Aeschylus Eumenides 254

Ettore Romagnoli (Translator)

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Cerca, su, cerca per tutto, ed investiga
285
ché il matricida non fugga impunito!

Eumenides. Aeschylus. Ettore Romagnoli (Translator). Bologna. 1922.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by Schmidt Sciences.

Current edition Experimental

Eschilo, Le Eumenidi: traduzione italiana di Ettore Romagnoli (OCR draft) (Italian) (Eschilo, Le Eumenidi: traduzione italiana di Ettore Romagnoli. Ettore Romagnoli, 1922.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (12)
Εὐμενίδες First1KGreek (Aeschyli Tragoediae. Sidgwick, Arthur, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1902.) — 299-396 focus
Εὐμενίδες Perseus (Aeschylus, Volume 2. Smyth, Herbert Weir, editor. London; New York: William Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1926.) — 299-396 focus
Εὐμενίδες (1518 edition; OCR draft) Experimental (Aeschylus, Eumenides, 1518 edition. VLM-assisted OCR with native lineation and automated correspondence to the Smyth edition.) — 254 focus
Εὐμενίδες (OCR draft) Experimental (Εὐμενίδες. Guilielmus Dindorfius, 1882.) — 254 focus
ὅρα ὅρα μάλ᾽ αὖ λεῦσσέ τε πάντα, μὴ
255
λάθῃ φύγδα βὰς ματροφόνος ἀτίτας.
ὁ δ᾽ αὖτέ γ᾽ ἀλκὰν ἔχων
περὶ βρέτει πλεχθεὶς θεᾶς ἀμβρότου
ὑπόδικος θέλει γενέσθαι χερῶν.
260
τὸ δ᾽ οὐ πάρεστιν· αἷμα μητρῷον χαμαὶ,
δυσαγκόμιστον, παπαῖ,
τὸ διερὸν πέδοι χύμενον οἴχεται.
ἀλλ᾽ ἀντιδοῦναι δεῖ σ᾽ ἀπὸ ζῶντος ῥοφεῖν
ἐρυθρὸν ἐκ μελέων πέλανον· ἀπὸ δὲ σοῦ
265
φεροίμαν βοσκὰν πώματος δυσπότου·
καὶ ζῶντά σ᾿ ἰσχνάνασ᾽ ἀπάξομαι κάτω,
ἀντίποιν᾿ ὡς τίνῃς ματροφόνου δύας.
ὄψει δὲ κεἴ τις ἄλλος ἤλιτεν βροτῶν
ἢ θεὸν ἢ ξένον τιν ἀσεβῶν ἢ τοκέας φίλους,
270
ἔχονθ᾽ ἕκαστον τῆς δίκης ἐπάξια.
μέγας γὰρ ῞Αιδης ἐστὶν εὔθυνος βροτῶν
ἔνερθε χθονὸς, δελτογράφῳ δὲ πάντ᾽ ἐπωπᾷ
φρενί.
275
Εὐμενίδες (OCR draft) Experimental (Εὐμενίδες. Gottfried Hermann, 1852.) — 254 focus
ΕΥΜΕΝΙΔΕΣ (OCR draft) Experimental (ΕΥΜΕΝΙΔΕΣ. Paul Mazon, 1920-1925.) — 254 focus
Ὅρα ὅρα μάλ' αὖ λεῦσσέ τε ...λεύσσετον λεῦσσε τὸν πάντα πάνται, μὴ
λάθῃ φύγδα βὰς βὰς ὁ ματροφόνος ἀτίτας ἀτίμας.
255
Ὅδ' αὖτε γοῦν γ' οὖν ἀλκὰν ἔχων
περὶ βρέτει πλεχθεὶς θεᾶς ἀμβρότου
ὑπόδικος θέλει γενέσθαι χερῶν
τὸ δ' τόδ' οὐ πάρεστιν· αἷμα μητρῷον χαμαί
Εὐμενίδες (OCR draft) Experimental (Εὐμενίδες. Arthur Sidgwick, 1887.) — 254 focus
Εὐμενίδες (OCR draft) Experimental (Εὐμενίδες. N. Wecklein, 1885.) — 254 focus
Ὅρα ὅρα μάλ᾽ αὖ,
λεύσσετον πάντα, μὴ
255
λάθῃ φύγδα βὰς
ὁ ματροφόνος ἀτίτας.
Εὐμενίδες (OCR draft) Experimental (Εὐμενίδες. Martin L. West, 1990.) — 254 focus
— ὅρα ὅρα μάλ᾽ αὖ· λεῦσσε τό⟨πο⟩ν πάντα,
255
μὴ λάθηι φύγδα βὰς ⟨ὁ⟩ ματροφόνος ἀτίτας.
ὅδ᾽ αὖτε γοῦν† ἀλκὰν ἔχων
