Sophocles, Electra, ed. Lewis Campbell, 634

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ἔπαιρε δὴ σὺ θύμαθ᾽ ἡ παροῦσά μοι

πάγκαρπ᾽, ἄνακτι τῷδ᾽ ὅπως λυτηρίους
635

εὐχὰς ἀνάσχω δειμάτων, ἃ νῦν ἔχω.

κλύοις ἂν ἤδη, Φοῖβε προστατήριε,

κεκρυμμένην μου βάξιν. οὐ γὰρ ἐν φίλοις

ὁ μῦθος, οὐδὲ πᾶν ἀναπτύξαι πρέπει

πρὸς φῶς παρούσης τῆσδε πλησίας ἐμοί,
640

μὴ σὺν φθόνῳ τε καὶ πολυγλώσσῳ ποιγλώσσαι or πουγλώσσωι or παγγλώσσῳ L. πολυγλώσσω A. βοῇ

σπείρῃ ματαίαν βάξιν εἰς πᾶσαν πόλιν.

ἀλλ᾽ ὧδ᾽ ἄκουε· τῇδε γὰρ κἀγὼ φράσω.

ἃ γὰρ προσεῖδον νυκτὶ τῇδε φάσματα

δισσῶν ὀνείρων, ταῦτά μοι, Λύκει ἄναξ,
645

εἰ μὲν πέφηνεν ἐσθλά, δὸς τελεσφόρα,

εἰ δ᾽ ἐχθρά, τοῖς ἐχθροῖσιν ἔμπαλιν μέθες·

καὶ μή με πλούτου τοῦ παρόντος εἴ τινες

δόλοισι βουλεύουσιν ἐκβαλεῖν, ἐφῇς ἐφ..ς L. ἐφῇς AΓ. ἐφεὶς L' ἐφῆς gl. παραχωρήσης Pal.,

ἀλλ᾽ ὧδε μ' αἰεὶ ζῶσαν ἀβλαβεῖ εὐλαβεῖ M. βίῳ
650

δόμους Ἀτρειδῶν σκῆπτρά τ᾿ ἀμφέπειν ἀμφ᾿ ἕπειν L. τάδε,

φίλοισί τε ξυνοῦσαν οἷς ξύνειμι νῦν

εὐημεροῦσαν εὐημεροῦσάν C5. καὶ τέκνων ὅσων ἐμοὶ

δύσνοια μὴ πρόσεστιν πρόεστιν L. πρόσεστιν C2. ἢ λύπη πικρά.

ταῦτ᾽, ὦ Λύκει Ἄπολλον, ἵλεως κλύων
655

δὸς πᾶσιν ἡμῖν ὥσπερ ἐξαιτούμεθα.

τὰ δ᾽ ἄλλα πάντα καὶ σιωπώσης ἐμοῦ

ἐπαξιῶ σε δαίμον ὄντ᾽ ἐξειδέναι.

τοὺς ἐκ Διὸς γὰρ εἰκός ἐστι πάνθ᾽ πᾶνθ᾽ L. ὁρᾶν ὁραῖν LA..

ΠΑΙΔΑΓΩΓΟΣ.

Electra. Sophocles. ed. Lewis Campbell. Oxford. 1879.

Current edition Experimental

Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Greek) (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)

Greek (F. Storr, 1912) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. Storr, 1912)) — 634 focus

Κλυταιμνήστρα

ἔπαιρε δὴ σὺ θύμαθʼ ἡ παροῦσά μοι

πάγκαρπʼ, ἄνακτι τῷδʼ ὅπως λυτηρίους
635

εὐχὰς ἀνάσχω δειμάτων, ἃ νῦν ἔχω.

κλύοις ἂν ἤδη, Φοῖβε προστατήριε,

κεκρυμμένην μου βάξιν· οὐ γὰρ ἐν φίλοις

ὁ μῦθος, οὐδὲ πᾶν ἀναπτύξαι πρέπει

πρὸς φῶς παρούσης τῆσδε πλησίας ἐμοί,
640

μὴ σὺν φθόνῳ τε καὶ πολυγλώσσῳ βοῇ

σπείρῃ ματαίαν βάξιν εἰς πᾶσαν πόλιν.

ἀλλʼ ὧδʼ ἄκουε· τῇδε γὰρ κἀγὼ φράσω.

ἃ γὰρ προσεῖδον νυκτὶ τῇδε φάσματα

δισσῶν ὀνείρων, ταῦτά μοι, Λύκειʼ ἄναξ,
645

εἰ μὲν πέφηνεν ἐσθλά, δὸς τελεσφόρα,

εἰ δʼ ἐχθρά, τοῖς ἐχθροῖσιν ἔμπαλιν μέθες·

καὶ μή με πλούτου τοῦ παρόντος εἴ τινες

δόλοισι βουλεύουσιν ἐκβαλεῖν, ἐφῇς,

ἀλλʼ ὧδέ μʼ αἰεὶ ζῶσαν ἀβλαβεῖ βίῳ
650

δόμους Ἀτρειδῶν σκῆπτρά τʼ ἀμφέπειν τάδε,

φίλοισί τε ξυνοῦσαν οἷς ξύνειμι νῦν

εὐημεροῦσαν καὶ τέκνων ὅσων ἐμοὶ

δύσνοια μὴ πρόσεστιν ἢ λύπη πικρά.

ταῦτʼ, ὦ Λύκειʼ Ἄπολλον, ἵλεως κλύων
655

δὸς πᾶσιν ἡμῖν ὥσπερ ἐξαιτούμεθα.

τὰ δʼ ἄλλα πάντα καὶ σιωπώσης ἐμοῦ

ἐπαξιῶ σε δαίμονʼ ὄντʼ ἐξειδέναι·

τοὺς ἐκ Διὸς γὰρ εἰκός ἐστι πάνθʼ ὁρᾶν.

Translations (5)

English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 634 focus

().

Then lift for me those fruitful offerings,

While to Apollo, before whom we stand,

I raise my supplication for release

From doubts and fears that shake my bosom now.

And, O defender of our house! attend
635

My secret utterance. No friendly ear
635

Is that which hearkens for my voice. My thought
635

Must not be blazoned with her standing by,
635

Lest through her envious and wide-babbling tongue

She fill the city full of wild surmise.

List, then, as I shall speak: and grant the dreams

Whose two-fold apparition I to-night

Have seen, if good their bodement, be fulfilled:

If hostile, turn their influence on my foes.

And yield not them their wish that would by guile

Thrust me from this high fortune, but vouchsafe

That ever thus exempt from harms I rule

The Atridae’s home and kingdom, in full life,

Partaking with the friends I live with now

All fair prosperity, and with my children,

Save those who hate and vex me bitterly.

Lykeian Phoebus, favourably hear

My prayer, and grant to all of us our need!

More is there, which, though I be silent here,

A God should understand. No secret thing

Is hidden from the all-seeing sons of Heaven.

OLD M
Enter the Old Man .

German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 634 focus

Du hebe denn das Opfer, du die Nächste mir,

Die Früchte, daß ich mein Gebet zu diesem Gott

Entsende, mich zu retten aus der schweren Angst.
620
(sie tritt vor den Altar des Apollon)

Wohl hörst du jezt, o Phöbos, unsers Hauses Hort,¹

Auf mein verborgnes Beten. Nicht vor Freunden wird's

Gesprochen, und nicht Alles darf dem Lichte sich

Entfalten, da mir diese nah zur Seite steht,

Daß nicht in tausendfachem Ruf aus Tücke sie
625

Ein leer Gered' aussprenge durch die ganze Stadt.

Nein, so vernimm mich, sprech' ich's aus in dieser Art.

Des Doppeltraumes Bilder, die in dieser Nacht²

An mir vorübergingen, laß, Lykeierfürst,

Wofern sie günstig nahten, sich bestätigen,
630

Wenn feindlich, wend' auf unsre Feinde sie zurück!

Und nicht gestatt' es, wenn mich Einer ränkevoll

Herab von meines Glückes Höh'n zu stürzen sinnt!

Nein laß mich also lebend, nie von Gram getrübt,

Im Haus des Atreus walten mit dem Herrscherstab,
635

Vereint den Lieben, die mir jezt verbunden sind,

In heitern Tagen, und umringt von Kindern, die

Kein bittrer Unmuth gegen mich, kein Haß erfüllt!

Dies, o Lykeier Phöbos, hör' in Gnaden an,

Und dies gewähr' uns allen, wie wir's fleh'n von dir;
640

Doch alles Andre, hüllt es auch mein Schweigen ein,

Das ist, eracht' ich, dir dem Gott nicht unbekannt:

Denn die von Zeus sind, müssen wohl allsehend sein.

Der Pfleger des Orestes. Die Vorigen.

Der Pfleger.

English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 634 focus

Why might not they have died ? Their parent's guilt,

Source of the war, more justly had deserved it.
635

Or thinkst thou death with keener appetite

Could feast on mine, and Helen's not aflbrd

As sweet a banquet? Whv was all the lo_ve,

To me and to my child so justly dUe,

English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 634 focus

Thou, my attendant, the oblations bring

Of the earth's various fruits, that I may pour

My pray'rs to royal Phoebus, from my soul
635

To chase the terrors that appal me now.
635

O thou, who hold'st thy guardian station here,

Now, Phoebus, hear the whispers of my voice:

I am not 'mongst my friends; nor to the light,

While she is near, behoves me all unfold.

By envy moved her ever-clamorous tongue

Through all the city wild reports would spread.

Hear me e'en thus; thus low must be my voice.

The nightly visions of this doubtful dream,

Attendant

If they portend me good, Lycæan king,

Bring thou to good effect: if ill, avert

That ill from me, and turn it on my foes!

From this high state if treacherous malice works
635

To sink me, crush, oh crush the close design,
635

Protect me always in this life of bliss,
635

To sway the sceptre, and to rule the house

Of the Atridæ, happy in those friends

Whose pleasing converse daily I enjoy,

And in those children, who ne'er grieve my heart

With wayward clamours and malignant hate.

Hear me, Lycæan Phœbus, favouring hear,

Grant to us all, as we implore thy grace:

All other things, though silence chains my tongue,

Thou, as a god, my soul confides, must know:

Nought from the sons of Jove can be conceal'd.

Chorus
ATTENDANT, CLYTEMNESTRA, ELECTRA,

English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 634 focus

Clytaemnestra

Raise then, my attendant, the offerings

of many fruits, so that I may uplift my prayers for release from my present fears to this image of our King. Please, O Phoebus our defender, may you now listen to my prayer, though it is muffled; for I do not make my plea among friends, nor does it suit me to unfold it all
635

to the light while she stands near me, lest by her malice and a cry of her clamorous tongue she sow reckless rumors through the whole city. Nevertheless, hear me thus, since in this way I will speak. That vision which I saw last night
640

in ambiguous dreams—if its appearance was to my good, grant, Lycean king, that it be fulfilled; but if to my harm, then hurl it back upon those who would harm me. And if any are plotting to eject me by treachery from my present prosperity, do not permit them.
645

Rather grant that living forever unharmed as I am I may govern the house of the sons of Atreus and their throne, sharing prosperous days with the friends who share them now, and with those of my children who feel no enmity or bitterness towards me.
650

O Lycean Apollo, hear these prayers with favor, and grant them to us all just as we ask! As for all my other prayers, though I am silent, I judge that you, a god, must know them, since it is appropriate that Zeus’s children see all.
655

Commentary

Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))

mvp-comment-104-1 εὐμαρὴς θεός ¹ θεός ²

mvp-comment-105-1 οὔτε γὰρ ³

mvp-comment-105-2 Κρῖσαν ⁴

mvp-comment-105-3 Crisa stood about two miles W.S.W. of Delphi, on a spur of Parnassus, at the lower outlet of the gorge through which the river Pleistus issues into the plain. The Iliad mentions ‘sacred Crisa’ (

ζαθέην

, 2. 520). But the Homeric Hymn to the Pythian Apollo is the best witness to its ancient power. There, just as here, the name

Κρῖσα

includes the land which stretches southward from the town to its harbour on the ‘wide gulf’ (vv. 253— 261). We need not, then, read

Κρίσᾳ

Κρίσας

. Crisa was the earliest seat of trade on the western sea; Delphi, when first founded, was merely a sanctuary in its territory. Pindar recalls the old prominence of its name when he describes a Pythian victory as won

Κρισαίαις ἐνὶ πτυχαῖς

( P. 6. 18).

mvp-comment-105-4 Cirrha, a town of much later date, was the port of Crisa on the gulf. About 585 B.C., the Delphians, aided by Cleisthenes of Sicyon and his allies, succeeded, after a long struggle, in humbling Crisa and destroying Cirrha. The Crisaean plain was then devoted to Apollo, whose domain was thus extended from his temple to the coast. When Sophocles wrote, that ground was still a

βούνομος ἀκτή

, inviolable by plough or spade. It was not till the middle of the next century that the alleged encroachments of Amphissa on the

ἱερὰ χώρα

gave a pretext for war to the Amphictyons (355 B.C.).

mvp-comment-105-5 Ulrichs ( Reisen in Griechenland) was the first to place the relations of Crisa and Cirrha in a clear light. Strabo correctly describes the site of Cirrha, but erroneously places Crisa to the east of it (9. p. 418).

mvp-comment-106-1 βούνομον ⁵ βουνόμον ⁶

mvp-comment-106-2 βούνομον ἀκτὰν ⁷ Κρῖσαν ⁸

mvp-comment-107-1 ἀπερίτροπος ⁹

mvp-comment-108-1 παρὰ τὸν Ἀχέροντα ¹⁰ ἀνάσσων ¹¹ θεὸς ¹²

mvp-comment-109-1 μὲν ¹³

mvp-comment-109-2 ὁ πολὺς … βίοτος ¹⁴

mvp-comment-109-3 ἀνέλπιστος ¹⁵

mvp-comment-109-4 187 *

τεκέων

. I am now satisfied that this is a true correction of τοκέων ¹⁶ ἅτις ¹⁷ τοκέων ¹⁸

mvp-comment-110-1 ἁπερεί ¹⁹

mvp-comment-110-2 ἔποικος ²⁰

mvp-comment-111-1 οἰκονομῶ θαλάμους ²¹

mvp-comment-112-1 ἀεικεῖ σὺν στολᾷ ²²

mvp-comment-113-1 κεναῖς δ’ ἀμφίσταμαι τραπέζαις ²³ ἀμφίσταμαι ²⁴

mvp-comment-113-2 Hartung, reading

κενὰ δ’ ἀμφίσταμαι τραπέζαις

, takes the sense to be that she stands ‘hungry’ by the tables at which the others feast. But

κενή

as=

νῆστις

would be neither usual nor elegant.

mvp-comment-114-1 Hitherto the Chorus have offered consolation or counsel. At v. 213 they return to that strain. But here, moved by Electra's misery, they join with her in bewailing its cause.

mvp-comment-114-2 οἰκτρὰ μὲν … πλαγά ²⁵ κοίταις ²⁶ οἰκτρὰ … αὐδὰ ²⁷

mvp-comment-114-3 Sophocles, who follows the Homeric story as to the banquet, could not but remember the

οἰκτροτάτην ὄπα

of the dying Cassandra. And this might naturally suggest to him that other

οἰκτρὰ αὐδή

which she had uttered at an earlier moment, immediately after Agamemnon's return,—her presage of his fate, and her own: Aesch. Ag. 1072 —1314.

mvp-comment-114-4 The sense then is:—‘There was a voice of lamentation at the return from Troy’; alluding especially to Cassandra's laments, but also, perhaps, to forebodings in the mouth of the people at Mycenae. ‘And there was a voice of lamentation

ἐν κοίταις πατρῴαις

, when thy father lay on the couch at the fatal banquet.’ The ‘voice’ at the banquet is, first, that of the dying Agamemnon; but Sophocles may have thought also of Cassandra's death-cry, which was sounding in the king's ears as he fell.—For other interpretations, see Appendix.

mvp-comment-114-5 νόστοις ²⁸ ἐν ²⁹

mvp-comment-114-6 κοίταις ³⁰

mvp-comment-114-7 ὅτε οἱ ³¹ σοι ³² ἀνταία ³³

mvp-comment-114-8 γενύων ³⁴

mvp-comment-115-1 δόλος … ἔρος ³⁵

mvp-comment-116-1 δεινὰν δεινῶς ³⁶ δεινὰν … μορφάν ³⁷

mvp-comment-116-2 εἴτ’ οὖν … εἴτε ³⁸ βροτῶν ³⁹

mvp-comment-117-1 πλέον … ἐχθίστα ⁴⁰

mvp-comment-117-2 δὴ ⁴¹

mvp-comment-118-1 νὺξ ⁴²

mvp-comment-118-2 δείπνων ⁴³

mvp-comment-119-1 ἄχθη ⁴⁴ τοῖς ⁴⁵ θανάτους ⁴⁶

mvp-comment-119-2 διδύμαιν χειροῖν ⁴⁷ διδύμοιν ⁴⁸

mvp-comment-120-1 εἷλον … πρόδοτον ⁴⁹

mvp-comment-121-1 οἷς ⁵⁰

mvp-comment-121-2 Ὀλύμπιος ⁵¹

mvp-comment-122-1 ποίνιμα ⁵²

mvp-comment-123-1 ἀγλαΐας ⁵³

mvp-comment-123-2 ἀποναίατο ⁵⁴

mvp-comment-124-1 πόρσω ⁵⁵

mvp-comment-125-1 γνώμαν ἴσχεις ⁵⁶

mvp-comment-125-2 ἐξ οἵων ⁵⁷

mvp-comment-125-3 τὰ παρόντ’ ⁵⁸

mvp-comment-125-4 οἰκείας ⁵⁹

mvp-comment-126-1 πολύ … τι κακῶν ⁶⁰

mvp-comment-126-2 ὑπερεκτήσω ⁶¹

mvp-comment-127-1 τὰ δὲ ⁶² οὐκ ἐριστὰ τοῖς δυνατοῖς ⁶³ πλάθειν ⁶⁴

mvp-comment-127-2 ἐριστά ⁶⁵

mvp-comment-127-3 πλάθειν ⁶⁶

mvp-comment-128-1 δεινοῖς ἠναγκάσθην ⁶⁷

mvp-comment-129-1 ὀργά ⁶⁸ ἔξοιδ’ ⁶⁹

mvp-comment-130-1 ἀλλὰ … γὰρ ⁷⁰

mvp-comment-130-2 ἐν … δεινοῖς ⁷¹

mvp-comment-130-3 σχήσω ⁷²

mvp-comment-130-4 ταύτας ἄτας ⁷³

mvp-comment-131-1 ὄφρα ⁷⁴

mvp-comment-131-2 βίος ἔχῃ με ⁷⁵ σχήσω ⁷⁶

mvp-comment-132-1 τίνι γάρ … τίνι φρονοῦντι καίρια ⁷⁷ ἀκούσαιμ’ ἂν πρόσφορον ἔπος ⁷⁸ τίνι ⁷⁹ πρόσφορον ⁸⁰

mvp-comment-132-2 Other explanations are:—(1) Taking the dative with

πρόσφορον

:—‘To what person who feels aright would that word be suitable which I should hear (=which would be said of me)?’ That is: Should I not deserve to incur a censure from which every right-minded person would shrink? Should I not deserve to be called

δυσσεβής

? This seems forced; and it does not well suit

ἔπος

. (2) Taking the dative with

ἀκούσαιμι

:—‘At whose mouth (= from whom), that thinks aright, could I hear a suitable word of comfort?’ But such a dative seems impossible. In Il. 16. 515

δύνασαι δὲ σὺ πάντοσ’ ἀκούειν

ἀνέρι κηδομένῳ

, the dat. is one of interest, denoting the person whose prayer is heard (‘ for him’); cp. Il. 5. 115

