Electra. Sophocles. Robert Potter (Translator). London. 1820.
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) (English) (English (Robert Potter, 1788))
Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.
mvp-comment-43-1 ἰώ μοί μοι δύστηνος 1
mvp-comment-44-1 καὶ μὴν 2
mvp-comment-44-2 θυρῶν 3
mvp-comment-44-3
I should agree with the schol. in governing
θυρῶν by
ἔνδον
4
mvp-comment-44-4 προσπόλων τινὸς 5
mvp-comment-45-1 θέλεις | μείνωμεν … ; 6
mvp-comment-45-2 The reading of the MSS., κἀνακούσωμεν 7
mvp-comment-45-3
On the other hand Sophocles has
ἐπακούω, ‘to listen,’ in
O. T. 708
,
O. T. 794
:
O. C. 694
:
Ph. 1417.
Nauck's correction,
κἀπακούσωμεν
8
mvp-comment-46-1 μηδὲν πρόσθεν 9
mvp-comment-46-2 τὰ Λοξίου 10
mvp-comment-46-3 ἀρχηγετεῖν 11
mvp-comment-47-1 πατρὸς 12
mvp-comment-47-2 λουτρά 13
mvp-comment-47-3 φέρει … ἐφ’ ἡμῖν 14
mvp-comment-47-4 νίκην 15 κράτος τῶν δρωμένων 16
mvp-comment-47-5
All three actors now leave the scene. Orestes and Pylades go to Agamemnon's grave,—departing, probably, by the entrance on the spectators' right. The Paedagogus leaves by the entrance on the left,—to await the moment for seeking admission to the house (v. 660).—It might, indeed, be inferred from
πειρώμεθ’ (83) that the old man goes with the youths to their task; but the word need not imply more than his participation in the plan. while verses 73—75 seem clearly to indicate that he separates from his companions. When they have gone, Electra enters from the house.
mvp-comment-48-1
A
θρῆνος ἀπὸ σκηνῆς, or lyric lament delivered by an actor alone. as dist. from the joint
κομμός of actor and Chorus (121 n.).
mvp-comment-48-2
Verses 86—102 form a
σύστημα,=vv. 103—120 (
ἀντισύστημα). If the text is sound, the correspondence is not exact, since the dimeter in v. 99 answers to a monometer in v. 116. These anapaests are, however, of the type usually known as ‘free’ or ‘melic,’ as having more of a lyric character than the regular anapaests of the marching-songs (like those of the Parodos in the
Ajax): see W. Christ,
Metrik, 2nd ed., § 288. And in such anapaests the symmetry of ‘systems’ is often not strict (cp.
O. C. 117
n.).
mvp-comment-48-3 ὦ φάος ἁγνὸν 17
mvp-comment-48-4 γῆς ἰσόμοιρ’ ἀήρ 18
mvp-comment-48-5 ἰσόμοιῤ 19 ἰσόμοιρος 20
mvp-comment-49-1 πολλὰς μὲν … ᾔσθου 21
mvp-comment-49-2 ἀντήρεις 22
mvp-comment-50-1 πληγὰς 23 πλαγὰς 24
mvp-comment-51-1 ὑπολειφθῇ 25 ᾔσθου 26
mvp-comment-52-1 τὰ … παννυχίδων 27 ξυνίσας’ 28 ὅσα … θρηνῶ 29
mvp-comment-52-2 ἤδη 30
mvp-comment-52-3 The MS. οἴκων 31 λέκτρων 32 μογερῶν 33
mvp-comment-53-1 ὅσα τὸν δύστηνον 34
mvp-comment-54-1 κατὰ μὲν βάρβαρον αἶαν 35 ἐξένισεν 36
mvp-comment-55-1 Ἄρης 37
mvp-comment-55-2 ἐξένισεν 38
mvp-comment-56-1 κοινολεχὴς 39
mvp-comment-57-1 ὅπως δρῦν ὑλοτόμοι 40
mvp-comment-57-2 σχίζουσι 41
mvp-comment-57-3 κάρα 42
mvp-comment-57-4 πέλεκει 43
mvp-comment-58-1 ἄλλης 44
mvp-comment-58-2 φέρεται 45
mvp-comment-58-3 The deletion of the words ἀπ’ ἄλλης 46 ἢ )μοῦ 47
mvp-comment-59-1 ἀλλ’ οὐ μὲν δὴ 48
mvp-comment-60-1 ἄστρων 49
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.’
mvp-comment-61-1 μὴ οὐ 50
mvp-comment-61-2 τεκνολέτειῤ 51
mvp-comment-62-1 ἐπὶ κωκυτῷ 52
mvp-comment-62-2 ἠχὼ 53
mvp-comment-63-1
Electra invokes, (1) the house of Hades and his bride Persephone, in which the spirit of Agamemnon now dwells; (2) Hermes, who, as
ψυχοπομπός, conducted him thither,—and who will also guide the avengers on their way (1395 f.); (3)
Ἀρά, the imprecation uttered by the victim upon his murderers,—the personified curse, here conceived as a supernatural power (
πότνια), which calls the Erinyes into action; and (4) the Erinyes themselves.
mvp-comment-63-2 Ἀΐδου 54
mvp-comment-64-1 ὦ χθόνἰ Ἑρμῆ 55
mvp-comment-64-2 Ἀρά 56
mvp-comment-64-3 πότνια 57
mvp-comment-65-1 σεμναὶ 58
mvp-comment-65-2 θεῶν παῖδες 59
mvp-comment-66-1 ὁρᾶθ’ 60
mvp-comment-67-1 αἳ τοὺς εὐνὰς ὑποκλεπτομένους 61
mvp-comment-67-2
These much-impugned words appear genuine. The murder has been prompted by the guilty love:
δόλος ἦν ὁ φράσας, ἔρος ὁ κτείνας (197). In Electra's thought, they are inseparable. The allusion to the love
follows the reference to the murder, because she regards it as the crowning outrage (271
τὴν τελευταίαν ὕβριν) that Clytaemnestra still lives with Aegisthus. Bloodshed was not the only sin which the Erinyes punished. They were the embodied sanctions of natural law, and every crime against the family came within their cognisance. (See
Introd. to Homer, p. 51, § 13.) Indeed, Electra herself speaks of the unhallowed union as a special provocation to those Avengers: 275 f.
ἡ δ’ ὧδε τλήμων ὥστε τῷ μιάστορι |
ξύνεστ’, Ἐρινὺν οὔτιν’ ἐκφοβουμένη.
mvp-comment-68-1 τείσασθε 62
mvp-comment-69-1 ἡμετέρου 63 μοι 64
mvp-comment-69-2 καί μοι 65
mvp-comment-70-1 ἄγειν 66
mvp-comment-70-2 σωκῶ 67
mvp-comment-71-1 δυστανοτάτας 68
mvp-comment-72-1 τάκεις … οἰμωγὰν 69
mvp-comment-72-2 ἀκόρεστον 70
mvp-comment-72-3 τὸν πάλαι 71
mvp-comment-72-4 πάλαι 72 ἐκ 73
mvp-comment-72-5 ἀθεώτατα 74
mvp-comment-72-6 κακᾷ … χειρὶ πρόδοτον 75 χειρὶ 76
mvp-comment-72-7 ὡς 77
mvp-comment-72-8 ὁ τάδε πορὼν 78
mvp-comment-72-9 εἴ μοι θέμις 79
mvp-comment-73-1 γενέθλα 80
mvp-comment-73-2 γενναίων 81
mvp-comment-73-3 παραμύθ‐ 82 ιον 83
mvp-comment-74-1 ξυνίημι 84
mvp-comment-74-2 τάδ’ 85
mvp-comment-75-1 φυγγάνει 86
mvp-comment-75-2 οὐδ’ ἐθέλω 87
mvp-comment-76-1 μὴ οὐ 88
mvp-comment-76-2 τὸν ἐμὸν … πατέρ’ ἄθλιον 89
mvp-comment-77-1 παντοίας 90
mvp-comment-77-2
Electra's lyrics contain some Doricisms (129, 146 f., etc.): but it is best to retain
φιλότητος, with the MSS. The form in
η was so familiar through Homer that it may have been preferred to
φιλότατος even in lyrics.
