Sophocles Electra 8

Robert Potter (Translator)

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Aegisthus
hew'd him with the bloody axe
As woodmen hew an oak; nor does thy death,
My father, thy unjust and cruel death
With sorrow touch one female heart, save mine.
But never will I cease my strains of woe,
My mournful lamentations, whilst I view
The stars bright radiance, whilst I view the day.
No; as some nightingale, her young ones lost,
Before my father's gates I pour to all
My wailings, and the notes of woe, aloud.
O house of Pluto and his gloomy queen ;
90
O Hermes, guide to the infernal realms;
90
Thou, dreaded Ate; and ye pow'rs revered,
90
Terrific Furies, daughters of the gods;
Those, who by impious hands were slain, you see ;
Those, who by stealth the royal bed invade;
Come, aid, avenge my murder'd father's blood;
Send me my brother; for this weight of grief,
Which sinks me, I no more can bear alone!

Electra. Sophocles. Robert Potter (Translator). London. 1820.

Current edition Experimental

English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) (English) (English (Robert Potter, 1788))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (2)
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 8 focus
Ἥρας ὁ κλεινὸς ναός· οἱ δ᾽ ἱκάνομεν,
Greek (F. Storr, 1912) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. Storr, 1912)) — 1-120 focus
Translations (4)
English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 8 focus
CHORUS
CHORUS (entering).
O sad Electra, child Of a lost mother, why still flow
Unceasingly with lamentation wild
For him who through her treachery beguiled,
Inveigled by a wife’s deceit,
Fallen at the foul adulterer’s feet,
85
Most impiously was quelled long years ago?
85
Perish the cause! if I may lawfully pray so.
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 1 focus
O Sohn des Feldherrn, der in Troas einst gebot, 1
1
Des Agamemnon, endlich ist es dir vergönnt,
Zu schaun mit Augen, was zu schaun dich stets verlangt.
Dein graues Argos, deiner Sehnsucht Land, ist hier, 2
Der wuthgeschlagnen Inachid' uralter Hain;
5
Das dort, Orestes, ist der Markt des Lykiers,
Des wolferlegenden Gottes, und zur Liuken hier
Der Hera stolzer Tempel: wo wir hingelangt,
Schaust du Mykenä's Veste, reich an goldnem Schaz,
Und hier der Pelopsenkel unheilschwangres Haus,
10
Wo nach des Vaters grausem Tod ich ehedem
Von deiner Schwester dich empfing und weiter trug
Und rettet' und zu solcher Jugendblüte dich
Aufzog, dereinst zu rächen deines Vaters Mord.
Nun denn, Orestes, und o du, mein Pylades,
15
Der Freunde liebster, was zu thun, berathet schnell:
Denn schon erweckt der Sonne strahlenvoller Glanz
Der Vögel Morgenstimmen uns zu hellem Schall;
Die schwarze Nacht der Sterne schwand in's Dunkel hin.
Drum eh' ein Mann aus dieses Hauses Pforte tritt,
20
Beredet euch zusammen; denn wir stehen da,
Wo's nimmer gilt zu säumen, wo's der That bedarf.
English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 8 focus
Electra
Devoid of sense and feeling is the heart
That can forget an injured parent's wrongs.
130
I love the airy messenger of Jove,
The mournful bird that weeps her Ity's fate,
And every night repeats the tender tale ;
Thee, too, I reverence as a goddess — thee,
Unhappy Niobe ! for still thou weepst,
135
And from the marble tears eternal flow.
English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 1-120 focus

