Sophocles Electra 849

ed. Francis Storr

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Electra. Sophocles. ed. Francis Storr. London. 1913.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Experimental

Ἠλέκτρα (Greek) (Sophocles, Volume 2. Storr, Francis, editor. London; New York: William Heinemann Ltd.; The Macmillan Company, 1913.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 849 focus
Δειλαία δειλαίων κυρεῖς.
Translations (5)
English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 849 focus
One in a woman’s toils
Was tangled, buried by her glittering coils,
Who now beneath—
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 849 focus
Schwer, ja schwer liegt auf dir das Leid.
English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 849 focus
She did ; she perished.
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 849 focus
Now I am left alone; deprived of thee,
850
And of my father, I must be again
850
A slave to those whom most my soul abhors,
850
The murderers of my father. Is this well?
850
But never from this moment will I deign
To dwell with them: no, stretch'd before this gate,
Unfriended, I will pine my life away :
And let them kill me, if this gives offence
To those who here are lords: death were a grace,
And life a grief: I have no wish to live.
English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 849 focus

Commentary

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

mvp-comment-484-1 δειλαία δειλαίων 1

mvp-comment-485-1 ἴστωρ 2

mvp-comment-486-1 πανσύρτῳ … αἰῶνι 3 αἰῶνι 4

mvp-comment-486-2 The literal sense then is:—‘(I know this) by a life which, through all the months, is a turbid torrent of many things dread and horrible.’

πανσύρτῳ
seems rightly explained in one scholium as
πάντα σύροντι τὰ κακά
: i.e., it has an active sense, like
χαλκόπλακτος
(484 n.),
ἀμφίπλακτος
( Ph. 688 ),
πανάλωτος
(
ἄτη
, Aesch. Ag. 361 ). The genitive,
πολλῶν δεινῶν στυγνῶν τ’
, may depend upon it, as in Soph. Ant. 1184 f.
θεᾶς..προσήγορος
=
θεὰν προσηγοροῦσα
. But we might also join the genitive with
αἰῶνι
, as=‘a life of’ (made up of) these things. For the verb
σύρω
in ref. to a torrent, cp. Ar. Eq. 527
διὰ τῶν ἀφελῶν πεδίων ἔρρει, καὶ τῆς στάσεως παρασύρων
|
ἐφόρει τὰς δρῦς
: Plut. Mor.p. 5 F
πόλεμος χειμάρρου δίκην πάντα σύρων
. Thus παμμήνῳ 5

mvp-comment-486-3 This view gives

πανσύρτῳ
a more forcible and more poetical sense than if it be taken as=‘swept together from every side.’ The meaning then would be, ‘a life, through all the months, of many dread horrors, accumulated from every quarter,’—the epithet
πανσύρτῳ
being transferred from the troubles to the life itself. It would still, indeed, be possible to make
πανσύρτῳ
active; ‘a life which draws troubles together from all sides’; but such an active sense would be somewhat harsher, on this interpretation, than on that which supposes the image of a torrent.

mvp-comment-487-1 ἁθρήνεις 6 ἃ θροεῖς 7 ἃ θρηνεῖς 8

mvp-comment-488-1 μή μέ νυν 9

mvp-comment-488-2 παραγάγῃς 10

mvp-comment-488-3 ἵν’ 11

mvp-comment-489-1 τί φής 12

mvp-comment-490-1 πάρεισιν ἐλπίδων ἔτι 13

mvp-comment-490-2 With the other reading,

εὐπατρίδων τ’
, both epithets belong to
ἐλπίδων
, and
ἐλπίδες κοινότοκοι εὐπάτριδές τε
mean, ‘hopes from brothers and princes,’— i.e., ‘hopes from a princely brother’: the sense is unchanged, but the phrase is more artificial.

mvp-comment-490-3 That the MSS. have

εὐπατριδᾶν
is more significant than that they also have
τ’
, which might easily creep in. Suidas, who omits
τ’
, has
εὐπατριδᾶν
, or (in codd. A and C)
εὐπατριδῶν
: but the latter variant can hardly be said to confirm
εὐπατρίδων τ’
.—At 162 Orestes is called
εὐπατρίδαν
. The fem.
εὔπατρις
occurs at 1081.

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

823-869. mvp-comment-388-1 In this short commos, in which the broken lines are expressive of intense feeling, the several members of the Chorus, with the exception of the Coryphaeus, who, having spoken in 11. 764, 5, remains in silent sympathy with Electra, attempt to rouse her from her utter despair, partly with consolation and partly with expressions of pity. But she is, if possible, more inconsolable than before. The metres are as follows:-

849. mvp-comment-403-1 New misery finds thee in thy misery.'

850-852. mvp-comment-404-1 I know that all too well, taught by a weight of fearful horror, that month by month accumulates.' Time is conceived as drawing in his train an ever-increasing burden of pollution and grief. For δεινῶν . . ἀχέων, which is unmetrical, Hermann proposed δεινῶν στυγνῶν τ᾽ αἰῶνι,-Prof. Lushington has suggested δεινῶν* τε στυγνῶν τ' *ἄχθει, which is adopted in the text. Hermann's reading means, 'In a life which month by month accumulates horror and pollution.'

854-855. mvp-comment-405-1 μή . . παραγάγῃς] 'Draw me not aside,' as they had done for a moment by reminding her of the fate of Eriphyle.

855. mvp-comment-406-1 ἵν'] ‘In a state of things wherein- Cp. supr. 22, ἵν᾿ οὐκέτ᾽ ὀκνεῖν καιρός.

857-858. mvp-comment-407-1 (οὐ) πάρεισιν .. ἀρωγαί] 'There is no longer within call the aid of hopes that rest on common birth from a most noble sire.' The language is much condensed: i.e. ἀρωγαὶ ἐν ἐλπίδι γιγνόμεναι ἀπὸ τοῦ εὐπατρίδου καὶ κοινοτόκου, sc. Ὀρέστου. See Essay on L. § 43. p. 81.