7.
mvp-comment-4-1
οὐξ] δύξ Α.
7.
mvp-comment-4-2
ἀγορὰ Λύκειος] The temple of Apollo in the agora seems to have been the most sacred place in Argos. See Thuc. 5. 47, where it is enacted that the terms of the treaty shall be inscribed by the Argives ἐν στήλῃ λιθίνῃ . . ἐν ἀγορᾷ ἐν τοῦ ᾿Απόλλωνος τῷ ἱερῷ.
4-7.
mvp-comment-6-1
The description passes from what is general and remote to what is nearest to the eye. 'Argos' here includes the plain of Argos (as even in Thuc. 6. 105, ἐς τὸ ᾿Αργος ἐσέβαλον). Mycenae is the seat of government, and the site of the future city of Argos, supposed at this time to be still inhabited village-wise,' is marked by the ἀγορὰ Λύκειος. It is not necessary to suppose that all the objects mentioned here could really be taken into one view. But the site of Mycenae commands the whole plain. The Heraeum, according to Pausanias, would really be on the left hand of those approaching Mycenae by way of Corinth. See Mr. Paley's note. Apollo Lyceius is here the wolf-slayer, i. e. the protector of the flock, perhaps with reference to Aegisthus, who is called a wolf in Aesch. Ag. 1259. Aeschylus (S. c. T. 145) connects Λύκειος with λύκος in a different way (Λύκει' ἄναξ, Λύκειος γενοῦ στρατῷ δαΐῳ).
8.
mvp-comment-8-1
οἱ δ' ἱκάνομεν] The antecedent to the relative of is lost in the expansion of the sentence in l. 9.
10.
mvp-comment-9-1
δῶμα.. τόδε] These words are coordinate with Μυκήνας and governed by ὁρᾶν, as is shown by the conjunction τε.
11.
mvp-comment-10-1
πατρὸς ἐκ φόνων] Either (1) 'Immediately after thy father's murder,' cp. Thuc. 5. 20, ἐκ Διονυσίων, or (2) Out of the way of thy father's murder,' i.e. Away from the dangers consequent on it. For the latter (2), cp. Pind. Pyth. 11. 25 foll., τὸν δὴ φονευομένου πατρὸς ᾿Αρσινόα Κλυταιμνήστρας | χειρῶν ὕπο κρατερᾶν | ἐκ δόλου τροφὸς ἄνελε δυσπενθέος. In either case the plural, for which cp. O. C. 962, ὅστις φόνους μοι, κ.τ.λ., includes the attendant circumstances. φόνων is better than φονῶν (gen. plur. of φονή), which would suggest only the scene of blood.
12.
mvp-comment-11-1
σῆς ὁμαίμου καὶ κασιγνήτης] ‘Thine own sister.' Cp.
infr. 325, 6, τὴν σὴν ὅμαιμον, ἐκ πατρὸς ταὐτοῦ φύσιν, | Χρυσόθεμιν, ἔκ τε μητρός. The Electra, like the Antigone, lays great stress on the force of fraternal affection; and a peculiar tenderness seems to have been attached to the word κασίγνητος. Cp.
infr. 1164, Ant. 915, ὦ κασίγνητον κάρα.
14.
mvp-comment-12-1
τοσόνδ᾽ ἐς ήβης] 'To this strength of youthful manhood that thou showest.' So Phoenix says to Achilles, ΙΙ. 9. 485, καί σε τοσοῦτον ἔθηκα, θεοῖς ἐπιείκελ᾽ ᾿Αχιλλεῦ. For the position of ἐς, cp. O. C. 126, 7, ἀστιβὲς ἄλσος ἐς | τᾶνδ᾽ ἀμαιμακετᾶν κορᾶν. πατρί] For the dative, see E. on L. § 13. р. 19 с.
16.
mvp-comment-13-1
Pylades, who is a silent person in the Electra, is only mentioned once again,
infr. 1373. Orestes has no scruples, as in the Choephori, and therefore needs not the advice but only the active assistance of his friend. Pylades is present in every scene in which Orestes appears.
17-18.
mvp-comment-14-1
ὡς ἡμὶν.. σαφῆ] 'Since we have already the sunshine in full brilliance awakening there unmistakably into song the early voice of birds.' λαμπρόν and σαφή both form part of the predication. σαφή, i. e. not a doubtful twitter here and there, but the unanimous warbling which tells that the morning is really come: - Milton's 'charm of earliest birds,' not Tennyson's 'earliest pipe of half-awakened birds.'