κλῦθί μοι

: 24. 335

ἔκλυες ᾧ κ’ ἐθέλῃσθα

mvp-comment-133-1 ἄνετε ⁸¹

mvp-comment-133-2 ἄλυτα ⁸²

mvp-comment-133-3 κεκλήσεται ⁸³

mvp-comment-133-4 231 f. For ἐκ ⁸⁴

mvp-comment-133-5 ἀνάριθμος ⁸⁵ θρήνων ⁸⁶

mvp-comment-134-1 ἀλλ’ οὖν ⁸⁷ γε ⁸⁸ εὐνοίᾳ ⁸⁹

mvp-comment-135-1 μάτηρ ὡσεί τις ⁹⁰

mvp-comment-136-1 μὴ τίκτειν ⁹¹

mvp-comment-136-2 ἄταν ἄταις ⁹²

mvp-comment-137-1 καὶ τί μέτρον ⁹³ κακότατος ⁹⁴

mvp-comment-137-2 φέρε ⁹⁵

mvp-comment-137-3 ἐπὶ τοῖς φθ. ⁹⁶

mvp-comment-138-1 ἔβλαστ’ ⁹⁷

mvp-comment-139-1 τούτοις ⁹⁸

mvp-comment-140-1 εἴ τῳ πρόσκειμαι χρηστῷ ⁹⁹

mvp-comment-141-1 ξυνναίοιμ’ ¹⁰⁰

mvp-comment-141-2 εὔκηλος ¹⁰¹

mvp-comment-141-3 γονέων ¹⁰² ἐκτίμους ¹⁰³

mvp-comment-141-4 ἐκτίμους ἵσχουσα ¹⁰⁴

mvp-comment-141-5 πτέρυγας … γόων ¹⁰⁵

mvp-comment-141-6 ὀξυτόνων ¹⁰⁶

mvp-comment-142-1 εἰ γὰρ ¹⁰⁷

mvp-comment-142-2 γᾶ ¹⁰⁸

mvp-comment-142-3 οὐδὲν ¹⁰⁹ ὢν ¹¹⁰ εἰ ¹¹¹

mvp-comment-142-4 Electra is contrasting her father, whose earthly life has been cut short, with his murderers, who survive. But she believes that his spirit lives in the world below, and will be active in aiding the vengeance (453 ff.).

mvp-comment-142-5 πάλιν ¹¹²

mvp-comment-142-6 ἀντιφόνους δίκας ¹¹³

mvp-comment-143-1 ἔρροι τ’ ¹¹⁴

mvp-comment-143-2 αἰδὼς ¹¹⁵ εὐσέβεια ¹¹⁶

mvp-comment-144-1 ἐγὼ μὲν ¹¹⁷

mvp-comment-144-2 καὶ ¹¹⁸ τὸ σὸν … καὶ τοὐμὸν ¹¹⁹

mvp-comment-145-1 νίκα ¹²⁰

mvp-comment-145-2 ἅμα ¹²¹

mvp-comment-146-1 πολλοῖσι θρήνοις ¹²²

mvp-comment-147-1 ἀλλὰ … γὰρ ¹²³

mvp-comment-148-1 ἥτις εὐγενὴς γυνή ¹²⁴

mvp-comment-149-1 πατρῷα … πήματα ¹²⁵

mvp-comment-150-1 κατ’ εὐφρόνην ¹²⁶

mvp-comment-150-2 θάλλοντα ¹²⁷

mvp-comment-151-1 ᾗ ¹²⁸

mvp-comment-151-2 πρῶτα μὲν … εἶτα … ἔπειτα ¹²⁹ ᾗ ¹³⁰

mvp-comment-151-3 τὰ μητρὸς ¹³¹

mvp-comment-151-4 ἔχθιστα συμβέβηκεν ¹³²

mvp-comment-152-1 κἀκ τῶνδ’ ἄρχομαι ¹³³

mvp-comment-153-1 λαβεῖν … τὸ τητᾶσθαι ¹³⁴

mvp-comment-154-1 ποίας ¹³⁵ δοκεῖς ¹³⁶

mvp-comment-155-1 ἴδω ¹³⁷ εἰσίδω δ’ ¹³⁸ ἴδω δὲ ¹³⁹

mvp-comment-155-2 μὲν ¹⁴⁰

mvp-comment-156-1 ἐσθήματα ¹⁴¹

mvp-comment-156-2 ἐκείνῳ ¹⁴²

mvp-comment-156-3 παρεστίους … λοιβάς ¹⁴³ ἔνθ’ ἐκεῖνον ὤλεσεν ¹⁴⁴

mvp-comment-156-4 Acc. to Homer. Hymn. 29. 4 ff., feasts began and ended with libations to Hestia:

οὐ γὰρ ἄτερ σοῦ

εἰλαπίναι θνητοῖσιν, ἵν’ οὐ πρώτῃ πυμάτῃ τε

Ἱστίῃ ἀρχόμενος σπένδει μελιηδέα οἶνον

. Soph. fr. 658

<*> πρῷρα λοιβῆς Ἑστία

. Other divinities, including Zeus

σωτήρ

, were similarly honoured; then the paean was sung, and the

πότος

began ( Plat. Symp.p. 176 A).

mvp-comment-157-1 τούτων ¹⁴⁵

mvp-comment-158-1 αὐτοέντην ¹⁴⁶

mvp-comment-158-2 Brunck first adopted αὐτοέντην ¹⁴⁷ αὐτοφόντην ¹⁴⁸

mvp-comment-158-3 ἡμὶν ¹⁴⁹

mvp-comment-159-1 ταλαίνῃ ¹⁵⁰

mvp-comment-160-1 ταύτην … τῷδε ¹⁵¹

mvp-comment-161-1 μιάστορι ¹⁵² Ἐρινὺν ¹⁵³

mvp-comment-162-1 ἐγγελῶσα τοῖς ποιουμένοις ¹⁵⁴

mvp-comment-163-1 εὑροῦς’ ¹⁵⁵ τότε ¹⁵⁶

mvp-comment-163-2 The conjecture φρουροῦς’ ¹⁵⁷ τηροῦς’ ¹⁵⁸

mvp-comment-164-1 χοροὺς ἵστησι ¹⁵⁹

mvp-comment-164-2 μηλοσφαγεῖ … ἱερὰ ¹⁶⁰

mvp-comment-164-3 ἔμμην’ ἱερά ¹⁶¹

mvp-comment-164-4 τοῖς σωτηρίοις ¹⁶²

mvp-comment-164-5 Argive tradition placed Agamemnon's death on the 13th of Gamelion (about the end of January). So said ‘the Argive historians’ (

οἱ Ἀργολικοὶ συγγραφεῖς

),— according to an Argive writer named Deinias, who lived about 225 B.C. (Schol. here: Müller, Frag. Hist. vol. III. p. 25.) Possibly, then, the idea of Clytaemnestra's hideous festival may have been suggested to the poet by some actual commemoration of the event in Argolis. There was a cult of Agamemnon in various places,—notably in Laconia. (Cp. Roscher's Lexicon, p. 96.)

mvp-comment-165-1 ἡ δύσμορος ¹⁶³ κατὰ στέγας ¹⁶⁴

mvp-comment-166-1 τέτηκα ¹⁶⁵

mvp-comment-166-2 πατρὸς ¹⁶⁶

mvp-comment-166-3 The

δαίς

is the feast which, in Homeric fashion ( Il. 1. 467 ), would follow the sacrifice (281). Acc. to Eustathius p. 1507. 61 (on Hom. Od. 4. 524 ff.),

Ἀγαμεμνόνειος δαὶς

(or

τράπεζα

) was a proverb

ἐπὶ τῶν ἐπ’ ὀλέθρῳ εὐωχουμένων

. The poet may mean that Clytaemnestra called the festival

Ἀγαμεμνόνειος δαίς

, in direct allusion to

δεῖπνα ἄρρητα

(203): and this would give a special point to

ἐγγελῶσα

(277). Cp. Eur. Or. 1008

τά τ’ ἐπώνυμα δεῖπνα Θυέστου

. But the words do not necessarily imply more than that she called it

Ἀγαμεμνόνεια

mvp-comment-167-1 αὐτὴ πρὸς αὑτήν ¹⁶⁷ αὑτήν ¹⁶⁸

mvp-comment-167-2 κλαῦσαι ¹⁶⁹

mvp-comment-167-3 ἡδονὴν φέρει ¹⁷⁰

mvp-comment-168-1 ἡ λόγοισι γενναία ¹⁷¹

mvp-comment-169-1 φωνοῦσα ¹⁷²

mvp-comment-170-1 δύσθεον ¹⁷³

mvp-comment-170-2 μίσημα ¹⁷⁴

mvp-comment-170-3 σοὶ μόνῃ ¹⁷⁵

mvp-comment-170-4 τέθνηκεν ¹⁷⁶

mvp-comment-170-5 ἐν πένθει ¹⁷⁷

mvp-comment-171-1 ἐκ γόων ¹⁷⁸

mvp-comment-171-2 οἱ κάτω θεοί ¹⁷⁹

mvp-comment-172-1 τάδ’ ¹⁸⁰

mvp-comment-172-2 ἥξοντ’ Ὀρέστην ¹⁸¹

mvp-comment-173-1 παραστᾶς’ ¹⁸²

mvp-comment-174-1 ἥτις ¹⁸³

mvp-comment-174-2 ὑπεξέθου ¹⁸⁴

mvp-comment-175-1 ἀλλ’ ἴσθι τοι τείσουσά γ’ ¹⁸⁵

mvp-comment-176-1 ὑλακτεῖ ¹⁸⁶

mvp-comment-176-2 σὺν ¹⁸⁷

mvp-comment-176-3 πέλας ¹⁸⁸ παρών ¹⁸⁹

mvp-comment-176-4 301 The adv. πάντα ¹⁹⁰

mvp-comment-176-5 ἄναλκις ¹⁹¹

mvp-comment-176-6 ἡ πᾶσα βλάβη ¹⁹²

mvp-comment-177-1 σὺν γυναιξὶ ¹⁹³

mvp-comment-177-2 τὰς μάχας ¹⁹⁴

mvp-comment-178-1 ἐφήξειν ¹⁹⁵

mvp-comment-179-1 μέλλων … δρᾶν τι ¹⁹⁶

mvp-comment-179-2 τὰς οὔσας τε … καὶ τὰς ἀπούσας ¹⁹⁷

mvp-comment-179-3 μου ¹⁹⁸ μοι ¹⁹⁹

mvp-comment-179-4 διέφθορεν ²⁰⁰

mvp-comment-180-1 σωφρονεῖν ²⁰¹ εὐσεβεῖν ²⁰²

mvp-comment-180-2 ἔν τοι κακοῖς ²⁰³

mvp-comment-180-3 πολλή )στ’ ἀνάγκη ²⁰⁴ κἀπιτηδεύειν κακά ²⁰⁵

mvp-comment-180-4 I place only a comma, not a colon, after πάρεστιν ²⁰⁶

mvp-comment-181-1 ὄντος … βεβῶτος ²⁰⁷

mvp-comment-182-1 ἦ κάρτα ²⁰⁸

mvp-comment-182-2 θυραῖον ²⁰⁹

mvp-comment-182-3 οἰχνεῖν ²¹⁰

mvp-comment-182-4 ἀγροῖσι ²¹¹

mvp-comment-182-5 τυγχάνει ²¹²

mvp-comment-183-1 ἦ κἂν … ἱκοίμην ²¹³ ἦ τ<*>ν ²¹⁴ ἦ δἂν ²¹⁵

mvp-comment-183-2 ἐς λόγους τοὺς σοὺς ἱκοίμην ²¹⁶

mvp-comment-184-1 ὡς νῦν ²¹⁷ ὥς νυν ²¹⁸

mvp-comment-184-2 ἱστόρει· τί σοι φίλον ²¹⁹ τό ²²⁰ τά ²²¹

mvp-comment-184-3 With the other punctuation, ἱστόρει τί σοι φίλον ²²²

mvp-comment-185-1 καὶ δὴ ²²³

mvp-comment-185-2 τοῦ κασιγνήτου τί φής ²²⁴

mvp-comment-185-3 ἥξοντος ²²⁵ ἢ μέλλοντος ²²⁶

mvp-comment-186-1 φησίν γε ²²⁷

mvp-comment-186-2 ποεῖ ²²⁸

mvp-comment-187-1 καὶ μὴν ἔγωγ’ ²²⁹ γε ²³⁰

mvp-comment-187-2 οὐκ ὄκνῳ ²³¹

mvp-comment-188-1 ἀρκεῖν ²³²

mvp-comment-189-1 ἐπεί ²³³

mvp-comment-189-2 μακρὰν ²³⁴

mvp-comment-189-3 324 Here, as in 316, νῦν ²³⁵ νυν ²³⁶

mvp-comment-189-4 δόμων ²³⁷ φέρουσαν ²³⁸

mvp-comment-190-1 ὅμαιμον ²³⁹

mvp-comment-190-2 φύσιν ²⁴⁰

mvp-comment-191-1 Χρυσόθεμιν ²⁴¹

mvp-comment-192-1 οἷα ²⁴² νομίζεται ²⁴³

mvp-comment-193-1 πρὸς θυρῶνος ἐξόδοις ²⁴⁴ φωνεῖς ²⁴⁵ ἐλθοῦσα ²⁴⁶ αὖ ²⁴⁷

mvp-comment-193-2 330 For the absence of caesura, cp. Ph. 101 n.

mvp-comment-194-1 θυμῷ … χαρίζεσθαι ²⁴⁸

mvp-comment-195-1 καίτοι τοσοῦτόν γ’ οἶδα ²⁴⁹

mvp-comment-195-2 κἀμαυτήν, ὅτι ²⁵⁰

mvp-comment-195-3 333 f. For the repeated ἄν ²⁵¹

mvp-comment-195-4 οἶ) αὐτοῖς φρονῶ ²⁵²

mvp-comment-196-1 ὑφειμένῃ ²⁵³ πλεῖν ²⁵⁴

mvp-comment-196-2 For the image, cp. Eur. Med. 524

ἄκροισι λαίφους κρασπέδοις

(with close-reefed sails)

ὑπεκφυγεῖν

τὴν σὴν στόμαργον, ὦ γύναι, γλωσσαλγίαν

: Ar. Ran. 997

ἀλλ’ ὅπως, ὦ γεννάδα

, |

μὴ πρὸς ὀργὴν ἀντιλέξεις

, |

ἀλλὰ συστείλας, ἄκροισι

χρώμενος τοῖς ἱστίοις κ.τ.λ.

: and conversely Soph. Ant. 715

ναὸς ὅστις ἐγκρατῆ πόδα

τείνας ὑπείκει μηδέν

. Ovid Epist. 1. 8. 71

moderatius opta, | Et voti, quaeso, contrahe vela tui.

Shakesp. Henry VI., pt. iii, act 3 sc. 3. 5

‘Now Margaret | Must strike her sail, and learn awhile to serve | Where kings command.’

mvp-comment-197-1 καὶ μὴ δοκεῖν ²⁵⁵

mvp-comment-198-1 τοιαῦτα δ’ ἄλλα ²⁵⁶ ἀλλὰ ²⁵⁷ ἄλλα ²⁵⁸

mvp-comment-199-1 καίτοι τὸ μὲν δίκαιον ²⁵⁹

mvp-comment-199-2 κρίνεις ²⁶⁰

mvp-comment-199-3 εἰ … με δεῖ ²⁶¹

mvp-comment-199-4 ἐλευθέραν ²⁶²

mvp-comment-199-5 ζῆν ²⁶³

mvp-comment-199-6 πάντ’ ²⁶⁴

mvp-comment-199-7 ἀκουστέα ²⁶⁵

mvp-comment-200-1 δεινόν γε ²⁶⁶

mvp-comment-201-1 τῆς … τικτούσης ²⁶⁷

mvp-comment-201-2 μέλειν ²⁶⁸

mvp-comment-202-1 τἀμὰ νουθετήματα ²⁶⁹

mvp-comment-202-2 κείνης διδακτά ²⁷⁰

mvp-comment-202-3 ἐκ σαυτῆς ²⁷¹

mvp-comment-203-1 The text, which has been suspected (cr. n.), is sound; but the train of thought is somewhat obscured by compression.

mvp-comment-203-2 ‘You forget your father, and care only for your mother. All your counsels to me come from her. Then (

ἔπειτα

),—that being so,—give up the attempt at a compromise. Make a choice (

ἑλοῦ γε

). You can be imprudent (

φρονεῖν κακῶς

),—as you say that I am,—and loyal to your dead father. Or you can be prudent (

φρονοῦσα

), and forgetful of him,—as you actually are; you who (

ἥτις

) say, indeed, that you would show your hatred of the murderers if you could; and yet, when I do resist them, you try to turn me from my purpose. You merely add the shame of cowardice to our woes.’

mvp-comment-203-3 ἔπειθ’ ²⁷²

mvp-comment-203-4 ἑλοῦ γε ²⁷³

mvp-comment-203-5 φρονεῖν κακῶς ²⁷⁴

mvp-comment-203-6 Other explanations are:—(1) ‘Choose to be thought either lost to right feeling, or, if you have such feeling, then at least forgetful of your duty.’ (2) ‘Choose to seem either unintelligent (if you are merely the blind instrument of our rulers); or, if you act with clear understanding (

φρονοῦσα

),—thinking to benefit me,—at least forgetful of your father.’ Both these views assume that the question is merely between two interpretations which might be placed on the present conduct of Chrysothemis. But Electra is putting the dilemma between imprudent loyalty and prudent disloyalty.

mvp-comment-204-1 τῶν φίλων ²⁷⁵

mvp-comment-205-1 ἥτις ²⁷⁶ φρονοῦσα ²⁷⁷ μῖσος ²⁷⁸

mvp-comment-206-1 πάντα ²⁷⁹

mvp-comment-206-2 τιμωρουμένης ²⁸⁰

mvp-comment-207-1 οὔτε … τε ²⁸¹

mvp-comment-207-2 τήν τε δρῶσαν ²⁸²

mvp-comment-208-1 πρὸς κακοῖσι ²⁸³

mvp-comment-208-2 δειλίαν ἔχει ²⁸⁴

mvp-comment-209-1 ἐπεὶ ²⁸⁵

mvp-comment-209-2 ἢ μάθ’ ἐξ ἐμοῦ ²⁸⁶

mvp-comment-210-1 ἐπαρκούντως ²⁸⁷

mvp-comment-211-1 προσάπτειν ²⁸⁸

mvp-comment-211-2 εἴ τις ἔστ’ ἐκεῖ χάρις ²⁸⁹

mvp-comment-212-1 ἡμὶν ²⁹⁰ ξύνει ²⁹¹

mvp-comment-213-1 τὰ σὰ … δῶῤ ²⁹²

mvp-comment-213-2 ἐφ’ οἶσι ²⁹³

mvp-comment-213-3 χλιδᾷς ²⁹⁴

mvp-comment-214-1 ὑπεικάθοιμι ²⁹⁵

mvp-comment-214-2 πλουσία ²⁹⁶

mvp-comment-214-3 περιρρείτω ²⁹⁷

mvp-comment-215-1 τοὐμὲ μὴ λυπεῖν ²⁹⁸

mvp-comment-215-2 Remark the resemblance to the passage where Antigone—summing up her position—compares the moral pain of neglecting her duty with those penalties which she contemns:—

κείνοις ἂν ἤλγουν· τοῖσδε δ’ οὐκ ἀλγύνομαι

( Ant. 468 ). There, too, we have a Sophoclean triad of clauses, the third echoing the first,—as

τῆς σῆς δ’ οὐκ ἐρῶ τιμῆς τυχεῖν

here reiterates the sense of

σοὶ δὲ πλουσία... βίος

(n. on Ant. 465 ff.).

mvp-comment-215-3 One of the scholia recognises the traditional reading, and explains it correctly: —

τοῦτο μόνον ἐμὲ βοσκέτω, τὸ μὴ λυπεῖν ἐμὲ αὐτήν, εἰ

(‘as I should do, if’)

τοῖς φονεῦσι τοῦ πατρὸς πείθεσθαι ἀναγκασθήσομαι

.—The conjectures have been numerous: see Appendix.

mvp-comment-216-1 οὐδ’ ἂν σὺ ²⁹⁹

mvp-comment-217-1 παῖδα ³⁰⁰

mvp-comment-217-2 κεκλῆσθαι ³⁰¹

mvp-comment-218-1 πλείστοις ³⁰²

mvp-comment-219-1 μηδὲν ³⁰³ πρὸς ὀργὴν ³⁰⁴

mvp-comment-220-1 ἀμφοῖν ³⁰⁵ τοῖς λόγοις ³⁰⁶

mvp-comment-221-1 τῆσδε … αὕτη ³⁰⁷ πάλιν ³⁰⁸

mvp-comment-222-1 ἐγὼ μὲν ³⁰⁹

mvp-comment-222-2 πως ³¹⁰

mvp-comment-222-3 μύθων ³¹¹

mvp-comment-223-1 οὐδ’ ³¹² κοὐδ’ ³¹³ ποτέ ³¹⁴

mvp-comment-224-1 ἰὸν ³¹⁵

mvp-comment-224-2 σχήσει ³¹⁶

mvp-comment-225-1 τὸ δεινὸν ³¹⁷

mvp-comment-225-2 εἰ γὰρ τῶνδέ μοι ³¹⁸ εἰ ³¹⁹

mvp-comment-226-1 γὰρ ³²⁰

mvp-comment-226-2 γόων ³²¹ λόγων ³²²

mvp-comment-227-1 ἐνταῦθα ³²³

mvp-comment-227-2 ἔνθα μή ποτε … προσόψει ³²⁴

mvp-comment-227-3 ζῶσα ³²⁵

mvp-comment-227-4 κατηρεφεῖ ³²⁶

mvp-comment-227-5 χθονὸς τῆσδ’ ἐκτὸς ³²⁷

mvp-comment-227-6 ὑμνήσεις ³²⁸

mvp-comment-228-1 πρὸς ταῦτα ³²⁹

mvp-comment-228-2 Nauck reads κοὔ ³³⁰ καί ³³¹

mvp-comment-228-3

ἐν καλῷ, εὔκαιρον

schol.: H. 4. 3. 5

νομίσαντες οὐκ ἐν καλῷ εἶναι πρὸς τοὺς ὁπλίτας ἱππομαχεῖν

: so, too, Eur. Heracl. 971 , etc. Cp.

