668.
mvp-comment-364-1
Couldst thou find a fairer dwelling-place than this bright land? Here the nightingale keeps haunt, and sings in deep impenetrable coverts of green dells, where no sun, nor wind, but only the joyous presence of Dionysus comes. Here daily blooms the saffron and Demeter's flower, nor do the waters of Cephisus fail, nor Aphrodite shun the spot.
668.
mvp-comment-364-2
And there is a better plant than grows in Asian or Dorian soil, that flourishes of itself in this our land, the nurse of childhood, the terror of our foes, the grey-leaved olive, which Zeus and Athena ever protect from harm. Nor has Poseidon left us without his gifts. Our mother-state is famed for horsemanship and famed by sea. Here first the son of Cronos tamed the steed, here swiftly glides the oarèd bark, keeping pace with the multitude of sea-nymphs.
668.
mvp-comment-364-3
The metres of this ode are composed with especial care.
668.
mvp-comment-364-4
The ruling logaoedic rhythm of the 1st strophe is represented by the following line
which, out of 13 lines, holds the Ist, 5th, 7th (and central), 11th, and 13th places. 2 and 12, the second and secondlast lines, also correspond
668.
mvp-comment-364-5
u _ u u _ u _ u _ u
668.
mvp-comment-364-6
In 3, 4, 8, the logaoedic is shortened to the ordinary glyconic metre
668.
mvp-comment-364-7
u _ u u _ u _ _
668.
mvp-comment-364-8
and in 6, to the Pherecratean
668.
mvp-comment-364-9
_ _ u u _ _
668.
mvp-comment-364-10
In 9, the rhythm changes to a purely dactylic movement
668.
mvp-comment-364-11
_ u u _ u u _ u u _ u u
668.
mvp-comment-364-12
which is followed, in 10, by an Iambic dimeter catalectic
668.
mvp-comment-364-13
u _ u _ u _ _
668.
mvp-comment-364-14
which smooths the way for the recurrence to the prevailing rhythm. Cp. supr. 229-236, infr. 1675-1676.
668.
mvp-comment-364-15
The chief movement in the 2nd strophe is choriambic (II. 1, 2, 6, 8,
) varied with iambic and trochaic, which in 3, 5, 7, are combined in the
antispastic or syncopated movement
668.
mvp-comment-364-16
u _ u _ | _ u _ u _ x
668.
mvp-comment-364-17
while 4 is trochaic dim. hyper-catalectic
668.
mvp-comment-364-18
_ u _ u _ u _ u _
668.
mvp-comment-364-19
The composition ends with a glyconic and Pherecratean, 9 and 10, recalling the rhythm of the former strophe.
The rhythm of the 1st strophe is expressive of repose and gladness, that of the 2nd, of triumph (cp. Ant. 139, 153), ending in repose.
668-669.
mvp-comment-365-1
Thou art come, stranger, to the homes of this land famed for steeds, the best homes on earth.
668-669.
mvp-comment-365-2
εὐίππου Cp. supra 59, τόνδ' ἱππότην Κολωνόν, and note. The epithet is intended to apply first and specially to Colonus, and then generally to Athens. εὐίππου τᾶσδε χώρας is attributive to τὰ κράτιστα γᾶς ἔπαυλα. Cp. supra 45, ἕδρας γῆς τῆσδ᾽.
668-669.
mvp-comment-365-3
γᾶς is partitive genitive with κράτιστα. Cf. infra 739, εἰς πλεῖστον πόλεως.
668-669.
mvp-comment-365-4
ἔπαυλα Here generally
dwellings,
homes, with some association from the care of horses, which was an occupation of the Coloniatae. Cf. Aesch. Pers. 870, Θρηκίων ἐπαύλων.
670.
mvp-comment-366-1
τὸν ἀργῆτα Κολωνόν An accusative added epexegetically in the same construction with ἔπαυλα. ἀργῆτα (cp.
670.
mvp-comment-366-2
ἀργήεις, ἀργινόεις),
gleaming, either from the colour of the rock, or rather from the marble structures, such as the altar of Poseidon, which made it conspicuous in the sunlight from a distance.