περὶ βρέτει πλεχθεὶς θεᾶς ἀμβρότου
ὑπόδικος θέλει γενέσθαι χρεῶν.
260
τὸ δ᾽ οὐ πάρεστιν· αἷμα μητρῶιον χαμαὶ
δυσαγκόμιστον, παπαῖ·
τὸ διερὸν πέδοι χύμενον οἴχεται.
ἀλλ᾽ ἀντιδοῦναι δεῖ σ’ ἀπὸ ζῶντος ῥοφεῖν
ἐρυθρὸν ἐκ μελέων πελανόν, ἀπὸ δὲ σοῦ
265
βοσχὰν φεροίμαν πώματος δυσπότου·
καὶ ζῶντά σ’ ἰσχνάνασ’ ἀπάξομαι κάτω,
Aeschyli Eumenides (OCR draft) Experimental (Aeschyli Eumenides. Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, 1914.) — 254 focus
ὅρα ὅρα μάλ᾽ αὖ, λεύσσετε πάντα, μὴ
λάθηι φύγδα βὰς
255
[δ] ματροφόνος ἀτίτας.
ὅδ᾽ αὐτός· [οὖν] ἀλκὰν ἔχων
περὶ βρέτει πλεχθεὶς θεᾶς ἀμβρότου
ὑπόδικος θέλει γενέσθαι χρεῶν.
τὸ δ᾽ οὐ πάρεστιν· αἷμα μητρῶιον χαμαί
260
δυσαγκόμιστον, παπαῖ,
τὸ διερὸν πέδοι χύμενον οἴχεται.
ἀλλ᾽ ἀντιδοῦναι δεῖ σ᾽ ἀπὸ ζῶντος ῥοφεῖν
ἐρυθρὸν ἐκ μελέων πέλανον· ἀπὸ δέ σου
βοσκὰν φεροίμαν πώματος δυσπότου.
265
καὶ ζῶντά σ᾿ ἰσχνάνασ᾽ ἀπάξομαι κάτω,
(ἵν᾽) ἀντιποίνους τίνηις μητροφόντας δύας.
ὄψει δὲ κεἴ τις ἄλλος ἤλιτεν βροτῶν
ἢ θεὸν ἢ ξένον τιν᾿ ἀσεβῶν
ἢ τοκέας φίλους,
270
ἔχονθ᾽ ἕκαστον τῆς δίκης ἐπάξια.
μέγας γὰρ ῞Αιδης ἐστὶν εὔθυνος βροτῶν
ἔνερθε χθονός,
δελτογράφωι δὲ πάντ᾽ ἐπωπᾶι φρενί.
Εὐμενίδες (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek text of Aeschylus' Eumenides, edited by F. A. Paley, 1885.) — 254 focus
ὅρα, ὅρα μάλ᾽ αὖ, παντᾶ λεῦσσε μὴ
245
λάθῃ φύγδα βὰς ματροφόνος ἀτίτας.
ὁ δ᾽ αὐτέ γ᾽ ἀλκὰν ἔχων
περὶ βρέτει πλεχθεὶς θεᾶς ἀμβρότου
ὑπόδικος θέλει γενέσθαι χερῶν.
250
τὸ δ᾽ οὐ πάρεστιν· αἷμα ματρῷον χαμαὶ
δυσαγκόμιστον, παπαῖ.
τὸ διερὸν πέδοι χύμενον οἴχεται.
ἀλλ᾽ ἀντιδοῦναι δεῖ σ᾽ ἀπὸ ζῶντος ῥοφεῖν
ἐρυθρὸν ἐκ μελέων πέλανον· ἀπὸ δὲ σου
255
βοσκὰν φεροίμαν πώματος δυσπότου·
καὶ ζῶντά σ᾿ ἰσχνάνασ᾽ ἀπάξομαι κάτω,
ἀντιποίνους τίνειν ματροφόνους δύας.
ὄψει δὲ κεἴ τις ἄλλος ἤλιτεν βροτῶν
260
ἢ θεὸν ἢ ξένον τιν᾿ οὐκ εὐσεβῶν ἢ τοκέας φίλους,
ἔχονθ᾽ ἕκαστον τῆς δίκης ἐπάξια.
μέγας γὰρ "Αιδης ἐστὶν εὔθυνος βροτῶν
ἔνερθε χθονός,
δελτογράφῳ δὲ πάντ᾽ ἐπωπᾷ φρενί.
265
Εὐμενίδες (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek text of Aeschylus' Eumenides, edited by Friedrich Blass, 1907.) — 254 focus
ὅρα ὅρα μάλ᾽ αὖ λεῦσσέ τε τὸν πάντᾶι,
μὴ λάθηι φύγδα βὰς ματροφόνος ἀτίτας.
῾Ο δ᾽ αὖτέ γ᾽ ἀλκὰν ἔχων
περὶ βρέτει πλεχθεὶς θεᾶς ἀμβρότου
ὑπόδικος θέλει γενέσθαι χρεῶν.
260
τὸ δ᾽ οὐ πάρεστιν· αἷμα μητρῶιον χαμαί.
δυσαγκόμιστον, παπαῖ,
τὸ διερὸν πέδοι χύμενον οἴχεται.
Ἀλλ᾽ ἀντιδοῦναι δεῖ σ᾽ ἀπὸ ζῶντος ῥοφεῖν
ἐρυθρὸν ἐκ μελέων πέλανον· ἀπὸ δὲ σοῦ
265
φεροίμαν βοσκὰν πώματος δυσπότου·
καὶ ζῶντά σ᾿ ἰσχνάνασ᾽ ἀπάξομαι κάτω,
ἀντίποιν᾿ ὡς τίνηις ματροφόνου δύας.
Ὄψηι δὲ κεἴ τις ἄλλος ἤλιτεν βροτῶν
ἢ θεὸν ἢ ξένον τιν᾿ ἀσεβῶν ἢ τοκέας φίλους,
ἔχονθ᾽ ἕκαστον τὴν δίκην ἐπαξίαν.
μέγας γὰρ Ἅιδης ἐστὶν εὔθυνος βροτῶν
