77-86.
mvp-comment-52-1
As the function of the chorus, see Introduction, is to respond to Electra, who gives the principal interest to the play, their entrance is preceded by a monody from her, which draws the sympathy of the spectators to the chief person, and prepares them to enter more fully into the spirit of the action. And-less to whet the purpose of Orestes, than to show his firmness- he is allowed to hear her wailing from within. It is easy to see how this must excite him. But it does not alter his determination to rely upon himself alone. And thus, although for the moment eager to hear more, he yields at once to the counsel of the old man, that nothing should delay the action for which the moment is come. After l. 85, exeunt Orestes, the Paedagogus, and Pylades, leaving the proscenium vacant.
78-79.
mvp-comment-54-1
'Methinks there comes from the doors a sound as of some handmaiden moaning within them.' The harshness of the unusual genitive, θυρῶν ='In the direction of the doorway,' 'e regione ostii,' is softened by the addition of ἔνδον, with which θυρῶν is to be resumed. For the genitive of the place from which an object strikes the sense, cp.
infr. 900, 1, ἐσχάτης ὁρῶ | πυρᾶς νεώρη βόστρυχον τετμημένον.
81.
mvp-comment-55-1
There is no valid objection to the Scholiast's explanation of this as καὶ ἀνακούσωμεν, ‘And let us hear afresh,' or 'hear further.' Hermann prefers καὶ ἐνακούσωμεν. Neither form is found elsewhere, and Nauck conj. κάπακούσωμεν. But, as Prof. Paley observes, this is unnecessary.
82-83.
mvp-comment-56-1
μηδὲν πρόσθεν] Sc. ποιώμεθα, which is absorbed in πειρώμεθ᾽ ἔρδειν. κἀπὸ τῶνδ᾽ ἀρχηγετεῖν] ‘And with this rite initiate our act.
84-85.
mvp-comment-57-1
ταῦτα γὰρ . . δρωμένων] 'For this brings victory within our grasp, and gives us command over our exploit.' φέρει (sc. ἡμῖν) is to be resumed with κράτος, but ἐφ' ἡμῖν is to be joined to νίκην, as a supplementary predicate. See E. on L. $ 19. p. 29. 4, and § 24. p. 40, 2.
85-86.
mvp-comment-58-1
They go all together to perform the libation at the tomb, after which the old man will return to the palace, and Orestes and Pylades will go to the place where they have hidden the urn (
supr. 55). Orestes, in
supr. 73, 4, spoke as if the old man was at once to begin his part. But the time is not yet come for this, and, by going to join in the solemn rite at the grave of his old master, he leaves the proscenium vacant for the scenes from l. 86 to l. 659. If we are inclined to quarrel with this long delay, our scruple is pacified by the words ὅταν σε καιρὸς εἰσάγῃ in
supr. 39.
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.
86-92.
mvp-comment-60-1
Electra tells her sorrows to the daylight and to the air of Heaven, as she has told them all night long to her sleepless chamber. The holy light contrasts with the pollutions of the house of Pelops; the illimitable air,- which searches even to earth's remotest corners, and is common to Orestes and herself, both contrasts with the narrowness of her lot, and can alone contain the boundlessness of her grief.
86.
mvp-comment-61-1
ὦ φάος ἁγνόν] For the sacred purity of the elements as opposed to the impurity of man, cp. O. T. 1427, 8, τὸ μήτε γῆ μήτ᾿ ὄμβρος ἱρὸς μήτε φῶς προσδέξεται.
87-90.
mvp-comment-62-1
ὥς μοι .. αἱμασσομένων] ‘How many tones of my lamenting. how many blows that bruised my bleeding breast, have thrilled you!' στέρνων is objective genitive with πληγάς, but is to be resumed with ἀντήρεις, lit. 'planted firmly against.'
91.
mvp-comment-63-1
ὑπολειφθῇ] 'Hath ceased,' lit. 'Has been outrun,' i.e. by the day. Cp. Αj. 672, 3, ἐξίσταται δὲ νυκτὸς αἰανὴς κύκλος | τῇ λευκοπώλῳ φέγγος ἡμέρᾳ φλέγειν.
92-93.
mvp-comment-64-1
τὰ δὲ.. οἴκων] ‘And when night comes on, the detested chamber in this weary house knows too well what festive hours I pass.' There is a bitter irony that can hardly be rendered, in using the word παννυχίς, generally a festal celebration, of the sleepless nights of mourning. Cp. Ant. 152, 3, θεῶν δὲ ναοὺς χοροῖς | παννυχίοις πάντας ἐπέλθωμεν, and, for the general sense, cp. Od. 19. 518 foll. ὡς δ᾽ ὅτε Πανδαρέου κούρη, χλωρηΐς ᾿Αηδών, | καλὸν ἀείδῃσιν, ἔαρος νέον ἱσταμένοιο, | δενδρέων ἐν πετάλοισι καθεζομένη πυκινοῖσιν, | ἥ τε θαμὰ τρωπῶσα χέει πολυηχέα φωνήν, | παῖδ᾽ ὀλοφυρομένη Ἴτυλον φίλον, ὅν ποτε χαλκῷ | κτεῖνε δι᾽ ἀφραδίας, κοῦρον Ζήθοιο ἄνακτος· | ὣς καὶ ἐμοὶ δίχα θυμὸς ὀρώρεται ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα. See below, ll. 107, 148, 9. ἤδη contrasts παννυχίδων with what precedes.