Cp. 236
.
mvp-comment-78-1 ἀλύειν 91
mvp-comment-79-1 αἰαῖ, ἱκνοῦμαι 92
mvp-comment-80-1 τόν γ’ ἐξ Ἀΐδα … λίμνας 93
mvp-comment-80-2 παγκοίνου 94
mvp-comment-80-3 ἀνστάσεις 95
mvp-comment-81-1 οὔτε †γόοις οὔτε λιταῖσιν 96 οὔτε γόοισιν οὔτ’ εὐχαῖς 97
mvp-comment-82-1 For the repetition of ἀλλά 98
mvp-comment-82-2 ἀπὸ τῶν μετρίων 99
mvp-comment-82-3 ἀμήχανον 100
mvp-comment-82-4 ο=ιόλλυσαι 101
mvp-comment-83-1 ἐν οἷς 102
mvp-comment-83-2 ἀνάλυσις … κακῶν 103
mvp-comment-83-3 τί μοι 104
mvp-comment-84-1 νήπιος 105
mvp-comment-84-2 γονέων 106
mvp-comment-85-1 ἐμέ γ’ … ἄραρεν 107
mvp-comment-85-2 φρένας 108
mvp-comment-86-1 αἰὲν Ἴτυν 109
mvp-comment-87-1 ὄρνις 110
mvp-comment-87-2 ἀτυζομένα 111
mvp-comment-87-3 Διὸς ἄγγελος 112
mvp-comment-88-1 Νιόβα, σὲ δ’ 113 θεόν 114
mvp-comment-88-2 ἅτ’ 115
mvp-comment-88-3 ἐν τάφῳ πετραίῳ 116
mvp-comment-89-1 αἰεὶ 117
mvp-comment-90-1 οὔτοι σοὶ μούνᾳ 118
mvp-comment-91-1 πρὸς ὅ τι 119
mvp-comment-91-2 τῶν ἔνδον εἶ περισσά 120
mvp-comment-92-1 οἷς 121 τῶν ἔνδον 122
mvp-comment-92-2 ὁμόθεν 123 γονᾷ ξύναιμος 124
mvp-comment-93-1 οἵα Χρ. ζώει 125
mvp-comment-93-2
Acc. to the version followed by Sophocles, Agamemnon had four daughters, Iphigeneia, Electra, Chrysothemis, Iphianassa. This was the account given in the cyclic
Κύπρια ἔπη, as the schol. here mentions; a poem of which there is another trace in this play (566 ff.). Sophocles wrote an
Ἰφιγένεια (
Nauck,
frag. Soph. 284—292
); but her name is not mentioned in the reference to her death below (530—594). In
Il. 9. 145
Agamemnon has three daughters, Chrysothemis, Laodicè, Iphianassa: Homer does not mention Iphigeneia. Lucretius gives the name of Iphianassa to the victim at Aulis (
1. 85
).
mvp-comment-93-3 ζώει 126
mvp-comment-93-4 καὶ Ἰφιάνασσα 127
mvp-comment-94-1 ἀχέων 128
mvp-comment-94-2 Hermann, taking ἀχέων 129 κρυπτᾷ 130
mvp-comment-95-1 ὄλβιος, ὃν 131
mvp-comment-95-2
For the simple
ὅς, instead of
ὅς γε or
ὅστις, with causal force, cp. below, 188, 261, 959;
O.T. 817.
mvp-comment-96-1 δέξεται εὐπατρίδαν 132
mvp-comment-96-2 Διὸς εὔφρονι 133 βήματι 134
mvp-comment-96-3 γᾶν 135 γᾶ 136
mvp-comment-96-4 Ὀρέσταν 137 ὃν 138
mvp-comment-97-1 ἀκάματα 139
mvp-comment-97-2 ἀνύμφευτος 140 ἄτεκνος 141
mvp-comment-97-3 οἰχνῶ 142
mvp-comment-98-1 δάκρυσι μυδαλέα 143
mvp-comment-98-2 τὸν ἀνήνυτον 144
mvp-comment-98-3 οἶτον ἔχουσα 145
mvp-comment-99-1 ὧν τ’ ἔπαθ’ 146 ὧν τ’ ἐδάη 147
mvp-comment-99-2
Wecklein, reading
ἐδάην, explains,— ‘what I have heard from him,’—viz., his promises of coming.
mvp-comment-99-3 τί γὰρ … ἀγγελίας 148
mvp-comment-99-4 ἀπατώμενον 149 τί … οὐκ 150
mvp-comment-99-5 Herwerden's οὐχί μοι 151 οὐκ ἐμοί 152 ὁ δέ 153
mvp-comment-100-1 ποθεῖ, ποθῶν δ’ 154
mvp-comment-101-1 ἔτι μέγας οὐρανῷ 155 ἐν 156
mvp-comment-102-1 τὸν ὑπεραλγῆ 157
mvp-comment-102-2 νέμουσα 158
mvp-comment-103-1 μήτε ὑπεράχθεο 159 οἷς 160
mvp-comment-104-1 εὐμαρὴς θεός 161 θεός 162
mvp-comment-105-1 οὔτε γὰρ 163
mvp-comment-105-2 Κρῖσαν 164
mvp-comment-105-3
Crisa stood about two miles W.S.W. of Delphi, on a spur of Parnassus, at the lower outlet of the gorge through which the river Pleistus issues into the plain. The
Iliad mentions ‘sacred Crisa’ (
ζαθέην, 2. 520). But the Homeric Hymn to the Pythian Apollo is the best witness to its ancient power. There, just as here, the name
Κρῖσα includes the land which stretches southward from the town to its harbour on the ‘wide gulf’ (vv. 253— 261). We need not, then, read
Κρίσᾳ or
Κρίσας. Crisa was the earliest seat of trade on the western sea; Delphi, when first founded, was merely a sanctuary in its territory. Pindar recalls the old prominence of its name when he describes a Pythian victory as won
Κρισαίαις ἐνὶ πτυχαῖς (
P. 6. 18).
mvp-comment-105-4
Cirrha, a town of much later date, was the port of Crisa on the gulf. About 585 B.C., the Delphians, aided by Cleisthenes of Sicyon and his allies, succeeded, after a long struggle, in humbling Crisa and destroying Cirrha. The Crisaean plain was then devoted to Apollo, whose domain was thus extended from his temple to the coast. When Sophocles wrote, that ground was still a
βούνομος ἀκτή, inviolable by plough or spade. It was not till the middle of the next century that the alleged encroachments of Amphissa on the
ἱερὰ χώρα gave a pretext for war to the Amphictyons (355 B.C.).
mvp-comment-105-5 Ulrichs ( Reisen in Griechenland) was the first to place the relations of Crisa and Cirrha in a clear light. Strabo correctly describes the site of Cirrha, but erroneously places Crisa to the east of it (9. p. 418).
mvp-comment-106-1 βούνομον 165 βουνόμον 166
mvp-comment-106-2 βούνομον ἀκτὰν 167 Κρῖσαν 168
mvp-comment-107-1 ἀπερίτροπος 169
mvp-comment-108-1 παρὰ τὸν Ἀχέροντα 170 ἀνάσσων 171 θεὸς 172
mvp-comment-109-1 μὲν 173
mvp-comment-109-2 ὁ πολὺς … βίοτος 174
mvp-comment-109-3 ἀνέλπιστος 175
mvp-comment-109-4
187 *
τεκέων. I am now satisfied that this is a true correction of
τοκέων
176
ἅτις
177
τοκέων
178
mvp-comment-110-1 ἁπερεί 179
mvp-comment-110-2 ἔποικος 180
mvp-comment-111-1 οἰκονομῶ θαλάμους 181
mvp-comment-112-1 ἀεικεῖ σὺν στολᾷ 182
mvp-comment-113-1 κεναῖς δ’ ἀμφίσταμαι τραπέζαις 183 ἀμφίσταμαι 184
mvp-comment-113-2
Hartung, reading
κενὰ δ’ ἀμφίσταμαι τραπέζαις, takes the sense to be that she stands ‘hungry’ by the tables at which the others feast. But
κενή as=
νῆστις would be neither usual nor elegant.
mvp-comment-114-1 Hitherto the Chorus have offered consolation or counsel. At v. 213 they return to that strain. But here, moved by Electra's misery, they join with her in bewailing its cause.
mvp-comment-114-2 οἰκτρὰ μὲν … πλαγά 185 κοίταις 186 οἰκτρὰ … αὐδὰ 187
mvp-comment-114-3
Sophocles, who follows the Homeric story as to the banquet, could not but remember the
οἰκτροτάτην ὄπα of the dying Cassandra. And this might naturally suggest to him that other
οἰκτρὰ αὐδή which she had uttered at an earlier moment, immediately after Agamemnon's return,—her presage of his fate, and her own:
Aesch.
Ag. 1072
—1314.
mvp-comment-114-4
The sense then is:—‘There was a voice of lamentation at the return from Troy’; alluding especially to Cassandra's laments, but also, perhaps, to forebodings in the mouth of the people at Mycenae. ‘And there was a voice of lamentation
ἐν κοίταις πατρῴαις, when thy father lay on the couch at the fatal banquet.’ The ‘voice’ at the banquet is, first, that of the dying Agamemnon; but Sophocles may have thought also of Cassandra's death-cry, which was sounding in the king's ears as he fell.—For other interpretations, see Appendix.