καλόν

(

ἐστι

καίριον

in Soph. Ph. 1155 ; and

εἰς καλόν

καιρίως

in O.T. 78.

mvp-comment-229-1 ἦ ταῦτα δὴ ³³² ἦ … δὴ ³³³ ἦ … γὰρ ³³⁴

mvp-comment-229-2 καὶ βεβούλευνται ³³⁵

mvp-comment-230-1 ἀλλ’ ἐξίκοιτο ³³⁶

mvp-comment-230-2 τοῦδέ γ’ οὕνεκ’ ³³⁷

mvp-comment-231-1 τίνα … τόνδ’ ³³⁸

mvp-comment-231-2 τάλαινα ³³⁹

mvp-comment-232-1 εἴ τι τῶνδε ³⁴⁰

mvp-comment-233-1 ποῦ ποτ’ εἶ φρενῶν ³⁴¹

mvp-comment-234-1 ὅπως ³⁴² ὑμῶν ³⁴³

mvp-comment-234-2 προσώτατ’ ³⁴⁴ προσωτάτω φύγω ³⁴⁵

mvp-comment-235-1 βίου … τοῦ παρόντος ³⁴⁶

mvp-comment-236-1 καλὸς γὰρ ³⁴⁷

mvp-comment-236-2 θαυμάσαι ³⁴⁸

mvp-comment-237-1 τοῖς φίλοις ³⁴⁹

mvp-comment-238-1 εἰκαθεῖν ³⁵⁰

mvp-comment-239-1 ταῦτα ³⁵¹ οὐκ ἐμοὺς ³⁵²

mvp-comment-240-1 γε ³⁵³ μέντοι ³⁵⁴

mvp-comment-240-2 μὴ )ξ ³⁵⁵

mvp-comment-240-3 πεσεῖν ³⁵⁶

mvp-comment-240-4 399 A woman, speaking of herself in the plur., uses the masc.: Ant. 926

παθόντες ἂν ξυγγνοῖμεν ἡμαρτηκότες

mvp-comment-241-1 συγγνώμην ³⁵⁷

mvp-comment-242-1 τἄπη ³⁵⁸

mvp-comment-242-2 πρὸς κακῶν ³⁵⁹

mvp-comment-243-1 μή πω ³⁶⁰

mvp-comment-244-1 οἷπερ … ὁδοῦ ³⁶¹

mvp-comment-245-1 τῷ φέρεις ³⁶²

mvp-comment-245-2 ἔμπυρα ³⁶³

mvp-comment-246-1 τυμβεῦσαι χοάς ³⁶⁴

mvp-comment-247-1 βροτῶν ³⁶⁵

mvp-comment-248-1 ὃν ἔκταν’ αὐτή ³⁶⁶ ὅν γ’ ³⁶⁷

mvp-comment-249-1 τῷ τοῦτ’ ἤρεσεν ³⁶⁸

mvp-comment-250-1 δείματος ³⁶⁹

mvp-comment-250-2 δοκεῖν ἐμοί ³⁷⁰

mvp-comment-251-1 θεοὶ πατρῷοι ³⁷¹

mvp-comment-251-2 συγγένεσθέ γ’ ³⁷²

mvp-comment-251-3 ἀλλὰ νῦν ³⁷³

mvp-comment-252-1 εἴποιμ’ ἂν τότε ³⁷⁴

mvp-comment-253-1 ἐπὶ σμικρὸν ³⁷⁵ ἐπὶ σμικρῶν ³⁷⁶

mvp-comment-253-2 φράσαι ³⁷⁷

mvp-comment-254-1 σμικροὶ λόγοι ³⁷⁸

mvp-comment-255-1 πατρὸς … δευτέραν ὁμιλίαν ³⁷⁹

mvp-comment-255-2 ἐφέστιον πῆξαι ³⁸⁰

mvp-comment-255-3 This sceptre is described in the Iliad (2. 101 f.) as the work of Hephaestus, who gave it Zeus; Hermes transmitted it to Pelops, from whom it passed to Atreus and Agamemnon. The Homeric sceptre is often called

χρύσεον

( Il. 2. 268 , etc.), prob. as being ornamented with gold foil, or studded with gold nails ( Il. 1. 246

χρυσείοις ἥλοισι πεπαρμένον

). Among the objects found at Mycenae are some supposed remains of such sceptres (Schliem., Myc. 201, etc.).

mvp-comment-255-4 οὑφόρει ποτέ ³⁸¹

mvp-comment-256-1 ἔκ τε ³⁸² ἐκ δὲ ³⁸³

mvp-comment-256-2 βρύοντα ³⁸⁴

mvp-comment-256-3 ᾧ … γενέσθαι ³⁸⁵

mvp-comment-256-4 The vision resembles that of Astyages, who dreamed that a vine sprang from his daughter Mandanè, the wife of Cambyses,

τὴν δὲ ἄμπελον ἐπισχεῖν τὴν Ἀσίην πᾶσαν

. The

ὀνειροπόλοι

explained this to mean that her son (Cyrus) should reign in his grandfather's stead. ( Her. 1. 108. ) The spreading branches figure also in the dream of Xerxes (7. 19):

ἐδόκεε...ἐστεφανῶσθαι ἐλαίης θαλλῷ, ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς ἐλαίης τοὺς κλάδους γῆν πᾶσαν ἐπισχεῖν

mvp-comment-256-5 In choosing the sceptre of Agamemnon as the stock from which the wondrous growth is put forth, Sophocles may have had in mind the words of Achilles ( Il. 1. 234 ff.);

ναὶ μὰ τόδε σκῆπτρον· τὸ μὲν οὔποτε φύλλα καὶ ὄζους

φύσει, ἐπεὶ δὴ πρῶτα τομὴν ἐν ὄρεσσι λέλοιπεν

, |

οὐδ’ ἀναθηλήσει

mvp-comment-257-1 του παρόντος ³⁸⁶ τοῦ ³⁸⁷ παρόντος ³⁸⁸ του ³⁸⁹

mvp-comment-257-2 Ἡλίῳ δείκνυσι τοὖναρ ³⁹⁰

mvp-comment-258-1 οὐ κάτοιδα, πλὴν ³⁹¹

mvp-comment-258-2 πέμπει με κείνη ³⁹²

mvp-comment-259-1 These three verses, which the MSS. give to Electra, and which several recent critics reject (cr. n.), clearly belong to Chrysothemis, and are genuine. Electra's exclamation of joy (411) caused Chrysothemis to ask if her sister had any ground for hope (412). Electra replied that, when she had heard the dream, she would say. This showed her sister that Electra relied merely on the fact that Clytaemnestra had seen some fearful vision. Now, therefore, instead of asking for Electra's interpretation, she merely repeats her counsel (383 f.) before proceeding on her errand. The words

πρός νυν θεῶν κ.τ.λ.

(428 ff.) show the train of her thought. To Chrysothemis, the alarm of Clytaemnestra (427) is more important than the apparition of Agamemnon. The dream is only a new reason why Electra should be cautious,—not why she should hope.

mvp-comment-259-2 The current ascription of the verses to Electra was doubtless prompted by verse 413. It was supposed that the recital of Chrysothemis must be immediately followed by the comments of Electra. But, as Hermann observed, the phrase

ἀβουλίᾳ πεσεῖν

would alone suffice to show that the verses belong to Chrysothemis ( cp. 398 ). Nor could the warning,

σὺν κακῷ μέτει πάλιν

, be fitly uttered by Electra.

mvp-comment-259-3 τῶν ἐγγενῶν ³⁹³

mvp-comment-260-1 ἀβουλίᾳ ³⁹⁴

mvp-comment-260-2 σὺν κακῷ ³⁹⁵

mvp-comment-260-3 μέτει ³⁹⁶

mvp-comment-261-1 ἀλλ’ ³⁹⁷

mvp-comment-261-2 ὦ φίλη ³⁹⁸ τούτων μὲν ³⁹⁹

mvp-comment-262-1 οὐ … θέμις ⁴⁰⁰ οὐδ’ ὅσιον ⁴⁰¹

mvp-comment-262-2 ἐχθρᾶς ἀπὸ γυναικὸς ⁴⁰²

mvp-comment-262-3 κτερίσματ’ ⁴⁰³

mvp-comment-262-4 λουτρὰ ⁴⁰⁴

mvp-comment-263-1 ἀλλ’ ἢ πνοαῖσιν ⁴⁰⁵ ῥοαῖσιν ⁴⁰⁶

mvp-comment-263-2 κρύψον ⁴⁰⁷

mvp-comment-263-3 νιν ⁴⁰⁸

mvp-comment-263-4 ἔνθα μή ποτ’ ⁴⁰⁹ ἔνθεν ⁴¹⁰

mvp-comment-263-5 εὐνὴν ⁴¹¹

mvp-comment-264-1 ἀλλ’ ὅταν θάῃν ⁴¹²

mvp-comment-264-2 The conjecture ἔστ’ ἂν ⁴¹³ ὅταν ⁴¹⁴ σῳζέσθω ⁴¹⁵

mvp-comment-264-3 κειμήλἰ ⁴¹⁶

mvp-comment-265-1 ἀρχὴν ⁴¹⁷ τλημονεστάτη ⁴¹⁸

mvp-comment-266-1 ἔβλαστε ⁴¹⁹

mvp-comment-267-1 ὅν γ’ … τῷδ’ ⁴²⁰

mvp-comment-267-2 ἐπέστεφε ⁴²¹

mvp-comment-267-3 442 f. The position of αὐτῇ ⁴²²

mvp-comment-267-4 δέξεσθαι ⁴²³

mvp-comment-267-5 It seems, then, a reasonable inference that here, where the reference is to future time, he would have written δέξεσθαι ⁴²⁴ δέξασθαι ⁴²⁵

mvp-comment-267-6 444 ff. Join θανὼν ἄτιμος ⁴²⁶

mvp-comment-267-7 ἐμασχαλίσθη ⁴²⁷

mvp-comment-267-8 Two different motives are assigned by the Greek commentators; viz.:—(1) the desire to render the dead incapable of wreaking vengeance (

ὥσπερ τὴν δύναμιν ἐκείνων ἀφαιρούμενοι

): (2) the desire to make an atonement (

ἐξιλάσασθαι τὴν δολοφονίαν—ἀφοσιοῦσθαι τὸν φόνον

). There can be little doubt that the first of these motives was the primitive origin of the custom. If the second was afterwards blended with it, the idea may have been that of offering the severed portions to the gods below,—as a victim was devoted to death by cutting off a lock of hair ( Eur. Alc. 75 ). Apollonius Rhodius seems to present the practice in this light (4. 477): Jason, having slain a foe,

ἐξάργματα τάμνε θανόντος

. Cp. Etym. Magn.:

ἀπάργματα λέγεται τὰ ὑπὸ τῶν τραγῳδῶν λεγόμενα μασχαλίσματα

mvp-comment-267-9 κἀπὶ λουτροῖσιν ⁴²⁸

mvp-comment-267-10 ἐξέμαξ ν ⁴²⁹

mvp-comment-267-11 ἆρα μὴ ⁴³⁰

mvp-comment-268-1 οὐκ ἔστιν ⁴³¹

mvp-comment-268-2 ταῦτα μὲν μέθες· σὺ δὲ ⁴³²

mvp-comment-269-1 βοστρύχων ἄκρας φόβας ⁴³³

mvp-comment-269-2 κἀμοῦ ταλαίνης ⁴³⁴

mvp-comment-270-1 †ἀλιπαρῆ ⁴³⁵ λιπαρῆ ⁴³⁶

mvp-comment-270-2 We come, therefore, to a dilemma. (1) The words

τήνδ’ ἀλιπαρῆ τρίχα

may conceal some corruption:

τήνδ’

ought possibly to be τήνδε τ’ ⁴³⁷ ἀλίπαρον ⁴³⁸

mvp-comment-270-3 (2) Or else, if the text be sound,

ἀλιπαρῆ

may mean

οὐ λιπαράν

. There is no doubt that

λιπ

, ‘fat,’ is the root both of

λι^παρός

, ‘shining,’ and of

λι—παρής

, ‘sticking’; cp. Plat. Crat. 427 B

τὸ λιπαρὸν καὶ τὸ κολλῶδες

( Curt. Etym. § 340 ). Similarly

γλίσχρος

, ‘sticky,’ came to mean ‘importunate.’ It is barely possible that, in coining a new negative compound, the poet may have transferred the sense of

λιπαρός

λιπαρής

: but it seems improbable.

mvp-comment-271-1 ζῶμα ⁴³⁹

mvp-comment-271-2 χλιδαῖς ⁴⁴⁰

mvp-comment-272-1 προσπίτνουσα ⁴⁴¹ αὐτὸν ⁴⁴²

mvp-comment-273-1 ἐξ ὑπερτέρας χερός ⁴⁴³

mvp-comment-273-2 ζῶντ’ ⁴⁴⁴

mvp-comment-274-1 ἀφνεωτέραις ⁴⁴⁵

mvp-comment-274-2 στέφωμεν ⁴⁴⁶

mvp-comment-274-3 δωρούμεθα ⁴⁴⁷

mvp-comment-275-1 οἶμαι μὲν οὖν ⁴⁴⁸

mvp-comment-275-2 If μέλον ⁴⁴⁹ μέλειν ⁴⁵⁰ μέλον ⁴⁵¹

mvp-comment-276-1 σοί ⁴⁵²

mvp-comment-277-1 βροτῶν ⁴⁵³

mvp-comment-278-1 πρὸς εὐσέβειαν ⁴⁵⁴

mvp-comment-279-1 δράσω ⁴⁵⁵

mvp-comment-279-2 τὸ γὰρ δίκαιον ⁴⁵⁶

mvp-comment-279-3 (1)

τὸ δίκαιον

is an acc. of general reference, and

οὐκ ἔχει λόγον

is impersonal. ‘With regard to what is (clearly) right, it is unreasonable for two persons to dispute; rather both should hasten on the doing (of it).’ With

ἀλλ’ ἐπισπεύδειν

we supply the notion

δεῖ

from the negative

οὐκ ἔχει λόγον

(as from

οὐκ ἔξεστι

in O. C. 1402 ff.; cp. O. T. 817 ff.). For the form of the sentence, cp. H. 7. 3. 7

τοὺς περὶ Ἀρχίαν...οὐ ψῆφον ἀνεμείνατε, ἀλλὰ ὁπότε πρῶτον ἐδυνάσθητε ἐτιμωρήσασθε

. So here the acc.

τὸ δίκαιον

, which represents the object of

δρᾶν

, is separated from it by the parenthesis

οὐκ

ἔχει λόγον δυοῖν ἐρίζειν

. (The first scholium gives substantially this view:

οὐκ ἔχει λόγον φιλονεικεῖν περὶ τοῦ δικαίου, ὥστε περὶ αὐτοῦ δύο ὄντας ἐρίζειν

mvp-comment-279-4 (2) Or

τὸ δίκαιον

might be nom.: ‘that which is clearly right does not afford any ground (

οὐκ ἔχει λόγον

) for two persons to dispute,’ etc. So the second schol.:

ἢ τὸ οὐκ ἔχει λόγον ἀντὶ τοῦ οὐ παρέχει πρόφασιν

. So far as the verb

ἔχει

is concerned, this sense is quite admissible: cp. Thuc. 2. 41

οὔτε τῷ πολεμίῳ ἐπελθόντι ἀγανάκτησιν ἔχει

(

ἡ πόλις

). The objection is that the phrases

ἔχειν λόγον, οὐκ ἔχειν λόγον

, which are very common, regularly mean, ‘to be reasonable,’ ‘to be unreasonable.’ This is so both in the personal and in the impersonal constr.; as Plat. Phaedop. 62 D

τὸ γὰρ μὴ ἀγανακτεῖν...οὐκ ἔχει λόγον

: Dem. or. 36 § 54

πῶς ἔχει λόγον σὲ...δίκην ἀξιοῦν λαμβάνειν

; The supposed sense, ‘not to afford a reason,’ is unexampled.

mvp-comment-279-5 δυοῖν ⁴⁵⁷

mvp-comment-280-1 παρ’ ὑμῶν ⁴⁵⁸

mvp-comment-281-1 πικρὰν ⁴⁵⁹ δοκῶ με … τολμήσειν ⁴⁶⁰ ἔτι ⁴⁶¹

mvp-comment-282-1 εἰ μὴ )γὼ ⁴⁶²

mvp-comment-282-2 γνώμας λειπομένα ⁴⁶³

mvp-comment-283-1 ἁ πρόμαντις Δίκα ⁴⁶⁴

mvp-comment-283-2 δίκαια φερομένα χεροῖν κράτη ⁴⁶⁵

mvp-comment-284-1 μέτεισιν ⁴⁶⁶

mvp-comment-284-2 οὐ μακροῦ χρόνου ⁴⁶⁷

mvp-comment-285-1 ὕπεστί μοι θράσος ⁴⁶⁸ κλύουσαν ⁴⁶⁹

mvp-comment-285-2 ἁδυπνόων … ὀνειράτων ⁴⁷⁰

mvp-comment-286-1 ἀμναστεῖ γ’ ὁ φύσας ς’ ⁴⁷¹

mvp-comment-287-1 χαλκόπλακτος ⁴⁷²

mvp-comment-287-2 γένυς ⁴⁷³

mvp-comment-287-3 The very axe (

φόνιος πέλεκυς

, 99) with which the blow was dealt is imagined as nourishing a grudge against the murderers who had set it such a task. Such a personification recalls that practice of Athenian law by which inanimate objects which had caused death were brought to a formal trial in the court called

τὸ ἐπὶ Πρυτανείῳ

, and, after sentence, cast beyond the boundaries, in the presence of the Archon Basileus and the sacrificial officers of the tribes (

φυλο‐

βασιλεῖς

). Aeschin. or. 3 § 244

τὰ μὲν ξύλα καὶ τοὺς λίθους καὶ τὸν σίδηρον, τὰ ἄφωνα καὶ ἀγνώμονα, ἐάν τῳ ἐμπεσόντα ἀποκτείνῃ, ὑπερορίζομεν

. (Cp. Dem. or. 23 § 76 .) A like conception was implied in the English law (repealed in 1846) of ‘deodands’ (Deo danda), i.e., personal chattels (whether animals or things) which, having caused the death of a human being, were forfeited to the Crown for pious uses.

mvp-comment-288-1 ἐν αἰκίαις ⁴⁷⁴

mvp-comment-289-1 καὶ πολύπους καὶ πολύχειρ ⁴⁷⁵

mvp-comment-290-1 λόχοις ⁴⁷⁶

mvp-comment-290-2 χαλκόπους ⁴⁷⁷

mvp-comment-291-1 ἄλεκτρ’ ἄνυμφα ⁴⁷⁸

mvp-comment-291-2 γάμων ἁμιλλήμαθ’ ⁴⁷⁹

mvp-comment-291-3 ἐπέβα ⁴⁸⁰

mvp-comment-292-1 πρὸ τῶνδέ τοι … συνδρῶσιν ⁴⁸¹

mvp-comment-292-2 Verses 495—497 (

πρὸ τῶνδέ τοι...τέρας

) answer metrically to vv. 479—481

ὕπεστί μοι...ὀνειράτων

, where the text is certain, save for the doubt whether

θράσος

θάρσος

should stand in 479. Here we must first decide two points.

mvp-comment-292-3 (1) Are the words πρὸ τῶνδε ⁴⁸²

mvp-comment-292-4 (2) Could

ἔχει με, μήποτε τέρας πελᾶν

(etc.) mean, ‘ the belief possesses me, that’ etc.? Surely not. No real parallel for so strange a phrase has been produced. It is irrelevant to quote those impersonal verbs which directly express the occurrence of a thought to the mind; as Xen. An. 6. 1. 17

εἰσῄει αὐτοὺς ὅπως ἂν καὶ ἔχοντές τι οἴκαδε ἀφίκοιντο

(‘the thought came to them, how they might,’ etc.): Thuc. 6. 78. § 1

εἰ δέ τῳ ἄρα παρέστηκε, τὸν μὲν Συρακόσιον...πολέμιον εἶναι κ.τ.λ.

