1181.
mvp-comment-635-1
νέα Essay on Language §. 23. p. 38. For the meaning, cp. Aesch. Suppl. 361, σὺ δὲ παρ᾽ ὀψιγόνου μάθε γεραιόφρων.
1182.
mvp-comment-636-1
τὸν ἄνδρα.. τόνδε If these words referred to Polynices, as Hermann thought, Antigone would show less tact in addressing her father than in supplicating the Elders (supra 237). Theseus has indicated a strong wish, as Oedipus Oe perceives (1178, 1350), that Polynices should be allowed to come, and also has expressed a fear that to repulse him would be to dishonour the God. Antigone appeals to her father's respect and gratitude towards Theseus, and to his affection for his daughters, as the motives most likely to influence him.
1186.
mvp-comment-637-1
The antecedent to a is a second accusative after παρασπάσει, SC.
1186.
mvp-comment-637-2
ταῦτα τῶν λεγομένων.
Fear not. He will not wrest thy judgment to such words of his as are against thy purposes.
1186.
mvp-comment-637-3
συμφέροντα] Not =
profitable, but in the more literal sense of
agreeable to,
conspiring with. Essay on Language p. 96.
1187.
mvp-comment-638-1
τά τοι καλῶς, κ.τ.λ. καλῶς is the MS. reading, and κακῶς, the emendation of Hermann, is not specially in point. His explanation is unsatisfactory.
Antigona, ut confirmet, quod dixit, oratione audienda nihil damni accipi, rationem reddit hanc, quod male facta dicendo dissimulari nequeant, sed ipsa oratio proditrix esse mali consilii soleat.
The words have no direct application to Polynices, but are a rhetorical generality, like some others in this play. Cp. Thuc. 2. 40, οὐ τοὺς λόγους τοῖς ἔργοις βλάβην ἡγούμενοι, ἀλλὰ μὴ προδιδαχθῆναι μᾶλλον λόγῳ πρότερον ἢ ἐπὶ ἃ δεῖ ἔργῳ ἐλθεῖν. For ἔργον, signifying a project not yet put in action, cp. Τr. 1157, σὺ δ᾽ οὖν ἄκουε τούργον : Αj. 466, οὐκ ἔστι τοὔργον τλητόν.
1190.
mvp-comment-639-1
This seems to be the better of two ways of emending this line. Essay on Language § 41. p. 77. Others read κακίστων δυσσεβέστατ', ὦ πάτερ.
1191.
mvp-comment-640-1
θέμις is indeclinable here. See L. and S. s. v.
1192.
mvp-comment-641-1
ἀλλ᾿ αὐτόν- The conjecture of the Ist London edition, ἀλλ᾽ ἔασον, has been accepted with various modifications s by by subsequent sub critics. The text is eloquently defended by Mr. Palmer, who observes: 'I think it not quite impossible to understand the brief expression, backed up as it is by the argument which follows, as the language of earnest entreaty, and that the verb is to be supplied by the mind. Antigone had fully presented her request at the commencement of her speech, so that what she then said may be considered as referred to in this short broken sentence, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτόν.
Nay, but receive him graciously ... there are others who have had bad sons and fierce anger, and as they have been charmed into gentleness by the soothing persuasion of their friends, so be you. If ἀλλ' αὐτόν were uttered in a tone of earnest entreaty, and the speaker abruptly added what follows, I can conceive that it would be very intelligible, and if so, the touching effect of the entreaty would be heightened by the very fact that the sentence was unfinished. Antigone leaves her father to imagine all she meant to say, and supplies what is wanting in words by the earnestness of her manner and beseeching tone of voice.' There is force in these remarks, though the quotation of parallel examples would be more to the purpose. The MSS. are practically unanimous; but the aposiopesis is all but unique. Cp. however Aesch. Cho. 749 ff., where Schütz and other editors suppose a lacuna. And in this play there are several places where the original construction of a sentence is not carried out. Cp. esp. supr. 421 ff., 531 ff., infr. 1299 ff., 1370 ff., 1669. Comparisons between classical Greek and the New Testament are usually too remote to be of any use; but the language of affection has similarities in every age, and the ellipse in Philemon 12 is curiously parallel-σὺ δὲ αὐτόν (sc. προσλαβοῦ, which is added from the deferred apodosis in the Textus Receptus). The motive in both cases is the same, viz. a delicate tact, which shrinks from uttering the word of command or entreaty, and hastens to urge fresh topics of persuasion. The deferred apodosis is implied in line 1201, ἀλλ' ἡμῖν εἶκε. Cp. Aesch. Cho. 649 ff., where Dindorf supposes a lacuna, σε in Paris A (followed by R) is a gloss of some grammarian who understood the passage as it is explained in Canter's note:
Insigne est hoc ἀναπόδοτον, ac singulare. Vult enim hoc dicere, ἀλλ αὐτὸν εἴκειν, καὶ νουθετούμενον ἐξεπάδεσθαι, etc.' For an equally difficult anacoluthon, see Thuc. 5. 22. Qy.
