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.
105.
mvp-comment-69-1
Hermann's rejection of the first λεύσσω (see v. rr.) is clearly the best emendation of this passage, which in the MSS. has two long syllables too many. παμφεγγεῖς ῥιπάς] 'The bright tremblings of the stars.' On παν in comp. see Essay on L. § 55. p. 101, 6. φέγγος has a special application to the light of the moon and stars as distinguished from daylight :-Plat. Rep. 6. Ρ. 508 C, ὀφθαλμοί, ὅταν μηκέτι ἐπ᾿ ἐκεῖνά τις αὐτοὺς τρέπῃ ὧν ἂν τὰς χρόας τὸ ἡμερινὸν φῶς ἐπέχῃ, ἀλλ᾽ ὧν νυκτερινὰ φέγγη. For ῥιπή, lit. 'beating' or 'pulsation,' as applied to the twinkling of the stars, cp. Tennyson's 'Beat, happy stars, timing with things below.'
107.
mvp-comment-70-1
τεκνολέτειρα] 'That has lost' (or 'slain') 'her child,' viz. Itylus, according to the story followed in the Odyssey, 1. c. (19. 518 foll.) As the song of the nightingale is meant, and not the cry of the bird whose nest is robbed, Ant. 423-5 is not really parallel. The idiomatic use of τις does not prevent the identification of the nightingale with the mythical daughter of Pandion. Cp. Aesch. Ag. 55, 6, ἤ τις ᾿Απόλλων, | ἢ Πάν, ἢ Ζεύς.
107-109.
mvp-comment-71-1
But like some Philomela for her son destroyed, I will peal for all to hear a note of lamentation in front of these my father's doors.' ἐπὶ κωκυτῷ is an adverbial expression like ἐπὶ ψόγοισι in Ant. 759. See Essay on L. § 19. p. 27. It implies that the noise that echoed round about the palace was sustained by the force of her impetuous crying. Cp.
infr. 241-3, γονέων ἐκτίμους ἴσχουσα πτέρυγας | ὀξυτόνων γόων.
111.
mvp-comment-72-1
'Hermes of the Shades' is invoked here as in the Choephori, because he had guided the soul of Agamemnon to Hades and might be expected to guide his Avenger. πότνι' ἀρά] Agamemnon was ἀραῖος to Clytemnestra on account of her crime. Cp. Ó. T. 417, 8, καί σ᾽ ἀμφιπλὴξ μητρός τε καὶ τοῦ σοῦ πατρὸς | ἐλᾷ ποτ᾽ ἐκ γῆς τῆσδε δεινόπους ἀρά.
112.
mvp-comment-73-1
The Erinyes are here invoked in their most general character, and are not named specifically as daughters of Earth and Night, but vaguely as 'children of gods.'
114.
mvp-comment-74-1
They are the avengers not only of murder, but of every great breach of law. Cp. Αj. 836, δρώσας πάντα τὰν βροτοῖς πάθη: Aesch. Eum. 895, ΑΘ. (to the Eumenides) ὡς μή τιν' οἶκον εὐθενεῖν ἄνευ σέθεν : ib. 835. And Aegisthus, who is the great offender in Electra's sight, is guilty on both counts of this indictment. Cp.
infr. 271, 2, τὴν τελευταίαν ὕβριν τὸν αὐτοφόντην ἡμὶν ἐν κοίτῃ πατρός.
119-120.
mvp-comment-75-1
'My single force no longer countervails the stress of woe.' Lit. 'I no longer have strength alone to lift the weight of grief that presses in the opposite scale.'