Either, then, the subject to

ἔχει

has dropped out, or the words

μ’ ἔχει

conceal a corruption.

mvp-comment-292-5 The following remedies are possible: I incline to the first, as involving least change. (1) Reading in 479

ὕπεστί μοι θράσος

, we may read here

πρὸ τῶνδέ τοί μ’ ἔχει

<θάρσος τι>, μήποθ’ ἡμῖν

etc. (It may be remarked that

τι

is in harmony with the tone of

ὕπεστί μοι

in 479.) Another available word is

ξύννοια

(cp. Ant. 279 ). (2) Or, reading in 479

ὕπεστί μοι θάρσος

, we could read here

πρὸ τῶνδέ τοι θάρσος ἴσχει με

. On either view, the

ἁδυπνόων

in 480 is long (as several critics have assumed). It should be noted that (1) involves a different constitution of the verses: see p. lxxxii.

mvp-comment-292-6 In those MSS. which have μή ποτε μή ποθ’ ἡμῖν ⁴⁸³

mvp-comment-293-1 ἀψεγές ⁴⁸⁴ ἀψεφές ⁴⁸⁵

mvp-comment-293-2 πελᾶν ⁴⁸⁶

mvp-comment-294-1 τοῖς δρῶσι ⁴⁸⁷ τοῖς συνδρῶσιν ⁴⁸⁸

mvp-comment-295-1 μαντεῖαι βροτῶν ⁴⁸⁹

mvp-comment-296-1 εὖ κατασχήσει ⁴⁹⁰

mvp-comment-297-1 ἱππεία ⁴⁹¹

mvp-comment-297-2 Oenomaüs, king of Pisa in Elis, had promised the hand of his daughter Hippodameia to the suitor who should defeat him in a chariot-race; the penalty of failure being death. The young Pelops, son of Tantalus, offered himself as a competitor. Myrtilus, the charioteer of Oenomaüs, was persuaded (either by Hippodameia or by Pelops) to betray his master. He did so by leaving out one or both of the linch-pins by which the naves of the chariot-wheels were secured to the axles. Tzetzes on Lycophron 156

ταῖς χοινίκισι

πλήμναις

, the naves)

τῶν τροχῶν οὐκ ἐμβαλὼν τοὺς ἥλους

. According to another story, he substituted a linch-pin of wax for a real one ( schol. Apoll. Rh. 752

ἐμβαλόντα κήρινον ἔμβολον ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀκραξονίου

). So Pelops won the race, and the bride. But Oenomaüs was soon avenged on the traitor; for Myrtilus insulted Hippodameia, and was thrown into the sea by Pelops; upon whose house he invoked a curse, as he sank.

mvp-comment-297-3 Euripides, too, ( Or. 990 ff., Helen. 386 f.) refers to this chariot-race as the event with which the troubles of the Pelopidae began. Apollonius Rhodius briefly describes the critical moment of the race as one of the subjects embroidered on the cloak of Jason (1. 752 ff.); there Oenomaüs was seen, ‘falling sideways, as the axle broke at the naves of the wheels,’—

ἄξονος ἐν πλήμνῃσι παρακλιδὸν ἀγνυμένοιο

πίπτεν

mvp-comment-297-4 The eastern pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia ( circ. 450 B.C.) was adorned with sculptures by Paeonius, representing the preparation for this contest ( Paus. 5. 10. 6 ). The fragments found on the site have sufficed for a reconstruction of the group. Zeus occupied the centre; to the right of him were Pelops and Hippodameia; to the left, Oenomaüs and his wife Steropè. On each side was a chariot drawn by four horses. Myrtilus was sitting in front of his team, with his face turned away from his master.

mvp-comment-297-5 In the older and nobler form of the myth, Pelops won, not by a fraud, but by the grace of Poseidon, who gave him winged horses (Pindar O. 1. 87

ἔδωκεν δίφρον τε χούσεον πτεροῖσίν τ’ ἀκάμαντας ἵππους

). On the chest (

λάρναξ

) of Cypselus, seen by Pausanias in the Heraeum at Olympia ( Paus. 5. 17. 5 ), Pelops was driving two winged horses.

mvp-comment-298-1 αἰανὴς ⁴⁹²

mvp-comment-298-2 The form

αἰανὴς

has the best authority, and some critics hold that

αἰανὸς

(Hesych.) was a Byzantine invention. But in Aesch. Eum. 416 ,

ἡμεῖς γάρ ἐσμεν νυκτὸς αἰανῆς τέκνα

(so L, schol., and Tzetzes on Lycophron 406),

αἰανῆ

is far less suitable.

mvp-comment-299-1 εὖτε ⁴⁹³

mvp-comment-299-2 ὁ ποντισθεὶς Μυρτίλος ⁴⁹⁴

mvp-comment-299-3 A vase found at Capua shows Pelops and Hippodameia in a ship, from which Myrtilus is falling backwards into the water. A winged Erinys hovers in the air above, brandishing a sword over the head of Pelops (Baumeister, Denkmäler p. 1204, referring to Mon. Inst. x. 25).

mvp-comment-299-4 ἐκοιμάθη ⁴⁹⁵

mvp-comment-300-1 παγχρυσέων δίφρων ⁴⁹⁶

mvp-comment-301-1 πρόρριζος ⁴⁹⁷

mvp-comment-301-2 ἐκριφθείς ⁴⁹⁸

mvp-comment-302-1 ἔλειπεν ⁴⁹⁹ ἔλιπεν ⁵⁰⁰ οἴκου ⁵⁰¹ οἴκους ⁵⁰² πω ⁵⁰³

mvp-comment-303-1 πολύπονος ⁵⁰⁴ αἰκία ⁵⁰⁵

mvp-comment-304-1 ἀνειμένη ⁵⁰⁶ μέν ⁵⁰⁷

mvp-comment-304-2 ὡς ἔοικας ⁵⁰⁸

mvp-comment-304-3 στρέφει ⁵⁰⁹

mvp-comment-304-4 Clytaemnestra begins in the same strain as Chrysothemis, who likewise emphasised her reproof by the word αὖ ⁵¹⁰

mvp-comment-305-1 μή τοι θυραίαν γ’ ⁵¹¹

mvp-comment-305-2 αἰσχύνειν φίλους ⁵¹²

mvp-comment-306-1 καίτοι ⁵¹³

mvp-comment-306-2 δὴ ⁵¹⁴ πολλούς ⁵¹⁵

mvp-comment-306-3 ἐξεῖπάς με … ὡς ⁵¹⁶

mvp-comment-306-4 θρασεῖα ⁵¹⁷ τραχεῖα ⁵¹⁸

mvp-comment-306-5 ἄρχω ⁵¹⁹

mvp-comment-307-1 ὕβριν … οὐκ ἔχω ⁵²⁰ κακῶς κλύουσα ⁵²¹

mvp-comment-308-1 πατὴρ γάρ ⁵²²

mvp-comment-308-2 πρόσχημα ⁵²³

mvp-comment-309-1 ἡ γὰρ Δίκη ⁵²⁴

mvp-comment-310-1 ᾗ χρῆν σ’ ἀρήγειν ⁵²⁵

mvp-comment-311-1 The order of words in the MSS.,

ἐπεὶ πατὴρ οὗτος σός

, is probably right; the words would then fall from her with a certain deliberate bitterness. Cp. 542 : Ant. 44

ἦ γὰρ νοεῖς θάπτειν σθ’

(n.): Ph. 101

λέγω σ’ ἐγὼ δόλῳ Φιλοκτήτην λαβεῖν

mvp-comment-312-1 μοῦνος ⁵²⁶ Ἑλλήνων ⁵²⁷

mvp-comment-312-2 Nauck requires

τὴν αὐτὸς αὑτοῦ

instead of

τὴν σὴν ὅμαιμον

, because Agamemnon's unique crime was the slaughter of his own child: as if the text did not convey this. Clytaemnestra means, ‘while mourning a father, you forget a sister.’

mvp-comment-312-3 532 f. The regular mode of expression would be,

οὐκ ἴσον λύπης καμὼν ἐμοί, ὁ σπείρας τῇ τικτούσῃ

. But, having written

ὅτ’ ἔσπειρε

, the poet explains

ἐμοί

by repeating the comparison in a new form,

ὥσπερ ἡ τίκτουσ’ ἐγώ

. (For

ὡς

ὥσπερ

after

ἴσος

, cp. Lys. or. 19 § 36

ἡγοῦντο... τὰ ἐκεῖ...εἶναι ἴσα ὥσπερ τὰ ἐνθάδε

.) Those who reject v. 533 omit to notice that, without it, the words

οὐκ ἴσον καμὼν ἐμοί

would be unintelligible. Cp. Aesch. Ag. 1417

ἔθυσεν αὑτοῦ παῖδα, φιλτάτην ἐμοὶ

ὠδῖν’

mvp-comment-312-4 This assertion of the mother's superior claim is a counterpart to the doctrine of Athena in Aesch. Eum. 658 f.,

οὐκ ἔστι μήτηρ ἡ κεκλημένου τέκνου

τοκεύς, τροφὸς δὲ κύματος νεοσπόρου

. Cp. above, Aesch. Eum. 366 n.

mvp-comment-313-1 τοῦ χάριν, τίνων ⁵²⁸

mvp-comment-313-2 The alternative, which most editors have preferred, is to take

τίνων

as the participle. But there is an insuperable objection to this, which seems to have escaped notice. The words,

τοῦ χάριν τίνων

; could mean only, ‘paying a debt of gratitude for what?’ They could not mean, ‘paying a debt of gratitude to whom?’ The latter would be

τῷ χάριν τίνων

; See ( e.g.) Aesch. P. V. 985

καὶ μὴν ὀφείλων ἂν τίνοιμ’ αὐτῷ χάριν

: Aesch. Ag. 821

τούτων θεοῖσι χρὴ πολύμνηστον χάριν

τίνειν

. Hence the question,

τοῦ χάριν τίνων

; could not possibly be answered by

Ἀργείων

. For, evidently, the latter word could not mean, (‘for a benefit conferred by) the Greeks.’ A scholiast in the Baroccian MS. (cr. n. on 545), who explains

τοῦ χάριν τίνων

τίνος χάριν ἀποδιδούς

, plainly meant, ‘showing gratitude for what?’—and his paraphrase was correct; only he overlooked the context.

mvp-comment-314-1 ἀλλ’ οὐ μετῆν ⁵²⁹

mvp-comment-315-1 ἀλλ’ ἀντ’ ἀδελφοῦ δῆτα ⁵³⁰ κτανὼν ⁵³¹

mvp-comment-315-2 ἀντὶ ἀδελφοῦ ⁵³²

mvp-comment-315-3 τἄμ’ ⁵³³

mvp-comment-316-1 παῖδες … διπλοῖ ⁵³⁴

mvp-comment-316-2 540 f. Nauck would prefer a single verse in place of these two, viz.

οὓς Ἰφιγενείας εἰκὸς ἦν θνῄσκειν πάρος

mvp-comment-317-1 ἢ ⁵³⁵

mvp-comment-317-2 ἢ τῶν ἐμῶν Ἅιδης ⁵³⁶

mvp-comment-318-1 δαίσασθαι ⁵³⁷

mvp-comment-318-2 The conj. λῄσασθαι ⁵³⁸

mvp-comment-319-1 πανώλει ⁵³⁹

mvp-comment-319-2 παρεῖτο ⁵⁴⁰

mvp-comment-319-3 The sense does not absolutely require us to take Μενέλεω δ’ ⁵⁴¹

mvp-comment-320-1 ἀβούλου ⁵⁴²

mvp-comment-320-2 κακοῦ γνώμην ⁵⁴³

mvp-comment-321-1 δοκῶ μέν ⁵⁴⁴

mvp-comment-321-2 εἰ καὶ ⁵⁴⁵

mvp-comment-322-1 εἰ φωνὴν λάβοι ⁵⁴⁶

mvp-comment-323-1 τοῖς πεπραγμένοις ⁵⁴⁷

mvp-comment-324-1 γνώμην δικαίαν σχοῦσα ⁵⁴⁸

mvp-comment-325-1 ἐρεῖς μὲν οὐχὶ ⁵⁴⁹ ἐρεῖς ⁵⁵⁰ ἐρεῖς … μ’ ὡς ⁵⁵¹

mvp-comment-325-2 ἄρξασά τι λυπηρὸν ⁵⁵²

mvp-comment-325-3 τάδ’ ἐξήκους’ ⁵⁵³

mvp-comment-326-1 τοῦ τεθνηκότος θ’ ὕπερ ⁵⁵⁴

mvp-comment-327-1 καὶ μὴν ⁵⁵⁵

mvp-comment-327-2 λόγους ἐξῆρχές με ⁵⁵⁶

mvp-comment-328-1 Clytaemnestra has argued that she was justified in slaying Agamemnon, because he had slain Iphigeneia. The topics of Electra's reply are as follows.

mvp-comment-328-2 (1) 558—562. The wife who slew her husband would be a criminal, even if the motive had been just retribution; but the real motive was her love for Aegisthus. (2) 563—576. Agamemnon was not a free agent in slaying Iphigeneia; the act was forced upon him by Artemis. (3) 577—583. Suppose, however, that he was a free agent, and wished to please his brother; still she was not justified in taking his life. (4) 584—594. And in any case her plea does not excuse her for living with the man who helped to slay her husband.—The speech then closes in a strain of reproach and defiance (595 —609).

mvp-comment-328-3 καὶ δὴ λέγω σοι ⁵⁵⁷ πατέρα ⁵⁵⁸ φὴς ⁵⁵⁹

mvp-comment-329-1 εἴτ’ οὖν … εἴτε ⁵⁶⁰

mvp-comment-329-2 λέξω ⁵⁶¹ δείξω ⁵⁶²

mvp-comment-330-1 ὡς οὐ δίκῃ γ’ ⁵⁶³ ἔσπασεν ⁵⁶⁴ πειθὼ ⁵⁶⁵

mvp-comment-331-1 κυναγὸν ⁵⁶⁶

mvp-comment-331-2 ποινὰς ⁵⁶⁷

mvp-comment-331-3 τὰ πολλὰ πνεύματ’ ἔσχ’ ⁵⁶⁸ τὰ πολλὰ ⁵⁶⁹ ἔσχε ⁵⁷⁰

mvp-comment-331-4 Acc. to Aesch. ( Aesch. Ag. 149 f., Aesch. Ag. 192 ), the Greeks were detained by adverse winds, blowing from the N.E. : and this seems to have been the account given in the Cypria ( c. 776 B.C.), Proclus Chrest. p. 455:

ἐπέσχεν αὐτοὺς τοῦ πλοῦ χειμῶνας ἐπιπέμπουσα

. But other authorities speak of a calm. Thus I. A. 9 ff.

οὔκουν φθόγγος γ’ οὔτ’ ὀρνίθων

οὔτε θαλάσσης· σιγαὶ δ’ ἀνέμων

τόνδε κατ’ Εὔριπον ἔχουσιν

. Schol. Eur. Or. 647

ἐπειράθη τῆς θεοῦ ὀργιζομένης καὶ κατεχούσης τοὺς ἀνέμους

. Tzetzes on Lycophron 183

χολωθεῖσα δ’ ἐπὶ τούτῳ ἡ θεὸς τοὺς ἀνέμους κατέσχεν

. Ovid ( Met. 13. 183 ) combines both versions:

exspectata diu, nulla aut contraria classi | Flamina sunt.

mvp-comment-331-5 It has been objected that vessels provided with oars need not have been detained by a calm. But the ships of the Greek fleet were not light craft. Each carried from 50 to 120 armed men, besides

σκεύη πολεμικά

: and the warriors were also the rowers (cp. Thuc. 1. 10 ). It is intelligible, then, that they should await the aid of wind before attempting the passage of the Aegaean. We must remember, too, the strong and shifting currents in the Euripus (

στονόεντα πορθμόν

, Soph. Ant. 1145 :

παλιρρόχθοις ἐν Αὐλίδος τόποις

, Aesch. Ag. 191 ).

mvp-comment-331-6 We cannot well render:—(1)‘He suffered those tedious winds,’—supplying

ὁ πατήρ

from v. 558. Nor: (2) ‘She directed those tedious winds at Aulis,’—a version which would at least require

ἐπ’ Αὐλίδι

. Cp. Ph. 1119

ἔχε

δύσποτμον ἀρὰν ἐπ’ ἄλλοις

mvp-comment-331-7 The conjecture πλοῖα ⁵⁷¹

mvp-comment-331-8 Αὐλίδι ⁵⁷²

mvp-comment-332-1 ἢ )γὼ φράσω ⁵⁷³ κείνης ⁵⁷⁴

mvp-comment-333-1 ὡς ἐγὼ κλύω ⁵⁷⁵

mvp-comment-333-2 θεᾶς … κατ’ ἄλσος ⁵⁷⁶

mvp-comment-333-3 παίζων ⁵⁷⁷

mvp-comment-333-4 ποδοῖν ⁵⁷⁸

mvp-comment-334-1 ἔλαφον ⁵⁷⁹

mvp-comment-334-2 στικτὸν ⁵⁸⁰

mvp-comment-334-3 κεράστην ⁵⁸¹

mvp-comment-334-4 οὗ κατὰ σφαγὰς ⁵⁸²

mvp-comment-335-1 ἐκκομπάσας ἔπος τι τυγχάνει ⁵⁸³ βαλών ⁵⁸⁴

mvp-comment-335-2 This is the reason against taking

τυγχάνει

with

βαλών

, as=‘he shoots and hits’; cp. Il. 15. 581

θηρητὴρ ἐτύχησε βαλών

: Her. 3. 35

εἰ...τοῦ παιδὸς...βαλὼν τύχοιμι

. The vaunt must then precede the hit.

mvp-comment-335-3 Others take βαλὼν ⁵⁸⁵ ἔπος ⁵⁸⁶

mvp-comment-335-4 Monk, with Musgrave, took σφαγὰς ⁵⁸⁷

mvp-comment-336-1 ἐκ τοῦδε ⁵⁸⁸

mvp-comment-336-2 μηνίσασα ⁵⁸⁹

mvp-comment-336-3 Λητῴα κόρη ⁵⁹⁰

mvp-comment-337-1 ὡς ⁵⁹¹ ἀντίσταθμον ⁵⁹²

mvp-comment-337-2 ἐκθύσειε ⁵⁹³

mvp-comment-338-1 ὧδ’ ἦν ⁵⁹⁴

mvp-comment-338-2 τὰ … θύματ’ ⁵⁹⁵

mvp-comment-338-3 λύσις ⁵⁹⁶

mvp-comment-338-4 πρὸς οἶκον ⁵⁹⁷

mvp-comment-339-1 πολλὰ ⁵⁹⁸

mvp-comment-339-2 ἀντιβὰς ⁵⁹⁹

mvp-comment-339-3 μόλις ⁶⁰⁰

mvp-comment-340-1 εἰ δ’ οὖν ⁶⁰¹

mvp-comment-340-2 ἐρῶ γὰρ καὶ τὸ σόν ⁶⁰²

mvp-comment-341-1 τούτου … οὕνεκ’ ⁶⁰³

mvp-comment-341-2 νόμῳ ⁶⁰⁴

mvp-comment-342-1 ὅρα ⁶⁰⁵ μὴ … τιθῇς ⁶⁰⁶ τίθης ⁶⁰⁷

mvp-comment-342-2 Here, either

τίθης

τιθῇς

would be suitable. (1) With

τίθης

:—‘See that, in making this rule, you are not making woe for yourself.’ This means that to make the rule (as she is doing) is at once (logically) to make the woe. (2) With

