplied from the sense of the preceding words, as in Thuc. 6. 12, μὴ οἷον νεωτέρῳ μεταχειρίσαι· οὓς ἐγὼ νῦν ἐνθάδε ὁρῶν.
179.
mvp-comment-124-1
νηλέα
Uncared for. Cp. Ant. 1197. A rare passive use of this adjective. Essay on Language p. 98.
179.
mvp-comment-124-2
γένεθλα Sc. τῆς πόλεως. (1)
Her children uncared-for lie spreading death upon the plain, with none to make lament. Cp. Thuc. 2. 51, ἕτερος ἀφ᾿ ἑτέρου θεραπείας ἀναπιμπλάμενοι ὥσπερ τὰ πρόβατα ἔθνησκον. .. ἀπώλλυντο ἔρημοι, καὶ οἰκίαι πολλαὶ ἐκενώθησαν ἀπορίᾳ τοῦ θεραπεύσοντος. (2) The idea of the danger of contagion is certainly not common in Greek, and perhaps θαναταφόρα, or θανατάφορα, may have lost something of its compound signification. The word may simply mean
with death upon them,
in death. The unmetrical v. r. θανατηφόρῳ shows that some difficulty was felt about the meaning.
181.
mvp-comment-125-1
ἐπί For the adverbial use of the prep. see Essay on Language § 18. p. 26; and cp. the Homeric ἐπὶ δὲ στενάχοντο γυναῖκες, Il. 24.746.
182.
mvp-comment-126-1
ἀκτὰν παρὰ βώμιον Hence the mistake of the Scholiast on O. C. 1048, ἀκταῖς τὸν βωμὸν λέγει. The singularity of the expression, which however may be paralleled from Aesch. Cho. 723, ἀκτὴ χώματος, is in keeping with the excited tone of the chorus, cp. παιὰν .. λάμπει just below; and the tendency to repeat the same word within a few lines, in a different connection (176, ἀκτὰν πρὸς ἑσπέρου θεοῦ), is so strong in Sophocles as to make such a repetition probable even if not exactly appropriate (see Essay on Language § 44. p. 76; and in this very chorus, ἄμβροτε φάμα .. ἄμβροτ' Αθάνα 157-159, ἀνάριθμα 167, ἀνάριθμος 178, χρυσέας 157, χρυσέα 187, ἰήιε 154, ἰηίων 174, παιάν 154, 186, εὐῶπα 189, οἰνῶπα 211, ἀγλαῶπι 214, ἐξανύσεις 156, ἠνύσατ᾽ ἐκτοπίαν 166, πυρφόρων 200, πυρφόρους 206). The women at the altars are like shipwrecked mariners clinging to a rock. The conj em. ἀχὰν παραβώμιον, though not unreasonable or improbable, is not necessary. The MSS. have generally παραβώμιον in one word, but in three MSS. at least there is an accent on παρά.
182.
mvp-comment-126-2
ἄλλοθεν ἄλλαι] i. e. Their voices sounding some from one place and some from another:' i. e. they are supplicating various deities. Cp. II. 2. 400, ἄλλος δ᾽ ἄλλῳ ἔρεξε θεῶν.
185.
mvp-comment-127-1
πόνων ἱκτῆρες Gen. of cause. Τr. 287-288, θύματα .. τῆς ἁλώσεως.
185.
mvp-comment-127-2
ἐπιστενάχουσιν Sc. ἐπὶ τῇ ἱκετείᾳ.
186.
mvp-comment-128-1
λάμπει The intentional boldness of this is somewhat softened by the analogous use of λαμπρός as an attribute of sound. The word suggests the ringing of the bright paean in the clear air. The predicate of γῆρυs is to be borrowed from λάμπει.
186.
mvp-comment-128-2
ὅμαυλος This properly signifies 'neighbouring, dwelling with, but is probably here fancifully referred to αὐλός, so as to mean
accompanying, as the flute accompanies song. The difficulty of this word has perhaps suggested the various reading ὅμανδος, which is found in Par. E.
188.
mvp-comment-129-1
ὧν ὕπερ Either (1)
in whose behalf, or (2) for the relief of all which woe.' The latter is preferable, because including a reference to the immediate context, and because if persons were meant, the simple dative would be the more natural expression. Cp. Thuc. 5. 69, ὑπὲρ ἀρχῆς ἅμα καὶ δουλείας.
188.
mvp-comment-129-2
θύγατερ Διός Ἀθήνα.
189.
mvp-comment-130-1
εὐῶπα Cp. Ant. 100-101, ἀκτὶς ἀελίου τὸ κάλλιστον ἑπταπύλῳ φανὲν Θήβᾳ τῶν προτέρων φάος: Aesch. Cho. 484, εὔμορφον κράτος.