ἔνερθε χθονός, δελτογράφωι δὲ πάντ᾽ ἐπωπᾶι
φρενί.
275
Translations (9)
Eumenides Perseus (Aeschylus, Volume 2. Smyth, Herbert Weir, translator. London; New York: William Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1926. (Modernized by Perseus.)) — 299-395 focus
The Eumenides (OCR draft) Experimental (The Eumenides. Theodore Alois Buckley, 1849.) — 254 focus
Look, look again by all means; observe all things; lest the matricide unpunished escape your notice, having gone in flight. He here again, having protection, twined around the image of the immortal goddess, wishes to undergo trial for his deed 3
. But this may not be; his mother's blood on the ground, cannot be recalled, alas! the life's blood, poured on the plain, is gone. But you needs must suffer punishment in your turn, so that I suck from you alive the red gore from your limbs; and may I bear from you the taste of a draught dire to quaff; and having wasted you away I will lead you alive below, that 1
you may suffer a return for the matricidal woe. But you shall behold 2
, if any other too of mortals has sinned, acting impiously either towards a god, or any guest, or dear parents, each having things worthy of justice. For mighty Pluto is the judge of mortals below the earth, and he looks upon all things with recording mind.
LES EUMÉNIDES (OCR draft) Experimental (LES EUMÉNIDES. Paul Mazon, 1920-1925.) — 254 focus
.
The Furies (OCR draft) Experimental (The Furies. Robert Potter, 1779.) — 254 focus
It may not be: no: when the fluent moiſture
Is ſunk into the ground, 'tis loft for ever:
Can then a mother's blood, ſpilt on the earth,
290
Be from the earth recover'd? No. Thy hour
Of ſuff'ring is arriv'd, the hour that gives
The purple ſtream, that warms thy heart, to quench
My thirst, which burns to quaff thy blood, and bend
To the dark realms below thy waſted limbs;
295
There, for thy mother's murder, ſhalt thou learn
To taste of pain; there ſee whatever mortal
Dar'd an injurious deed, profaned the Gods,
Attack'd with ruffian violence the ſtranger,
Or rais'd his impious hand againſt a parent,
300
Each with vindictive pains condemn'd to groan,
His crimes requiting; for beneath the earth
The aweful Judge of mortals Pluto ſits,
And with relentless Justice marks their deeds.
Aeschylus, Eumenides: versio Latina Ioannis Sanravii (OCR draft) Experimental (Aeschylus, Eumenides: versio Latina Ioannis Sanravii. Ioannes Sanravius, 1555.) — 254 focus
Sed uide, rurſus uide omnino,
Ne lateat fugitiuum aſcendens parricidam inultum.
Ille rurſus exilium habens circa statuam
Adnexus deæ immortali
255
Subditus uult eſse manibus.
Hic non adeſt, ſanguis maternus in terra
Incurabile, papæ hoc ſacrificium humi ſuſum it.