τιθῇς

: —‘See lest, in making this rule, you make woe for yourself’: i.e., the rule may have the woe as a consequence. The woe is a future contingency (583

εἰ δίκης γε τυγχάνοις

), against which Electra warns her. On the whole, I now prefer

τιθῇς

. Cp. 1003

ὅρα κακῶς πράσσοντε μὴ μείζω κακὰ

κτησώμεθ’

: fr. 82

ἀλλ’ ὅρα μὴ κρεῖσσον ᾖ

mvp-comment-342-3 τιθεῖσα … νόμον ⁶⁰⁸

mvp-comment-343-1 εἰ γὰρ κτενοῦμεν ⁶⁰⁹

mvp-comment-343-2 πρώτη ⁶¹⁰

mvp-comment-344-1 εἰσόρα ⁶¹¹

mvp-comment-344-2 οὐκ οὖσαν ⁶¹²

mvp-comment-344-3 τίθης ⁶¹³

mvp-comment-344-4 εἰ … θέλεις ⁶¹⁴

mvp-comment-345-1 τῷ παλαμναίῳ ⁶¹⁵

mvp-comment-345-2 πρόσθεν ἐξαπώλεσας ⁶¹⁶

mvp-comment-346-1 παιδοποιεῖς ⁶¹⁷

mvp-comment-346-2 Erigonè, daughter of Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra (Tzetzes on Lyc. 1374 ), was mentioned by the early cyclic poet Cinaethon ( Paus. 2. 18. 6 ), and was the theme of Sophocles in his

Ἠριγόνη

. Hyginus ( Hyg. Fab. 122 ) notices a son of Aegisthus named Aletes, who gives his name to a play by Sophocles, but does not record the mother: see p. xliii note 4.

mvp-comment-346-3 εὐσεβεῖς ⁶¹⁸

mvp-comment-346-4 κἀξ εὐσεβῶν ⁶¹⁹

mvp-comment-346-5 By

τοὺς...πρόσθεν εὐσεβεῖς

Electra means Orestes and herself. Both are ‘cast out’ of their just rights. Cp. O.T. 611

φίλον ...ἐσθλὸν ἐκβαλεῖν

. Eur. El. 62

τεκοῦσα δ’ ἄλλους παῖδας Αἰγίσθῳ πάρα

πάρεργ’ Ὀρέστην κἀμὲ ποιεῖται δόμων.

mvp-comment-346-6 βλαστόντας ⁶²⁰

mvp-comment-346-7 ἐκβαλοῦσ’ ἔχεις ⁶²¹

mvp-comment-347-1 πῶς ταῦτ’ ἐπαινέσαιμ’ ἄν ⁶²²

mvp-comment-347-2 ἢ ⁶²³ ἦ ⁶²⁴ καὶ τοῦτ’ ⁶²⁵ ἄποινα ⁶²⁶

mvp-comment-348-1 αἰσχρῶς δ’ ⁶²⁷ δ’ ⁶²⁸

mvp-comment-348-2 ἐάν περ καὶ λέγῃς ⁶²⁹

mvp-comment-348-3 ἐχθροῖς γαμεῖσθαι ⁶³⁰

mvp-comment-348-4 These two verses, though not indispensable, seem genuine. Were they omitted, the transition from 592 to 595 would be somewhat abrupt.

mvp-comment-349-1 ἀλλ’ οὐ γὰρ ⁶³¹

mvp-comment-349-2 πᾶσαν ἵης γλῶσσαν ⁶³²

mvp-comment-350-1 κακοστομοῦμεν ⁶³³

mvp-comment-350-2 καί σ’ ἔγωγε δεσπότιν ⁶³⁴

mvp-comment-350-3 εἰς ἡμᾶς ⁶³⁵ ἣ ⁶³⁶

mvp-comment-351-1 βίον μοχθηρόν ⁶³⁷

mvp-comment-351-2 ἔκ τε σοῦ ⁶³⁸ κακοῖς … ξυνοῦσα ⁶³⁹

mvp-comment-351-3 συννόμου ⁶⁴⁰

mvp-comment-352-1 ὁ δ’ ἄλλος ⁶⁴¹

mvp-comment-352-2 χεῖρα σὴν ⁶⁴²

mvp-comment-352-3 τρίβει βίον ⁶⁴³

mvp-comment-352-4 603 The reason for writing δή με σοὶ ⁶⁴⁴ δή μέ σοι ⁶⁴⁵

mvp-comment-352-5 μιάστορα ⁶⁴⁶

mvp-comment-353-1 τοῦδέ γ’ οὕνεκα ⁶⁴⁷

mvp-comment-354-1 εἰς ἅπαντας ⁶⁴⁸

mvp-comment-354-2 χρῇς ⁶⁴⁹

mvp-comment-354-3 στόμαργον ⁶⁵⁰

mvp-comment-355-1 τῶνδε τῶν ἔ|ργων ἴδρις ⁶⁵¹

mvp-comment-355-2 σχεδόν τι ⁶⁵²

mvp-comment-355-3 οὐ καταισχύνω ⁶⁵³

mvp-comment-356-1 ὁρῶ μένος πνέουσαν ⁶⁵⁴ μένος πνέουσαν ⁶⁵⁵

mvp-comment-356-2 σὺν δίκῃ ξύνεστι ⁶⁵⁶

mvp-comment-356-3 Other interpretations are:—(1) ‘I see that Electra is wroth; but as to whether she is in the right, I see no concern (anywhere),’—a timid way of saying that Clytaemnestra shows no such concern. So the schol. (2) ‘I see that Clytaemnestra is angry, but not that she cares whether she is right’:—an inference from some gesture. Both these versions rely on the fact that

φροντίδος

(612) is plainly an echo of

φροντίδ’

(611). But: ( a) it does not follow that

φροντίδ’

is not Electra's thought. ( b) It is surely clear that

πνέουσαν

must be Electra; and ( c) as in Ant. 471 f., the second clause naturally refers to the same person.

mvp-comment-357-1 ποίας δ’ ἐμοὶ δεῖ ⁶⁵⁷ ἐμοὶ ⁶⁵⁸ μοι ⁶⁵⁹ δεῖ ⁶⁶⁰

mvp-comment-357-2 Others understand: (1) ‘If Electra has no consideration for justice, why should I have any consideration for her,— i.e., show her any tenderness?’ Or: (2) ‘If she heeds not justice, why should I heed her?’ Neither view seems well suited to the context.

mvp-comment-358-1 καὶ ταῦτα ⁶⁶¹

mvp-comment-358-2 τηλικοῦτος ⁶⁶²

mvp-comment-358-3 ἆρα ⁶⁶³

mvp-comment-358-4 χωρεῖν ἂν ⁶⁶⁴ εἰς πᾶν ἔργον ⁶⁶⁵

mvp-comment-359-1 εὖ νυν ἐπίστω ⁶⁶⁶

mvp-comment-359-2 ἔξωρα ⁶⁶⁷

mvp-comment-359-3 προσεικότα ⁶⁶⁸

mvp-comment-360-1 ἀλλὰ … γὰρ ⁶⁶⁹

mvp-comment-360-2 ἡ … ἐκ σοῦ δυσμένεια ⁶⁷⁰

mvp-comment-360-3 ἐξαναγκάζει ⁶⁷¹ αἰσχροῖς ⁶⁷²

mvp-comment-360-4 622 f. The word θρέμμα ⁶⁷³

mvp-comment-360-5 ἦ σ’ ἐγὼ ⁶⁷⁴

mvp-comment-361-1 νιν ⁶⁷⁵

mvp-comment-361-2 εὑρίσκεται ⁶⁷⁶

mvp-comment-361-3 Cp. Milton, Apology for Smectymnuus (in his Prose Works, ed. Symmons, vol. I. p. 236): ‘I might also tell them [the prelates], what Electra in Sophocles, a wise virgin, answered her wicked mother, who thought herself too violently reproved by her the daughter: ‘' Tis you that say it, not I; you do the deeds, | And your ungodly deeds find me the words.’’

mvp-comment-362-1 οὐ μὰ ⁶⁷⁷

mvp-comment-362-2 δέσποιναν ⁶⁷⁸

mvp-comment-362-3 Ἄρτεμιν ⁶⁷⁹

mvp-comment-362-4 θράσους τοῦδ’ οὐκ ἀλύξεις ⁶⁸⁰ μόλῃ ⁶⁸¹

mvp-comment-363-1 ὁρᾷς ⁶⁸²

mvp-comment-363-2 ἐκφέρει ⁶⁸³

mvp-comment-363-3 The v. l. παρεῖσα ⁶⁸⁴

mvp-comment-364-1 οὐδὲ ⁶⁸⁵

mvp-comment-364-2 ὑπ’ εὐφήμου βοῆς ⁶⁸⁶

mvp-comment-364-3 ἐπειδὴ σοί γ’ ⁶⁸⁷

mvp-comment-364-4 πᾶν λέγειν ⁶⁸⁸

mvp-comment-365-1 κελεύω ⁶⁸⁹

mvp-comment-365-2 τοὐμὸν στόμ’ ⁶⁹⁰

mvp-comment-365-3 634 f. An altar, and probably an image, of Apollo stand before the palace. The attendant of Clytaemnestra carries offerings of various fruits, which she is now commanded to raise, as with a gesture of solemn oblation ( ἔπαιρε ⁶⁹¹

mvp-comment-365-4 ἡ παροῦσά μοι ⁶⁹²

mvp-comment-365-5 θύματα … πάγκαρπα ⁶⁹³

mvp-comment-366-1 λυτηρίους … δειμάτων ⁶⁹⁴

mvp-comment-366-2 ἀνάσχω ⁶⁹⁵

mvp-comment-367-1 κλύοις ἂν ⁶⁹⁶

mvp-comment-367-2 προστατήριε ⁶⁹⁷

mvp-comment-368-1 κεκρυμμένην ⁶⁹⁸

mvp-comment-368-2 οὐ γὰρ ἐν φίλοις ⁶⁹⁹

mvp-comment-369-1 πρὸς φῶς ⁷⁰⁰

mvp-comment-370-1 πολυγλώσσῳ ⁷⁰¹

mvp-comment-370-2 σπείρῃ ⁷⁰²

mvp-comment-370-3 ματαίαν ⁷⁰³

mvp-comment-371-1 ὧδ’ ⁷⁰⁴

mvp-comment-372-1 γὰρ ⁷⁰⁵

mvp-comment-372-2 δισσῶν ὀνείρων ⁷⁰⁶

mvp-comment-372-3 Jacobs Fr.( ap. Wunder) understood, ‘ two dreams,’—as if Clyt.'s vision consisted of two parts,—the return of Agamemnon, and the growth from the sceptre (417—423). This seems forced. Still less can we assume that there was some second dream which Clyt. did not relate even to the Sun-god (425).

mvp-comment-372-4 Λύκεἰ ἄναξ ⁷⁰⁷

mvp-comment-373-1 ἐσθλά … ἐχθρά ⁷⁰⁸

mvp-comment-373-2 Cp. Aesch. Pers. 217 , where the Chorus are advising Atossa how to propitiate the gods after her dream:

εἴ τι φλαῦρον εἶδες, αἰτοῦ τῶνδ’ ἀποτροπὴν τελεῖν

, |

τὰ δ’ ἀγάθ’ ἐκτελῆ γενέσθαι σοί τε καὶ τέκνῳ σέθεν κ.τ.λ.

mvp-comment-373-3 ἔμπαλιν μέθες ⁷⁰⁹

mvp-comment-374-1 εἴ τινες ⁷¹⁰

mvp-comment-375-1 ἀλλ’ ὧδε ⁷¹¹

mvp-comment-375-2 ἀβλαβεῖ βίῳ ⁷¹²

mvp-comment-376-1 δόμους ⁷¹³

mvp-comment-376-2 ἀμφέπειν ⁷¹⁴

mvp-comment-376-3 φίλοισι ⁷¹⁵

mvp-comment-377-1 εὐημεροῦσαν ⁷¹⁶

mvp-comment-377-2 καὶ τέκνων ⁷¹⁷ ὅσων ⁷¹⁸

mvp-comment-377-3 We might also take

τέκνων

as standing, by attraction, for

τέκνοις

. When the antecedent is thus attracted, it usually comes after the relative ( O.C. 56); but sometimes precedes it, as in Tr. 151 f.

τότ’ ἄν τις εἰσίδοιτο

... | ...

κακοῖσιν

(for

κακά

)

ο<*>ς ἐγὼ βαρύνομαι

. In examples of the latter kind, however, the acc. (and not, as it would be here, the dat.) is elsewhere the case attracted. In favour of taking

τέκνων

as partitive, it may be added that this suits the distinction between two groups of

τέκνα

. By

ὅσων

she means Chrysothemis, Iphianassa, and the offspring o<*> her union with Aegisthus (157; 589).

mvp-comment-377-4 ἐμοὶ … πρόσεστιν ⁷¹⁹

mvp-comment-378-1 πᾶσιν ἡμῖν ⁷²⁰

mvp-comment-379-1 τὰ δ’ ἄλλα πάντα ⁷²¹

mvp-comment-379-2 660 Following the directions given in vv. 39 ff., the Paedagogus now appears as a

ξένος Φωκεύς

. Cp. O.T. 924 ff., where the messenger from Corinth presents himself to Iocasta and the Chorus.

mvp-comment-379-3 πῶς ἂν εἰδείην ⁷²²

Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus

86-250. mvp-comment-59-1 In this long lament there are two principal movements, each of which admits of subdivision. First, the monody of Electra, consisting of two anapaestic systems, of which one (ll. 86-102) is retrospective, and the other (ll. 103-120) is prospective. Secondly, there is the commatic parodos :-the chorus on their entrance address Electra with lyric strains, to which she responds also in lyric measures. This movement consists of three strophes and antistrophes. In στρ. and ἀντ. α' (ll. 121-152), the chorus gently, but gloomily, expostulate with Electra, who is inconsolable. In στρ. and ἀντ. β΄ (ll. 153-192), they vainly try to cheer her. In στρ. and ἀντ. γ΄ (ll. 193- 232), they remind her of her past and present troubles, and exhort her not to add to them. All this is followed by a ῥῆσις of Electra (ll. 254-309) in reply to the coryphaeus, who, at l. 324, again speaks to call attention to Chrysothemis' approach.

86-250. mvp-comment-59-2 Metres. The anapaests in 86-120, although for the most part regular are in so far of the freer kind which belong to laments as to admit the spondaic paroemiacs near the commencement of each system in ll. 88, 9, 105, 6, which, with the opening half line, have a strange effect of heaviness and of struggle and pain. The two systems so nearly correspond, both in this respect and in the number of the lines, that one is tempted to believe that the half line that would complete the antistrophic effect has been lost somewhere between 113 and 117. But anapaestic systems are seldom exactly antistrophic, and the pause after the (dactylic) invocation in l. 115 may be intentional.

176-177. mvp-comment-105-1 'Committing unto him thine exceeding indignation, be neither overburdened with enmity against thy foes, nor yet forget them;' i.e. Let the thought that Zeus will some day avenge thee serve to calm and moderate thy rage. The structure is paratactic (Essay on L. § 36. p. 68), for Without forgetting your enemies. be moderate in assailing them, and trust in the Divine vengeance.'

179. mvp-comment-106-1 For Time is a god of easiness,' i.e. a god who makes things easy or possible. The meaning is, not that Time assuages sorrow, but that what at one time seems impossible may prove easily possible in the course of years. Cp. Plat. Rep. 6. 502 B, ὡς μὲν γὰρ χαλεπὸν σωθῆναι, καὶ ἡμεῖς ξυγχωροῦμεν, ὡς δὲ ἐν παντὶ τῷ χρόνῳ . . οὐδ᾽ ἂν εἶς σωθείη, ἔσθ' ὅστις ἀμφισβητήσει; Shak. Cor. 5. 3.61, Murdering impossibility, to make What cannot be slight work. For the personification, cp. Phil. 837, καιρὸς.. πάντων γνώμαν ἴσχων: supr. 76: and esp. Eur. Ion, 337, ἀργὸς ἡ θεός, sc. αἰδώς.

180-181. mvp-comment-107-1 τὰν Κρῖσαν.. ἀκτάν] · Who dwells in Crisa, that pastoral shore-ward land. So Hermann. Others would read Κρίσας, οι Κρίσᾳ. 'Who dwells amid the shoreward-pastures of Crisa.'

182. mvp-comment-108-1 He, Agamemnon's heir.. will yet turn unto his own, and so will he that reigns, a God, by Acheron.' ἀπερίτροπος is to be taken in a different sense with παῖς ᾿Αγαμεμνονίδας and with what follows. Or, what comes to the same thing, another verb must be supplied in thought with the second clause. Orestes shall return: Agamemnon shall regard his house and offspring. The derivation from περιτρέπω suggests the idea of a coming revolution, (1) in the action of Orestes, (2) in the awakening from apparent slumber and forgetfulness of the gods below, or of the spirit of Agamemnon.

184. mvp-comment-109-1 Nor he who ruleth as a god beside the ghostly river.' Cp. supr. 110. (1) The subject of this line has commonly been supposed to be Hades. Another interpretation has occurred independently to Mr. Blaydes, Prof. Paley, and the present editor, viz. (2) that θεὸς may refer to Agamemnon as a δαίμων. In support of this, cp. supr. 150 Νιόβα, σὲ δ' ἔγωγε νέμω θεόν, infr. 839-41 (of Amphiaraus), νῦν ὑπὸ γαίας . . ἀνάσσει, and note; and the following places of the Choephori:-157, σέβας, ὦ δέσποτ᾽: 356, 7, κατὰ χθονὸς ἐμπρέπων | σεμνότιμος ἀνάκτωρ : 475-8, θεῶν τῶν κατὰ γᾶς ὅδ᾽ ὕμνος. ΧΟ. ἀλλὰ κλύοντες, μάκαρες χθόνιοι, | τήσδε κατευχῆς πέμπετ᾿ ἀρωγὴν | παισὶν προφρόνως ἐπὶ νίκῃ : also Persae, 157, θεοῦ μὲν εὐνάτειρα Περσῶν, θεοῦ δὲ καὶ μήτηρ ἔφυς: 644, Περσᾶν Σουσιγενή θεόν, -although the analogy in these two instances is weakened by the words being put into the mouths of Persians; but see also Ag. 1548, ἐπ᾿ ἀνδρὶ θείῳ. Agamemnon, in Aesch. Ag. 925, says to Clytemnestra, λέγω κατ᾿ ἄνδρα, μὴ θεόν, σέβειν ἐμέ. But that is in his lifetime. And considering the honours that are paid at his tomb, and the tone in which he is spoken of by Electra throughout, the chorus may speak of him to her as θεός by an allowable hyperbole, especially if the word is taken, not with the article as subject of the sentence, but as supplementary predicate with ἀνάσσων. If this hypothesis is not admissible, the god intended is probably not Pluto, but (3) Hermes. Cp. supr. 111.

185-186. mvp-comment-110-1 But my life hath in great part already passed from me and left me hopeless and forlorn.' The life is separable from the person, cp. О. Т. 612, τὸν παρ᾽ αὑτῷ βίοτον. ἀνέλπιστος is proleptic, and in idea belongs, by hypallage, to ἐμέ, -' is passed without bringing me any hope.' The exact sense of ὁ πολύς is not to be pressed. The article is deictic, as in Aj. 1149, τὴν πολλὴν βοήν: infr. 931.

