Philoctetes. Sophocles. Robert Potter (Translator). London. 1820.
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) (English) (English (Robert Potter, 1788))
Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.
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_
β'.
1
Cp. Aesch. Suppl. 550. 2 Ion. anacl.,
infr. p. 451, β' 15 and note 3.
_uu_u_ _
_uu_u_ _
_uu_u_uu__
_uu_uu__
5 __u_ _
_uu_u_uu_u_uu_u_
_u_uu___u_uu_u_
_uu__
711-712. mvp-comment-510-1 'Beside the banks of the Spercheius, that are haunted by the Melian nymphs' (literally, 'Belonging to the Melian nymphs and (the river-god) Spercheius'). This is a more natural connection for the words Μηλιάδων νυμφᾶν than when they are joined with the preceding line.
712. mvp-comment-511-1 ὁ χάλκασπις ἀνήρ] Heracles. The epithet is picturesque. The orbed shield reflecting the sunlight from the top of Oeta suggests the glory which the hero has amongst the gods, and the fire which consumed his mortality.
713. mvp-comment-512-1 †πᾶσιν] If this is retained, it is necessary to read εἴ που for ὅπου in the strophe, with Brunck. But Hermann's correction, πάλαι, is not improbable. The passage is to be differently interpreted according as πλάθει is regarded: whether as a literal, or as an historical present. If the latter is correct, then θείῳ πυρί may refer to the golden cloud that descended to take up Heracles from the pyre. If the former, we must suppose a natural confusion between Heracles on Oeta and Heracles in Olympus.