670-671.
mvp-comment-367-1
ἔνθ᾽ ἁ The addition of the breathing which restores the metre, also, by introducing the article, rather improves the sense. Cp. El. 147, ἀλλ᾿ ἐμέ γ᾿ ὁ στονόεσσ᾽ ἄραρεν φρένας: infra 693, ἁ χρυσάνιος Ἀφροδίτα: 716, ὁ δ᾽ εὐήρετμος. The synaphea is not a strong objection where the metre is continuous, as here, and is at any rate more probable than that a glyconic verse should begin with a dactyl, and θεαῖν, at the end of l. 683, be taken for a monosyllable.
672.
mvp-comment-368-1
θαμίζουσα Il. 18.386, πάρος γε μὲν οὔτι θαμίζεις.
673.
mvp-comment-369-1
χλωραῖς ὑπὸ βάσσαις
In coverts of green glades.ὑπό, with dative=
down in. Cp. Ant. 336-337, περιβρυχίοισιν περῶν ὑπ᾿ οἴδμασιν : Ovid, Fast. 4. 427,
Valle sub umbrosa locus est.
674. τὸν οἰνῶπ᾽ ἀνέχουσα κισσόν]
Remaining constant to the empurpled (wine-coloured) ivy. For this meaning of ἀνέχω, cp. Aj. 211, λέχος δουριάλωτον | στέρξας ἀνέχει: Eur. Hec. 123, ἀνέχων λέκτρ᾽ Ἀγαμέμνων: Pind. Nem. 7.89, εἰ δ᾽ αὐτὸ καὶ θεὸς ἀνέχοι; and especially Aristides,
l. 19
, καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὅσοι θεοφιλεῖς, οὐκ Ἄτη πατεῖ τὰς κεφαλάς, Ἀθηνᾶ δὲ ἀνέχει καὶ ἐμβατεύει. The conjecture νέμουσα (Dind.) is certainly not less questionable than the text. νέμειν γῆν may be said, but hardly νέμειν κισσόν, φυλλάδα. (Cp., however, Ar. Av. 239, ἐπὶ κισσοῦ κλάδεσι νομὸν ἔχει). οἰνῶπα refers to the rich colour of the ivy, as if flushed with wine.
675.
mvp-comment-370-1
ἄβατον θεοῦ φυλλάδα μυριόκαρΔιόνυσος] ἀμφιπόλων πον The inviolable leafy grove, with countless berries, sacred to the God:' referring chiefly to the laurel and olive bushes, for the epithet ἀνήλιον can hardly apply to the vine: cp. supra 17, δάφνης, ἐλαίας, ἀμπέλου. For μυριόκαρπον, cp. O. T. 83. And for θεοῦ φυλλάδα, cp. Trach. 754, βωμοὺς ὁρίζει τεμενίαν τε φυλλάδα.
675.
mvp-comment-370-2
θεοῦ Probably Dionysus, to whom such thickets are sacred, as δενδρίτης θεός. Pind. Fr. 130, δενδρέων δὲ νομὸν Διόνυσος πολυγαθὴς αὐξάνοι. The mention of him is suggested by the ivy, and he is presently spoken of by name as haunting the spot. Cp. the similar introduction of Poseidon in 709, foll., and of Nessus in Tr. 556-558.
676.
mvp-comment-371-1
ἀνήλιον. - χειμώνων Cp. Od. 5. 478 sqq., τοὺς (θάμνους sc.) μὲν ἄρ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἀνέμων διάη μένος ὑγρὸν ἀέντων, | οὔτε ποτ' ἠέλιος φαέθων ἀκτῖσιν ἔβαλλεν, | οὔτ᾽ ὄμβρος περάασκε διαμπερές, ib. 19, 440, ff. For the genitive, see Essay on Language § 10. p. 16.
680.
mvp-comment-372-1
θείαις.. τιθήναις The Nymphs of Nysa, who, according to a legend, were the nurses of the infant Bacchus, Il. 6.132, Διωνύσοιο τιθῆναι. Το the conjecture θεαῖς, which has been suggested for the metre, may be objected, (1) that the fem of θεόs is not elsewhere found as a monosyllable (unless in 683); (2) that the Nymphs are not properly spoken of as θεαί.
680.
mvp-comment-372-2
ἀμφιπολῶν
Careering round. A picturesque inversion, representing the confusion of the Bacchanalian rout, in which it is uncertain who leads and who follows. But qy. ἀμφίπολος, used passively, as in Pind. Ol. 1. 96, τύμβον ἀμφίπολον ἔχων ? 681-693. The antistrophe passes from the wooded hollow to the open height, on which the crocus and narcissus blow: and then to the meadow that is watered by the stream.