186. mvp-comment-111-1 οὐδ᾽ ἔτ᾿ ἀρκῶ] 'And I am no longer of any avail. Cp. Thuc. 2. 47. § 5, οὔτε γὰρ ἰατροὶ ἤρκουν.

187. mvp-comment-112-1 ἄνευ τοκέων] Her father is dead, and her mother is worse than lost to her.

187. mvp-comment-112-2 τοκέων occurs in one MS. (Vind. 281) and is adopted by Nauck. Cp. supr. 164, ἄτεκνος. It may be thought more suited to Electra's age to feel the want of children than of parents. But her filial piety is the chief motive of the play.

189-190. mvp-comment-113-1 ἁπερεί τις .. πατρός] ‘Like some despised sojourner, I tend the chambers of my father's house." Cp. Aesch. Cho. 84, δμωαὶ γυναῖκες, δωμάτων εὐθήμονες. For the absolute use of ἀνάξιος, cp. Phil. 439, ἀναξίου.. φωτός, 'A fellow of no esteem.' Hermann joined this word with what follows it ('I am undeservedly made to do menial service'), on the ground that an ἔποικος was ἀναξία as a matter of course. But, on the other hand, the addition of ἀναξία to the bare statement οἰκονομῶ θαλάμους πατρός, certainly weakens the expression, while the pleonasm in ἔποικος ἀναξία is rather emphatic, and is supported, as Ellendt pointed out, by the Homeric expression, ὡσεί τιν᾿ ἀτίμητον μετανάστην, ΙΙ. 9. 648, 16. 59.

190-191. mvp-comment-114-1 ὧδε . . ἀεικεῖ . . στολᾷ] Electra is a woman speaking to women. Cp. Aesch. Pers. 846-8, (῎Ατοσσα.) μάλιστα δ᾽ ἥδε συμφορὰ δάκνει, | ἀτιμίαν γε παιδὸς ἀμφὶ σώματι | ἐσθημάτων κλύουσαν, ἥ νιν ἀμπέχει.

192. mvp-comment-115-1 κεναῖς δ᾽ ἀμφίσταμαι τραπέζαις] And the table at which I stand is bare.' Hermann had conjectured ἀμφίσταμαι, which restores the metre, before he observed that it was quoted by Eustathius. Cp. Pind. Ol. 1. 80, τραπέζαισι .. ἀμφί, and, for the thought, Od. 20. 259, δίφρον ἀεικέλιον καταθεὶς ὀλίγην τε τράπεζαν : infr. 361, 2, σοὶ δὲ πλουσία | τράπεζα κείσθω καὶ περιρρείτω βίος : Pind. Ο1. 2. 116, κεινὰν παρὰ δίαιταν.

194. mvp-comment-116-1 οἰκτρὰ μὲν νόστοις αὐδά] 'Piteous were thy tones at the time of thy father's return.' In the Agamemnon of Aeschylus, the Watchman and the Chorus, i. e. the household and the people, express a vague misgiving, which is not sufficiently definite to enable them to warn Agamemnon. Sophocles here, as elsewhere, concentrates in an individual what in Aeschylus was general. It is quite consistent with his conception of the character of Electra, that, young as she then was, and totally unable, both from her inexperience ( infr. 1024) and her dependent position, of averting the harm which she may have vaguely foreseen, she had a sufficiently clear perception of the situation to be sad instead of joyful on the occasion of her father's coming home, and her sadness would be aggravated by her helplessness :-ἐπεὶ ἐχθίστη ὀδύνη πολλὰ φρονέοντα μηδενὸς κρατέειν. Her friends, of the same age with her, observed this, and in recollecting it, now understand the cause. ooi is easily supplied, both because the whole of Electra's last speech refers to herself, and because σοί occurs immediately afterwards as an ethical' dative. πατρός is no less easily supplied with νόστοις for a similar reason, both because the word occurs three lines above, and because it is implied in πατρώαις in the following line. νόστοις is dative of the occasion, E. on L. § 11. p. 18. For the sense, cp. Aesch. Pers. 935, 6, πρόσφθογγόν σοι νόστου τὰν | κακοφάτιδα βοάν, κακομέλετον ἰὰν | Μαριανδυνοῦ θρηνητῆρος | πέμψω πολύδακρυν ἰακχάν.

195-197. mvp-comment-117-1 οἰκτρὰ δ'.. πλαγά] 'And piteous was thy crying where thy father lay, when thou hadst seen launched the death-stroke of the solid brazen axe.' If Sophocles (see Introduction) follows the form of the legend known to us from Homer, according to which Agamemnon was slain at a feast given in honour of his return, ἐν κοίταις probably means, (1) 'Where he lay in death.' And this is supported by 203. The poet might, no doubt, have so far modified the legend as to suppose Agamemnon after the feast to have been lured by Clytemnestra to his chamber and there slain. ἐν κοίταις might then belong to the relative clause (ὅτε ἐν κ.), and mean 'in his chamber. But this is inconsistent with 203 and 270. For (1) cp. Aesch. Ag. 1494, 1518, Eur. Med. 437, O. C. 1707. The bath, and the entangling garment, which are so prominent in the Agamemnon and Choephori, are in any case not thought of here. Some (including Wecklein) understand aὐδά in both clauses of the death-shriek of the king. σοι (Ε. on L. § 13. p. 19 f.) marks that Electra was the chief sufferer from all that happened. This explanation is rightly defended by Triclinius. Cp. Tennyson's Elaine, -Through her own side she felt the sharp lance go.' Hermann, understanding aὐδά of the people's voice, rejects σοι and reads οἱ instead. The hiatus, which he defends from Trach. 650, ὁ δὲ οἱ φίλα δάμαρ (cp. supr. 157), is still exceptional, but a stronger objection to the removal of σοί is that the connection between this speech and Electra's is thus destroyed.

197-200. mvp-comment-118-1 Sophocles seems here to have in his mind the passage of the Agamemnon where Clytemnestra impersonates the Alastor of Atreus, Aesch. Agam. 1500-1504: Craft pointed out the way, lust murdered him. Between them they produced a monstrous birth, whether he who did this thing were a god or one of mortal mould.' μορφάν the immediate agent and the act itself, as an embodied horror, seem to be confused. See E. on L. § 48. p. 92.

201-212. mvp-comment-119-1 In supr. 185-92, Electra refused consolation and drew attention to her hopeless misery. The women then call to mind how they had pitied her at the time of her father's death. This opens anew the flood-gates of her sorrow. Cp. Ant. 857 foll., ἔψαυσας ἀλγεινοτάτας ἐμοὶ μερίμνας, κ.τ.λ.

203. mvp-comment-120-1 δείπνων] The feast which preceded the murder, according to Od. 4. 535. Agamemnon (see next note) is supposed to have been murdered at table : ὡσεί τε κατέκτανε βοῦν ἐπὶ φάτνῃ (Od. 1. c.).

205. mvp-comment-121-1 For ἄχθη, the grammatical antecedent, the more definite θάνατοι is substituted and taken into the relative clause. The horror of that feast-I mean the death which followed it.'

206. mvp-comment-122-1 διδύμαιν χειροῖν] ‘Effected by joint violence' of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra.

207-208. mvp-comment-123-1 αΐ.. πρόδοτον] 'That wrought treason on my life and ruined me.'

209. mvp-comment-124-1 ois refers to the antecedent implied in χειροῖν, viz. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra.

211. mvp-comment-125-1 'And never may they have any good of their magnificence.' Cp. infr. 267-281: Od. 17. 244, 5, τῷ κέ τοι ἀγλαΐας γε διασκεδάσειεν ἁπάσας, | τὰς νῦν ὑβρίζων φορέεις.

214-216. mvp-comment-126-1 'Seest thou not through what courses thou hast fallen thus cruelly into calamities that come home to thee?' or, with a slightly different shade of meaning, 'which thou hast brought upon thyself.' Cp. Aj. 260: Pind. Nem. 1. 81, τὸ γὰρ οἰκεῖον πιέζει πάνθ᾽ ὁμῶς. ἐξ οἵων is otherwise explained by one Scholiast :-ἐξ οἴων ἀγαθῶν εἰς τί ἀνιαρὸν ἐλήλυθας. Cp. infr. 392. But it is more natural that the Chorus should remind her of the cause of the persecution she is undergoing.

218-219. mvp-comment-127-1 σᾷ . . πολέμους] Ever creating new conflicts for thy burdened soul.'

219-220. mvp-comment-128-1 τὰ δὲ.. πλάθειν] ‘But strife with the powerful is hopeless.' The vague rá is to be supplemented from what precedes and follows,- sc. τὰ πολεμούμενα, οι τὰ ἐρίδος ἐχόμενα. Cp. Plat. Symp. 206 C, ταῦτα δ᾽ ἐν τῷ ἀναρμόστῳ, -sc. κυούμενα καὶ γεννώμενα, - Pind. Nem. 10. 135, χαλεπὰ δ' ἔρις ἀνθρώποις ὁμιλεῖν κρεσσόνων: ΟΙ. 11. 48, νεῖκος δὲ κρεσσόνων ἀποθέσθ᾽ ἄπορον. πλάθειν, sc. τοῖς δυνατοῖς, is epexegetic infinitive.

221. mvp-comment-129-1 The Chorus (l. 214) have reminded Electra of the violent words by which she has earned her present misery. She replies that such words were wrung from her by a fearful cause, viz. by the murder of her father and the subsequent conduct of the murderers. Cp. infr. 271 foll.

222. mvp-comment-130-1 'I know, I am conscious of my passion, viz. that it is inordinate. Cp. infr. 617, 8, μανθάνω δ᾽ ὁθούνεκα | ἔξωρα πράσσω κοὐκ ἐμοὶ προσεικότα : 1011, κατάσχες ὀργήν.

223-224. mvp-comment-131-1 But amid deeds of horror I will not curb or moderate these my calamitous ways' (as ye call them). She echoes the words of the Chorus (l. 215) in a different sense. They meant by οἰκείας ἄτας, 'self-caused calamities:' -she means by ταύτας άτας, 'this infatuate,' or 'fatal,' course,' of which by implication they have accused her.

226-228. mvp-comment-132-1 Electra relapses into despair. If even these Argive women, who know her so well, cannot give her a word of comfort, whence is it to come? 'At whose mouth, then, kind band of friends, can I hope to hear a word of comfort, prompted by seasonable thought?' For the uncommon dative, see E. on L. § 13. p. 20.

229. mvp-comment-133-1 'Press not on me with your consolations,' and cp. Eur. El. 1182, διὰ πυρὸς ἔμολον ἁ τάλαινα ματρὶ τᾷδ᾽.

230. mvp-comment-134-1 For ye shall find this sorrow irremoveable.'

234. mvp-comment-135-1 Like a true-hearted mother.' For this form of expressing sympathy from one woman to another, cp. Trach. 526, ἐγὼ δὲ μάτηρ μὲν οἷα φράζω.

235. mvp-comment-136-1 ἄταν ἄταις] Cp. Αj. 866, πόνῳ πόνον, and note.

236. mvp-comment-137-1 καὶ τί μέτρον κακότατος ἔφυ;] 'And is not my trouble infinite?' (So the Scholiast, -πρὸς γὰρ ἄμετρον κακὸν καὶ ἀμέτρων δεῖται θρήνων.) Cp. infr. 1249, 50, ἁμέτερον οἷον ἔφυ κακόν. For the meaning, cp. Shak. Ant. and Cleo. 4. 15. 4, But comforts we despise; our size of sorrow, Proportioned to our cause, must be as great As that which makes it.'

237. mvp-comment-138-1 ἐπὶ τοῖς φθιμένοις ἀμελεῖν] To treat the dead with forgetfulness.' E. on L. § 19. p. 27.

238. mvp-comment-139-1 ἐν τίνι . . ἀνθρώπων] 'Where amongst men hath such a mind sprung up?'

239. mvp-comment-140-1 τούτοις] Sc. ἐν οἷς τοῦτο ἔβλαστε, the indefinite plural taking the place of the indefinite singular. E. on L. § 20. p. 31. 3. Cp. Hdt. 9. 79. § 3. ἐγὼ δ᾽ οὖν τούτου εἵνεκα μήτε Αἰγινήτῃσι ἅδοιμι, μήτε τοῖσι ταῦτα ἀρέσκεται· ἀποχρᾷ δ᾽ ἐμοί, Σπαρτιήτῃσι ἀρεσκόμενον, ὅσια μὲν ποιέειν, ὅσια δὲ καὶ λέγειν.

240. mvp-comment-141-1 εἴ τῳ πρόσκειμαι χρηστῷ] · If I have near me any good,' = εἴ τι χρηστὸν πρόσκειταί μοι : Ε. on L. § 42. p. 80 β. Cp. infr. 1040, ᾧ σὺ πρόσκεισαι κακῷ.

241-243. mvp-comment-142-1 γονέων .. γόων] • Holding back the wings of my shrill wailings from doing honour to my sire.' Each fresh utterance of the unabating sorrow is imagined as a bird that is eager to fly. ἐκτίμους is predicative and proleptic, = ὥστε ἔξω εἶναι τοῦ τιμᾶν. See E. on L. $ 54. p. 100 d, § 10. p. 16 f., § 23. p. 38 81, § 38. p. 71.

244. mvp-comment-143-1 ya] Prof. Jebb reads ya, i.e. 'buried,' adding, 'it is difficult to believe that yῆ could stand for σποδός.' But the expression is hyperbolical-' mere clay.' Cp. ψήγμα in Aesch. Ag. 442.

251-252. mvp-comment-144-1 καὶ τὸ σὸν.. καὶ τοὐμὸν αὐτῆς] 'More in care for thee than for myself. This is really the meaning, although, by the usual Greek litotes, 'as much as' is put for more than.' The most important matter is put first. E. on L. § 41. p. 78.

253. mvp-comment-145-1 ἑψόμεσθ'] Cp. infr. 1052.

254-255. mvp-comment-146-1 I am ashamed of seeming to you, as I must seem, to be too impatient in multiplying lamentations.' δοκῶ is indicative.

258. mvp-comment-147-1 πατρῷ᾽ ὁρῶσα πήματ'] 'Seeing woful things performed against her sire.' Electra's filial affection for Agamemnon is kept prominently before us as her chief motive; and every insult to his memory, including her own sufferings, is regarded by her as part of the wrong done to him. πατρῷα is at first general, but in the antecedent to a it becomes individual, -' of my father.'

260. mvp-comment-148-1 θάλλοντα .. καταφθίνονθ'] “Not lessening but increasing.'

260-261. mvp-comment-149-1 ᾖ.. συμβέβηκεν] 'Since, first of all, I have found in my own mother the deepest cause for hatred.' This (Paley, etc.) is better than my mother is my enemy.'

264. mvp-comment-150-1 κἀκ τῶνδ᾽ ἄρχομαι] ‘And I am in subjection to them. Cp. O. C. 67, ἐκ τοῦ κατ᾿ ἄστυ βασιλέως τάδ' ἄρχεται.

270. mvp-comment-151-1 ἔνθ᾽ ἐκεῖνον ὤλεσεν] Here again Sophocles seems to follow the account that is given in the fourth book of the Odyssey, ll. 529 foll., according to which Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon at or after a banquet. Hence he is said to have destroyed him beside the hearth. Cp. infr. 1495.

271-274. mvp-comment-152-1 Further, when I see their crowning insult, when I see, forsooth, the author of his death reclining on my father's couch, beside my wretched mother, if so I must call this woman, when cohabiting with him!' The clause τὸν αὐτοφόντην κ.τ.λ. is in the same construction with ὕβριν, governed by ἴδω. ἡμίν is ethical dative, and has a sarcastic force; i.e. That is what I am compelled to look upon.' The participle (κείμενον) which should have gone with ἐν κοίτῃ is absorbed and resumed in συγκοιμωμένην.

363-364. mvp-comment-153-1 ἐμοὶ γὰρ . . βόσκημα] (1) ‘For I would have such maintenance alone as will not cause me pain:' i. e. through compliance with my father's enemies. The reading λυποῦν is implied in the first scholion here, which, although giving a wrong explanation, deserves for this reason to be transcribed:-ἐμοί, φησίν, ἔστω τροφή, ἡ τῇ ἀνάγκῃ μόνον ἁρμόζουσα, καὶ τὴν πείνην ἀπελαύνουσα· οὐ δέομαι γὰρ τοιαύτης τροφῆς ἀφ᾿ ἧς ἡδονὴν σχήσω. (2) The MS. reading, which is also acknowledged in the scholia, -τοὐμὲ μὴ λυπεῖν (Schol. τοῦτο μόνον ἐμὲ βοσκέτω, τὸ μὴ λυπεῖν ἐμὲ αὐτήν, εἰ τοῖς φονεῦσι τοῦ πατρὸς πείθεσθαι ἀναγκασθήσομαι) is possibly right, but the use of ἐμέ for ἐμαυτήν is hardly justified, and the expression seems forced. Ср., however, Eur. Cycl. 336-8, ὡς τοὐμπιεῖν γε καὶ φαγεῖν τοὐφ᾽ ἡμέραν, | Ζεὺς οὗτος ἀνθρώποισι τοῖσι σώφροσι, | λυπεῖν δὲ μηδὲν αὐτόν.

364. mvp-comment-154-1 The genitive, after ἐρῶ, is to be resumed with τυχεῖν, which is epexegetic infinitive.

365-367. mvp-comment-155-1 νῦν δ᾽ ἐξὸν .. τῆς μητρός] But now, when you might be called the daughter of the noblest of all sires, be called your mother's child.' Here, and in supr. 341, 2, there is a reminiscence of that depreciation of the maternal relationship, which is more fully expressed in the Eumenides of Aeschylus. For another trace of this, cp. Eur. Fr. 1048, στέργω δὲ τὸν φύσαντα τῶν πάντων βροτῶν | μάλισθ'· ὁρίζω τοῦτο, καὶ σὺ μὴ φθώνει· | κείνου γὰρ ἐξέβλαστον. οὐδ᾽ ἂν εἰς ἀνὴρ | γυναικὸς αὐδήσειεν, ἀλλὰ τοῦ πατρός.

369. mvp-comment-156-1 μηδὲν πρὸς ὀργήν] Sc. λέξης. Say nothing in anger,'-lit. 'tending that way. Cp. infr. 464.

373. mvp-comment-157-1 οὐδ᾽ ἂν ἐμνήσθην ποτέ) 'And would never have mentioned the subject. This refers to supr. 330, 1.

376. mvp-comment-158-1 Exceptions to the rule of the Porsonic pause are not infrequent where γάρ comes in the first place of the fifth foot: e.g. O. C. 115, ἐν γὰρ τῷ μαθεῖν.

376-377. mvp-comment-159-1 Electra will not admit that any trouble can be greater than what she endures already in seeing the insults that are heaped upon her father.

382. mvp-comment-160-1 χθονὸς τῆσδ᾽ ἐκτός] Beyond the Argive boundary, so as not to bring pollution upon the state. Cp. Ant. 773, ἄγων ἔρημος ἔνθ᾽ ἂν ᾖ βροτῶν στίβος κρύψω πετρώδει ζῶσαν ἐν κατώρυχι : Ο. C. 399, 400, ὥς σ' ἄγχι γῆς στήσωσι Καδμείας, ὅπως | κρατῶσι μέν σου, γῆς δὲ μὴ ᾿μβαίνῃς ὅρων. ὑμνήσεις κακά] 'You shall chant your song of woe.' Cp. infr. 802, 3, τήνδε δ᾽ ἔκτοθεν βοᾶν | ἔα τά θ᾽ αὐτῆς καὶ τὰ τῶν φίλων κακά.

383-384. mvp-comment-161-1 καί με . μέμψῃ] Being warned, Electra will have no cause to blame Chrysothemis. Cp. infr. 1056, 7, ὅταν γὰρ ἐν κακοῖς | ἤδη βεβήκῃς, τἄμ᾽ ἐπαινέσεις ἔπη.

384. mvp-comment-162-1 νῦν γὰρ .. φρονεῖν] ‘For now you have a good opportunity of adopting the wiser course.' Cp. Plat. Rep. Β. 9. p. 571 Β, τὸ τῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν .. οὔ μοι δοκοῦμεν ἱκανῶς διῃρῆσθαι. . οὐκοῦν, ἢ δ᾽ ὅς, ἔτ᾽ ἐν καλῷ;

385. mvp-comment-163-1 And have they really determined to do this to me?' καί adds a sarcastic emphasis.