mvp-comment-114-5 νόστοις 188 ἐν 189
mvp-comment-114-6 κοίταις 190
mvp-comment-114-7 ὅτε οἱ 191 σοι 192 ἀνταία 193
mvp-comment-114-8 γενύων 194
mvp-comment-115-1 δόλος … ἔρος 195
mvp-comment-116-1 δεινὰν δεινῶς 196 δεινὰν … μορφάν 197
mvp-comment-116-2 εἴτ’ οὖν … εἴτε 198 βροτῶν 199
mvp-comment-117-1 πλέον … ἐχθίστα 200
mvp-comment-117-2 δὴ 201
mvp-comment-118-1 νὺξ 202
mvp-comment-118-2 δείπνων 203
mvp-comment-119-1 ἄχθη 204 τοῖς 205 θανάτους 206
mvp-comment-119-2 διδύμαιν χειροῖν 207 διδύμοιν 208
mvp-comment-120-1 εἷλον … πρόδοτον 209
mvp-comment-121-1 οἷς 210
mvp-comment-121-2 Ὀλύμπιος 211
mvp-comment-122-1 ποίνιμα 212
mvp-comment-123-1 ἀγλαΐας 213
mvp-comment-123-2 ἀποναίατο 214
mvp-comment-124-1 πόρσω 215
mvp-comment-125-1 γνώμαν ἴσχεις 216
mvp-comment-125-2 ἐξ οἵων 217
mvp-comment-125-3 τὰ παρόντ’ 218
mvp-comment-125-4 οἰκείας 219
mvp-comment-126-1 πολύ … τι κακῶν 220
mvp-comment-126-2 ὑπερεκτήσω 221
mvp-comment-127-1 τὰ δὲ 222 οὐκ ἐριστὰ τοῖς δυνατοῖς 223 πλάθειν 224
mvp-comment-127-2 ἐριστά 225
mvp-comment-127-3 πλάθειν 226
mvp-comment-128-1 δεινοῖς ἠναγκάσθην 227
mvp-comment-129-1 ὀργά 228 ἔξοιδ’ 229
mvp-comment-130-1 ἀλλὰ … γὰρ 230
mvp-comment-130-2 ἐν … δεινοῖς 231
mvp-comment-130-3 σχήσω 232
mvp-comment-130-4 ταύτας ἄτας 233
mvp-comment-131-1 ὄφρα 234
mvp-comment-131-2 βίος ἔχῃ με 235 σχήσω 236
mvp-comment-132-1 τίνι γάρ … τίνι φρονοῦντι καίρια 237 ἀκούσαιμ’ ἂν πρόσφορον ἔπος 238 τίνι 239 πρόσφορον 240
mvp-comment-132-2
Other explanations are:—(1) Taking the dative with
πρόσφορον:—‘To what person who feels aright would that word be suitable which I should hear (=which would be said of me)?’ That is: Should I not deserve to incur a censure from which every right-minded person would shrink? Should I not deserve to be called
δυσσεβής? This seems forced; and it does not well suit
ἔπος. (2) Taking the dative with
ἀκούσαιμι:—‘At whose mouth (=
from whom), that thinks aright, could I hear a suitable word of comfort?’ But such a dative seems impossible. In
Il. 16. 515
δύνασαι δὲ σὺ πάντοσ’ ἀκούειν |
ἀνέρι κηδομένῳ, the dat. is one of interest, denoting the person whose prayer is heard (‘
for him’); cp.
Il. 5. 115
κλῦθί μοι: 24. 335
ἔκλυες ᾧ κ’ ἐθέλῃσθα.
mvp-comment-133-1 ἄνετε 241
mvp-comment-133-2 ἄλυτα 242
mvp-comment-133-3 κεκλήσεται 243
mvp-comment-133-4 231 f. For ἐκ 244
mvp-comment-133-5 ἀνάριθμος 245 θρήνων 246
mvp-comment-134-1 ἀλλ’ οὖν 247 γε 248 εὐνοίᾳ 249
mvp-comment-135-1 μάτηρ ὡσεί τις 250
mvp-comment-136-1 μὴ τίκτειν 251
mvp-comment-136-2 ἄταν ἄταις 252
mvp-comment-137-1 καὶ τί μέτρον 253 κακότατος 254
mvp-comment-137-2 φέρε 255
mvp-comment-137-3 ἐπὶ τοῖς φθ. 256
mvp-comment-138-1 ἔβλαστ’ 257
mvp-comment-139-1 τούτοις 258
mvp-comment-140-1 εἴ τῳ πρόσκειμαι χρηστῷ 259
mvp-comment-141-1 ξυνναίοιμ’ 260
mvp-comment-141-2 εὔκηλος 261
mvp-comment-141-3 γονέων 262 ἐκτίμους 263
mvp-comment-141-4 ἐκτίμους ἵσχουσα 264
mvp-comment-141-5 πτέρυγας … γόων 265
mvp-comment-141-6 ὀξυτόνων 266
mvp-comment-142-1 εἰ γὰρ 267
mvp-comment-142-2 γᾶ 268
mvp-comment-142-3 οὐδὲν 269 ὢν 270 εἰ 271
mvp-comment-142-4 Electra is contrasting her father, whose earthly life has been cut short, with his murderers, who survive. But she believes that his spirit lives in the world below, and will be active in aiding the vengeance (453 ff.).
mvp-comment-142-5 πάλιν 272
mvp-comment-142-6 ἀντιφόνους δίκας 273
mvp-comment-143-1 ἔρροι τ’ 274
mvp-comment-143-2 αἰδὼς 275 εὐσέβεια 276
mvp-comment-144-1 ἐγὼ μὲν 277
mvp-comment-144-2 καὶ 278 τὸ σὸν … καὶ τοὐμὸν 279
mvp-comment-145-1 νίκα 280
mvp-comment-145-2 ἅμα 281
mvp-comment-146-1 πολλοῖσι θρήνοις 282
mvp-comment-147-1 ἀλλὰ … γὰρ 283
mvp-comment-148-1 ἥτις εὐγενὴς γυνή 284
mvp-comment-149-1 πατρῷα … πήματα 285
mvp-comment-150-1 κατ’ εὐφρόνην 286
mvp-comment-150-2 θάλλοντα 287
mvp-comment-151-1 ᾗ 288
mvp-comment-151-2 πρῶτα μὲν … εἶτα … ἔπειτα 289 ᾗ 290
mvp-comment-151-3 τὰ μητρὸς 291
mvp-comment-151-4 ἔχθιστα συμβέβηκεν 292
mvp-comment-152-1 κἀκ τῶνδ’ ἄρχομαι 293
mvp-comment-153-1 λαβεῖν … τὸ τητᾶσθαι 294
mvp-comment-154-1 ποίας 295 δοκεῖς 296
mvp-comment-155-1 ἴδω 297 εἰσίδω δ’ 298 ἴδω δὲ 299
mvp-comment-155-2 μὲν 300
mvp-comment-156-1 ἐσθήματα 301
mvp-comment-156-2 ἐκείνῳ 302
mvp-comment-156-3 παρεστίους … λοιβάς 303 ἔνθ’ ἐκεῖνον ὤλεσεν 304
mvp-comment-156-4
Acc. to
Homer. Hymn. 29. 4 ff., feasts began and ended with libations to Hestia:
οὐ γὰρ ἄτερ σοῦ |
εἰλαπίναι θνητοῖσιν, ἵν’ οὐ πρώτῃ πυμάτῃ τε |
Ἱστίῃ ἀρχόμενος σπένδει μελιηδέα οἶνον. Soph. fr. 658
<*> πρῷρα λοιβῆς Ἑστία. Other divinities, including Zeus
σωτήρ, were similarly honoured; then the paean was sung, and the
πότος began ( Plat.
Symp.p. 176 A).
mvp-comment-157-1 τούτων 305
mvp-comment-158-1 αὐτοέντην 306
mvp-comment-158-2 Brunck first adopted αὐτοέντην 307 αὐτοφόντην 308
mvp-comment-158-3 ἡμὶν 309
mvp-comment-159-1 ταλαίνῃ 310
mvp-comment-160-1 ταύτην … τῷδε 311
mvp-comment-161-1 μιάστορι 312 Ἐρινὺν 313
mvp-comment-162-1 ἐγγελῶσα τοῖς ποιουμένοις 314
mvp-comment-163-1 εὑροῦς’ 315 τότε 316
mvp-comment-163-2 The conjecture φρουροῦς’ 317 τηροῦς’ 318
mvp-comment-164-1 χοροὺς ἵστησι 319
mvp-comment-164-2 μηλοσφαγεῖ … ἱερὰ 320
mvp-comment-164-3 ἔμμην’ ἱερά 321
mvp-comment-164-4 τοῖς σωτηρίοις 322
mvp-comment-164-5
Argive tradition placed Agamemnon's death on the 13th of Gamelion (about the end of January). So said ‘the Argive historians’ (
οἱ Ἀργολικοὶ συγγραφεῖς),— according to an Argive writer named Deinias, who lived about 225 B.C. (Schol. here: Müller,
Frag. Hist. vol. III. p. 25.) Possibly, then, the idea of Clytaemnestra's hideous festival may have been suggested to the poet by some actual commemoration of the event in Argolis. There was a cult of Agamemnon in various places,—notably in Laconia. (Cp. Roscher's
Lexicon, p. 96.)
mvp-comment-165-1 ἡ δύσμορος 323 κατὰ στέγας 324
mvp-comment-166-1 τέτηκα 325
mvp-comment-166-2 πατρὸς 326
mvp-comment-166-3
The
δαίς is the feast which, in Homeric fashion (
Il. 1. 467
), would follow the sacrifice (281). Acc. to Eustathius p. 1507. 61 (on
Hom.
Od. 4. 524
ff.),
Ἀγαμεμνόνειος δαὶς (or
τράπεζα) was a proverb
ἐπὶ τῶν ἐπ’ ὀλέθρῳ εὐωχουμένων. The poet may mean that Clytaemnestra called the festival
Ἀγαμεμνόνειος δαίς, in direct allusion to
δεῖπνα ἄρρητα (203): and this would give a special point to
ἐγγελῶσα (277). Cp.
Eur.