Sed reddere uerita, à uiuente bibere
Rubrum ex miſeris libamen, à te uerò
260
Paſsum ferrem potus mali potatum.
Et uiuentem te uestigans ducam infra.
Contrarias pænas pendes maternas.
Videbis ibi alium uirum,
Aut deu, aut hoſpitem, aliquem impiorum, aut parentes
265
Habentem quemq; pæne compenſationem. (charos)
Magnus enim Pluto est gubernator mortalium,
Infra terram, tabulæ omnia uidet mente.
Aeschylus, Die Eumeniden: German translation (OCR draft) Experimental (Aeschylus, Die Eumeniden: German translation. Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, 1919–1923.) — 254 focus
Aufgepaſst,
English (E. D. A. Morshead, 1889, second edition) (OCR draft) Experimental (Aeschylus, The Furies — Morshead translation. Wikisource transcription; speech corresp and card milestones aligned to Smyth perseus-grc2.) — 254 focus
Follow, seek him—round and round
Scent and snuff and scan the ground,
290
Lest unharmed he slip away,
He who did his mother slay!
Hist—he is there! See him his arms entwine
Around the image of the maid divine—
Thus aided, for the deed he wrought
295
Unto the judgment wills he to be brought.
It may not be! a mother's blood poured forth
Upon the stainèd earth
None gathers up: it lies—bear witness, Hell!—
For aye indelible!
300
And thou who sheddest it shalt give thine own
That shedding to atone!
Yea, from thy living limbs I suck it out,
Red, clotted, gout by gout,—
A draught abhorred of men and gods; but I
305
Will drain it, suck thee dry;
Yea, I will waste thee living, nerve and vein;
Yea, for thy mother slain,
Will drag thee downward, there where thou shalt dree
The weird of agony!
310
And thou and whosoe'er of men hath sinned—
Hath wronged or God, or friend,
Or parent,—learn ye how to all and each
The arm of doom can reach!
Sternly requiteth, in the world beneath,
315
The judgment-seat of Death;
Yea, Death, beholding every man's endeavour,
Recordeth it for ever.
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1854; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (Aeschylos. Deutsch in den Versmaßen der Urschrift. Stuttgart: Hoffmann, 1854. Native Donner line citations, Smyth card correspondence, selected textual readings and metrical facsimiles. Remaining OCR differences and unattributed reading notes are documented in the linked review inventory.) — 254 focus
Ha, sieh wieder, sieh! Späht umher überall :
245
Darf doch der Mörder nicht heimlich der Straf' entgeh'n!
English (Smyth; revised Bannon and Nagy, CHS) (OCR draft) Experimental (CHS Primary Sources revision of Herbert Weir Smyth’s translation by Cynthia Bannon and Gregory Nagy, with transliterated Greek terms tagged and aligned to the Smyth edition.)