390. mvp-comment-164-1 ποῦ ποτ᾽ εἰ φρενῶν;] 'What are you thinking of?' Cp. Ant. 42, ποῦ γνώμης ποτ' εἶ; There is the same doubt in both cases, whether el is from εἰμί or εἶμι. For the latter, which gives greater liveliness, cp. Eur. Iph. Α. 479, 80, καὶ τῶν παλαιῶν ἐξαφίσταμαι λόγων, | οὐκ εἰς σὲ δεινός· εἶμι δ᾽ οὗπερ εἶ σὺ νῦν. On the other hand it may be urged that ποῖ would be more natural with the verb of motion. Electra in supra l. 354 has said, οὐ ζῶ; κακῶς μὲν, οἶδ᾽, ἐπαρκούντως δ᾽ ἐμοί. Chrysothemis interprets this as if she had meant that she had something to lose.

395. mvp-comment-165-1 τοῖς φίλοις] Viz. τῷ πατρί.

397. mvp-comment-166-1 ταῦτα is an adverbial accusative. οὐκ ἐμοὺς τρόπους λέγεις] 'You speak not of my ways; i.e. Your words indicate a line of conduct that can never be mine.

399. mvp-comment-167-1 τιμωρούμενοι] Cp. supr. 349.

400. mvp-comment-168-1 τούτων.. συγγνώμην] For this genitive, see Essay on L. § 9. p. 12, d 2, and cp. esp. Trach. 250, τοῦ λόγου .. φθόνον.

401. mvp-comment-169-1 Such words are for the base to approve.' Although, grammatically speaking, ἔπη is the subject of the sentence, and ἐπαινέσαι is epexegetic infinitive, the real meaning is, πρὸς κακῶν ἐστὶ τὸ ἐπαινέσai ταῦτα τὰ ἔπη. As constantly happens in Greek, an attribute which belongs to the verb is attached to the noun.

403. mvp-comment-170-1 μή πω .. κενή] 'I trust I may not prove so void of understanding!' For this use of πω, in which the temporal meaning has disappeared, cp; Ο. Τ. 105, οὐ γὰρ εἰσεῖδόν γέ πω, and note. The adverbial use of τοσόνδε is an Epic touch; cp. Od. 21. 253, 4, ἀλλ᾽ ἐἰ δὴ τοσσόνδε βίης ἐπιδευέες εἰμὲν | ἀντιθέου Ὀδυσῆος, ὅτ᾽ οὐ δυνάμεσθα, κ.τ.λ.

404. mvp-comment-171-1 οἶπερ ἐστάλην ὁδοῦ] ‘To the place whither I was sent upon my way.' For the idiomatic partitive genitive, cp. supr. 390, ποῦ ποτ' εἶ φρενῶν ; Phil. 899, ἀλλ᾽ ἐνθάδ᾽ ἤδη τοῦδε τοῦ πάθους κυρῶ.

405. mvp-comment-172-1 τῷ] 'For whom?' i.e. 'To be offered to whom?'

406. mvp-comment-173-1 τυμβεῦσai χοάς] Το pour libation on his tomb;' i.e. ἐπιτυμβίους χέαι χοάς,-the attribute of the noun being attached to the verb. See Essay on L. § 17. p. 25 с.

409. mvp-comment-174-1 τῷ τοῦτ᾽ ἤρεσεν] 'Whose pleasure was this?' Cp. Aj. 1243, & τοῖς πολλοῖσιν ἤρεσκεν κριταῖς.

410. mvp-comment-175-1 ἐκ δείματος] Sc. πεισθεῖσα.

411. mvp-comment-176-1 At the mention of 'nightly fear,' Electra instantly rushes to the conclusion that Clytemnestra has had some Divine warning. Her hope at once revives, and she looks up to heaven. For ἀλλὰ νῦν, 'now, though not heretofore,' cp. Ant. 552, τί δῆτ᾽ ἂν ἀλλὰ νῦν σ᾽ ἔτ᾿ ὠφελοῖμ᾽ ἐγώ. And for the connection, cp. Aesch. Cho. 515, 6, ΟΡ. πόθεν χοὰς ἔπεμψεν, ἐκ τίνος λόγου | μεθύστερον τιμῶσ᾽ ἀνήκεστον πάθος; ib. 523-5, ΧΟ. οἶδ', ὦ τέκνον· παρῆ γάρ. ἔκ τ᾽ ὀνειράτων | καὶ νυκτιπλάγκτων δειμάτων πεπαλμένη | χοὰς ἔπεμψε τάσδε δύσθεος γυνή. In this line and supr. 345 γε belongs in sense to the word that follows it. Or rather, the particle emphasizes the whole sentence as a comment on the preceding words. 'Ay, now, at last, come to our aid!'

413. mvp-comment-177-1 Electra is eager to know the vision, and will not confess her hopes till she has heard it.

414. mvp-comment-178-1 ἐπὶ σμικρόν is to be resumed with φράσai, which is epexegetic infinitive.

415. mvp-comment-179-1 λέγ᾽ ἀλλὰ τοῦτο] 'Tell me but this;'-this little, if nothing more. Cp. Trach. 320, εἴπ', ὦ τάλαιν', ἀλλ᾽ ἡμὶν ἐκ σαυτῆς. πολλά τοι κ.τ.λ.] Cp. Aesch. Cho. 204, σμικροῦ γένοιτ' ἂν σπέρματος μέγας πυθμήν: Ο. Τ. 120, 1, ἓν γὰρ πόλλ᾽ ἂν ἐξεύροι μαθεῖν, | ἀρχὴν βραχεῖαν εἰ λάβοιμεν ἐλπίδος.

417. mvp-comment-180-1 λόγος τις.. ἐστιν] It is said,' viz. by the attendant who heard her tell her vision to the Sun, infr. 424, 5.

417-419. mvp-comment-181-1 πατρὸς ἐς φῶς] Our father again amongst us, revisiting the realm of light; i.e. τὸν πατέρα δεύτερον ὁμιλοῦντα (τοῖς ἐνθάδε), -abstract for concrete.

419. mvp-comment-182-1 εἶτα, κ.τ.λ.] These words depend immediately on λόγος τίς ἐστιν. Chrysothemis proceeds to narrate the vision as a matter of fact.

421. mvp-comment-183-1 τανῦν δ᾽ Αἴγισθος] Sc. φέρει.

424. mvp-comment-184-1 τοῦ παρόντος] 'The one who was present.' As a matter of course Clytemnestra was not wholly unattended in the day-time. Hence the article. Some editors have preferred the indefinite του; but the use of παρόντος = παραγενομένου is less natural in this case, and the double predicate παρόντος, ἐξηγουμένου, is awkward. A female attendant is meant, the masculine form being used, as in Trach. 151, etc. See Essay on L. § 20. p. 30. 2.

428. mvp-comment-185-1 πρὸς . . θεῶν τῶν ἐγγενῶν] · By the gods of our race,' i.e. the gods who are not only the protectors of our race, but also its progenitors, Inachus, etc. Chrysothemis in her solemn adjuration uses τὸν ἐπιχώριον ὅρκον τὸν μέγιστον (Thuc. 5. 18. § 9). Cp. Ant. 938, θεοὶ προγενεῖς, and note.

430. mvp-comment-186-1 σὺν κακῷ μέτει πάλιν] 'You will seek me another day, when the evil has overtaken you.'

431. mvp-comment-187-1 Electra scarcely hears the concluding words of Chrysothemis. Her attention is absorbed by the vision and the hopes which it has aroused in her mind, and she is determined to prevent the offering of the libation, which she represents to her sister as at once an offence to Agamemnon and useless to Clytemnestra. The former is her own feeling, the latter (ll. 446-8) occurs to her as a rhetorical argument. She also takes the opportunity of sending an offering to the tomb, as if to remind her father that the hour of vengeance for him was at hand. ὦ φίλη] 'She tries affectionate persuasion, and no longer reproaches.' Paley. Or rather, her resentment is forgotten in the revival of hope. Cp. supr. 367.

433-434. mvp-comment-188-1 ἱστάναι | κτερίσματα] Το (institute or) perform funereal rights.'

435-438. mvp-comment-189-1 Not κρύψον from l. 436, but some more general word, such as ἀφάνισον, is to be supplied with πνοαίσιν. For the form of sentence, cp. О. Т. 1410-2, ἔξω μέ που | καλύψατ', ἢ φονεύσατ', ἢ θαλάσσιον | ἐκρίψατ᾽, ἔνθα μήποτ᾽ εἰσόψεσθ᾽ ἔτι. βαθυσκαφεῖ κόνει] 'In deeply hollowed dust,' i.e. buried deep in the ground.

437-438. mvp-comment-190-1 ἀλλ᾿ ὅταν θάνῃ . . κάτω] 'But let this be treasured underground for her, against the day when she shall die.' σωζέσθω is passive, and there is an ellipse οἱ εἰς ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον or the like words.

441. mvp-comment-191-1 οὐκ ἄν.. ἐπέστεφε] 'She would not have sought to give by way of honour.' Cp. Ant. 431, χοαῖσι τρισπόνδοισι τὸν νέκυν στέφει.

442-443. mvp-comment-192-1 For only think whether you can suppose the dead man in his grave will receive this gift kindly at her hand.' For αὐτῇ as dative of the remote object with προσφιλῶς δέξασθαι, cp. supr. 226, 7, τίνι . . πρόσφορον ἀκούσαιμ᾽ ἔπος; It may also be taken with προσφιλῶς separately, but rather follows both words as combined in one expression.

444. mvp-comment-193-1 'Who slew him dishonourably as a personal foe.' Cp. Aesch. Ag. 1374, ἐχθροῖς ἐχθρὰ πορσύνων: ibid. 1492-4, κεῖσαι . κοίταν τάνδ᾽ ἀνελεύθερον.

445. mvp-comment-194-1 ἐμασχαλίσθη] ‘He was mutilated' (by cutting off the extremities and placing or tieing them under the armpits). Clytemnestra had adopted this barbarous means of disabling the spirit of her enemy. Aesch. Cho. 439, ἐμασχαλίσθη δ᾽ ἔθ᾽, ὡς τόδ᾽ εἰδῇς.

445-446. mvp-comment-195-1 And his head was used to wipe the stains away in washing' (the hearth). This additional circumstance of savagery is known to us only from Sophocles, but is probably not due to his invention. See Introd. to Aj. p. 1. Interpreters have supposed a change of subject, supplying ἡ ς ἡ Κλυταιμνήστρα ας nominative to ἐξέμαξεν. But this is unnecessary if it is borne in mind that verbs active in grammar are often used in Greek to express a passive condition. Essay on L. § 30. p. 52 d. Prof. Jebb understands the construction in the same way, with a slightly different nuance of interpretation: - 'And by way of funeral ablution received the print of the sword-stains on his head.' Mr. Paley translates, And at the washing of the body she wiped off the blood-stains on his head.' But did she wash the body?

446-447. mvp-comment-196-1 Electra tries to influence Chrysothemis, not only with fear of her dead father, but also by pointing out the uselessness of the action for Clytemnestra's purpose, and so quieting her sister's conscience in this respect.

448. mvp-comment-197-1 σὺ δέ] For the introduction of the personal pronoun without real emphasis, in such antitheses, see Essay on L. § 41. p. 79.

449. mvp-comment-198-1 Clipping off a little from thy luxuriant curls.' The words call attention to the abundance of Chrysothemis' hair in comparison with Electra's. Cp- Eur. Or. 128, 9, εἴδετε παρ᾿ ἄκρας ὡς ἀπέθρισεν τρίχας, | σώζουσα κάλλος.

451. mvp-comment-199-1 τήνδε †λιπαρή τρίχα] The adjective here is puzzling, whichever reading we adopt. Hermann thought the MS. reading ἀλιπαρή might bear the sense of 'unmeet for supplication.' But λιπαρεῖν is hardly near enough in meaning to λιτανεύειν to make this possible. The Scholiast and Suidas explain the alternative reading λιπαρή, by ἱκέτιν, ἐξ ἧς αὐτὸν λιπαρήσομεν.

451. mvp-comment-199-2 But this is wanting in point. And a confusion of λιπαρής with λιπαρός (i.e. ἀλιπαρῆ = αὐχμηράν) is not to be thought of. Perhaps λιπαρή, in the sense of 'patient,' 'persistent,' may have conveyed some shade of meaning suitable to the passage. Or possibly ΛΙΠΑΡΗ may be a corruption of AYC-ΠΙΝΗ. Ср. О. С. 1597, εἶτ᾿ ἔλυσε δυσπινεῖς στολάς. I cannot think, with Mr. Paley, that this and the following line are an interpolation. The words ἄχω, δὸς αὐτῷ, are too pathetic for this.

452. mvp-comment-200-1 οὐ χλιδαῖς ἠσκημένον] 'Not elegantly neat.' The dative of manner in χλιδαῖς has an adverbial force. Essay on L. § 14. p. 20. Electra's girdle had not been beautifully got up' and 'laid in lavender,' like her sister's.

453-454. mvp-comment-201-1 The belief in the real presence of the spirits of the dead on great occasions, which is so powerful in the Oresteia of Aeschylus, still survives in the Sophoclean drama, but is much less vividly and realistically felt. It has become more ideal.

455. mvp-comment-202-1 ἐξ ὑπερτέρας χερός] • With overpowering might.'

456. mvp-comment-203-1 ζῶντ᾽ ἐπεμβῆναι ποδί] Either (1) In the fulness of life (ζῶντα) should trample with his foot' (ποδί expletive); or (2) Should trample with a foot of living power' (ζῶντι.. ποδί). The latter is rendered improbable by the unusual elision, for which, however, cp. Trach. 675, ἀργῆτ᾽ οἰὸς εὐείρῳ πόκῳ, where see note. See also Pind. Ol. 13. 114, καρταίποδ᾽ ἀναρύῃ Γαιαóχῳ. In either case ζῆν is used in the secondary sense of being vigorous. Cp. Ant. 456, 7, ἀεί ποτε | ζῇ ταῦτα: Ο. Τ. 44, 5, and note.

459-460. mvp-comment-204-1 'Indeed, I do believe some care on his part caused the appalling dream to come to her.' For the use of the neuter participle, see Essay on L. § 30. p. 51 α. Although μέλον here has not the article, it should be added to the six examples there given. μὲν οὖν interposes the incidental thought, that even without their prayers Agamemnon was minded to interfere. Then, in 461, the main drift is resumed with ὅμως. 'Still, let us not omit this offering!'

461. mvp-comment-205-1 σοί is here equivalent to σαυτῇ, but occurring here as one of several coordinate terms, can hardly be adduced to justify the use of ἐμέ for ἐμαυτήν in supr. 363, which becomes necessary if λυπεῖν is read.

466-467. mvp-comment-206-1 τὸ γὰρ .. δρᾶν] ‘For when a thing is right, people should not quarrel over it, but hasten to do it.' Two points are doubtful in the construction of these words. a. Either (1) τὸ δίκαιον is subject of ἔχει, and ἐρίζειν is epexegetic infinitive, or (2) ἐρίζειν is the subject of ἔχει, and τὸ δίκαιον an accusative loosely governed by the words that follow it. b. τὸ δρᾶν is either (1) the direct object of ἐπισπεύδειν, or (2) epexegetic infinitive after ἐπισπεύδειν (i.e. ἐπισπεύδειν τὸ δίκαιον, ὥστε δρᾶν αὐτό). For the article in this case, cp. O. T. 1416, 7, ἐς δέον πάρεσθ᾽ ὅδε | Κρέων τὸ πράσσειν καὶ τὸ βουλεύειν : infr. 1030, μακρὸς τὸ κρῖναι ταῦτα χὼ λοιπὸς χρόνος. The addition of δυοῖν belongs to the same tendency to make numbers explicit, which appears in καὶ τὸ γενναῖον τρίτον (Ο. C. 8) and the like phrases. For the sense, cp. Fr. 76, τοῖς γὰρ δικαίοις ἀντέχειν οὐ ῥάδιον. In the second clause, ἀλλ' ἐπισπεύδειν, κ.τ.λ., a positive notion is understood from the negative. Essay on L. § 36. p. 64, β, 1 а.

468-471. mvp-comment-207-1 These lines are intended to emphasize at once the timidity of Chrysothemis and the harshness of Clytemnestra.

471-515. mvp-comment-208-1 The following short ode, the first stasimon, consisting of a single strophe, antistrophe, and epode, dwells, first, on the renewal of hope which is brought to the upholders of the righteous cause by the announcement of the dream, secondly, on the guilt of those whom Vengeance will now assail, and thirdly, on the long chain of troubles, of which their crime is the continuation. The rhythm, beginning from three short glyconian lines, is chiefly iambic and trochaic, with an increasing number of long syllables toward the close of each movement. The metrical scheme is the following:-

472-473. mvp-comment-209-1 Ср. О. Τ. 1086, εἴπερ ἐγὼ μάντις εἰμὶ καὶ κατὰ γνώμην ἴδρις.

475. mvp-comment-210-1 ὁ πρόμαντις Δίκα] 'Presaging Justice,' i.e. the just Power that has warned Clytemnestra through the dream.

476. mvp-comment-211-1 δίκαια κράτη] Either (1) 'Bringing with her the victorious strength of righteous action,' or (2) And shall bear away the victory in a righteous deed.' In the latter case (2) the participle is proleptic. The former interpretation (1) is on the whole more probable. For this use of φερομένα, cp. Hdt. 7. 50. § 8, πολλὴν φορβὴν φερόμενοι πορευόμεθα.

479-481. mvp-comment-212-1 These lines echo the language of the dialogue, supr. 412, ἔχεις τι θάρσος τοῦδε τοῦ τάρβους πέρι;

480. mvp-comment-213-1 ἁδυπνόων] · Breathing of gladness,' i.e. auspicious. Cp. O. T. 151, ὦ Διὸς ἀδυεπὲς φάτι.

480. mvp-comment-213-2 κλύουσαν] For this accusative, with the dative preceding, as if after θαρρύνει or some such word, see Essay on L. $ 6. p. 23, and cp. Aesch. Cho. 410, 11, πέπαλται δ᾽ αὐτέ μοι φίλον κέαρ τόνδε κλύουσαν οἶκτον.

484. mvp-comment-214-1 ὁ φύσας] It must be borne in mind that Electra is present during the chanting of this ode. Cp. supr. 184 and note.

485. mvp-comment-215-1 'Nor that oid two-edged axe of sharpened bronze.' χαλκόπλακτος is literally, 'Smiting with bronze,' χαλκέας πληγὰς ἔχων. See Essay on L. $ 53: p. 98. χαλκόπακτος, • Of solid bronze,' is the conjecture of Kvidala. The axe is imagined as giving evidence, much as in early times a weapon might be accused of homicide. For a somewhat similar fancy, attributing feeling to an inanimate instrument, cp. Philoctetes, 1130 foll., ἢ που ἐλεινὸν ὁρᾷς, κ.τ.λ., Hab. 2, 11, The nail shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it, Woe unto him,' etc.

486. mvp-comment-216-1 αἰσχίσταις ἐν αἰκίαις] These words are an echo of supr. 444-6.

488-489. mvp-comment-217-1 καὶ πολύπους | καὶ πολύχειρ] With exceeding swiftness and might.' Like πᾶς and αὐτός in composition (E. on L. $ 55. p. 101), πολύς has here an intensive force, without having an exactly defined significance. Ср. πολύγλωσσος, infr. 798.

490. mvp-comment-218-1 Cp. infr. 1396, 7, δόλον σκότῳ κρύψας πρὸς αὐτὸ τέρμα.

491. mvp-comment-219-1 χαλκόπους] 'With adamantine,' i.e. (1) unwearying, 'footsteps.' Cp. χαλκὸς ἀτειρής. Or (2) Irresistible.'

492. mvp-comment-220-1 ἐπέβα] «There came on,' as a dangerous event (οἶσιν = τούτων οἷς).