Commentary

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

mvp-comment-49-1 πολλὰς μὲν … ᾔσθου 1

mvp-comment-49-2 ἀντήρεις 2

mvp-comment-50-1 πληγὰς 3 πλαγὰς 4

mvp-comment-51-1 ὑπολειφθῇ 5 ᾔσθου 6

mvp-comment-52-1 τὰ … παννυχίδων 7 ξυνίσας’ 8 ὅσα … θρηνῶ 9

mvp-comment-52-2 ἤδη 10

mvp-comment-52-3 The MS. οἴκων 11 λέκτρων 12 μογερῶν 13

mvp-comment-53-1 ὅσα τὸν δύστηνον 14

mvp-comment-54-1 κατὰ μὲν βάρβαρον αἶαν 15 ἐξένισεν 16

mvp-comment-55-1 Ἄρης 17

mvp-comment-55-2 ἐξένισεν 18

mvp-comment-56-1 κοινολεχὴς 19

mvp-comment-57-1 ὅπως δρῦν ὑλοτόμοι 20

mvp-comment-57-2 σχίζουσι 21

mvp-comment-57-3 κάρα 22

mvp-comment-57-4 πέλεκει 23

mvp-comment-58-1 ἄλλης 24

mvp-comment-58-2 φέρεται 25

mvp-comment-58-3 The deletion of the words ἀπ’ ἄλλης 26 ἢ )μοῦ 27

mvp-comment-59-1 ἀλλ’ οὐ μὲν δὴ 28

mvp-comment-60-1 ἄστρων 29

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 30

mvp-comment-61-2 τεκνολέτειῤ 31

mvp-comment-62-1 ἐπὶ κωκυτῷ 32

mvp-comment-62-2 ἠχὼ 33

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 34

mvp-comment-64-1 ὦ χθόνἰ Ἑρμῆ 35

mvp-comment-64-2 Ἀρά 36

mvp-comment-64-3 πότνια 37

mvp-comment-65-1 σεμναὶ 38

mvp-comment-65-2 θεῶν παῖδες 39

mvp-comment-66-1 ὁρᾶθ’ 40

mvp-comment-67-1 αἳ τοὺς εὐνὰς ὑποκλεπτομένους 41

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 42

mvp-comment-69-1 ἡμετέρου 43 μοι 44

mvp-comment-69-2 καί μοι 45

mvp-comment-70-1 ἄγειν 46

mvp-comment-70-2 σωκῶ 47

mvp-comment-71-1 δυστανοτάτας 48

mvp-comment-72-1 τάκεις … οἰμωγὰν 49

mvp-comment-72-2 ἀκόρεστον 50

mvp-comment-72-3 τὸν πάλαι 51

mvp-comment-72-4 πάλαι 52 ἐκ 53

mvp-comment-72-5 ἀθεώτατα 54

mvp-comment-72-6 κακᾷ … χειρὶ πρόδοτον 55 χειρὶ 56

mvp-comment-72-7 ὡς 57

mvp-comment-72-8 ὁ τάδε πορὼν 58

mvp-comment-72-9 εἴ μοι θέμις 59

mvp-comment-73-1 γενέθλα 60

mvp-comment-73-2 γενναίων 61

mvp-comment-73-3 παραμύθ‐ 62 ιον 63

mvp-comment-74-1 ξυνίημι 64

mvp-comment-74-2 τάδ’ 65

mvp-comment-75-1 φυγγάνει 66

mvp-comment-75-2 οὐδ’ ἐθέλω 67

mvp-comment-76-1 μὴ οὐ 68

mvp-comment-76-2 τὸν ἐμὸν … πατέρ’ ἄθλιον 69

mvp-comment-77-1 παντοίας 70

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 71

mvp-comment-79-1 αἰαῖ, ἱκνοῦμαι 72

mvp-comment-80-1 τόν γ’ ἐξ Ἀΐδα … λίμνας 73

mvp-comment-80-2 παγκοίνου 74

mvp-comment-80-3 ἀνστάσεις 75

mvp-comment-81-1 οὔτε †γόοις οὔτε λιταῖσιν 76 οὔτε γόοισιν οὔτ’ εὐχαῖς 77

mvp-comment-82-1 For the repetition of ἀλλά 78

mvp-comment-82-2 ἀπὸ τῶν μετρίων 79

mvp-comment-82-3 ἀμήχανον 80

mvp-comment-82-4 ο=ιόλλυσαι 81