Or. 1008
τά τ’ ἐπώνυμα δεῖπνα Θυέστου. But the words do not necessarily imply more than that she called it
Ἀγαμεμνόνεια.
mvp-comment-167-1 αὐτὴ πρὸς αὑτήν 327 αὑτήν 328
mvp-comment-167-2 κλαῦσαι 329
mvp-comment-167-3 ἡδονὴν φέρει 330
mvp-comment-168-1 ἡ λόγοισι γενναία 331
mvp-comment-169-1 φωνοῦσα 332
mvp-comment-170-1 δύσθεον 333
mvp-comment-170-2 μίσημα 334
mvp-comment-170-3 σοὶ μόνῃ 335
mvp-comment-170-4 τέθνηκεν 336
mvp-comment-170-5 ἐν πένθει 337
mvp-comment-171-1 ἐκ γόων 338
mvp-comment-171-2 οἱ κάτω θεοί 339
mvp-comment-172-1 τάδ’ 340
mvp-comment-172-2 ἥξοντ’ Ὀρέστην 341
mvp-comment-173-1 παραστᾶς’ 342
mvp-comment-174-1 ἥτις 343
mvp-comment-174-2 ὑπεξέθου 344
mvp-comment-175-1 ἀλλ’ ἴσθι τοι τείσουσά γ’ 345
mvp-comment-176-1 ὑλακτεῖ 346
mvp-comment-176-2 σὺν 347
mvp-comment-176-3 πέλας 348 παρών 349
mvp-comment-176-4 301 The adv. πάντα 350
mvp-comment-176-5 ἄναλκις 351
mvp-comment-176-6 ἡ πᾶσα βλάβη 352
mvp-comment-177-1 σὺν γυναιξὶ 353
mvp-comment-177-2 τὰς μάχας 354
mvp-comment-178-1 ἐφήξειν 355
mvp-comment-179-1 μέλλων … δρᾶν τι 356
mvp-comment-179-2 τὰς οὔσας τε … καὶ τὰς ἀπούσας 357
mvp-comment-179-3 μου 358 μοι 359
mvp-comment-179-4 διέφθορεν 360
mvp-comment-180-1 σωφρονεῖν 361 εὐσεβεῖν 362
mvp-comment-180-2 ἔν τοι κακοῖς 363
mvp-comment-180-3 πολλή )στ’ ἀνάγκη 364 κἀπιτηδεύειν κακά 365
mvp-comment-180-4 I place only a comma, not a colon, after πάρεστιν 366
mvp-comment-181-1 ὄντος … βεβῶτος 367
mvp-comment-182-1 ἦ κάρτα 368
mvp-comment-182-2 θυραῖον 369
mvp-comment-182-3 οἰχνεῖν 370
mvp-comment-182-4 ἀγροῖσι 371
mvp-comment-182-5 τυγχάνει 372
mvp-comment-183-1 ἦ κἂν … ἱκοίμην 373 ἦ τ<*>ν 374 ἦ δἂν 375
mvp-comment-183-2 ἐς λόγους τοὺς σοὺς ἱκοίμην 376
mvp-comment-184-1 ὡς νῦν 377 ὥς νυν 378
mvp-comment-184-2 ἱστόρει· τί σοι φίλον 379 τό 380 τά 381
mvp-comment-184-3 With the other punctuation, ἱστόρει τί σοι φίλον 382
mvp-comment-185-1 καὶ δὴ 383
mvp-comment-185-2 τοῦ κασιγνήτου τί φής 384
mvp-comment-185-3 ἥξοντος 385 ἢ μέλλοντος 386
mvp-comment-186-1 φησίν γε 387
mvp-comment-186-2 ποεῖ 388
mvp-comment-187-1 καὶ μὴν ἔγωγ’ 389 γε 390
mvp-comment-187-2 οὐκ ὄκνῳ 391
mvp-comment-188-1 ἀρκεῖν 392
mvp-comment-189-1 ἐπεί 393
mvp-comment-189-2 μακρὰν 394
mvp-comment-189-3 324 Here, as in 316, νῦν 395 νυν 396
mvp-comment-189-4 δόμων 397 φέρουσαν 398
mvp-comment-190-1 ὅμαιμον 399
mvp-comment-190-2 φύσιν 400
mvp-comment-191-1 Χρυσόθεμιν 401
mvp-comment-192-1 οἷα 402 νομίζεται 403
mvp-comment-193-1 πρὸς θυρῶνος ἐξόδοις 404 φωνεῖς 405 ἐλθοῦσα 406 αὖ 407
mvp-comment-193-2 330 For the absence of caesura, cp. Ph. 101 n.
mvp-comment-194-1 θυμῷ … χαρίζεσθαι 408
mvp-comment-195-1 καίτοι τοσοῦτόν γ’ οἶδα 409
mvp-comment-195-2 κἀμαυτήν, ὅτι 410
mvp-comment-195-3 333 f. For the repeated ἄν 411
mvp-comment-195-4 οἶ) αὐτοῖς φρονῶ 412
mvp-comment-196-1 ὑφειμένῃ 413 πλεῖν 414
mvp-comment-196-2
For the image, cp.
Eur.
Med. 524
ἄκροισι λαίφους κρασπέδοις (with close-reefed sails)
ὑπεκφυγεῖν |
τὴν σὴν στόμαργον, ὦ γύναι, γλωσσαλγίαν:
Ar.
Ran. 997
ἀλλ’ ὅπως, ὦ γεννάδα, |
μὴ πρὸς ὀργὴν ἀντιλέξεις, |
ἀλλὰ συστείλας, ἄκροισι |
χρώμενος τοῖς ἱστίοις κ.τ.λ.: and conversely
Soph.
Ant. 715
ναὸς ὅστις ἐγκρατῆ πόδα |
τείνας ὑπείκει μηδέν.
Ovid
Epist. 1. 8. 71
moderatius opta, | Et voti, quaeso, contrahe vela tui.
Shakesp.
Henry VI., pt. iii, act 3 sc. 3. 5
‘Now Margaret | Must strike her sail, and learn awhile to serve | Where kings command.’
mvp-comment-197-1 καὶ μὴ δοκεῖν 415
mvp-comment-198-1 τοιαῦτα δ’ ἄλλα 416 ἀλλὰ 417 ἄλλα 418
mvp-comment-199-1 καίτοι τὸ μὲν δίκαιον 419
mvp-comment-199-2 κρίνεις 420
mvp-comment-199-3 εἰ … με δεῖ 421
mvp-comment-199-4 ἐλευθέραν 422
mvp-comment-199-5 ζῆν 423
mvp-comment-199-6 πάντ’ 424
mvp-comment-199-7 ἀκουστέα 425
mvp-comment-200-1 δεινόν γε 426
mvp-comment-201-1 τῆς … τικτούσης 427
mvp-comment-201-2 μέλειν 428
mvp-comment-202-1 τἀμὰ νουθετήματα 429
mvp-comment-202-2 κείνης διδακτά 430
mvp-comment-202-3 ἐκ σαυτῆς 431
mvp-comment-203-1 The text, which has been suspected (cr. n.), is sound; but the train of thought is somewhat obscured by compression.
mvp-comment-203-2
‘You forget your father, and care only for your mother. All your counsels to me come from her. Then (
ἔπειτα),—that being so,—give up the attempt at a compromise. Make a
choice (
ἑλοῦ γε). You can be imprudent (
φρονεῖν κακῶς),—as you say that I am,—and loyal to your dead father. Or you can be prudent (
φρονοῦσα), and forgetful of him,—as you actually are; you who (
ἥτις) say, indeed, that you would show your hatred of the murderers if you could; and yet, when I
do resist them, you try to turn me from my purpose. You merely add the shame of cowardice to our woes.’
mvp-comment-203-3 ἔπειθ’ 432
mvp-comment-203-4 ἑλοῦ γε 433
mvp-comment-203-5 φρονεῖν κακῶς 434
mvp-comment-203-6
Other explanations are:—(1) ‘Choose to be thought either
lost to right feeling, or, if you have such feeling, then at least
forgetful of your duty.’ (2) ‘Choose to seem either
unintelligent (if you are merely the blind instrument of our rulers); or, if you act with clear understanding (
φρονοῦσα),—thinking to benefit me,—at least forgetful of your father.’ Both these views assume that the question is merely between two interpretations which might be placed on the present conduct of Chrysothemis. But Electra is putting the dilemma between imprudent loyalty and prudent disloyalty.
mvp-comment-204-1 τῶν φίλων 435
mvp-comment-205-1 ἥτις 436 φρονοῦσα 437 μῖσος 438
mvp-comment-206-1 πάντα 439
mvp-comment-206-2 τιμωρουμένης 440
mvp-comment-207-1 οὔτε … τε 441
mvp-comment-207-2 τήν τε δρῶσαν 442
mvp-comment-208-1 πρὸς κακοῖσι 443
mvp-comment-208-2 δειλίαν ἔχει 444
mvp-comment-209-1 ἐπεὶ 445
mvp-comment-209-2 ἢ μάθ’ ἐξ ἐμοῦ 446
mvp-comment-210-1 ἐπαρκούντως 447
mvp-comment-211-1 προσάπτειν 448
mvp-comment-211-2 εἴ τις ἔστ’ ἐκεῖ χάρις 449
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.
