mvp-comment-174-1
321 The short ode which begins here corresponds metrically to 362 ff. The metre is similar to 237 ff. -
ὀρθοψάλακτος, 'loud': cf. 249.
οψαλακτος (see cr. n.) is meaningless, and 362 indicates that one extra syllable is required, so that I follow Hunt in adopting Murray's conjecture, but without much confidence that it is right. Wilamowitz does not explain his
ἀπροψάλακτος, which, though presumably based on
προψαλάσσω (241), is by no means perspicuous. Since
ψαλάσσω was unquestionably used for twanging the lyre (Lycophr. 139
τοίγαρ ψαλάξεις εἰς κενὸν νευρᾶς κτύπον, |
ἄσιτα κἀδώρητα φορμίζων μέλη), this meaning must surely have been the chief element in the compound (perhaps
ἀποψάλακτος after Philostr. vit. soph. 2. 1. 14
ἡ γλῶττα τὴν ἄκραν ᾿Ατθίδα ἀποψάλλει). -
κατοιχ νεῖ τόπου. The genitive resembles
πεδίων ἐπινίσσεται Ο.C. 689. It is descended from the old (partitive) genitive
mvp-comment-174-2
of place which survives in the Homeric
διώκεσθαι πεδίοιο. But in both cases the preposition assists the construction: see Kuehner-Gerth 1 404.
mvp-comment-175-1
322 f. See cr. nn.
πρεπτά in agreement with
φάσματα is supported by
Hesych. III p. 369
πρεπτά· φαντάσματα
,
εἰκόνες, which, as Wilamowitz suggests, may relate to this particular passage. Hunt gives two versions: (1) 'the song plucks local images.' Or (2) with
ἐπανθεμίζει intransitive: 'fantasies flit over the scene,' like a bird or bee from flower to flower. I prefer the latter alternative and take Theon's variant, which is against the metre, to be an acknowledgment of the intransitive use
ἐπανθεμίζει. But I should prefer to render: 'visions revealed by the straining chords are spread around us (
ἔγχωρα, predicative) like a carpet of flowers. Similarly in
Aesch. Cho. 150
, where
ἐπανθίζειν ‘to make to blossom' is transitive, there is the same comparison of sound to flowers. The variegated
ποικιλία of the lyre (319) is expressed as
ἄνθεμα. For the
τόνος of the lyre (
ἑπτάτονος) cf.
Ar. Ey. 532
. Stahl, who thinks that
ἐπανθεμίζει must be transitive, makes
ὀμφά the subject, and reads
ἔγχορδα for
ἔγχωρα.