mvp-comment-83-1 ἐν οἷς 82

mvp-comment-83-2 ἀνάλυσις … κακῶν 83

mvp-comment-83-3 τί μοι 84

mvp-comment-84-1 νήπιος 85

mvp-comment-84-2 γονέων 86

mvp-comment-85-1 ἐμέ γ’ … ἄραρεν 87

mvp-comment-85-2 φρένας 88

mvp-comment-86-1 αἰὲν Ἴτυν 89

mvp-comment-87-1 ὄρνις 90

mvp-comment-87-2 ἀτυζομένα 91

mvp-comment-87-3 Διὸς ἄγγελος 92

mvp-comment-88-1 Νιόβα, σὲ δ’ 93 θεόν 94

mvp-comment-88-2 ἅτ’ 95

mvp-comment-88-3 ἐν τάφῳ πετραίῳ 96

mvp-comment-89-1 αἰεὶ 97

mvp-comment-90-1 οὔτοι σοὶ μούνᾳ 98

mvp-comment-91-1 πρὸς ὅ τι 99

mvp-comment-91-2 τῶν ἔνδον εἶ περισσά 100

mvp-comment-92-1 οἷς 101 τῶν ἔνδον 102

mvp-comment-92-2 ὁμόθεν 103 γονᾷ ξύναιμος 104

mvp-comment-93-1 οἵα Χρ. ζώει 105

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 106

mvp-comment-93-4 καὶ Ἰφιάνασσα 107

mvp-comment-94-1 ἀχέων 108

mvp-comment-94-2 Hermann, taking ἀχέων 109 κρυπτᾷ 110

mvp-comment-95-1 ὄλβιος, ὃν 111

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 112

mvp-comment-96-2 Διὸς εὔφρονι 113 βήματι 114

mvp-comment-96-3 γᾶν 115 γᾶ 116

mvp-comment-96-4 Ὀρέσταν 117 ὃν 118

mvp-comment-97-1 ἀκάματα 119

mvp-comment-97-2 ἀνύμφευτος 120 ἄτεκνος 121

mvp-comment-97-3 οἰχνῶ 122

mvp-comment-98-1 δάκρυσι μυδαλέα 123

mvp-comment-98-2 τὸν ἀνήνυτον 124

mvp-comment-98-3 οἶτον ἔχουσα 125

mvp-comment-99-1 ὧν τ’ ἔπαθ’ 126 ὧν τ’ ἐδάη 127

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 128

mvp-comment-99-4 ἀπατώμενον 129 τί … οὐκ 130

mvp-comment-99-5 Herwerden's οὐχί μοι 131 οὐκ ἐμοί 132 ὁ δέ 133

mvp-comment-100-1 ποθεῖ, ποθῶν δ’ 134

mvp-comment-101-1 ἔτι μέγας οὐρανῷ 135 ἐν 136

mvp-comment-102-1 τὸν ὑπεραλγῆ 137

mvp-comment-102-2 νέμουσα 138

mvp-comment-103-1 μήτε ὑπεράχθεο 139 οἷς 140

mvp-comment-104-1 εὐμαρὴς θεός 141 θεός 142

mvp-comment-105-1 οὔτε γὰρ 143

mvp-comment-105-2 Κρῖσαν 144

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 145 βουνόμον 146

mvp-comment-106-2 βούνομον ἀκτὰν 147 Κρῖσαν 148

mvp-comment-107-1 ἀπερίτροπος 149

mvp-comment-108-1 παρὰ τὸν Ἀχέροντα 150 ἀνάσσων 151 θεὸς 152

mvp-comment-109-1 μὲν 153

mvp-comment-109-2 ὁ πολὺς … βίοτος 154

mvp-comment-109-3 ἀνέλπιστος 155

mvp-comment-109-4 187 *

τεκέων
. I am now satisfied that this is a true correction of τοκέων 156 ἅτις 157 τοκέων 158

mvp-comment-110-1 ἁπερεί 159

mvp-comment-110-2 ἔποικος 160

mvp-comment-111-1 οἰκονομῶ θαλάμους 161

mvp-comment-112-1 ἀεικεῖ σὺν στολᾷ 162

mvp-comment-113-1 κεναῖς δ’ ἀμφίσταμαι τραπέζαις 163 ἀμφίσταμαι 164

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 165 κοίταις 166 οἰκτρὰ … αὐδὰ 167

