1019.
mvp-comment-547-1
τῆς ἐκεῖ i. e. ἐκεῖσε. “To lead the way yonder.' Hdt. 7. 147, καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐκεῖ πλέομεν ἔνθαπερ καὶ οὗτοι.
1019.
mvp-comment-547-2
πομπὸν δ᾽ * ἐμὲ | χωρεῖν
That I, however, accompany you. The infinitive depends on the notion
My will is, implied in the preceding words. ἐμέ in this connection is more expressive than με, and the authority of the MSS. respecting such a difference is slight.
1021.
mvp-comment-548-1
τὰς παῖδας ἡμῶν The genitive ἡμῶν has something of a privative force.
You have the maidens whom you have taken from us. Cp. supr. 821, τὴν παῖδ᾽ ἔχεις μου; Ο. Τ. 1522, μηδαμῶς ταύτας γ᾽ ἕλῃ μου. Theseus throughout represents himself as aggrieved by Creon's act. οἶμον is an ingenious but unnecessary conjecture. The word would be superfluous after ὁδοῦ, supr. 1019. 1022-1024. (1) But if men are fleeing with them in their power, we may spare our pains, for there are others urging that pursuit (supr. 897 ff.), whom to have escaped out of this land they shall never glory before the gods.' The reading of most MSS, ἐπεύχονται or ἐπεύχωνται, is not defensible. For the variation of x and §, cp. Ο. Τ. ξ έ 297, οὐξελέγχων. Par. B. has ἐπεύχωνται. For the mode of expression, cp. Plat. Soph. 235 C, οὔτε οὗτος οὔτε ἄλλο γένος οὐδὲν μή ποτε ἐκφυγὸν ἐπεύξηται τὴν μέθοδον : Legg. 10. 905 Α, οὔτε σὺ μήποτε οὔτε ἄλλος ἀτυχὴς γενόμενος ἐπεύξηται περιγενέσθαι θεῶν. Otherwise, (2)
As having escaped from whom they shall never glory over the gods of this land. But although Theseus speaks hyperbolically of the success of Creon in capturing the maidens as a conquest over himself, he cannot speak of the Thebans as glorying over the defeat of Poseidon, Athena, the Eumenides, Dionysus (!), etc. who are not gods of Colonus and Athens only, but universally reverenced ἐπεύξωνται Βο. 1028, τόδ' in Hellas. And the order of the words, especially the position of φυγόντες, is adverse to this interpretation.
1024.
mvp-comment-549-1
χώρας.. τήσδε (gen of motion) is added, because when they entered Boeotia they would be safe.
1024.
mvp-comment-549-2
ἐπεύξωνται contains at once the notion of glorying and of thanksgiving. Cp. the exulting language of Ajax in his imagined victory to Athene, Aj. 92-96, ὡς εὐ παρέστης· καί σε παγχρύσοις ἐγὼ στέψω λαφύροις τῆσδε τῆς ἄγρας χάριν.. κόμπος πάρεστι κοὐκ ἀπαρνοῦμαι τὸ μή. 6
1025.
mvp-comment-550-1
ἀλλά In repeating a command or request, as often in Plato. Come, lead the way.'
1026-1077.
mvp-comment-551-1
In catching, you are caught; and fortune has taken you as you were pursuing after your prey.' The substitution of δίκη for τύχη is unnecessary and wrong. Fortune is continually regarded as the instrument of the Divine will. Cp. Phil. 1317, τὰς μὲν ἐκ θεῶν | τύχας δοθείσας: Shak. Hamlet, Act 3, Sc. 4. 'Take thy fortune; Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.'
1026.
mvp-comment-552-1
δόλῳ | τῷ μὴ δικαίῳ The dative is governed by the verbal notion'in κτήματα. Essay on Language p. 94.
1028-1031.
mvp-comment-553-1
κοὐκ ἄλλον. τάδε
And you shall have no one to help you in this; for I well know that you were not unaided or unprepared, when you reached the height of insolence which is implied in this daring deed; but there were others to whom you trusted when you acted thus.
1028-1031.
mvp-comment-553-2
εἰς τόδε ‘For this task, viz. that of leading to where the maidens are. Cp. supr. 507, χωροῖμ᾽ ἂν ἐς τόδ᾽;
1029.
mvp-comment-554-1
ὕβριν. τόλμης For the gen., see Essay on Language § 10. p. 17. Cp. Creon's assertion, supra 957-958, ἐρημία με κεὶ δίκαι᾿ ὅμως λέγω | σμικρὸν τίθησι. Theseus will not allow Creon to take any one with him, either of his own attendants, who may be lurking near, or of the Athenians, whom he may have corrupted. ψιλόν refers rather to the former suspicion, ἄσκευον (i.e. ἄνευ παρασκευῆς) to the latter. Cp. Thuc. 2. 12, ξυμπέμπουσί τε τῷ Μελησίππῳ ἀγωγοὺς ὅπως μηδενὶ ξυγγένηται.
1031.
mvp-comment-555-1
πιστός
Relying in confidence on some one. For πιστός active, cp. Aesch. Prom. 917, τοῖς μεταρσίοις κτύποις πιστός: Thuc. 3. 40, ἐλπίδα λόγῳ πιστήν: Plat. Legg. 824, νυκτερεύτην δὲ ἄρκυσι καὶ πλεκταῖς πιστόν.
1032-1033.
mvp-comment-556-1
Which things I must look into, and not allow this state to be overpowered by a single man.' Cp. supra 842, 879, 933, and the similar feeling in Ant. 663-664, ὅστις.. τοὐπιτάσσειν τοῖς κρατύνουσιν νοεῖ: 678, κούτοι γυναικὸς οὐδαμῶς ἡσσητέα. These lines may be taken to hint at a suspicion of treachery within the city, to which ἄσκευον may also point. Cр. О. Т. 124-125, πῶς οὖν ὁ ληστής, εἴ τι μὴ ξὺν ἀργύρῳ | ἐπράσσετ᾿ ἐνθένδ᾽, ἐς τόδ' ἂν τόλμης ἔβη; and note; also Ant. 689-694, and esp. Lys. c. Eratosth. p. 128, τοσοῦτον δ᾽ ὑμῶν καταπεπεφρόνηκεν ἢ ἑτέροις πεπίστευκεν, ὧν ἀμφοτέρων ἄξιον ἐπιμεληθῆναι, ἐνθυμουμένοις ὅτι οὔτ᾽ ἂν ἐκεῖνα δύναιντο ποιεῖν μὴ ἑτέρων συμπραττόντων οὔτ᾽ ἂν νῦν ἐπεχείρησαν ἐλθεῖν κ.τ.λ.
1034-1035.
mvp-comment-557-1
ἢ μάτην.. χώτε ταῦτ᾽ ἐμηχανῶ]
Or are the considerations that I am urging as unmeaning to you now as they were when you devised this plot? The sentence is concluded as if the preceding words had been ἢ τὰ ἐμοὶ λελεγμένα δοκεῖ μάτην λελέχθαι ὁμοίως νῦν.