No corresponding passage available

Notes on the current edition

Eumenides

1. Le Furie si aggruppano intorno all'altare di Diòniso.

Commentary

Commentary on Aeschylus: Eumenides (Aeschylus. Eumenides. Sidgwick, Arthur, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1887.)

223. πράσσουσαν ἡσυχαιτέραν , ' more remiss in act, the adj. by a common poetic variation for adv. with verb. Somewhat similarly in prose σχολαῖος, χρόνιος, ἄσμενος, etc., are used adverbially.

224. δίκας ἐποπτεύσει , shall watch the pleadings, i. e. direct the trial.' δίκαι plural is usually pleas of right, not vengeance. So δίκας κλύοντες Ag. 813, 'hearing the cause : ' κραίνετε δίκας Cho. 462, ὑστάτας δίκας Suppl. 230, the last trial.

226. δ᾽ οὖν , ‘well then,' impatient and contemptuous. So Prom. 935 ὁ δ᾽ οὖν ποιείτω. τίθου (‘put or make for yourself,' middle), get. πλέω must be read for MSS. πλέον. In Ag. 1299 we have the opposite blunder of the copyist, χρόνῳ πλέω for χρόνον πλέω: mistakes constantly arising from terminations being erroneously assimilated.

228. ὥστε , 202.

230. δίκας μέτειμι τόνδε , i.e. I will sue for justice on him; δίκας being a rather strange sort of internal acc., the δίκαι or pleadings shewing the nature of the pursuit; see line 224. The phrase implies. that the Eumenides are going to submit to a trial: δίκην μέτειμι τόνδε would mean simply I will visit vengeance on his head. μέτειμι and μετελθεῖν are used with three kinds of accusatives, the trial or vengeance, the crime, and the criminal. Here we have trial and criminal: μετῆλθόν σ᾽ αἷμα Eur. Or. 423 (crime and criminal): so ἁρπαγὰς μετήλθετ᾽ Ἰλίου πόλιν Eur. Cycl. 280: Ag. 1666 (criminal only), Cho. 996 (crime only). *

234. εἰ προδῶ , Epic use of eἰ with subj. So εἰ κρανθῇ πρᾶγμα Suppl. 91, μηδ᾽ εἰ στράτευμα πλεῖον ᾖ Pers. 791, εἰ μὴ τοῖον τύχῃ Supp. 400. [Apollo retires : and the Chorus leave the stage. Then the scene is changed to Athens: the temple of Athena Polias on the Acropolis: Orestes enters and kneels as a suppliant before the statue of Athena in the front.] This change of scene, being from one temple to another, would only require the alteration of the side scenes or περίακτοι. These were prismatic or three-sided scenes which were turned round to exhibit different surroundings: rather a primitive device. The altar and temple would remain; only the statues would have to be changed (242). [235-243. SCENE II, Part 1. Orestes prays for protection.]