1192.
mvp-comment-641-2
ἀλλ᾽ εἶξον (ΑΛΛΑΥΤΟΝ) ? 1193-
1194.
mvp-comment-642-1
ἀλλὰ φύσιν
But, on their receiving counsel, their nature is pacified by the counsels of friends, who charm away their passion.
1195.
mvp-comment-643-1
μὴ τὰ νῦν (Sc. πήματα ἃ πάσχεις), i. e. Turn from the indignity which now enrages you to those former calamities which you suffered. not by your own fault, but by the fault of your father and mother. The correction μοι for μή is unnecessary, and gives a weak meaning to τανῦν. The note of the Scholiast, τὰ περὶ τὴν πήρωσιν λέγοι ἄν· οὐ γὰρ τὰ ἐξ ἀρχῆς πραχθέντα ὀνειδίζει αὐτῷ, ἀλλ᾽ ἃ ἀπὸ τῆς ἄγαν ὀργῆς ἀπέβη. τούτου γὰρ αὐτὸν ἀποτρέπειν βούλεται, is right in spirit, for Antigone is not reproaching her father. But, in gently approaching the subject, she alludes only in the most general way to the miseries which came from the rash impetuosity of Laius, Jocasta, and Oedipus, and, to avoid reproaching him, refers them all to their source in the actions of his parents. Cp. supr. 268, 595 ff. And for the meaning of θυμός, Ant. 493-494. φιλεῖ δ᾽ ὁ θυμὸς πρόσθεν ᾑρῆσθαι κλοπεὺς | τῶν μηδὲν ὀρθῶς ἐν σκότῳ τεχνωμένων.
1199-1200.
mvp-comment-644-1
For you have reasons enough to move you, when you think of your own sightless eyes, to which light returns not.' οὐχὶ βαιά] Hesych. Σοφοκλῆς δὲ Οἰδίποδι ἐν Κολωνῷ· οὐ βαιά, ἀντὶ τοῦ ἄφθονα καὶ πολλά. 1201-1202. λιπαρεῖν γὰρ οὐ καλὸν | δίκαια προσχρήζουσιν] (1) ‘It is not well that those whose request is just should make long supplication; i.e. They should be at once gratified. This involves a change of subject (Essay on Language p. 65), and requires that the acc.
1199-1200.
mvp-comment-644-2
προσχρήζοντας should have been attracted into the dat. in construction with καλών (ib. § 35 pp. 59, 60). Both difficulties may be avoided by taking λιπαρεῖν in the general sense of ' obstinate continuance,' as in Hdt. 1. 94, etc., and προσχρήζουσιν as = πρὸς προσχρήζοντας, or as if λιπαρεῖν were λιπαρή φαίνεσθαι: (2)
It is not well to be obdurate to a just request. Cp. supr. 1119, τὸ λιπαρές. For this meaning, cp. Fr. 76, τοῖς γὰρ δικαίοις ἀντέχειν οὐ ῥάδιον. And for the dative, cp. O. T. 1373, οἷν ἐμοὶ δυοῖν, κ.τ.λ., and see Essay on Language § 12. p. 18. β 1. But the constant use of λιπαρεῖν in Attic, in the sense of ' to press with requests,' renders this interpretation improbable, and the former (1) is to be preferred. The use of οὐκ (rather than μή) in 1203 is accounted for by the attraction of the previous οὐ, and by reference to the actual circumstances. Essay on Language § 29. p. 49.
1204.
mvp-comment-645-1
βαρεῖαν ἡδονὴν νικᾶτέ με
You win me by your words to grant your request against my will. ἡδονή may either refer (1) to the pleasure which Oedipus gives to his daughters, cp. Αj. 114, ἐπειδὴ τέρψις ἥδε σοὶ τὸ δρᾶν: or (2) to the pleasure which he feels in hearing them; either being accompanied with pain to himself. For the accusative in (2) see Essay on Language § 17. p. 24, and cp. Tr. 960-961, χωρεῖν πρὸ δόμων λέγουσιν, ἄσπετόν τι θαῦμα. The oxymoron is more pointed in (2).
1206.
mvp-comment-646-1
εἴπερ is emphatic, expressing some impatience at his forced consent.
If he must come.
1207.
mvp-comment-647-1
Let me never be delivered into the power of any man; i.e.
By no means let me come into his power. For the periphrasis with ψυχή, cp. esp. Ant. 1069, Phil. 54, 5. And for μηδείς, see Essay on Language § 22. p. 36.
1210.
mvp-comment-648-1
σῶς ἴσθ᾽ Sc. ὤν, Essay on Language § 39. p. 72, 1, c.
Know thyself safe. The reading of L. may be due to a gloss to this effect, viz. σῶς/ὤν.