681.
mvp-comment-373-1
οὐρανίας ὑπ᾿ ἄχνας ‘By the dew of heaven from above.
682.
mvp-comment-374-1
καλλίβοτρυς With fair clusters,' i. e. with several heads upon a stem.
683.
mvp-comment-375-1
μεγάλαιν θεαΐν The great Goddesses, Demeter and Persephone. See the Hymn to Demeter, 11. 6-18, where Persephone, after gathering crocus and other flowers, is tempted by a narcissus with a hundred heads, which Earth purposely causes to grow, so as to fix the attention of the maiden until Pluto comes. Ancient commentators observed that the chaplet worn in honour of Demeter and Persephone was not one of flowers, but of myrtle, or of ears of grain, and they proposed either to read μεγαλᾶν θεᾶν, referring to the Eumenides, whom Euphorion had described ας ναρκίσσῳ ἐπιστεψέες πλοκαμίδας, or to emphasize ἀρχαῖον, with reference to the former time before Persephone was carried away. But see note on 685.
685.
mvp-comment-376-1
χρυσαυγής Cp. Tennyson, Oenone,
And at their feet the crocus brake like fire.
The Schol. observes that Sophocles in the Niobe makes the 685
687.
mvp-comment-377-1
Κηφισού κηφισσοῦ Β Vat.
687.
mvp-comment-377-2
ἐπινίσσεται ἐπινίσεται L. ἐπινείσεται AR. crocus an emblem of Demeter. οὐδ᾽ ἄϋπνοι κρῆναι μινύθουσιν Κηφισοῦ νομάδες ῥεέθρων] Either (1)
Nor fail the ever-wakeful springs that feed Cephisus stream,' referring to the abundant fountain-heads on the slopes of Parnes: or (2) Nor do the ever-wakeful rills decrease, dispensers of Cephisus' flood,' referring to the system of irrigation (διανομή) that goes on to this day. Although this allusion to an artificial process may seem unpoetical to the modern reader, the latter interpretation agrees better with πεδίων ἐπινίσσεται, besides giving a more definite meaning to νομάδες, and one immediately connected with Colonus. For a similar allusion in lyric poetry, cp. Pind. Ol. 5. 12, καὶ σεμνοὺς ὀχετούς, Ιππαρις οἶσιν ἄρδει στράτον. For the meaning of νομάδες, cp. Plat. Legg. 11. 931 C, δίκαιοι νομεῖς .. ἀγαθῶν, where νομεύς is similarly used.
688.
mvp-comment-378-1
ἀλλ᾽ αἰὲν .. χθονός
But ever, each new day, with quickening power, he (Cephisus) pours his clear waters over the bosom of the plain. ἐπ᾽ ἤματι] Not=ἦμαρ ἐπ᾽ ἤματι ('day after day'), but
on each day, like кат' ἦμαρ. Cp. Heracl. Fr., ἥλιος νέος ἐφ᾿ ἡμερῇ. The hiatus between this and the following line indicates a pause before the change of rhythm.
689.
mvp-comment-379-1
ὠκυτόκος Schol. ὠκύτοκα ποιῶν τὰ πεδία καὶ ἔγκαρπα. Ellendt rightly observes that this explanation may stand although πεδίων is to be joined (in the first instance) with ἐπινίσσεται.
690.
mvp-comment-380-1
For the general use of ὄμβρος for the element of water, cp. O. T. 1428, μήτ᾿ ὄμβρος ἱρός. Ε. on L. p. 98.
691.
mvp-comment-381-1
στερνούχου Cp. Hes. Th. 117, γαῖ᾽ εὐρύστερνος. Schol. ἴσον τῷ γονίμου. Meineke conj. σπερμούχου.
691.
mvp-comment-381-2
οὐδὲ Μουσᾶν, κ.τ.λ. Cp. the praise of Athens in Eur. Med. 830 ff. There was a temple of the Muses, near that of Athena, in the Academy. Paus. 1.30, 2.
692.
mvp-comment-382-1
viv The region,' i. e. Colonus and the neighbourhood.
