Sophocles Electra 1466

mvp-comment-810-1 δέδορκα φάσμ’ ¹

mvp-comment-810-2 The invocation, ὦ Ζεῦ ² φθόνου ³ φάσμα ⁴ δέδορκα ⁵ πεπτωκός ⁶

mvp-comment-810-3 ἔπεστι ⁷

mvp-comment-810-4 νέμεσις ⁸

mvp-comment-810-5 οὐ λέγω ⁹

mvp-comment-810-6 Aegisthus corrects himself with hypocritical piety; it is as if he said, ‘but it is not for me to judge my fellow-mortal.’

mvp-comment-811-1 τὸ συγγενές ¹⁰

mvp-comment-811-2 τοι ¹¹

mvp-comment-811-3 κἀπ’ ἐμοῦ ¹²

mvp-comment-811-4 θρήνων τύψῃ ¹³

mvp-comment-812-1 βάσταζ’ ¹⁴

mvp-comment-812-2 οὐκ ἐμὸν ¹⁵

mvp-comment-812-3 ταῦθ’ ¹⁶

mvp-comment-812-4 προσηγορεῖν φίλως ¹⁷

mvp-comment-813-1 σὺ δέ ¹⁸

mvp-comment-813-2 εἴ που κατ’ οἶκόν μοι ¹⁹ μοι ²⁰ κάλει ²¹

mvp-comment-814-1 μηκέτ’ ἄλλοσε σκόπει ²²

mvp-comment-815-1 τίνα φοβεῖ ²³

mvp-comment-815-2 Campbell remarks: ‘After a glance of horrified recognition at the corpse, Aegisthus looks strangely on Orestes.

= .’ He refers both and , then, to the fear and bewilderment with which Aegisthus looks at Orestes. But the words of Orestes thus lose the grim force which belongs to them as a comment on ;

mvp-comment-816-1 ἀρκυστάτοις ²⁴

mvp-comment-816-2 For μέσοις ²⁵

mvp-comment-816-3 πέπτωκα ²⁶ ἐν ²⁷

mvp-comment-817-1 πάλαι ²⁸ αἰσθάνει ²⁹

mvp-comment-817-2 1478 In ἀνταυδᾷς ³⁰ ἴσα τοῖς θανοῦσιν ³¹ ζῶντας ³²

mvp-comment-817-3 Editors from Brunck onwards have been nearly unanimous in accepting ζῶντας ³³ ζῶν τοῖς ³⁴

mvp-comment-818-1 ξυνῆκα ³⁵

mvp-comment-818-2 οὐ γὰρ ἔσθ’ ὅπως … οὐκ ³⁶

mvp-comment-819-1 καὶ μάντις ³⁷

mvp-comment-820-1 πάρες κἂν σμικρὸν εἰπεῖν ³⁸

mvp-comment-821-1 βροτῶν ³⁹

mvp-comment-821-2 σὺν κακοῖς μεμιγμένων ⁴⁰

mvp-comment-821-3 θνῄσκειν ⁴¹

mvp-comment-821-4 τοῦ χρόνου ⁴²

mvp-comment-821-5 Many recent critics follow Dindorf in suspecting or bracketing these two verses. Two things should be clearly recognised at the outset. First, that no suspicion is warranted by the fact that the scribe of L accidentally omitted these verses from the text,—as he also omitted several lines elsewhere which are undoubtedly genuine. Secondly, that in the language of these verses there is nothing to which exception can fairly be taken. If they are rejected, it must be on the ground that the thought which they express is inappropriate. But is it so? Aegisthus has appealed to mercy, asking for a brief respite. Electra fears that her brother may relent. What gain, she asks, would such a respite be, even to the doomed wretch himself? And her own feeling requires his instant death. It should be noted also that such a pair of verses, containing a general sentiment in an interrogative form, is Sophoclean; cp. Ai. 475

| ; also Ant. 463 f.

mvp-comment-822-1 ταφεῦσιν ⁴³

mvp-comment-822-2 ἄποπτον ἡμῶν ⁴⁴

1464. mvp-comment-690-1 καὶ δὴ.. ἐμοῦ] 'My rebellious hopes (τὰ ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ) are already at an end.' Cp. supr. 1344; also 1319-21.

