1568.
mvp-comment-834-1
ὦ χθόνιαι θεαί These words, elsewhere applied to Demeter and Proserpine, seem here to be addressed to the Erinyes, to whom, as daughters of Earth and Darkness, they are properly applicable.
Invocat Furias et Cerberum, hunc, ut ne teneat animam mortui in limine Ditis; illas, ut propitiae sint, nec puniant quae ille sine mala mente commisit.
(Herm.) That Prosperine has been already invoked, is not, however, a conclusive reason against her being here again addressed with Demeter. Cp. O. T. 190, foll., 206, foll., where Artemis is twice invoked.
1568-1569.
mvp-comment-835-1
σῶμα.. θηρός
And thou huge unconquered beast.
1569.
mvp-comment-836-1
ὃν .. Ἀΐδᾳ
Of whom they say that thou hast thy lair in the I olished gateway, and whom rumour ever declares to be snarling from thy den, a guardian invincible of Hades hall.'
1570.
mvp-comment-837-1
πολυξέστοις The conjecture πολυξένοις is more convenient for the metre, and gives an apt enough sense. On the other hand, πολυξέστοις, ' Burnished, is a picturesque epithet for a gateway: and the tendency to spondaic endings in this antistrophe has been already noticed.
1573.
mvp-comment-838-1
λόγος * ἐσαιὲν ἀνέχει
Report constantly avers of thee. As the metre is doubtful (the corresponding verse in the strophe being corrupt), it appears unsafe to follow Tricilinius in altering ἀνέχει which looks idiomatic, to ἔχει: for which, however, cp. supra 674, and note, Hdt. 7. 26, τὸν ὑπὸ Φρυγῶν λόγος ἔχει ὑπὸ Ἀπόλλωνος ἀνακρεμασθῆναι. For the similar use of a compound of ἔχω, cp. Pind. Pyth. 1.96, ἐχθρὰ Φάλαριν κατέχει φάτις. And for ἀνέχω, cp. Pind. Nem. 7.89, εἰ δ᾽ αὐτὸ καὶ θεὸς ἀνέχοι. The correspondence of metre is kept by reading εὖ κατανύσαι in the strophe.
1574.
mvp-comment-839-1
ὦ Γᾶς παῖ καὶ Ταρτάρου These words are addressed not to Cerberus, but in all probability to Death, who is invoked as a person more than once in Sophocles (Phil. 797, Aj. 854), cp. infr. 1578 and note. In what sense could Cerberus be called the child of Earth? In Hes. Theog. 211, foll., Death is the Child of Night, without a father, and Cerberus, ib. 310, is the son of Echidna and Typhon. But in these genealogies the poets used considerable freedom. And in the same spirit in which Sophocles calls the Erinyes daughters of Earth and Darkness, Death may be apostrophized as the son of Earth, who receives the bodies of the Dead, and Tartarus, which (cp. supra 1389), like
Olympus, has less of a special and local meaning in Sophocles than in Homer. The name of Death is omitted, like that of Persephone, the Erinyes, and Cerberus, while the kingly title 'Αϊδωνεύς is given to Hades. Cp. supra 1548, and note.
1575.
mvp-comment-840-1
ἐν καθαρῷ βῆναι (1) • To move in a clear space,' i. e. to leave the way clear: μὴ ἐμποδὼν βῆναι. A marked instance of oxymoron: cp. ἐκτὸς ὁμιλεῖ, Aj. 640, and see Essay on Language § 37. p. 70. Or (2) taking βῆναι in the sense of
departing as in Ant. 120, ἔβα, κ.τ.λ., and ἐν καθαρῷ as proleptic,
To go away and leave the coast clear =ἐκποδὼν βῆναι.
1578.
mvp-comment-841-1
τὸν αἰένυπνον The reading of the Scholiast and Suidas, and of the earliest corrector of L, has sufficient authority, especially when recommended by the metre. αἰὲν ἄυπνον would certainly be applicable to Cerberus and might be suggested by the words ἀδάματον φύλακα παρ' Ἀΐδα. But the address to Death, as the God of the Eternal Sleep, is a more fitting termination of this ode.