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 168 ἐν 169

mvp-comment-114-6 κοίταις 170

mvp-comment-114-7 ὅτε οἱ 171 σοι 172 ἀνταία 173

mvp-comment-114-8 γενύων 174

mvp-comment-115-1 δόλος … ἔρος 175

mvp-comment-116-1 δεινὰν δεινῶς 176 δεινὰν … μορφάν 177

mvp-comment-116-2 εἴτ’ οὖν … εἴτε 178 βροτῶν 179

mvp-comment-117-1 πλέον … ἐχθίστα 180

mvp-comment-117-2 δὴ 181

mvp-comment-118-1 νὺξ 182

mvp-comment-118-2 δείπνων 183

mvp-comment-119-1 ἄχθη 184 τοῖς 185 θανάτους 186

mvp-comment-119-2 διδύμαιν χειροῖν 187 διδύμοιν 188

mvp-comment-120-1 εἷλον … πρόδοτον 189

mvp-comment-121-1 οἷς 190

mvp-comment-121-2 Ὀλύμπιος 191

mvp-comment-122-1 ποίνιμα 192

mvp-comment-123-1 ἀγλαΐας 193

mvp-comment-123-2 ἀποναίατο 194

mvp-comment-124-1 πόρσω 195

mvp-comment-125-1 γνώμαν ἴσχεις 196

mvp-comment-125-2 ἐξ οἵων 197

mvp-comment-125-3 τὰ παρόντ’ 198

mvp-comment-125-4 οἰκείας 199

mvp-comment-126-1 πολύ … τι κακῶν 200

mvp-comment-126-2 ὑπερεκτήσω 201

mvp-comment-127-1 τὰ δὲ 202 οὐκ ἐριστὰ τοῖς δυνατοῖς 203 πλάθειν 204

mvp-comment-127-2 ἐριστά 205

mvp-comment-127-3 πλάθειν 206

mvp-comment-128-1 δεινοῖς ἠναγκάσθην 207

mvp-comment-129-1 ὀργά 208 ἔξοιδ’ 209

mvp-comment-130-1 ἀλλὰ … γὰρ 210

mvp-comment-130-2 ἐν … δεινοῖς 211

mvp-comment-130-3 σχήσω 212

mvp-comment-130-4 ταύτας ἄτας 213

mvp-comment-131-1 ὄφρα 214

mvp-comment-131-2 βίος ἔχῃ με 215 σχήσω 216

mvp-comment-132-1 τίνι γάρ … τίνι φρονοῦντι καίρια 217 ἀκούσαιμ’ ἂν πρόσφορον ἔπος 218 τίνι 219 πρόσφορον 220