19.
mvp-comment-15-1
(1) And dark Night is vanished with her stars,' ἄστρων εὐφρόνη = νὺξ ἀστερόεσσα. E. on L. § 9. p. 12, 1 a. Or (2), 'And dark Night, the region of the stars, has disappeared - Night being regarded as a world possessed by the stars. Others join άστρων ἐκλέλοιπε, 'Night has lost her stars':-i.e. The night is yet dark but the stars are waning in the coming light.' (Paley.) But this can hardly be reconciled with ll. 16, 17, and rather presupposes a Northern twilight.
20.
mvp-comment-16-1
ἐξοδοιπορεῖν στέγης] Come out of doors.' ἐξοδοιπορεῖν, although a special word, has here only the general meaning of ἐξέρχεσθαι. See E. on L. § 52. p. 97.
21.
mvp-comment-17-1
ξυνάπτετον λόγοισιν] ‘Join ye in counsel.' For this use of the dative with a transitive verb, cp.
infr. 710, κλήροις ἔπηλαν, and note; and see Riddell's Digest of Idioms, in his edition of the Apology of Plato. For a similar idiom in English, cp. Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1. 2. 112: 'And with no less nobility of love Than that which dearest father bears his son, Do I impart toward you.' ὡς ἐνταῦθ᾽ *ἴμεν] 'Since we are thereabouts,' lit. 'moving there,'-i. е. ἐνταῦθά ἐσμεν τῆς ὁδοῦ: we are arrived at such a point in our enterprise. ἐμέν, for ἐσμέν, which occurs only once in Callimachus, can hardly be retained, and no valid objection has been made to Dawes' emendation, as above explained.
26-27.
mvp-comment-18-1
ἀπώλεσεν.. ἵστησιν] The description passes from the gnomic aorist to the vivid present. For the verb, cp. Hdt. 4. 129, οἱ ἵπποι ἐν θαύματι ἔσκον, ὀρθὰ ἱστάντες τὰ ὦτα.
27.
mvp-comment-19-1
δέ] In apodosi.
29.
mvp-comment-20-1
τὰ . . δόξαντα] Sc. ἐμοί τε καὶ Πυλάδῃ τῷδε. Their plans are already formed.
31.
mvp-comment-21-1
εἰ μή τι καιροῦ τυγχάνω] 'If anywhere I miss the mark,'-εἴ τι ἁμαρτάνω. Ε. on L. § 41. p. 78.
33.
mvp-comment-22-1
πατρί is more expressive than πατρός. Cp.
supr. 14.
34.
mvp-comment-23-1
ἀροίμην is probably aorist (not future) optative, being indirect for (τίνι τρόπῳ) ἄρωμαι;
36.
mvp-comment-24-1
Myself alone, unsupported by armed men.' Cp. Pind. Nem. 3. 59, δε καὶ Ἰωλκὸν εἶλε μόνος ἄνευ στρατιᾶς.
37.
mvp-comment-25-1
By craft to steal the righteous deathblow which my hand should give.' χειρός marks the directly personal nature of the act. Cp. O. T. 811, ἐκ τῆσδε χειρός, and note. For the genitive, cp.
infr. 206, θανάτους αἰκεῖς διδύμαιν χειροῖν.
38.
mvp-comment-26-1
τοιόνδε, like τοιαῦτα in
supr. 35, points to the remarkable nature of the oracle (cp. O. Τ. 95, οἱ ἤκουσα, and note), but with greater vividness. E. on L. § 22. p. 34.
39.
mvp-comment-27-1
καιρός is personified, as
infr. 75.
42-43.
mvp-comment-28-1
(1) For thine age, and the long lapse of time, that has so altered thee, will surely prevent their recognizing or suspecting thee.' Or (2) taking οὐδ᾽ ἠνθισμένον separately, as referring to the Phocian costume, For thine age and the lapse of time will prevent their knowing you, nor will they once suspect you under this disguise.' Or (3) supposing ὧδ' ήνθισμένον to be an afterthought and the causal datives to be resumed with it, 'After so many years in which you have grown old they will not know or suspect you, altered as you are by age.' Cp. Shak. Cymb. 4. 4. 31-4 (Guiderius): 'Pray, sir, to the army: I and my brother are not known; yourself So out of thought, and thereto so o'ergrown, Cannot be questioned.' For the combination of aorist subj. and fut. ind., cp. Ο. C. 450, 1, ἀλλ᾽ οὗ τι μὴ λάχωσι τοῦδε συμμάχου, | οὔτε σφιν ἀρχῆς . . | ὄνησις ἥξει.