1465. mvp-comment-691-1 ὥστε συμφέρειν τοῖς κρείσσοσιν] Aegisthus understands, 'So as to submit to authority.' To herself she means, 'So as to be on the stronger side'-that of Orestes.

1466-1467. mvp-comment-692-1 By an ἐκκύκλημα, the body of Clytemnestra is brought out, covered, with Orestes standing by. Aegisthus imagines the corpse to be that of Orestes, and Orestes to be the Phocian messenger. What I see here cannot have fallen thus without Divine jealousy, but if to say so provokes Nemesis, I do not say it.' ἔπεστι, sc. τῷ λόγῳ. For οὐ λέγω, cp. Trach. 500. πίπτειν is used in the sense of 'to befall' (L. and S. s. v. V. 2), but also with an allusion to the fall of Orestes. Another way of taking the words has been suggested, What I see cannot have fallen thus without the Envy of the Gods, whether Just Retribution has also been at work, I do not say. But such an opposition between φθόνος and νέμεσις is hardly possible in tragic Greek.

1468. mvp-comment-693-1 'Take off all covering from before my sight, that I too may duly mourn over my kin.'

1470. mvp-comment-694-1 αὐτὸς σὺ βάσταζ'] 'Take it up yourself;' viz. τὸ κάλυμμα, which, like the corpse itself, should be sacred from a stranger's touch. οὐκ ἐμὸν τόδ', ἀλλὰ σόν] Ostensibly, because Aegisthus is nearer of kin to Orestes than the Phocian man. Really, because Aegisthus loves Clytemnestra, whom her son has slain.

1472. mvp-comment-695-1 σὺ δέ] To Electra..

1474. mvp-comment-696-1 Aegisthus is waiting for Clytemnestra before completely withdrawing the covering, which Orestes finally removes with these words.

1475. mvp-comment-697-1 After a glance of horrified recognition at the corpse, Aegisthus looks strangely on Orestes. τίνα = διὰ τί τόνδε; Essay on L. § 22. p. 36, 4. Cp. supr. 122, and note.

1478. mvp-comment-698-1 'Why, dost thou not perceive that all this while thou, a living man, hast been replying to the dead in tones like theirs?' Cp. supr. 1342. τοῖς θανοῦσιν is resumed with ἴσα, i.e. Aegisthus has been answering Orestes, who has been given out as dead, with a tongue that is already doomed to death. Tyrwhitt unnecessarily conjectured ζῶντας θανοῦσιν, which Brunck and subsequent editors have adopted, That you have been addressing (?) living men for dead.' Schol. τοῖς θανοῦσιν] τῷ Ὀρέστῃ.

1481. mvp-comment-699-1 καὶ .. πάλαι] 'Are you so excellent a prophet, who, notwithstanding, have been all this while deceived?' καί (with μάντις) adds a concessive emphasis, as in καί περ. Ep. Pind. Ol. 7.56, παρέπλαγξαν καὶ σοφόν.

1485-1486. mvp-comment-700-1 'For wherein, when mortals are involved in misery, should he who defers his death be profited by the delay?' These lines have been not unnaturally suspected of interpolation, as the γνώμη is not dramatically appropriate. But the lines are Sophoclean, as Mr. Paley has remarked. As in Aj. 554, where see note, they may have been quoted in the margin of some early MS.

1487. mvp-comment-701-1 πρόθες] 'Lay him out for burial.'

1488. mvp-comment-702-1 i.e. κυσὶν ἠδ᾽ οἰωνοῖς. Cp. esp. Od. 3. 256, foll. εἰ ζώοντ' Αἴγισθον ἐνὶ μεγάροισιν ἔτετμεν | ᾿Ατρείδης Τροίηθεν ἰών, ξανθὸς Μενέλαος | τῷ κέ οἱ οὐδὲ θανόντι χυτὴν ἐπὶ γαῖαν ἔχευαν, | ἀλλ᾿ ἄρα τόν γε κύνες τε καὶ οἰωνοὶ κατέδαψαν, | κείμενον ἐν πεδίῳ ἑκὰς ῎Αργεος.

1489-1490. mvp-comment-703-1 ὡς ἐμοὶ.. λυτήριον] If Aegisthus dies the common death of all men, or if he obtains burial like other men, Electra will feel unsatisfied, to think that her oppressor is at rest. To see his grave beside her father's in the ἀρχαῖος τάφος (893) would be intolerable to her.