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
