View:
By Commline
607-cont2
The first two verses are the proem for everything. He wants to speak justly, as is fitting before such a court (
θεσμός
ordinance on 571), and to say nothing false, which as a seer he may not. Now he traces with all emphasis all his oracles back to Zeus (on 19), without further expressly testifying that he gave this to Orestes (
μαρτυρήσων
about to testify 576,
μαρτύρησον
testify 609; cf.
μαρτυρεῖ
testifies 594, and what Ap. already said at 579f.); thereby he gives his pronouncements the highest conceivable authority, but - on the opposite side stand still older deities.
For
κελεύσει
he will command the correct change is
κελεῦσαι
to command (Hermann), Kühner-Gerth Synt. II, 427 f.
620
πιφαύσκω
I make known (
Pers. 661
,
Ag. 23
,
Ch. 279
; as Soph. and Eurip.,
Ddf. Lex. 290
) is otherwise as in Homer, "(to) indicate", here synonymous with
κελεύω
I command, and also constructed so.
Ὕμμε
you (pl.) is attested in A. only here (in
Soph. Ant. 846
in a lyric passage); also of the 1st person only the dative
ἄμμι
us
Sept. 156
occurs in a dochmiac verse (
Ddf. Lex. 337
. 100).
Ὅρκος
Oath: so also no oath of judges; cf. what Pylades says at
Ch. 901f.
. 622-624 Chorus. The Erinyes pretend that they cannot believe in such a command of Zeus (
ὡς λέγεις σύ
as you say, in contrast to Zeus), since father and mother would then be treated quite unequally. The argument is the same as that already put forward at 603. On
πράξαντα
having done cf.
Ch. 511
,
Pers. 476
.
Τιμὰς νέμειν
to distribute honors differently than at 747:
νέμειν
to distribute =
νομίζειν
to consider, and it is rather to be compared with 423
ὅπου τὸ χαίρειν μηδαμοῦ νομίζεται
where joy is nowhere considered, thus = to hold in no account. Wecklein cites
Soph. Tr. 56
:
εἰ πατρὸς νέμοι τιν᾽ ὤραν
if he paid any heed to his father. 625-639 Apollo. The advocate now in fact maintains that the father and husband as such has greater claims to consideration, especially if he is such a one as Agamemnon, king and commander of the army. The spirited exposition, which at the same time brings out the treachery of the murder, but yet allows the main point, that it is his own wife who is the murderess, to recede very much into the background, is subject to what Cicero says in the Pro Milone (§ 17): non alio facinore clari homines, alio obscuri necantur: intersit inter vitae dignitatem summorum atque infimorum; mors quidem illata per scelus isdem et poenis teneatur et legibus; nisi forte magis erit parricida, si qui consularem patrem, quam si quis humilem necarit. 625
ταὐτόν
the same: as when a woman is killed.
Τι
what? belongs to
οὐ
not like
Prom. 268
οὐ μήν τι
not at all
. On
τιμαλφεῖν
to honor see above on 15;
διόσδοτος
given by Zeus also
Sept. 948
(
Ag. 1391
according to Porson's emendation); besides only Pindar P. 8, 96, Frg. 137. The scholion must refer to this, that Epicharmus mocked Aeschylus for his constant use of this
ὄνομα
name; for
τιμαλφεῖν
to honor is a
ῥῆμα
verb. The
σκῆπτρον
scepter of the Pelopids already in Iliad B 100 ff.
627
γυναικός
of a woman of a woman (not 'his wife');
θούριοι
rushing and
θοῦρος
rushing are not rare in Aeschylus, e.g.
Ag. 112
θούριος ὄρνις
rushing bird
,
Sept. 42
θούριοι λοχαγέται
rushing leaders
, roughly 'warlike'.Eumenides. Aeschylus. ed. Friedrich Blass. Berlin. 1907.