95-96. mvp-comment-65-1 Cp. Od. 11. 408-411, where Agamemnon says, οὔτε μ᾿ ἀνάρσιοι ἄνδρες ἐδηλήσαντ᾽ ἐπὶ χέρσου· | ἀλλά μοι Αίγισθος τεύξας θάνατόν τε μόρον τε ἕκτα σὺν οὐλομένῃ ἀλόχῳ, οἰκύνδε καλέσσας, | δειπνίσσας, ὥς τις κατέκτανε βοῦν ἐπὶ φάτνῃ. See below, ll. 203, 4. And for ῎Αρης οὐκ ἐξένισεν, ' War did not give hospitable repose,' cp. Aesch. Cho. 351-3, πολύχωστον ἂν εἶχες | τάφον διαποντίου γᾶς | δώμασιν εὐφόρητον: Ag. 455, ἐχθρὰ δ᾽ ἔχοντας ἔκρυψεν : Verg. Aen. 1. 97, 'Mene Iliacis occumbere campis | Non potuisse.'
98. mvp-comment-66-1 Cp. II. 13. 389, ἤριπε δ', ὡς ὅτε τις δρῦς ἤριπεν, ἢ ἀχερωΐς, | ἠὲ πίτυς βλωθρή, την τ' οὔρεσι τέκτονες ἄνδρες ἐξέταμον πελέκεσσι νεήκεσι, νήϊον εἶναι. But the unfeeling act of the woodman is more prominent in the present passage than the grandeur of the tree.
100-101. mvp-comment-67-1 κοὐδεὶς.. φέρεται] ‘And no pity' (or mourning) 'on account of this goes forth from any one but me.' For the genitive, cp. Ο. Τ. 185, λυγρῶν πόνων ἱκτῆρες ἐπιστενάχουσιν. And for the attraction in the gender of οὐκ ἄλλης, cp. infr. 885, 6, ἐγὼ μὲν ἐξ ἐμοῦ τε κοὐκ ἄλλης σαφή | σημεῖ᾿ ἰδοῦσα, κ.τ.λ. For φέρεται, of the utterance of feeling, cp. Pind. Pyth. 1. 170, εἴ τι καὶ φλαῦρον παραιθύσσει, μέγα τοι φέρεται | πὰρ σέθεν.
102. mvp-comment-68-1 αἰκῶς] Although the MSS. agree in ἀδίκως, the Scholiast gives ἀεικῶς as a various reading. And ἀδίκως, which is appropriate in infr. 113, is frigid here.
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.'
121-127. mvp-comment-76-1 Electra's monody, like the soliloquy of Deianeira. Trach. I fol., has indicated the loneliness of her sorrow. But she is not friendless. The women of Argos feel with her and would comfort her if they could. In this long 'commatic parodos,' which at once enlists the sympathies of the spectator, and prepares his mind by contrast for the rapidity of the action which is to follow, there are seven choric strains, to which Electra responds with μέλη ἀπὸ σκηνῆς. If, as seems most probable, a single voice is heard each time, the front row of choreutae would alone take part. Thus, supposing the five dots to represent the πρωτόσταται, i. e. the coryphaeus and those on either side of him, the parts might be assigned as follows:- ἀντ. β'. ἀντ.α΄. στρ.α΄. στρ.β. στρ. γ΄. ἀντ. γ'. ἐπ. The choreutae immediately to right and left of the coryphaeus would address Electra twice, and when the epode was finished, the coryphaeus would make a new beginning with the senarii in ll. 251-3, after which, each of the five would speak once again, ending with the coryphaeus. The metres are as follows:-
121. mvp-comment-77-1 παῖ is first the natural address of an elder person to a younger, and is then repeated in a different sense with the genitive in regimen. 'O child Electra! Child of a most wretched mother!' For the moral association in δυστανοτάτας, cp. Aj. 1290, δύστηνε, ποῖ βλέπων ποτ᾿ αὐτὰ καὶ θροεῖς;
122-123. mvp-comment-78-1 τίν᾿ ἀεὶ .. οἰμωγάν] ‘Why this never-ceasing lament which piningly thou pourest out over thy father?' For this adverbial' use of the interrogative pronoun, cp. Ο. Τ. 2, τίνας ποθ᾽ ἕδρας τάσδε μοι θοάζετε; and see Essay on L. § 42. p. 81. τάκεις οἰμωγάν ἰς literally, Dost cause the cry to melt from thee; i.e. Dost waste thyself with crying. In the sentence which follows, τὸν.. ᾿Αγαμέμνονα is governed by τάκεις .. οἰμωγάν taken as one word = οἰμώζεις. Ε. on L. § 16. p. 23 b. With ἀκόρεστον, Immoderate, contrast ll. 23. 157, γόοιο μὲν ἔστι καὶ ἆσαι : Od. 4. 103, αἰψηρὸς δὲ κύρος κρυεροῖο γόοιο.
124. mvp-comment-79-1 ἀθεώτατα] In heinous defiance of the gods.' Cp. Aesch. Cho. 46, δύσθεος γυνά: Trach. 1036, σὰ μάτηρ ἄθεος.
126. mvp-comment-80-1 κακᾷ τε χειρὶ πρόδοτον] ‘And delivered over to destruction with wicked violence.' Cp. infr. 206, 7, χειροῖν | αἱ τὸν ἐμὸν εἶλον βίον | πρόδοτον, αἱ μ᾿ ἀπώλεσαν. The fear of Aegisthus, who is sovereign de facto, prevents the chorus from mentioning him by name. Cp. Trach. 383, 4, and note.
129. mvp-comment-81-1 γενέθλα] Here, and in infr. 226, Doric for γενέθλη. “Offspring of noble sires.' Two glosses on γενναίων, viz. (1) πατέρων, (2) τοκέων, have found their way into different MSS., while, curiously enough, no MS. has the line uninterpolated.
130. mvp-comment-82-1 παραμύθιον may be in apposition (1) with the subject of ἥκετε or (2) with the verb itself. The latter (2), conveying more exactly the notion of an intention to console, is probably right. But for the former (1), cp. Thuc. 5. 103, ἐλπὶς κινδύνῳ παραμύθιον οὖσα.
131. mvp-comment-83-1 τάδ'] Either (1) Your kind intention, or (2) That my sorrow is importunate.' Cp. infr. 222. The Scholiast prefers (2).
132. mvp-comment-84-1 οὐδ᾽ ἐθέλω προλιπεῖν τόδε] ‘But I will not give this up.' δé is adversative, though it is unnecessary to write οὐ δ' with Hermann.
134. mvp-comment-85-1 (1) 'But, O ye who exchange with me the tender grace of every sort of mutual affection, - ἀμειβόμεναι vocative. Or (2), supposing the participle to agree with the subject of ἐᾶτε, 'But O, in return for all manner of love' (which ye have had from me). Musgrave objects to this that Electra had no power of conferring kindnesses, and that if she had, she would not thus have reminded her friends of them. He ingeniously renders, Exchanging for this (?) service all your varied kindnesses. But his argument is hypercritical. It is the strength of her wish, and not the sense of her merit, that is really emphasized in παντοίας (of which Ellendt rightly says, Nihil nisi multum s. magnum significat.') And φιλότης is simply affection.' Schndw. explains, So conferring on me a kindness equivalent to all manner of friendship:'-Wecklein, Ye who return the grace of all manner of love (for mine).'
137-138. mvp-comment-86-1 τόν γ᾽ ἐξ ᾿Αΐδα λίμνας] i.e. τὸν ἐν . . λίμνᾳ ἐκ . . λίμνας, according to a familiar idiom of condensation. λίμνας] Viz. the 'palus Acherontis,' on the shores of which dwelt the dead.
139. mvp-comment-87-1 Cp. Il. 24.550, 1, οὐ γάρ τι πρήξεις ἀκαχήμενος υἷος ἐῆος, | οὐδέ μιν ἀνστήσεις, πρὶν καὶ κακὸν ἄλλο πάθῃσθα. For the line as it stands, a glyconic with a spondee after the close, cp. Eur. Med. 159, τάκου δυρομένα σὸν εὐνάταν: 183, πένθος γὰρ μεγάλως τόδ᾽ ὀρμᾶται. The short syllable at the end of the previous line, and the iambic base of the glyconic, are avoided by reading *θρήνοις for γόοις.
139. mvp-comment-87-2 Dindorf retains the order of the words, and reads παγκοίνου λίμνας πατέρ᾽ ἀν | στάσεις οὔτε γόοισιν οὔτ᾽ *ἄνταις (a double glyconic with spondee at close). ἄνταις is the conjecture of Hermann from Hesychius: ἄντήσει (sic), λιτανείαις, ἀντήσεσι. But is not ἀντήσεσι: λιτανείαις an equally probable emendation of the corrupt reading in Hesychius? For λιταῖσι, cp. supr. 110 foll. Prof. Paley suggests πατέρ᾽ ἀν | στάσεις οὔτε γόοισιν οὔτ᾽ εὐχαῖς.
140-141. mvp-comment-88-1 ἀλλ᾽ ἀπὸ .. διόλλυσαι] ‘But, forsaking moderation, you go to an extreme in your grief, to your own ruin.' To account for the prepositions some idea of motion must be gathered from the verbs, e.g. προϊοῦσα ἐν στοναχαῖς.