237. προστρόπαιον , guilty here: see note on 1. 41. ἀφοίβαντον, ‘uncleansed,' from φοῖβος, bright (of course here with reference to the god). (Theocr. uses φοιβάω, to cleanse, later writers φοιβάζω : and φοιβαίνω is found in lexicographers.)

248. φυσιᾷ σπλάγχνον , my heart gasps, loaded and emphatic diction. ἀνδροκμῆσιν has nothing to do with Orestes (as H. Mors.): it is simply, as Schol. understands it, right wearisome.

250. ἀπτέροις . : the Eumenides were not winged, 1. 51.

254. προσγελᾷ , delights : the bold figure not Aeschylean specially, but belonging to the Greek idiom : so σὲ τὰ φυτὰ προσγελάσεται Ar. Pax 600. It is exactly the Lat. adrideo.

256. ἀτίτας , unpunished: lit. unpaying (act.) as Aeschylus always uses τίνω of the culprit who pays penalty. [The word seems used in pass. sense Ag, 72.]

259. πλεχθείς , ‘twined,' a strong word, describing Orestes' despairing clasp of the image.

261-263. δυσαγκόμιστον for δυσανάκομ- : the poetic use

261-263. χαμαί for χαμαὶ ὄν, and Epic passive form χύμενος, cf. Cho. 401.

264. ῥοφεῖν , epexegetic for us to drink.

270. τιν᾿ . ἀσεβῶν is perhaps incomplete, as coming between two dochmiacs it probably should be one itself. The neatest suggestion for completing it is Hermann's τιν᾿ οὐκ εὐσεβῶν. But in the uncertainty of the metre I have left the reading as the MSS. have it, especially as τιν' ἀσεβῶν is a resolved cretic, and we have cretics introduced l. 262, and l.266.

277. καὶ λέγειν , i. e. and I know where it is right to speak. The double construction of ἐπίσταμαι is perhaps a little harsh, but there is no reason to suspect it.

285. ἀβλαβεῖ , harmless; proving that he was purified.

290. αὐτόν , myself: the 'me' is not wanted after emphatic ἐμοί

293. Τρίτων was in the stories of Athena a Libyan lake from which she was supposed to have sprung; afterwards identified with the large salt lake in the south of Tunis.

298. γένοιτο , regular sequence after ἔλθοι. In English we say May she come, and therefore naturally have the primary sequence, that she may prove .

301. ὅπου φρενῶν , where in the heart it lies.

302. δαιμόνων is the powers below, i, e. both the Furies who will drink his blood and Hades (1. 274) who ordains and directs the vengeance.

302. σκιάν , a shadow, not a ghost, for he was to be carried off below yet living (1. 267): but all the vigour sucked out of him with his blood. [Schol. reads σκιά with MSS., and takes it voc. Unlikely.]

Critical apparatus to Eumenides (OCR draft) (Latin and Greek critical apparatus to Gottfried Hermann's 1852 edition of Eumenides.) focus

mvp-comment-161-1 Παλλὰς ... ἐποπτεύσει: δὲ παλλὰς e Sophiani emendatione Rob. δ᾽ ἐπάλλας Μ. δ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἄλλας G. Ald. Turn. Ven. (Bekkero teste Flor. Farn. codex Robortelli. Ex Ven. Flor. δὲπάλλας Franzius affert. ἐποπτεύσει Μ. G. Ald. Rob. ἐποπτεύει Ven. Flor. Farn. ἐποπτεύσεις Turn.

mvp-comment-162-1 λίπω: οὔπω μὴ sola Ald. Deinde λίπω Porsonus. Libri λείπω. γ. quae dixi ad Med. v. 1120. et ad Oed. Col. v. 1024.