45.
mvp-comment-29-1
Phanoteus had quarrelled with his brother Crisus, the father of Strophius and uncle of Pylades, and therefore was likely to send information of a fact which told against them. (Dind.). Whether this be the precise version of the legend as understood by Sophocles or not, some such relation between Strophius and Phanoteus is intended by him. Strophius is, in Sophocles also, the guardian of Orestes, -
infr. 1111.
47.
mvp-comment-30-1
ὅρκῳ προστιθείς] (1) Sc. τὰ ἀγγελλόμενα. With the preface of an oath.' Hermann objects to this: 'At ita res primaria in secundariam converteretur.' But such inversions are not infrequent. Cp. Aristoph. Av. 1004. See E. on L. § 42. p. 80, and Schmidt's Shak. Lex., Grammatical Observations, § 14. p. 1423. The correction ὅρκον προστιθείς (for which cp. Fr. 428, ὅρκου δὲ προστεθέντος ἐπιμελεστέρα | ψυχὴ κατέστη) is therefore unnecessary. Or (2) ὅρκῳ is a dative of manner, 'With an oath,' to which προστιθείς, sc. ὅρκον, is added epexegetically. Cp. Essay on L. § 14. p. 21; ib. § 36. p. 63 (5) a.
48.
mvp-comment-31-1
ἐξ ἀναγκαίας τύχης] 'Through a fatal accident.' ἀναγκαία τύχη is here a misfortune that cannot be avoided. The same phrase is used with slightly different shades of meaning in Aj. 485, 803.
49.
mvp-comment-32-1
ἄθλοισι Πυθικοῖσιν] ‘At the Pythian games.' Dat. of the occasion. E. on L. § 11. p. 18. The Delphic contest is said to have been instituted in the 48th Olympiad, but is here ideally carried back into the heroic age. Cp. Aj. 596 and note.
51.
mvp-comment-33-1
ὡς ἐφίετο] Sc. ὁ Λοξίας (
infr. 82, 3). Cp. Ο. Τ. 110, ἐν τῇδ᾽ ἔφασκε γῇ.
52.
mvp-comment-34-1
καρατόμοις χλιδαῖς] ‘With shorn locks luxuriant.' Cp.
infr. 901, νεώρη βόστρυχον. The word χλιδή perhaps marks the luxuriance of the youthful Orestes' locks. Cp. Plat. Phaedo, 89 B, αὔριον δή, ἔφη, ἴσως, ὦ Φαίδων, τὰς καλὰς ταύτας κόμας ἀποκερεῖ.
54.
mvp-comment-35-1
'Holding uplifted in our hands the shapely urn with sides of brass.' The Scholiast rightly compares the construction of τύπωμα with ᾐρμένοι to such expressions as πώγωνα καθειμένος, – ἀντὶ τοῦ κεχαλασμένον ἔχων. But he does not observe that in both cases the verb is in the middle voice. τύπωμα is literally, A moulded form.' Cp. Ant. 430, ἐκ δ' εὐκροτήτου .. πρόχου, κ.τ.λ. For χαλκόπλευρον, cp. Aesch. Cho. 686, λέβητος χαλκέου πλευρώματα.
55.
mvp-comment-36-1
(1) Which, as I believe (που) you know, is hidden in the brake.' For οἰσθά που, cp.
infr. 948, 9, παρουσίαν μὲν λέγων, | οἶσθα καὶ σὺ που φίλων | ὡς. κ.τ.λ. (2) The v. r. μοι for που is also possible. Which I have, as you know, hidden in the brake.' μοι, if genuine, is not dative of the agent, but of remote reference not I have hidden it, but 'I have it hidden.'
56.
mvp-comment-37-1
λόγῳ κλέπτοντες] 'Stealing our advance through feigned words.' The participle is equally emphatic with the verb.
57.
mvp-comment-38-1
φέρωμεν] The optative cannot be defended here.
59-60.
mvp-comment-39-1
The precise construction would be either λυπεῖ.. ὅτε σώζομαι, or λυπήσει . . ὅταν σωθῶ. But as the sentence proceeds the mind of Orestes dwells more than at first on the futurity of the event.
60.
mvp-comment-40-1
κἀξενέγκωμαι κλέος] ‘And win renown.' Cp. Od. 1. 298, οἷον κλέος ἔλλαβε δῖος Ορέστης.