495-498. mvp-comment-221-1 πρὸ τῶνδε .. συνδρῶσιν] ‘In the face of these things I feel assured that the portent which comes near to the doer or the abettor of the deed cannot be other than baneful.' In Sophocles, not as in Aeschylus, Aegisthus is the author, Clytemnestra the accessory, of the murder. In Aesch. Ag. 1609, he claims a greater share than the poet really attributes to him. For μήποτε, see E. on L. § 24. p. 41, y 2, and cp. Aj. 183.

499. mvp-comment-222-1 μαντεῖαι βροτῶν] 'Divination, as an art in which mortals are concerned.' Cp. Ο. Τ. 709, βρότειον οὐδὲν μαντικῆς ἔχον τέχνης, and see Essay on L. § 40. p. 75.

500. mvp-comment-223-1 οὐδ᾽ ἐν θεσφάτοις] The indication of the dream is as express and clear as any oracle. If the one fail of accomplishment, so must the other.

501. mvp-comment-224-1 εὐ κατασχήσει] 'Shall happily reach its destination,' i. e. shall have a fortunate issue. Cp. Trach. 826, 7, καὶ τάδ᾽ ὀρθῶς | ἔμπεδα κατουρίζει.

504-505. mvp-comment-225-1 'O chariot-race of Pelops in the former time, that hast caused many troubles, how pregnant was thine occurrence with sorrow for this land!' Sophocles passes over the quarrels of Atreus and Thyestes, and goes back at once to the homicide of which Pelops, the author of the whole race, was guilty. This made Hermes the father of Myrtilus send the golden ram, which led to the fatal dissension between the brothers. Eur. Or. 988-1012. The act of Orestes in the present drama is destined to put an end to the series of disasters which then began.

506. mvp-comment-226-1 On the question between αἰανής and αἰανή, cp. Aj. 672 and note.

510. mvp-comment-227-1 *παγχρυσέων] The chariot of the wealthy Pelops on his bridal journey was encrusted with gold. Cp. Pind. Ol. 1.87. παγχρύσεος is the Homeric form, and if a change is necessary, this seems to be the simplest. The metre is the same as in 512. Others read παγχρύσων ἐκ δίφρων. Μ. has πολυχρύσων.

511. mvp-comment-228-1 δυστάνοις αἰκίαις] Myrtilus,

511-512. mvp-comment-229-1 although a traitor to Oenomaus, was a benefactor to Pelops. Observe the repetition of the word from supr. 486, also infr. 515.

512. mvp-comment-230-1 πρόρριζος ἐκριφθείς] «Uprooted and flung forth.'

513-515. mvp-comment-231-1 'Never since that day has sad dishonour left the house.' Some editors read ἔλιπεν ἐκ τοῦδ᾽ οἴκου, ‘Has failed out of this house,' which is less probable. Wecklein reads οἴκους | πολυπάμονας, which is supported by the scholion on 508, οὐ διέλιπεν αἰκία τοὺς πολυκτήμονας δόμους. But see E. on L. § 44. pp. 83, 4.

516. mvp-comment-232-1 The dialectic of the following scene may be compared with Aj. 1047 foll., Ant. 632 foll.

517. mvp-comment-233-1 The spectator is a second time informed of Aegisthus' absence, which is so necessary to the plot. Supr. 310 foll.

518. mvp-comment-234-1 θυραίαν γ'.. φίλους] ‘To go out of doors and bring disgrace upon your relatives:'-i.e. your appearance and conduct in the house are a sufficient disgrace to them. Cp. supr. 312, 3.

521. mvp-comment-235-1 ὡς θρασεῖα] Sc. εἰμί.

522. mvp-comment-236-1 σὲ καὶ τὰ σά] • Thee and thine.' Clytemnestra thus acknowledges that Electra's complaints were never for herself alone, but for her father.

525-526. mvp-comment-237-1 πατήρ .. τέθνηκεν] Your father, that is what you are always holding forth, (how that he) died by my act. By a kind of attraction, the main sentence, as it proceeds, becomes subordinated to the parenthesis.

529. mvp-comment-238-1 ᾖ] Sc. τῇ Δίκῃ.

531. mvp-comment-239-1 μοῦνος Ἑλλήνων] i. e. either (1) he did what no other Greek could have had the heart to do, in sacrificing his child, or (2) while the army consented to the sacrifice, he had the sole responsibility, as commander-in-chief, or (3) when all shrank from the sacrificial act, he himself took the knife to slay his daughter. For (3) cp. Aesch. Ag. 225, ἔτλη δ᾽ οὖν θυτὴρ γενέσθαι θυγατρός, κ.τ.λ., ib. 210, 231 foll.

534. mvp-comment-240-1 τοῦ χάριν τίνων] 'On whose account?' lit. Absolving an obligation to whom?' Others read τοῦ χάριν, τίνων; 'Wherefore, on whose account?'

536. mvp-comment-241-1 1.ε. ἀλλ᾽ οὐ μετὴν αὐτοῖσι τῆς γ' ἐμῆς, ὥστε τὴν ἐμὴν κτανεῖν.

537-538. mvp-comment-242-1 But if for his brother Menelaus' sake he slew my child, was it to be expected that I should not requite him for this?'

539. mvp-comment-243-1 παῖδες.. διπλοῖ] Megapenthes and Hermione, the children of Menelaus and Helen.

542-543. mvp-comment-244-1 Or had Death somehow a greater longing to devour my offspring than Helen's?' δαίσασθαι is epexegetic infinitive, sc. τἀμὰ τέκνα δαίσασθαι.

544-545. mvp-comment-245-1 Or had that accursed father given up all care for his children by me, while preserving his affection for Menelaus' offspring?"

548. mvp-comment-246-1 Contrast with this the feeling of Antigone, Ant. 515, οὐ μαρτυρήσει ταῦθ᾽ ὁ κατθανὼν νεκύς.

549-550. mvp-comment-247-1 ἐγὼ. .δύσθυμος] ‘For my part, then, the past causes me no misgiving. She will not confess her alarm before Electra. τοῖς πεπραγμένοις is dative of the reason: Essay on L. § 14. p. 21. Cp. Thuc. 3. 98. § 6, τοῖς πεπραγμένοις φοβούμενος τοὺς ᾿Αθηναίους.

551. mvp-comment-248-1 If you must blame others, do so on just grounds,' lit. Having got hold of a just notion of the case.' These words are a challenge to Electra to show cause why Agamemnon should not have been slain, as the mere fact of his death ( supr. 525, 6) was no sufficient reason for her continued abuse. The stress is on the participial clause, or rather on the word δικαίαν.

552-553. mvp-comment-249-1 έρε ἐρεῖς . . λυπηρόν] The death of Iphigenia was a painful subject to Electra.

556-557. mvp-comment-250-1 εἰ δὲ μ᾿ ὧδ' ἀεὶ λόγους | ἐξήρχες] 'If your speeches to me were always tuned in that key.' με is governed κατὰ σύνεσιν by the whole phrase, as equivalent to ὧδε προσηγόρευες, ἐξάρχειν is used as in ἐξάρχειν μέλος. Electra is imagined as sounding the note to which Clytemnestra responds.

561. mvp-comment-251-1 δίκῃ] 'As moved thereto by Justice:'-dative of the cause.

563-564. mvp-comment-252-1 τίνος .. Αὐλίδι] ‘In requital for what' either (1) He endured that mighty wind at Aulis?' or (2) That great tempest fell upon Aulis?' or (3) She directed (ἐπέσχεν) that mighty wind at Aulis? It may be objected to (1), that if Agamemnon is the subject of ἔσχε, the words πατὴρ οὐμός in 566 are unnecessary. For (3) requiring ἔσχεν to be equivalent to ἐπέσχεν, see Essay on L. § 55. p. 101, 4, and L. and S., s. v. ἔχω, Α. ii. 7, and cp. Il. 14. 57, οἱ δ᾽ ἐπὶ νηυσὶ θοῇσι μάχην ἀλίαστον ἔχουσιν: 11.271, (εἰλειθυῖαι) πικρὰς ὠδῖνας ἔχουσai.

565. mvp-comment-253-1 κείνης.. μαθεῖν] ‘For you may not learn from her;' i. e. Artemis will not hold communication with one so polluted. Clytemnestra notwithstanding appeals to Artemis, infr. 626.

566-569. mvp-comment-254-1 Electra's point is that Agamemnon's fault which provoked Artemis was a light and all but involuntary offence.

567. mvp-comment-255-1 ἐξεκίνησεν ποδοῖν] ‘Startled by his tread.' The language is softened so as to convey the impression that Agamemnon put up the stag accidentally.

569. mvp-comment-256-1 He chanced to let fall some word of boasting.' There is a stress on the participle ἐκκομπάσας.

571-572. mvp-comment-257-1 Electra does not raise the question whether the will of Artemis was just or not. She is contented with shifting the responsibility from Agamemnon.

575. mvp-comment-258-1 The words πολλὰ καὶ ἀντιβάς form a separate clause, unless πολλά be joined to βιασθείς, which is improbable. For which cause, and not for Menelaus'sake, under compulsion, -ay, after many a struggle, he reluctantly sacrificed her.' After making this elaborate statement of the immediate cause, it occurs to Electra that everything connected with the expedition was in one sense done on Menelaus' account. Hence she resumes, with εἰ δ' οὖν, by admitting this, as if for the sake of argument.

579. mvp-comment-259-1 ποίῳ νόμῳ] 'On what principle?' Cp. Ant. 908, τίνος νόμου δὴ ταῦτα πρὸς χάριν λέγω;

584. mvp-comment-260-1 οὐκ οὖσαν] 'Unreal;' i.e. οὐκ ἀληθῆ. Cp. Τhuc. 6. 16, προσποίησίν τε ξυγγενείας .. καὶ μὴ οὖσαν.

589. mvp-comment-261-1 τοὺς δὲ πρόσθεν] Sc. παΐδας, understood πρὸς τὸ σημαινόμενον from παιδοποιεῖς. Essay on L. § 36. p. 64.

590. mvp-comment-262-1 εὐσεβῶν] i. e. ᾿Αγαμέμνονος. Poetical plural. ἐκβαλοῦσ᾽ ἔχεις] «You have cast out from favour. Electra is virtually an outcast, and Orestes, although not banished by his mother's act, durst not return openly to his home.

591. mvp-comment-263-1 πῶς.. ἄν] «Do you expect me to approve of this?'-referring to supr. 550.

591-592. mvp-comment-264-1 ἢ.. λαμβάνεις] « Or will you say that in this, too, you are vindicating your daughter?' τοῦτο, accusative in apposition with τῆς θ. α. λ.

593. mvp-comment-265-1 αἰσχρῶς] Sc. ἐρεῖς. οὐ γὰρ καλόν, κ. τ. λ.]. There is little virtue in,' etc. See on Aj. 1132, 1349.

595-597. mvp-comment-266-1 ἀλλ᾽ οὐ γὰρ . . κακοστομοῦμεν 'But then one may not even reason with you, since you reply with all your vehemence that I am reviling my mother.' For ἀλλ᾽ οὐ .. γάρ without apodosis, cp. O. C. 988 foll., ἀλλ᾽ οὐ γὰρ οὔτ᾽ ἐν τοῖσδ᾽ ἀκούσομαι κακὸς | γάμοισιν, κ.τ.λ. πᾶσαν ἵης γλῶσσαν = πᾶσαν γλῶσσαν ἱεῖσα λέγεις. Cp. Plat. Legg. 10. p. 890 D, ἀλλὰ πᾶσαν, τὸ λεγόμενον, φωνὴν ἱέντα τῷ παλαιῷ νόμῳ ἐπίκουρον γίγνεσθαι λόγῳ.

597. mvp-comment-267-1 νέμω] ·And truly I account thee rather my mistress than my mother.' καί has a sarcastic tone as in interrogation, and is nearly = καί τοι, - as in Aj. 92 it may be said to have the force of καὶ μήν.

601. mvp-comment-268-1 ὁ δ᾽ ἄλλος ἔξω] 'And he, moreover, in a foreign land. The article is demonstrative, and ἄλλοs is predicative or adverbial. See Essay on L. § 21. pp. 33, 5. χεῖρα . . φυγών] Electra implies that Clytemnestra would have killed Orestes

601-602. mvp-comment-269-1 if she could, either at the time of Agamemnon's murder, or afterwards.

603. mvp-comment-270-1 σοὶ .. μιάστορα] ‘An avenger of blood against thee.' μιάστωρ is properly one who stains others with his own guilt; here it is one who fixes the stain of guilt by executing vengeance for it. Compare the use of the verb 'to stain' in Elizabethan English: e.g. Shaksp. Ant. and Cleo. 3. 4, 'I'll raise the preparation of a War | Shall stain your brother.'

606. mvp-comment-271-1 εἴτε † χρή) ‘Whether you must call me,' etc. Here, as in Aj. 1373, the reading of the MSS, which is possibly idiomatic, is preferred το χρῇς = χρήζεις, which is a doubtful emendation.

608. mvp-comment-272-1 τῶνδε τῶν ἔργων] ‘Of actions which have this character.' Cp. O. T. 864, 5, τὰν εὔσεπτον ἁγνείαν λόγων ἔργων τε πάντων, ὧν, κ.τ.λ., and note.

609. mvp-comment-273-1 καταισχύνω] Cp. Aj. 1304, 5. ἆρ᾽ ὧδ᾽ ἄριστος ἐξ ἀριστέοιν δυοῖν | βλαστὼν ἂν αἰσχύνοιμι τοὺς πρὺς αἵματος;

610. mvp-comment-274-1 ὁρῶ μένος πνέουσαν] Sc. τὴν Κλυταιμνήστραν. This appears from her reply, and also from the comparison οἱ εἰ δὲ σὺν δίκῃ, κ.τ.λ, with supr. 528. Here, as in O. T. 746, Aesch. Ag. 1306, τί δ' ἐστὶ χρῆμα; τίς σ᾽ ἀποστρέφει φόβος; -the dialogue contains a reference to by-play.

614. mvp-comment-275-1 τηλικοῦτος] 'At her age.' Cp. infr. 961, 2:-i.e. Her words are not those of a petulant girl, which might be safely disregarded.

616-619. mvp-comment-276-1 The harshness of Electra is not native to her character, but superinduced, and she is painfully conscious of this.

623. mvp-comment-277-1 πόλλ᾽ ἄγαν λέγειν ποιεῖ] 'Make you to say too much: '-i.e. Are too much the theme of your discourse, in which you say much that you should not.

624. mvp-comment-278-1 viv is here neuter plural = αὐτά.

624-625. mvp-comment-279-1 Translated by Milton:-''Tis you that say it, not I; you do the deeds, And your ungodly deeds find me the words.'

626. mvp-comment-280-1 μὰ τὴν .. "Αρτεμιν] Cp. supr. 565, and note. θράσους is genitive of cause.

627. mvp-comment-281-1 For the repetition of οὐκ, see Essay on L. § 29. p. 48. We are again reminded that Aegisthus is from home. Cp. supr. 517.

628-629. mvp-comment-282-1 μεθεῖσά μοι χρήζοιμ 'After giving me leave to say what I chose.' Supr. 556.

630. mvp-comment-283-1 οὐδ᾽ ὑπ᾿ εὐφήμου βοῆς], 'Not even in silence from clamour:' - i. e. Not even without being pestered by your noise.

632. mvp-comment-284-1 κελεύω] 'I urge it on you:'- i.e. as knowing what need you have to propitiate the gods.

634. mvp-comment-285-1 ἡ παροῦσά μοι] ‘Thou that art with me.' Cp. supr. 424. In Sophocles the attendants are never called by name, -as the Nurse is in Aesch. Cho. 732.

634-635. mvp-comment-286-1 θύμαθ᾽.. πάγκαρπ'] 'Rich offerings of various produce.'

635. mvp-comment-287-1 ἄνακτι . . τῷδ'] 'The king in presence here; '-Apollo Lyceius, infr. 645: ср. О. Т. 919, supr. l. 7.

635-636. mvp-comment-288-1 ὅπως.. ἔχω] 'That I may offer up a prayer for release from the terrors which are now haunting me.' The words, δειμάτων & νῦν ἔχω, are added in construction with λυτηρίους. For the sense, cp. O. Τ. 921, ὅπως λύσιν τιν' ἡμὶν εὐαγῆ πόρῃς.

639-640. mvp-comment-289-1 οὐδὲ πᾶν . . ἐμοί] 'Nor is it fitting that I unfold everything to light while she is near me.' In listening to these words the spectator recollects

640-642. mvp-comment-290-1 that Electra is already in possession of the whole truth about the dream. Cp. supr. 417 foll.

641-642. mvp-comment-291-1 'Lest with inauspicious and noisy outcry she disseminate a lewd report throughout the city.' φθόνῳ is lit. *odium.' ματ ματαίαν is not merely 'causeless,' but 'wanton,' conveying the notion of positive mischief. In πολυγλώσσῳ the first part of the compound is intensive. Cp. supr. 488, 9, infr. 798.

643. mvp-comment-292-1 But hear it, even in the (vague) form in which I will make it known.' Cp. O. C. 484, for the importance attached to the form of words used in prayer.

644. mvp-comment-293-1 γάρ introduces the promised statement.

645. mvp-comment-294-1 δισσῶν is supposed by some to mean, 'Ambiguous; but it is simpler and more natural to understand it either of two different dreams, or of the same dream repeated. Cp. Plat. Phaedo, 60 E, πολλάκις μοι φοιτῶν τὸ αὐτὸ ἐνύπνιον ἐν τῷ παρελθόντι βίῳ, ἄλλοτ᾽ ἐν ἄλλῃ ὄψει φαινόμενον, τὰ αὐτὰ δὲ λέγον, κ.τ.λ.

647. mvp-comment-295-1 ἔμπαλιν] 'On the contrary,'- because ἐμοί is understood with τελεσφόρα in l. 646. μέθες] 'Let it fall instead.'

648-649. mvp-comment-296-1 'And if there is one who plans to cast me forth by guile from my present high estate, do not permit it to him.' Though τινες is plural, Orestes is meant, just as Aegisthus is indicated by the vague φίλοισι in infr. 652. Cp. supr. 590. The spectator knows that the will of Apollo is directly opposed to this petition. For it is difficult to suppose either here or in O. Τ. 908, 919, an entire separation of the Lyceian from the Pythian Apollo. See Introduction.

653. mvp-comment-297-1 καὶ τέκνων ὅσων] ‘And with the children from whom." τέκνοις, the antecedent to ὅσων, is attracted into the case of the relative. Essay on L. § 35. p. 59. She is thinking of Chrysothemis and Iphianassa ( supr. 157) to the exclusion of Electra.

654. mvp-comment-298-1 λύπη] ‘Vexation,' in an active sense.

655. mvp-comment-299-1 This part of the prayer is merely formal, and is uttered in a loud voice, the rest having been spoken aside.

655. mvp-comment-299-2 This part of the prayer is merely formal, and is uttered in a loud voice, the rest having been spoken aside.

Sophocles Electra 634

ed. Lewis Campbell

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

ΠΑΙΔΑΓΩΓΟΣ.

Current edition Experimental

OLD M
Enter the Old Man .

Der Pfleger.

Why might not they have died ? Their parent's guilt,

Source of the war, more justly had deserved it.
635

Or thinkst thou death with keener appetite

Could feast on mine, and Helen's not aflbrd

As sweet a banquet? Whv was all the lo_ve,

To me and to my child so justly dUe,

Chorus
ATTENDANT, CLYTEMNESTRA, ELECTRA,

Commentary

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

ΠΑΙΔΑΓΩΓΟΣ.

Current edition Experimental

OLD M Enter the Old Man .

Der Pfleger.

Why might not they have died ? Their parent's guilt, Source of the war, more justly had deserved it. 635 Or thinkst thou death with keener appetite Could feast on mine, and Helen's not aflbrd As sweet a banquet? Whv was all the lo_ve, To me and to my child so justly dUe,

Chorus ATTENDANT, CLYTEMNESTRA, ELECTRA,

Commentary

Stable identifiers

OLD M
Enter the Old Man .

Why might not they have died ? Their parent's guilt,

Source of the war, more justly had deserved it.
635

Or thinkst thou death with keener appetite

Could feast on mine, and Helen's not aflbrd

As sweet a banquet? Whv was all the lo_ve,

To me and to my child so justly dUe,

Chorus
ATTENDANT, CLYTEMNESTRA, ELECTRA,