142. mvp-comment-89-1 ἐν οἷς .. κακῶν] (1) ‘A course which brings no way of release from woes.' The antecedent to ois is to be inferred from the preceding words: sc. ἐν τοῖς οὐ μετρίοις τούτοις ἀλγήμασιν, The meaning of the chorus, at present rather gently hinted than expressed, is that by continued lamentation Electra only involves herself in fresh trouble and deepens the misery of her situation. Cp. infr. 213-20. Otherwise (2), 'In a case where there is no release.' Badham conj. ἀνάδυσις.
144. mvp-comment-90-1 τί . . ἐφίει] 'Beseech thee, why dost thou set thy heart on troubles?'- i.e. aim at bringing them on thyself.
146. mvp-comment-91-1 ἐμέ γ᾽ ὁ στονόεσσ᾽ ἄραρεν φρένας] That creature of lament is congenial to my soul.' Is the swallow or the nightingale the bird intended here? The nightingale was mentioned above (l. 107), and is spoken of by Sappho, quoted by the Scholiast on this passage, as the messenger of Spring-ἦρος ἄγγελος ἰμερόφωνος ἀηδών. On the other hand, the swallow is more generally represented in this way, and the lines of Horace, Od. 4. 12. 5 foll., Nidum ponit, Ityn flebiliter gemens,' etc., certainly refer to Procne, who was usually thought to have been changed into a swallow. But of the legend of Tereus there seem to have been many conflicting modifications. The word ἀτυζομένα may be fancifully suggestive of the uncertain, 'bewildered' flight of the swallow. But the mention of song, both here and in the passage of Horace, agrees better with the thought of the nightingale. In any case the Scholiast is probably right in explaining Διὸς ἄγγελος of the intimation of Spring and the beginning of the Διὸς μεγάλου ἐνιαυτός. The nightingale or swallow, thus distinguished with Divine favour, is also the most sorrowful of birds.
150. mvp-comment-92-1 σὲ δ᾽ ἔγωγε νέμω θεόν] I count thee Divine,' i.e. blessed, -μακαρίζω σέ.
151-152. mvp-comment-93-1 Cp. Ant. 823-32. The prehistoric colossal figure cut out of the rock on a northward crag of Mount Sipylus, so as to be visible from the plain below Sardes, is supposed by Prof. Sayce, who has examined it, to have originally represented some elemental deity, possibly Cybele, but uncertain whether male or female. It was from an early period identified by the Greek settlers with the Niobe of Theban and Argive legend. The limestone drippings from the over-hanging rock have produced an incrustation about face, chest, and lap (the image is in a sitting posture)-that, quite apart from poetical description, is wonderfully suggestive of a flood of tears. This πετραία βλάστα (Ant. 827) must have been apparent before the time of Sophocles. It is less distinctly suggested by the words in Homer, Il. 24. 617, θεῶν ἐκ κήδεα πέσσει. Prof. Sayce adds that the θεάων · εὐναὶ νυμφάων of Il. 1. c. (in reality prehistoric tombs) are still distinctly recognisable in the crags on either side: also that just below the Niobe was a large lake, which was drained some forty years ago, when the columns of a Greek temple were found at the bottom. This, Mr. Sayce thinks, must have been the site of the city of Sipylus, which was overthrown by an earthquake in the time of Tiberius, and the ruins covered by the waters of a lake. All that now remains of the lake is a small pool at the foot of the crag on which the figure of Niobe is carved, along with a stream. Both stream and pool are fed by a number of springs, some of which are warm and saline; and the pool is called by the modern Greeks the tears of Niobe.'
153-157. mvp-comment-94-1 Thou art not all alone unhappy that thou shouldest thus grieve more than those within, who are of the same lineage and of kindred blood with thee, and shouldst not live the same bright life which they, Chrysothemis and Iphianassa, live.' The indefinite pronoun ὅ, τι is occasioned by the negative preceding. In πρὸς ὅ τι, πρός corresponds to a long syllable, Ζεύς, in the antistrophe. Perhaps, πρός γ᾽ ὅ, τι? εἰ περισσά] Sc. ἐν τῷ λυπεῖσθαι. In distinguishing between Iphigeneia and Iphianassa, Sophocles is said to have followed the Cypria. 'Sophocles here seems to recognize the digamma in Fιφιάνασσα.' Paley.
159-160. mvp-comment-95-1 κρυπτᾷ τ᾿ ἀχέων ἐν ἤβα ὄλβιος] And he whose fortunate youth is hidden out of the way of sorrow.' For the genitive, see Essay on L. § 8. p. 11, 2. Hermann says, Audacior quidem haec structura, sed amat talia Sophocles. Ejusdem modi est, quod statim dicit, Διὸς βήματι pro πομπῇ Διός.' Orestes is 'fortunate,' because his tranquil youth gives promise of final good fortune. Cp. Aesch. Cho. 695, 6, Ορέστης, ἦν γὰρ εὐβόλως ἔχων, | ἔξω κομίζων ὀλεθρίου πηλοῦ πόδα. Others take ἀχέων as a participle. But κρυπτᾷ without the genitive is poor, and the notion of Orestes sorrowing is out of place. The Chorus could not know of it, and if they did they would have suppressed the mention of it as inauspicious.
160-163. mvp-comment-96-1 'Orestes, whom the land of this people, with her glory unimpaired, shall receive as the successor of his father's fame, sped hither by the kind will of Zeus.'
162. mvp-comment-97-1 Διὸς εὔφρονι βήματι] ί.ε. Διὸς εὐφρόνως βήσαντος αὐτόν. The verbal has a causative meaning. See Essay on L. § 53 b. p. 98; or else a causal meaning is contained in the genitive. Ibid. § 9. p. 12 a. There is a correlation between κλεινά and εὐπατρίδαν, both being proleptic and denoting the consequence of the return of Orestes.
164-165. mvp-comment-98-1 The mention of her brother gives a new direction to Electra's complaint. Cp. supr. 119, 20.
165. mvp-comment-99-1 Cp. Ant. 815, 917-8.
166-167. mvp-comment-100-1 τὸν . . πόνων] Oppressed with my troublous destiny that has no good issue.' The article as in O. T. 1153, τὸν γέροντά μ' αἰκίσῃ, -equivalent to a relative clause, ὅς ἐστιν ἀνήνυτος, ἀνήνυτον, Accomplishing nothing,' i. e. Suffered in vain. Cp. O. C. 1565, 6, πολλῶν γὰρ ἂν καὶ μάταν | πημάτων ἱκνουμένων, κ.τ.λ., and note.
169. mvp-comment-101-1 ὧν τ᾽ ἔπαθ', ὧν τ᾽ ἐδάη] 'His wrongs, and the lesson he has been taught,' viz. by the Paedagogus ( supr. 3. 13. 14) and by the messages from Electra.
169-170. mvp-comment-102-1 (1) For what missive that I send doth not return (ἔρχεται) discomfited? Others take the words to mean, (2) What message' (from Orestes) 'comes to me, whose promise does not fail?'
171-172. mvp-comment-103-1 i e. in reply to my messages I always hear of his longing to come but never of his coming.
174. mvp-comment-104-1 This line (see v. rr.) seems to have been interpolated so as to supplement the locative dative and the ellipse of ἐστίν. μέγας is the predicate. 'Zeus is still great in heaven.'
176-177. mvp-comment-105-1 'Committing unto him thine exceeding indignation, be neither overburdened with enmity against thy foes, nor yet forget them;' i.e. Let the thought that Zeus will some day avenge thee serve to calm and moderate thy rage. The structure is paratactic (Essay on L. § 36. p. 68), for Without forgetting your enemies. be moderate in assailing them, and trust in the Divine vengeance.'
179. mvp-comment-106-1 For Time is a god of easiness,' i.e. a god who makes things easy or possible. The meaning is, not that Time assuages sorrow, but that what at one time seems impossible may prove easily possible in the course of years. Cp. Plat. Rep. 6. 502 B, ὡς μὲν γὰρ χαλεπὸν σωθῆναι, καὶ ἡμεῖς ξυγχωροῦμεν, ὡς δὲ ἐν παντὶ τῷ χρόνῳ . . οὐδ᾽ ἂν εἶς σωθείη, ἔσθ' ὅστις ἀμφισβητήσει; Shak. Cor. 5. 3.61, Murdering impossibility, to make What cannot be slight work. For the personification, cp. Phil. 837, καιρὸς.. πάντων γνώμαν ἴσχων: supr. 76: and esp. Eur. Ion, 337, ἀργὸς ἡ θεός, sc. αἰδώς.
180-181. mvp-comment-107-1 τὰν Κρῖσαν.. ἀκτάν] · Who dwells in Crisa, that pastoral shore-ward land. So Hermann. Others would read Κρίσας, οι Κρίσᾳ. 'Who dwells amid the shoreward-pastures of Crisa.'
182. mvp-comment-108-1 He, Agamemnon's heir.. will yet turn unto his own, and so will he that reigns, a God, by Acheron.' ἀπερίτροπος is to be taken in a different sense with παῖς ᾿Αγαμεμνονίδας and with what follows. Or, what comes to the same thing, another verb must be supplied in thought with the second clause. Orestes shall return: Agamemnon shall regard his house and offspring. The derivation from περιτρέπω suggests the idea of a coming revolution, (1) in the action of Orestes, (2) in the awakening from apparent slumber and forgetfulness of the gods below, or of the spirit of Agamemnon.
