Sophocles Electra 105

ed. Lewis Campbell

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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)) — 121-250 focus
Translations (5)
English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 105 focus
OLD M
For that I am here, and I will tell the whole.
He, entering on the great arena famed
As Hellas’ pride, to win a Delphian prize,
On hearing the loud summons of the man
Calling the foot-race, which hath trial first,
Came forward, a bright form, admired by all.
And when his prowess in the course fulfilled
The promise of his form, he issued forth
Dowered with the splendid meed of victory.—
To tell a few out of the many feats
Of such a hero were beyond my power.
Know then, in brief, that of the prizes set
For every customary course proclaimed
By order of the judges, the whole sum
Victoriously he gathered, happy deemed
By all; declared an Argive, and his name
Orestes, son of him who levied once
The mighty armament of Greeks for Troy.
So fared he then: but when a God inclines
To hinder happiness, not even the strong
Are scatheless. So, another day, when came
At sunrise the swift race of charioteers,
He entered there with many a rival car:—
One from Achaia, one from Sparta, two
Libyan commanders of the chariot-yoke;
And he among them fifth, with steeds of price
From Thessaly;—the sixth Aetolia sent
With chestnut mares; the seventh a Magnete man;
The eighth with milk-white colts from Oeta’s vale;
The ninth from god-built Athens; and the tenth
Boeotia gave to make the number full.
Then stood they where the judges of the course
Had posted them by lot, each with his team;
And sprang forth at the brazen trumpet’s blare.
Shouting together to their steeds, they shook
The reins, and all the course was filled with noise
Of rattling chariots, and the dust arose
To heaven. Now all in a confusèd throng
Spared not the goad, each eager to outgo
The crowded axles and the snorting steeds;
For close about his nimbly circling wheels
And stooping sides fell flakes of panted foam.
Orestes, ever nearest at the turn,
With whirling axle seemed to graze the stone,
And loosing with free rein the right-hand steed
That pulled the side-rope, held the near one in.
So for a time all chariots upright moved,
But soon the Oetaean’s hard-mouthed horses broke
From all control, and wheeling as they passed
From the sixth circuit to begin the seventh,
Smote front to front against the Barcan car.
And when that one disaster had befallen,
Each dashed against his neighbour and was thrown,
Till the whole plain was strewn with chariot-wreck.
Then the Athenian, skilled to ply the rein,
Drew on one side, and heaving to, let pass
The rider-crested surge that rolled i’ the midst.
Meanwhile Orestes, trusting to the end,
Was driving hindmost with tight rein; but now,
Seeing him left the sole competitor,
Hurling fierce clamour through his steeds, pursued:
So drave they yoke by yoke—now this, now that
Pulling ahead with car and team. Orestes,
Ill-fated one, each previous course had driven
Safely without a check, but after this,
In letting loose again the left-hand rein,
He struck the edge of the stone before he knew,
Shattering the axle’s end, and tumbled prone,
Caught in the reins, that dragged him with sharp thongs.
Then as he fell to the earth the horses swerved,
And roamed the field. The people when they saw
Him fallen from out the car, lamented loud
For the fair youth, who had achieved before them
Such glorious feats, and now had found such woe,—
Dashed on the ground, then tossed with legs aloft
Against the sky,—until the charioteers,
Hardly restraining the impetuous team,
Released him, covered so with blood that none,—
No friend who saw—had known his hapless form.
Which then we duly burned upon the pyre.
And straightway men appointed to the task
From all the Phocians bear his mighty frame—
Poor ashes! narrowed in a brazen urn,—
That he may find in his own fatherland
His share of sepulture.—Such our report,
Painful to hear, but unto us, who saw,
The mightiest horror that e’er met mine eye.
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 103 focus
Nein, niemals hemm' ich die Stimme des Grams
Und den finsteren Harm,
So lang ich schaue der Sterne
105
Weitstrahlenden Glanz und den Tag hier,
Daß, wie Philomel' um des Kindes Verlust,
Ich den Ruf an der Thür des Gemordeten hier
Nicht jammernd erhöb' und von Allen gehört.
Ach, Aïdes' Haus, Persephone's Haus!
110
Du Hermes drunten! O Fluchgöttin, 1
Und Erinnyen ihr, ein göttlich Geschlecht,
Die heimlichen Ehbruch strafen und schau'n,
Wen tückischer Mord unschuldig verdarb,
Kommt helfend heran:
115
O rächet den Mord, an dem Vater verübt,
Und zum Beistand führt mir den Bruder zurück!
Denn nimmer zu tragen vermag ich allein
Das Gewicht in der Schale des Unglücks.
(Der Chor, von der Stadtseite kommend, ordnet sich vor dem Palaste.) Elektra. Der Chor. Erste Strophe.
English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 105 focus
Electra
Therefore no more attempt to bring me
comfort ;
There is no hope.
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 105 focus
Clytemnestra
Why should'st thou say unwelcome and unthank'd?
It is not so: thou bring'st me certain proofs
That he is dead, who, born of me, renounced
My breasts, and all a mother's nurturing care,
Became a fugitive, with strangers lived,
And never saw me since he left this land,
But charged his father's murder on my head,
And menaced fierce revenge; so that by night
Sleep never closed mine eyes, nor sweet repose
By day was mine; but each imperious hour
Appall'd me as a victim mark'd for death.
But now, this day, my terrors are no more
From her, or him; she was the greater pést, ***
A fury nourish'd in my house, that wish'd
To lap my blood: but from their threats secure
I now shall pass my fearless life in peace.
English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 121-250 focus

Commentary

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

mvp-comment-60-1 ἄστρων 1

mvp-comment-60-2 Others read,

ἔστ’ ἂν λεύσσω παμφεγγεῖς
|
ῥιπάς, λεύσσω δὲ τόδ’ ἦμαρ
, omitting
ἄστρων
. But
παμφεγγεῖς ῥιπάς
, without
ἄστρων
, would not suffice to denote starlight. If, again, the phrase is taken to denote the sun's rays (as Monk proposes, Mus. Crit. I. p. 67), then
λεύσσω δὲ τόδ’ ἦμαρ
becomes weak. Further, the preceding context, in which she has spoken of her laments at night (92) and at morning, clearly suggests that the sense here is, ‘so long as I look on the stars or on the sun.’

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.