692.
mvp-comment-382-2
οὐδ᾽ *ἄρ᾽ | ὁ χρυσάνιος Ἀφροδίτα There is some defect in the MS. text, as the hiatus οὐδὲ | å is not admissible between the two logaoedic lines. οὐδέ γ' | ἁ (Brunck), οὐδὲ | μάν (Herm.), have been conjectured. οὐδ᾽ ἄρ᾽ | ἁ may be suggested: ἄpa, i. e, as the beauty of the region testifies.
693.
mvp-comment-383-1
χρυσάνιος Ἀφροδίτα Cp. χρυσόνωτον ἡνίαν, Αj. 847.
694.
mvp-comment-384-1
ἔστιν δ᾽ οἷον . . βλαστόν In expatiating on the glories of their home, the religious mind of the Coloniatae dwells chiefly on the rival gifts of Poseidon, their patron deity, and of Athena, the special patroness of horsemen (infr. 1070), and of the Morian olives (706), as well as of Athens and of the tree in the Acropolis. The chorus are thinking chiefly of their own neighbourhood. Only in ll. 711, 716-9, do they speak of what relates to Athens apart from Colonus. The olive-plant immediately referred to is that in the Academy, mentioned by Pausanias as Division of 698.
694.
mvp-comment-384-2
ἐκχέων Α. having sprung up independently of the one in the Acropolis :-δεύτερον τοῦτο λεγόμενον φανῆναι, Paus. 1. 32. On the sacred feeling attaching to the Athenian olive, see also Hdt. 5. 82, 8. 55. The genitive, γᾶς Ἀσίας, is rather partitive than possessive, and to be taken closely with ἐπακούω.
A thing such as I cannot hear of anywhere in the Asian land, nor as having ever sprung, etc. The participle βλαστόν is introduced by an afterthought in the second clause. The Peloponnese is called a Dorian island by an anachronism similar to that by which the Athenian youth are called Theseidae in 1066. Asia and the Peloponnese are cited as the two rivals of Athenian greatness.
698.
mvp-comment-385-1
φύτευμα is the subject of ἔστιν, although not thought of at the beginning of the sentence.
698.
mvp-comment-385-2
ἀχείρωτον This reading is supported by the remark of Pollux, 2. 154, which probably refers to this passage, ἀχείρωτον δὲ Σοφοκλῆς εἶπε τὸ ἀχειρούργητον. The simpler interpretation, however, is more probable,
unravaged, anticipating the thought in 699 and 702-705.
698.
mvp-comment-385-3
αὐτόποιον
Self-created,
That springeth ever of itself; i.e. That needs not to be renewed by human agency.
700.
mvp-comment-386-1
τᾷδε .. χώρᾳ i. e. (1) Along the banks of the Cephisus: or (2) in Attica generally. Cp. Hdt. 5. 82, λέγεται δὲ καὶ ὡς ἐλαῖαι ἦσαν ἄλλοθι γῆς οὐδαμοῦ κατ᾿ ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον, ἡ Ἀθήνῃσι.
701.
mvp-comment-387-1
παιδοτρόφου Simply
childnourishing. Cp. Hes. Op. 226, εἰρήνη δ᾽ ἀνὰ γῆν κουρότροφος. The interpretations which refer to the custom of suspending an olive-crown where a male child was born, or to the propagation of shoots and offsets from the parent stock, are more ingenious than true. For the synecdoche, φύλλον ἐλαίας, cp. Αj. 14, ὦ φθέγμ᾽ Ἀθάνας.
702.
mvp-comment-388-1
τὸ μέν τις οὔ, *νεαρὸς οὔτε γήρα This line seems to have been tampered with by some one who had an ear for the iambic rhythm. The simplest alteration is to omit te and place a comma after οὔ. Which no commander, young or old... For the order of τις οὔ, see Essay on Language § 41. p. 71, and for the omission of the first οὔτε, ib. § 39, p. 67, and Phil. 771, ἑκόντα μήτ᾽ ἄκοντα. For the variety of expression (veapὸς σημαίνων, γήρα σημαίνων), cp. Ant. 808, νέατον φέγγος λεύσσουσαν κούποτ' αὖθις: and for the dative γήρᾳ, which has given offence, Ο.Τ. 172, οὔτε τόκοισιν ἀνέχουσι γυναῖκες. μέν,
assuredly. Cp. El. 1240, τόδε μὲν οὔποτ᾽ ἀξιώσω τρέσαι, κ.τ.λ. Sophocles, in his description, blends the olive of the region, whether that in the temple of Athena Polias in the Acropolis, which Xerxes could not destroy (Hdt. 8.55), or the olives of the Academy which according to Androtion, quoted by the Schol., Archidamus spared, with the olive generally.