184. mvp-comment-109-1 Nor he who ruleth as a god beside the ghostly river.' Cp. supr. 110. (1) The subject of this line has commonly been supposed to be Hades. Another interpretation has occurred independently to Mr. Blaydes, Prof. Paley, and the present editor, viz. (2) that θεὸς may refer to Agamemnon as a δαίμων. In support of this, cp. supr. 150 Νιόβα, σὲ δ' ἔγωγε νέμω θεόν, infr. 839-41 (of Amphiaraus), νῦν ὑπὸ γαίας . . ἀνάσσει, and note; and the following places of the Choephori:-157, σέβας, ὦ δέσποτ᾽: 356, 7, κατὰ χθονὸς ἐμπρέπων | σεμνότιμος ἀνάκτωρ : 475-8, θεῶν τῶν κατὰ γᾶς ὅδ᾽ ὕμνος. ΧΟ. ἀλλὰ κλύοντες, μάκαρες χθόνιοι, | τήσδε κατευχῆς πέμπετ᾿ ἀρωγὴν | παισὶν προφρόνως ἐπὶ νίκῃ : also Persae, 157, θεοῦ μὲν εὐνάτειρα Περσῶν, θεοῦ δὲ καὶ μήτηρ ἔφυς: 644, Περσᾶν Σουσιγενή θεόν, -although the analogy in these two instances is weakened by the words being put into the mouths of Persians; but see also Ag. 1548, ἐπ᾿ ἀνδρὶ θείῳ. Agamemnon, in Aesch. Ag. 925, says to Clytemnestra, λέγω κατ᾿ ἄνδρα, μὴ θεόν, σέβειν ἐμέ. But that is in his lifetime. And considering the honours that are paid at his tomb, and the tone in which he is spoken of by Electra throughout, the chorus may speak of him to her as θεός by an allowable hyperbole, especially if the word is taken, not with the article as subject of the sentence, but as supplementary predicate with ἀνάσσων. If this hypothesis is not admissible, the god intended is probably not Pluto, but (3) Hermes. Cp. supr. 111.
185-186. mvp-comment-110-1 But my life hath in great part already passed from me and left me hopeless and forlorn.' The life is separable from the person, cp. О. Т. 612, τὸν παρ᾽ αὑτῷ βίοτον. ἀνέλπιστος is proleptic, and in idea belongs, by hypallage, to ἐμέ, -' is passed without bringing me any hope.' The exact sense of ὁ πολύς is not to be pressed. The article is deictic, as in Aj. 1149, τὴν πολλὴν βοήν: infr. 931.
186. mvp-comment-111-1 οὐδ᾽ ἔτ᾿ ἀρκῶ] 'And I am no longer of any avail. Cp. Thuc. 2. 47. § 5, οὔτε γὰρ ἰατροὶ ἤρκουν.
187. mvp-comment-112-1 ἄνευ τοκέων] Her father is dead, and her mother is worse than lost to her.
187. mvp-comment-112-2 τοκέων occurs in one MS. (Vind. 281) and is adopted by Nauck. Cp. supr. 164, ἄτεκνος. It may be thought more suited to Electra's age to feel the want of children than of parents. But her filial piety is the chief motive of the play.
189-190. mvp-comment-113-1 ἁπερεί τις .. πατρός] ‘Like some despised sojourner, I tend the chambers of my father's house." Cp. Aesch. Cho. 84, δμωαὶ γυναῖκες, δωμάτων εὐθήμονες. For the absolute use of ἀνάξιος, cp. Phil. 439, ἀναξίου.. φωτός, 'A fellow of no esteem.' Hermann joined this word with what follows it ('I am undeservedly made to do menial service'), on the ground that an ἔποικος was ἀναξία as a matter of course. But, on the other hand, the addition of ἀναξία to the bare statement οἰκονομῶ θαλάμους πατρός, certainly weakens the expression, while the pleonasm in ἔποικος ἀναξία is rather emphatic, and is supported, as Ellendt pointed out, by the Homeric expression, ὡσεί τιν᾿ ἀτίμητον μετανάστην, ΙΙ. 9. 648, 16. 59.
190-191. mvp-comment-114-1 ὧδε . . ἀεικεῖ . . στολᾷ] Electra is a woman speaking to women. Cp. Aesch. Pers. 846-8, (῎Ατοσσα.) μάλιστα δ᾽ ἥδε συμφορὰ δάκνει, | ἀτιμίαν γε παιδὸς ἀμφὶ σώματι | ἐσθημάτων κλύουσαν, ἥ νιν ἀμπέχει.
192. mvp-comment-115-1 κεναῖς δ᾽ ἀμφίσταμαι τραπέζαις] And the table at which I stand is bare.' Hermann had conjectured ἀμφίσταμαι, which restores the metre, before he observed that it was quoted by Eustathius. Cp. Pind. Ol. 1. 80, τραπέζαισι .. ἀμφί, and, for the thought, Od. 20. 259, δίφρον ἀεικέλιον καταθεὶς ὀλίγην τε τράπεζαν : infr. 361, 2, σοὶ δὲ πλουσία | τράπεζα κείσθω καὶ περιρρείτω βίος : Pind. Ο1. 2. 116, κεινὰν παρὰ δίαιταν.
194. mvp-comment-116-1 οἰκτρὰ μὲν νόστοις αὐδά] 'Piteous were thy tones at the time of thy father's return.' In the Agamemnon of Aeschylus, the Watchman and the Chorus, i. e. the household and the people, express a vague misgiving, which is not sufficiently definite to enable them to warn Agamemnon. Sophocles here, as elsewhere, concentrates in an individual what in Aeschylus was general. It is quite consistent with his conception of the character of Electra, that, young as she then was, and totally unable, both from her inexperience ( infr. 1024) and her dependent position, of averting the harm which she may have vaguely foreseen, she had a sufficiently clear perception of the situation to be sad instead of joyful on the occasion of her father's coming home, and her sadness would be aggravated by her helplessness :-ἐπεὶ ἐχθίστη ὀδύνη πολλὰ φρονέοντα μηδενὸς κρατέειν. Her friends, of the same age with her, observed this, and in recollecting it, now understand the cause. ooi is easily supplied, both because the whole of Electra's last speech refers to herself, and because σοί occurs immediately afterwards as an ethical' dative. πατρός is no less easily supplied with νόστοις for a similar reason, both because the word occurs three lines above, and because it is implied in πατρώαις in the following line. νόστοις is dative of the occasion, E. on L. § 11. p. 18. For the sense, cp. Aesch. Pers. 935, 6, πρόσφθογγόν σοι νόστου τὰν | κακοφάτιδα βοάν, κακομέλετον ἰὰν | Μαριανδυνοῦ θρηνητῆρος | πέμψω πολύδακρυν ἰακχάν.
195-197. mvp-comment-117-1 οἰκτρὰ δ'.. πλαγά] 'And piteous was thy crying where thy father lay, when thou hadst seen launched the death-stroke of the solid brazen axe.' If Sophocles (see Introduction) follows the form of the legend known to us from Homer, according to which Agamemnon was slain at a feast given in honour of his return, ἐν κοίταις probably means, (1) 'Where he lay in death.' And this is supported by 203. The poet might, no doubt, have so far modified the legend as to suppose Agamemnon after the feast to have been lured by Clytemnestra to his chamber and there slain. ἐν κοίταις might then belong to the relative clause (ὅτε ἐν κ.), and mean 'in his chamber. But this is inconsistent with 203 and 270. For (1) cp. Aesch. Ag. 1494, 1518, Eur. Med. 437, O. C. 1707. The bath, and the entangling garment, which are so prominent in the Agamemnon and Choephori, are in any case not thought of here. Some (including Wecklein) understand aὐδά in both clauses of the death-shriek of the king. σοι (Ε. on L. § 13. p. 19 f.) marks that Electra was the chief sufferer from all that happened. This explanation is rightly defended by Triclinius. Cp. Tennyson's Elaine, -Through her own side she felt the sharp lance go.' Hermann, understanding aὐδά of the people's voice, rejects σοι and reads οἱ instead. The hiatus, which he defends from Trach. 650, ὁ δὲ οἱ φίλα δάμαρ (cp. supr. 157), is still exceptional, but a stronger objection to the removal of σοί is that the connection between this speech and Electra's is thus destroyed.
197-200. mvp-comment-118-1 Sophocles seems here to have in his mind the passage of the Agamemnon where Clytemnestra impersonates the Alastor of Atreus, Aesch. Agam. 1500-1504: Craft pointed out the way, lust murdered him. Between them they produced a monstrous birth, whether he who did this thing were a god or one of mortal mould.' μορφάν the immediate agent and the act itself, as an embodied horror, seem to be confused. See E. on L. § 48. p. 92.
201-212. mvp-comment-119-1 In supr. 185-92, Electra refused consolation and drew attention to her hopeless misery. The women then call to mind how they had pitied her at the time of her father's death. This opens anew the flood-gates of her sorrow. Cp. Ant. 857 foll., ἔψαυσας ἀλγεινοτάτας ἐμοὶ μερίμνας, κ.τ.λ.