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 221

mvp-comment-133-2 ἄλυτα 222

mvp-comment-133-3 κεκλήσεται 223

mvp-comment-133-4 231 f. For ἐκ 224

mvp-comment-133-5 ἀνάριθμος 225 θρήνων 226

mvp-comment-134-1 ἀλλ’ οὖν 227 γε 228 εὐνοίᾳ 229

mvp-comment-135-1 μάτηρ ὡσεί τις 230

mvp-comment-136-1 μὴ τίκτειν 231

mvp-comment-136-2 ἄταν ἄταις 232

mvp-comment-137-1 καὶ τί μέτρον 233 κακότατος 234

mvp-comment-137-2 φέρε 235

mvp-comment-137-3 ἐπὶ τοῖς φθ. 236

mvp-comment-138-1 ἔβλαστ’ 237

mvp-comment-139-1 τούτοις 238

mvp-comment-140-1 εἴ τῳ πρόσκειμαι χρηστῷ 239

mvp-comment-141-1 ξυνναίοιμ’ 240

mvp-comment-141-2 εὔκηλος 241

mvp-comment-141-3 γονέων 242 ἐκτίμους 243

mvp-comment-141-4 ἐκτίμους ἵσχουσα 244

mvp-comment-141-5 πτέρυγας … γόων 245

mvp-comment-141-6 ὀξυτόνων 246

mvp-comment-142-1 εἰ γὰρ 247

mvp-comment-142-2 γᾶ 248

mvp-comment-142-3 οὐδὲν 249 ὢν 250 εἰ 251

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 252

mvp-comment-142-6 ἀντιφόνους δίκας 253

mvp-comment-143-1 ἔρροι τ’ 254

mvp-comment-143-2 αἰδὼς 255 εὐσέβεια 256

mvp-comment-144-1 ἐγὼ μὲν 257

mvp-comment-144-2 καὶ 258 τὸ σὸν … καὶ τοὐμὸν 259

mvp-comment-145-1 νίκα 260

mvp-comment-145-2 ἅμα 261

mvp-comment-146-1 πολλοῖσι θρήνοις 262

mvp-comment-147-1 ἀλλὰ … γὰρ 263

mvp-comment-148-1 ἥτις εὐγενὴς γυνή 264

mvp-comment-149-1 πατρῷα … πήματα 265

mvp-comment-150-1 κατ’ εὐφρόνην 266

mvp-comment-150-2 θάλλοντα 267

mvp-comment-151-1 ᾗ 268

mvp-comment-151-2 πρῶτα μὲν … εἶτα … ἔπειτα 269 ᾗ 270

mvp-comment-151-3 τὰ μητρὸς 271

mvp-comment-151-4 ἔχθιστα συμβέβηκεν 272

mvp-comment-152-1 κἀκ τῶνδ’ ἄρχομαι 273

mvp-comment-153-1 λαβεῖν … τὸ τητᾶσθαι 274

mvp-comment-154-1 ποίας 275 δοκεῖς 276

mvp-comment-155-1 ἴδω 277 εἰσίδω δ’ 278 ἴδω δὲ 279

mvp-comment-155-2 μὲν 280

mvp-comment-156-1 ἐσθήματα 281

mvp-comment-156-2 ἐκείνῳ 282

mvp-comment-156-3 παρεστίους … λοιβάς 283 ἔνθ’ ἐκεῖνον ὤλεσεν 284

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 285

mvp-comment-158-1 αὐτοέντην 286

mvp-comment-158-2 Brunck first adopted αὐτοέντην 287 αὐτοφόντην 288

mvp-comment-158-3 ἡμὶν 289

mvp-comment-159-1 ταλαίνῃ 290

mvp-comment-160-1 ταύτην … τῷδε 291

mvp-comment-161-1 μιάστορι 292 Ἐρινὺν 293

mvp-comment-162-1 ἐγγελῶσα τοῖς ποιουμένοις 294

mvp-comment-163-1 εὑροῦς’ 295 τότε 296

mvp-comment-163-2 The conjecture φρουροῦς’ 297 τηροῦς’ 298

mvp-comment-164-1 χοροὺς ἵστησι 299

mvp-comment-164-2 μηλοσφαγεῖ … ἱερὰ 300

mvp-comment-164-3 ἔμμην’ ἱερά 301

mvp-comment-164-4 τοῖς σωτηρίοις 302

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 303 κατὰ στέγας 304

mvp-comment-166-1 τέτηκα 305

mvp-comment-166-2 πατρὸς 306

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 307 αὑτήν 308

mvp-comment-167-2 κλαῦσαι 309

mvp-comment-167-3 ἡδονὴν φέρει 310

mvp-comment-168-1 ἡ λόγοισι γενναία 311

mvp-comment-169-1 φωνοῦσα 312

mvp-comment-170-1 δύσθεον 313

mvp-comment-170-2 μίσημα 314

mvp-comment-170-3 σοὶ μόνῃ 315

mvp-comment-170-4 τέθνηκεν 316

mvp-comment-170-5 ἐν πένθει 317

mvp-comment-171-1 ἐκ γόων 318

mvp-comment-171-2 οἱ κάτω θεοί 319

mvp-comment-172-1 τάδ’ 320

mvp-comment-172-2 ἥξοντ’ Ὀρέστην 321

mvp-comment-173-1 παραστᾶς’ 322

mvp-comment-174-1 ἥτις 323

mvp-comment-174-2 ὑπεξέθου 324

mvp-comment-175-1 ἀλλ’ ἴσθι τοι τείσουσά γ’ 325

mvp-comment-176-1 ὑλακτεῖ 326

mvp-comment-176-2 σὺν 327

mvp-comment-176-3 πέλας 328 παρών 329

