675-714.
mvp-comment-477-1
The preceding scene was calculated to deepen the feeling of compassion for Philoctetes, which had already been awakened both in Neoptolemus and in the Chorus. His generous willingness to trust them with his all, contrasted with their felt dissimulation, has intensified the sympathy which Neoptolemus afterwards avows, 905, 965, 6. Yet the Chorus do not imagine for a moment that their master will relinquish his purpose. Hence, while sincerely pouring forth their lament over Philoctetes' innocent sufferings (which they can only compare with the torment of the guilty Ixion), and really rejoicing in the prospect of his deliverance, they maintain, as in duty bound (since they are within hearing of the cave), the deceptive notion of the voyage to Trachis, and make no mention of Troy. But it must be borne in mind that from the prophecy of Helenus, of which they knew, they had every reason to suppose that the return to Troy, though Philoctetes was averse to it, would be for his good. While this stasimon is being sung (whether by half-choruses or by the whole together), Neoptolemus is with Philoctetes in the cave, and is finding still more cogent evidence of his misery. This stasimon consists of two strophes and antistrophes, of which the first are chiefly logaoedic, the second chiefly choriambic.
675-714.
mvp-comment-477-2
α'.
1 _uu_u_u_
_uu__uu_u_
_uu_uu_
_uu_u_u_u_
5 _u_u_u_
10 __u_u_u__
_u_u_
1
Cp. Aesch. Suppl. 550. 2 Ion. anacl.,
infr. p. 451, β' 15 and note 3.
β'.
_uu_u_ _
_uu_u_ _
_uu_u_uu__
_uu_uu__
5 __u_ _
_uu_u_uu_u_uu_u_
_u_uu___u_uu_u_
_uu__
687.
mvp-comment-490-1
ἵν᾿ αὐτὸς ἦν πρόσουρος] Sc. ἑαυτῷ. Schndw.
cp. Lucian. Timon. θεοῖς θυέτω καὶ εὐωχείσθω μόνος ἑαυτῷ γείτων καὶ ὅμορος. The phrase is an oxymoron.
Cp. Aesch. Cho. 866, μόνος ὢν ἔφεδρος, (‘Having none to second him').
οὐκ ἔχων βάσιν] 'Without power of movement.'
Cp. supr. 632, ἄπουν, and, for the meaning of the verbal noun,
supr. 18, ἐνθάκησις, and note. Bothe's ingenious correction, ἵν᾽ αὐτὸς ἦν, πρόσουρον οὐκ ἔχων βάσιν (
cp. supr. 171, μηδὲ σύντροφον ὄμμ᾽ ἔχων), is inadmissible, (1) as too diffuse, and (2) because αὐτός εἶμι, “I am by myself,' is not a poetical expression for the misery of solitude. This and the following lines are an echo and expansion of Philoctetes' complaint,
supr. 280 foll. ἄνδρα δ᾽ οὐδέν᾽ ἔντοπον, | οὐχ ὅστις ἀρκέσειεν, οὐδ᾽ ὅστις νόσου | κάμνοντι συλλάβοιτο. Lambinus gives an odd explanation of πρόσ-ουρος, 'expositus ventis.'
688.
mvp-comment-491-1
κακογείτονα] ‘To be a neighbour to his misery.’ This, as Lessing saw (Laoc. p. 37), = γείτονα κακῶν οἱ ἐν κακοῖς.
689-691.
mvp-comment-492-1
By bringing *τάν from before θερμοτάταν, where it injures the metre, to before βαρυβρῶτ', where a syllable is required, we obtain a possible construction for these lines. In whose ear he might lament, with groaning that had response (ἀντίτυπον), the disease (τάν, sc. νόσον) so cruelly gnawing, so dripping with gore.
689.
mvp-comment-493-1
στόνον ἀντίτυπον is thus cognate accusative with ἀποκλαύσειεν, i.e. So as to receive groan for groan.'
Cp. Ant. 592, ἀντιπλῆγες ἀκταί.
692.
mvp-comment-494-1
ἐνθήρου] (
Cp. supr. 226, ἀπηγριωμένον) 'That has lost the human shape,' no longer recognizable as that of a human being.
Cp. Aesch. Ag. 562, τιθέντες ἔνθηρον τρίχα. The etymological analysis of the word is difficult, perhaps = θηρσὶν ἐναριθμούμενος.
693.
mvp-comment-495-1
εἴ τις ἐμπέσοι (sc. αἱμάς)] 'If any attacked him;' i.e. If the bleeding at any time came on.
694.
mvp-comment-496-1
φορβάδος.. ἑλεῖν] ‘Or to take them' (the herbs) 'from the sustaining earth.' There is a slight change of construction; i. e ἑλεῖν = ὅστις ἕλοι, and the order of language, as elsewhere (
Essay on L. § 41, B. p. 77
) reverses the order of fact. This passage has given needless trouble. Mr. Paley reads ἕλοι.
695.
mvp-comment-497-1
*εἶρπε.. ἄν]
Cp. supr. 290 foll.
*ἀλλαχά] This is the simplest change (see v.rr.), which restores correspondence of strophe and antistrophe. Others read ἀτίμως for ἀναξίως in
supr. 686. So τότε is antecedent to ἁνίκα in 704.
696.
mvp-comment-498-1
εἰλυόμενος . . τιθήνας] 'Crawling, like a child without the kindly nurse.' So the Chorus expand the suggestive word εἰλυόμην in 291; i.e. He needed the support of hands as well as feet in the rocky paths.
697.
mvp-comment-499-1
ὅθεν εὐμάρει᾽ ὑπάρχοι] 'To the place where a supply for his wants (the herb for his pain, the birds for his hunger) was to be found.'
πόρον.. ἐξανείη] 'Left him the power of motion; i. e. Allowed him to move again. As the pain might be said ἐμποδίζειν πόρον, so when it ceases it is said ἐξανιέναι πόρον.
Cp. Aj.674-6. This seems the most likely interpretation of a difficult passage. For other suggestions, see Herm., Schndw., Nauck, Dindorf, Paley.