203. mvp-comment-120-1 δείπνων] The feast which preceded the murder, according to Od. 4. 535. Agamemnon (see next note) is supposed to have been murdered at table : ὡσεί τε κατέκτανε βοῦν ἐπὶ φάτνῃ (Od. 1. c.).
205. mvp-comment-121-1 For ἄχθη, the grammatical antecedent, the more definite θάνατοι is substituted and taken into the relative clause. The horror of that feast-I mean the death which followed it.'
206. mvp-comment-122-1 διδύμαιν χειροῖν] ‘Effected by joint violence' of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra.
207-208. mvp-comment-123-1 αΐ.. πρόδοτον] 'That wrought treason on my life and ruined me.'
209. mvp-comment-124-1 ois refers to the antecedent implied in χειροῖν, viz. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra.
211. mvp-comment-125-1 'And never may they have any good of their magnificence.' Cp. infr. 267-281: Od. 17. 244, 5, τῷ κέ τοι ἀγλαΐας γε διασκεδάσειεν ἁπάσας, | τὰς νῦν ὑβρίζων φορέεις.
214-216. mvp-comment-126-1 'Seest thou not through what courses thou hast fallen thus cruelly into calamities that come home to thee?' or, with a slightly different shade of meaning, 'which thou hast brought upon thyself.' Cp. Aj. 260: Pind. Nem. 1. 81, τὸ γὰρ οἰκεῖον πιέζει πάνθ᾽ ὁμῶς. ἐξ οἵων is otherwise explained by one Scholiast :-ἐξ οἴων ἀγαθῶν εἰς τί ἀνιαρὸν ἐλήλυθας. Cp. infr. 392. But it is more natural that the Chorus should remind her of the cause of the persecution she is undergoing.
218-219. mvp-comment-127-1 σᾷ . . πολέμους] Ever creating new conflicts for thy burdened soul.'
219-220. mvp-comment-128-1 τὰ δὲ.. πλάθειν] ‘But strife with the powerful is hopeless.' The vague rá is to be supplemented from what precedes and follows,- sc. τὰ πολεμούμενα, οι τὰ ἐρίδος ἐχόμενα. Cp. Plat. Symp. 206 C, ταῦτα δ᾽ ἐν τῷ ἀναρμόστῳ, -sc. κυούμενα καὶ γεννώμενα, - Pind. Nem. 10. 135, χαλεπὰ δ' ἔρις ἀνθρώποις ὁμιλεῖν κρεσσόνων: ΟΙ. 11. 48, νεῖκος δὲ κρεσσόνων ἀποθέσθ᾽ ἄπορον. πλάθειν, sc. τοῖς δυνατοῖς, is epexegetic infinitive.
221. mvp-comment-129-1 The Chorus (l. 214) have reminded Electra of the violent words by which she has earned her present misery. She replies that such words were wrung from her by a fearful cause, viz. by the murder of her father and the subsequent conduct of the murderers. Cp. infr. 271 foll.
222. mvp-comment-130-1 'I know, I am conscious of my passion, viz. that it is inordinate. Cp. infr. 617, 8, μανθάνω δ᾽ ὁθούνεκα | ἔξωρα πράσσω κοὐκ ἐμοὶ προσεικότα : 1011, κατάσχες ὀργήν.
223-224. mvp-comment-131-1 But amid deeds of horror I will not curb or moderate these my calamitous ways' (as ye call them). She echoes the words of the Chorus (l. 215) in a different sense. They meant by οἰκείας ἄτας, 'self-caused calamities:' -she means by ταύτας άτας, 'this infatuate,' or 'fatal,' course,' of which by implication they have accused her.
226-228. mvp-comment-132-1 Electra relapses into despair. If even these Argive women, who know her so well, cannot give her a word of comfort, whence is it to come? 'At whose mouth, then, kind band of friends, can I hope to hear a word of comfort, prompted by seasonable thought?' For the uncommon dative, see E. on L. § 13. p. 20.
229. mvp-comment-133-1 'Press not on me with your consolations,' and cp. Eur. El. 1182, διὰ πυρὸς ἔμολον ἁ τάλαινα ματρὶ τᾷδ᾽.
230. mvp-comment-134-1 For ye shall find this sorrow irremoveable.'
234. mvp-comment-135-1 Like a true-hearted mother.' For this form of expressing sympathy from one woman to another, cp. Trach. 526, ἐγὼ δὲ μάτηρ μὲν οἷα φράζω.
235. mvp-comment-136-1 ἄταν ἄταις] Cp. Αj. 866, πόνῳ πόνον, and note.
236. mvp-comment-137-1 καὶ τί μέτρον κακότατος ἔφυ;] 'And is not my trouble infinite?' (So the Scholiast, -πρὸς γὰρ ἄμετρον κακὸν καὶ ἀμέτρων δεῖται θρήνων.) Cp. infr. 1249, 50, ἁμέτερον οἷον ἔφυ κακόν. For the meaning, cp. Shak. Ant. and Cleo. 4. 15. 4, But comforts we despise; our size of sorrow, Proportioned to our cause, must be as great As that which makes it.'
237. mvp-comment-138-1 ἐπὶ τοῖς φθιμένοις ἀμελεῖν] To treat the dead with forgetfulness.' E. on L. § 19. p. 27.
238. mvp-comment-139-1 ἐν τίνι . . ἀνθρώπων] 'Where amongst men hath such a mind sprung up?'
239. mvp-comment-140-1 τούτοις] Sc. ἐν οἷς τοῦτο ἔβλαστε, the indefinite plural taking the place of the indefinite singular. E. on L. § 20. p. 31. 3. Cp. Hdt. 9. 79. § 3. ἐγὼ δ᾽ οὖν τούτου εἵνεκα μήτε Αἰγινήτῃσι ἅδοιμι, μήτε τοῖσι ταῦτα ἀρέσκεται· ἀποχρᾷ δ᾽ ἐμοί, Σπαρτιήτῃσι ἀρεσκόμενον, ὅσια μὲν ποιέειν, ὅσια δὲ καὶ λέγειν.
240. mvp-comment-141-1 εἴ τῳ πρόσκειμαι χρηστῷ] · If I have near me any good,' = εἴ τι χρηστὸν πρόσκειταί μοι : Ε. on L. § 42. p. 80 β. Cp. infr. 1040, ᾧ σὺ πρόσκεισαι κακῷ.
241-243. mvp-comment-142-1 γονέων .. γόων] • Holding back the wings of my shrill wailings from doing honour to my sire.' Each fresh utterance of the unabating sorrow is imagined as a bird that is eager to fly. ἐκτίμους is predicative and proleptic, = ὥστε ἔξω εἶναι τοῦ τιμᾶν. See E. on L. $ 54. p. 100 d, § 10. p. 16 f., § 23. p. 38 81, § 38. p. 71.
244. mvp-comment-143-1 ya] Prof. Jebb reads ya, i.e. 'buried,' adding, 'it is difficult to believe that yῆ could stand for σποδός.' But the expression is hyperbolical-' mere clay.' Cp. ψήγμα in Aesch. Ag. 442.
251-252. mvp-comment-144-1 καὶ τὸ σὸν.. καὶ τοὐμὸν αὐτῆς] 'More in care for thee than for myself. This is really the meaning, although, by the usual Greek litotes, 'as much as' is put for more than.' The most important matter is put first. E. on L. § 41. p. 78.
253. mvp-comment-145-1 ἑψόμεσθ'] Cp. infr. 1052.
254-255. mvp-comment-146-1 I am ashamed of seeming to you, as I must seem, to be too impatient in multiplying lamentations.' δοκῶ is indicative.
258. mvp-comment-147-1 πατρῷ᾽ ὁρῶσα πήματ'] 'Seeing woful things performed against her sire.' Electra's filial affection for Agamemnon is kept prominently before us as her chief motive; and every insult to his memory, including her own sufferings, is regarded by her as part of the wrong done to him. πατρῷα is at first general, but in the antecedent to a it becomes individual, -' of my father.'
260. mvp-comment-148-1 θάλλοντα .. καταφθίνονθ'] “Not lessening but increasing.'
260-261. mvp-comment-149-1 ᾖ.. συμβέβηκεν] 'Since, first of all, I have found in my own mother the deepest cause for hatred.' This (Paley, etc.) is better than my mother is my enemy.'
264. mvp-comment-150-1 κἀκ τῶνδ᾽ ἄρχομαι] ‘And I am in subjection to them. Cp. O. C. 67, ἐκ τοῦ κατ᾿ ἄστυ βασιλέως τάδ' ἄρχεται.
270. mvp-comment-151-1 ἔνθ᾽ ἐκεῖνον ὤλεσεν] Here again Sophocles seems to follow the account that is given in the fourth book of the Odyssey, ll. 529 foll., according to which Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon at or after a banquet. Hence he is said to have destroyed him beside the hearth. Cp. infr. 1495.
271-274. mvp-comment-152-1 Further, when I see their crowning insult, when I see, forsooth, the author of his death reclining on my father's couch, beside my wretched mother, if so I must call this woman, when cohabiting with him!' The clause τὸν αὐτοφόντην κ.τ.λ. is in the same construction with ὕβριν, governed by ἴδω. ἡμίν is ethical dative, and has a sarcastic force; i.e. That is what I am compelled to look upon.' The participle (κείμενον) which should have gone with ἐν κοίτῃ is absorbed and resumed in συγκοιμωμένην.