703.
mvp-comment-389-1
σημαίνω is used in the Homeric sense of
to command an army. II.16.172, πέντε δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἡγεμόνας ποιήσατο, τοῖς ἐπεποίθει | σημαίνειν. The allusion which has been found in this passage to the invasions of Xerxes and Archidamus, is not improbable.
703.
mvp-comment-389-2
Λακεδαιμόνιοι γὰρ ἐμβαλόντες ἐν τῇ Αττικῇ δέκα μυριάσι Πελοποννησίων καὶ Βοιωτῶν ἡγουμένου Ἀρχιδάμου τοῦ Ζευξιδάμου Λακεδαιμονίων βασιλέως, ἀπέσχοντο τῶν λεγομένων μορίων, Ἀθηνᾷ θύσαντες, (Ἀθηνῶν δείσαντες, Meineke conj.), ὡς Ανδροτίων φησί, Schol. See also the quotation from Istrus in Schol. on 701. The reading of L, εἰσαιὲν ὁρῶν, sustains the choriambic rhythm; and παραπτομένα in the antistrophe is justly suspected. See note on 717.
703.
mvp-comment-389-3
κύκλος Phil. 1338, ὦ τὰ πάντ᾿ ἰδόντες ἀμφ᾿ ἐμοῦ κύκλοι.
705.
mvp-comment-390-1
Μορίου Διός i. e. Zeus regarded as the protector of the μορίαι or sacred olives in the Academy. Cp. Ar. Nub. 1005. Apollodorus, quoted by the Schol., says, περὶ Ἀκαδήμειαν ἐστὶν ὅ τε τοῦ Καταιβάτου Διὸς βωμός, ὃν καὶ Μόριον καλοῦσι, τῶν ἐκεῖ μορίων παρὰ τὸ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἱερὸν ἱδρυμένων.
706.
mvp-comment-391-1
γλαυκώπις occurs here only in the extant plays of Sophocles. Probably
grey-eyed, cp. γλαυκᾶς supr. 701. Essay on Language § 44. p. 82. a
707.
mvp-comment-392-1
ἄλλον . . εὐθάλασσον
I have yet another mighty praise for this city that hath reared me, the gift of that great deity, to tell, her great pride, that she is renowned for the fairest steeds, the fairest colts, and for glorious sea. εἰπεῖν is added epexegetically in construction with ἔχω. The adjectives, εὔιππον, etc., agree with αὐτήν, which is to be supplied as the object of εἰπεῖν, if indeed some word equivalent to this has not been lost. Porson, to complete the metre, supplied χθονός before αύχημα. But perhaps the line may have stood, δῶρον τοῦ μεγάλου δαίμονος, εἰπεῖν γέ νιν, αὔχημα μέγιστον, κ.τ.λ. ματροπόλει = 'the state our mother.' Cp. 1480, γᾷ ματέρι. The word probably refers to Athens, as presiding over the smaller townships. But in ταίσδε .. ἀγνιαῖς, infr. 715, the neighbourhood of Colonus is meant.
712.
mvp-comment-393-1
For, son of Cronos, it was thou... γάρ is postponed after the vocative.
713.
mvp-comment-394-1
αὔχημ᾿ For the unconscious repetition of aὔχημα, see Essay on Language § 44. p. 84.
714.
mvp-comment-395-1
The dative ἵπποισι depends immediately on κτίσας, and is to be resumed with ἀκεστῆρα.
Having framed for horses the bit, which tames their rage. Cp. Pind. O1. 13. 85, φάρμακον πραῦ τείνων ἀμφὶ γένυι.
715.
mvp-comment-396-1
ταῖσδε κτίσας ἀγυιαῖς
Having instituted in these roads. κτίσας,
having invented and brought into use. ταῖσδε . . ἀγυιαîs]
In the roads about Colonus. The note of the Schol. here is curious: ὁ γὰρ Κολωνὸς ἱππεὺς ὠνομάσθη, παρ' ἃς ἐξεθέμην αἰτίας διὰ τὸν Ἄδραστον (κατ' Ἀνδροτίωνα, Rom. ed.). ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ τὸ σεμνότατον ἄγει τὸ πράγμα.