61.
mvp-comment-41-1
δοκῶ μέν] Cp.
infr. 547: О. С. 995, δοκῶ μέν, εἴπερ ζῆν φιλεῖς, κ.τ.λ.: Fr. 83, δοκῶ μέν, οὐδείς: Plato, Meno, 94 C, δοκῶ μέν, ἐβούλετο, Methinks, no word is inauspicious that is accompanied with gain.' Cp. Eur. Hel. 1050 foll. (quoted by Brunck), ΕΛ. βούλει λέγεσθαι, μὴ θανών, τεθνηκέναι; ΜΕΝ. κακὸς μὲν ὄρνις· εἰ δὲ κερδανῶ λέγων, | ἕτοιμός εἰμι μὴ θανών λόγῳ θανείν.
62-66.
mvp-comment-42-1
Some such story as that of Aristeas of Proconnesus, Hdt. 4. 13-16, is probably in the mind of the poet, who need not however be accused of the anachronism of making Orestes refer to this or any similar story (as of Pythagoras, Epimenides, Solon, Zaleucus, or Zamolxis). Hermann finds here an allusion to some banished Athenian citizen, who (like the late Lord Brougham) may have ambitiously spread the rumour of his own death.
63.
mvp-comment-43-1
μάτην] ‘Without reality. For the pleonasm, see E. on L. § 40. p. 75.
64.
mvp-comment-44-1
ἐκτετίμηνται πλέον] ‘Their name stands higher than before.' For this intensive use of the perfect, cp. ἐσπούδακα, τετεύτακα, and similar words.
65-66.
mvp-comment-45-1
Even so I, having indeed come to life in consequence of this report, shall yet, I trust, flash like a comet on my foes.' δεδορκότα is used intensively for βλέποντα = ζῶντα, but this natural use of language is assisted by the image of the star. (See L. and S. s. ν. δέρκομαι.) The star of Orestes in the ascendant will be of evil omen to his enemies. Cp. Il. 22. 30, λαμπρότατος μὲν ὅδ᾽ ἐστί, κακὸν δὲ τε σῆμα τέτυκται. For ἔτι meaning 'Hereafter, though not now, cp.
infr. 471: Trach. 256, 7, ἢ μὴν τὸν ἀγχιστῆρα τοῦδε τοῦ πάθους | ξὺν παιδὶ καὶ γυναικὶ δουλώσειν ἔτι: Ant. 69: Phil. 1359. Compare with ll. 59-66 the comic words of Falstaff, Shak. I Hen. 4. 5. 4. 120, 'To counterfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed.'
68.
mvp-comment-46-1
Receive me and let me prosper in this my coming. The participle is proleptic. For ταῖσδε ταῖς ὁδοῖς, cp. Ὁ. C. 553, τανῦν θ᾽ ὁδοῖς | ἐν ταῖσδ᾽ ἀκούων μᾶλλον ἐξεπίσταμαι.
70.
mvp-comment-47-1
δίκῃ καθαρτής] ‘A rightful purifier.' See E. on L. § 14. р. 20. Ср. Shak. J. C. 2. 1. 180, We shall be called purgers, not murderers.'
72.
mvp-comment-48-1
ἀλλ᾽ ἀρχέπλουτον] Sc. καταστήσατε, the positive notion elicited from the negative, -E. on L. § 36. p. 64. (1) But make me the founder of a wealthy line.' This would seem to be the meaning of the compound, according to the analogy of ἀρχέκακος. The word in this sense may possibly be construed with δόμων, 'Beginner of wealth to the house. Others explain it as equal to ἀρχαιόπλουτος, (2) ‘Enjoying ancient wealth. For this, cp. ἀρχεδίκης, Pind. Pyth. 4. 189-195, ἀρχαίαν κομίζων πατρὸς ἐμοῦ βασιλευομέναν | οὐ κατ' αἶσαν .... τιμάν. | πεύθομαι γάρ νιν Πελίαν . . | ἁμετέρων ἀποσυλᾶσαι βιαίως ἀρχεδικᾶν τοκέων.
74.
mvp-comment-49-1
τὸ σὸν .. φρουρῆσαι χρέος] 'Go thy way and watchfully execute thy duty.' Lit. Watch thy service,' i. e. perform thy service which requires watchfulness. τὸ σὸν . . χρέος is cognate acc. after φρουρῆσαι, but also in the first instance the subject of μελέσθω, to which φρουρῆσαι is added as an explanatory infinitive.
75.
mvp-comment-50-1
καιρὸς γάρ] Sc. ἐστί. For the occasion is here. See E. on L. § 39. p. 72, 1 α.
75-76.
mvp-comment-51-1
ὅσπερ, κ.τ.λ.] 'And of all powers that direct men's enterprises, Occasion is chief.'
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.
77.
mvp-comment-53-1
-------. A paroemiac, consisting wholly of long syllables, like
infr. 88, 89, 105, and other lines in the following lament. See the scheme of metres below.
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.'