mvp-comment-176-4 301 The adv. πάντα 330

mvp-comment-176-5 ἄναλκις 331

mvp-comment-176-6 ἡ πᾶσα βλάβη 332

mvp-comment-177-1 σὺν γυναιξὶ 333

mvp-comment-177-2 τὰς μάχας 334

mvp-comment-178-1 ἐφήξειν 335

mvp-comment-179-1 μέλλων … δρᾶν τι 336

mvp-comment-179-2 τὰς οὔσας τε … καὶ τὰς ἀπούσας 337

mvp-comment-179-3 μου 338 μοι 339

mvp-comment-179-4 διέφθορεν 340

mvp-comment-180-1 σωφρονεῖν 341 εὐσεβεῖν 342

mvp-comment-180-2 ἔν τοι κακοῖς 343

mvp-comment-180-3 πολλή )στ’ ἀνάγκη 344 κἀπιτηδεύειν κακά 345

mvp-comment-180-4 I place only a comma, not a colon, after πάρεστιν 346

mvp-comment-181-1 ὄντος … βεβῶτος 347

mvp-comment-182-1 ἦ κάρτα 348

mvp-comment-182-2 θυραῖον 349

mvp-comment-182-3 οἰχνεῖν 350

mvp-comment-182-4 ἀγροῖσι 351

mvp-comment-182-5 τυγχάνει 352

mvp-comment-183-1 ἦ κἂν … ἱκοίμην 353 ἦ τ<*>ν 354 ἦ δἂν 355

mvp-comment-183-2 ἐς λόγους τοὺς σοὺς ἱκοίμην 356

mvp-comment-184-1 ὡς νῦν 357 ὥς νυν 358

mvp-comment-184-2 ἱστόρει· τί σοι φίλον 359 τό 360 τά 361

mvp-comment-184-3 With the other punctuation, ἱστόρει τί σοι φίλον 362

mvp-comment-185-1 καὶ δὴ 363

mvp-comment-185-2 τοῦ κασιγνήτου τί φής 364

mvp-comment-185-3 ἥξοντος 365 ἢ μέλλοντος 366

mvp-comment-186-1 φησίν γε 367

mvp-comment-186-2 ποεῖ 368

mvp-comment-187-1 καὶ μὴν ἔγωγ’ 369 γε 370

mvp-comment-187-2 οὐκ ὄκνῳ 371

mvp-comment-188-1 ἀρκεῖν 372

mvp-comment-189-1 ἐπεί 373

mvp-comment-189-2 μακρὰν 374

mvp-comment-189-3 324 Here, as in 316, νῦν 375 νυν 376

mvp-comment-189-4 δόμων 377 φέρουσαν 378

mvp-comment-190-1 ὅμαιμον 379

mvp-comment-190-2 φύσιν 380

mvp-comment-191-1 Χρυσόθεμιν 381

mvp-comment-192-1 οἷα 382 νομίζεται 383

mvp-comment-193-1 πρὸς θυρῶνος ἐξόδοις 384 φωνεῖς 385 ἐλθοῦσα 386 αὖ 387

mvp-comment-193-2 330 For the absence of caesura, cp. Ph. 101 n.

mvp-comment-194-1 θυμῷ … χαρίζεσθαι 388

mvp-comment-195-1 καίτοι τοσοῦτόν γ’ οἶδα 389

mvp-comment-195-2 κἀμαυτήν, ὅτι 390

mvp-comment-195-3 333 f. For the repeated ἄν 391

mvp-comment-195-4 οἶ) αὐτοῖς φρονῶ 392

mvp-comment-196-1 ὑφειμένῃ 393 πλεῖν 394

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 395

mvp-comment-198-1 τοιαῦτα δ’ ἄλλα 396 ἀλλὰ 397 ἄλλα 398

mvp-comment-199-1 καίτοι τὸ μὲν δίκαιον 399

mvp-comment-199-2 κρίνεις 400

mvp-comment-199-3 εἰ … με δεῖ 401

mvp-comment-199-4 ἐλευθέραν 402

mvp-comment-199-5 ζῆν 403

mvp-comment-199-6 πάντ’ 404

mvp-comment-199-7 ἀκουστέα 405

mvp-comment-200-1 δεινόν γε 406

mvp-comment-201-1 τῆς … τικτούσης 407

mvp-comment-201-2 μέλειν 408

mvp-comment-202-1 τἀμὰ νουθετήματα 409

mvp-comment-202-2 κείνης διδακτά 410

mvp-comment-202-3 ἐκ σαυτῆς 411

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’ 412

mvp-comment-203-4 ἑλοῦ γε 413

mvp-comment-203-5 φρονεῖν κακῶς 414

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 415

mvp-comment-205-1 ἥτις 416 φρονοῦσα 417 μῖσος 418

mvp-comment-206-1 πάντα 419

mvp-comment-206-2 τιμωρουμένης 420

mvp-comment-207-1 οὔτε … τε 421

mvp-comment-207-2 τήν τε δρῶσαν 422

mvp-comment-208-1 πρὸς κακοῖσι 423

mvp-comment-208-2 δειλίαν ἔχει 424

mvp-comment-209-1 ἐπεὶ 425

mvp-comment-209-2 ἢ μάθ’ ἐξ ἐμοῦ 426

mvp-comment-210-1 ἐπαρκούντως 427

mvp-comment-211-1 προσάπτειν 428

mvp-comment-211-2 εἴ τις ἔστ’ ἐκεῖ χάρις 429

mvp-comment-212-1 ἡμὶν 430 ξύνει 431

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

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.

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.