mvp-comment-163-1 πόνον πλέον τίθου: πλέω Auratus aliique, idque olim recepi. Sophocles Ai. v. 362. μὴ κακὸν κακῷ διδοὺς ἄκος, πλέον τὸ πῆμα τῆς ἄτης τίθει. Sed non mutandum est quod libri habent, καὶ πόνον πλέον τίθου. Hoe dicit, praefer laborem, si placet. τίθου, ad or supra adscripto ει, Ven. τίθοι, supra adscripto ου, Flor.

mvp-comment-164-1 λόγῳ: Libri λόγῳ. Melius videtur ψόγῳ.

mvp-comment-165-1 πὰρ ... λέγει: πάρ M. Ven. Flor. Rob. παρ G. παρ' Ald. Turn. παρὰ scripsit Porsonus. Deinde libri λέγῃ·

mvp-comment-166-1 ἄγει ... δίκας: ἄγει Ven. Flor. Rob. Τurn. ἄγειν M. G. Par. Ald. Deinde δίκας M. G. Ald. Rob. Turn. δίκης Ven. δίκης (sic) Flor. δίκη Farn.

mvp-comment-167-1 φῶτα κἀκκυνηγετῶ: φῶτα κἀκκυνηγέτης M. G. Ven. Flor. Ald. φῶτα κακκυνηγέτης Rob. φῶτα καὶ κυνηγέτης Par. φῶτά γ' ὡς κυνηγέτης Farn. φῶτα καὶ κυνηγέτις Turn. Stanleius scribendum putabat καὶ κυνηγετω. Scribendum potius κἀκκυνηγετώ. Ita Erfurdtius. Euripides in lone ν. 1422. ὦ Ζεῦ, τίς ἡμᾶς ἐκκυνηγετεῖ πότμος;

mvp-comment-168-1 ἀρήξω: ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἥξω Ven. Flor. Farn.

mvp-comment-169-1 θεοῖς: θεοῖς Ven. Flor. Rob. Τurn. θεοῖσι M. G. Ald.

mvp-comment-170-1 εἰ προδῶ: ɛ in ǹy mutavit Porsonus. V. de part. av II. 7.

mvp-comment-171-1 ἄνασσ' Ἀθάνα: Postquam chorus ex orchestra aliit et Apollo in templum se recepit, mutatur scena. Conspicitur templum Minervae Poliadis in arce Athenarum. Advenit Orestes et supplex ad simulacrum deae accedit. κελεύμασι Farn.

mvp-comment-172-1 δέχου δὲ: δούχου vitium Ald. δὲ omittit Par.

mvp-comment-173-1 οὐ προςτρόπαιον, οὐδ᾽ ἀφοίβαντον χέρα, ἀλλ' ἀμβλὺς ἤδη προςτετριμμένος τε πρὸς ἄλλοισιν οἴκοις καὶ πορεύμασιν βροτῶν: Libri οὐ προστρόπαιον οὐδ᾽ ἀφοίβαντον χέρα, ἀλλ᾽ ἀμβλὲν ἤδη προστετριμμένον τε πρὸς ἄλλοισιν οἴκοις καὶ πορεύμασι βροτῶν. Versu secundo προςτετριμμένην Par. sed alterum supra adscriptum est. Versu tertio πορεύμασιν Porsonus. In secundo versu olim scripseram προςτετριμμένον πάρος, quod mallem neque a Schützio receptum esset neque iterum prolatum a Reisigio Coni, in Aristoph. p. 71. Non magis probari potest quod mihi aliquando et deinde aliis in mentem venit, προςτετριμμένον τε πρό. Nam alienum hoc est ab hoc loco. Sed quod libri habent, ferri non potest. Neque enim praepositio ita in fine versus collocata eiusmodi exemplis confirmatur, quale hoc est in Sophoclis Oed. Col. v. 495. ἐμοὶ μὲν οὐχ ὁδωτά. λείπομαι γὰρ ἐν τῷ μὴ δύνασθαι μηδ᾽ ὁρᾶν, δυοῖν κακοῖν. Ibi enim praecedens interpunctio facit ut duorum versuum numeri arctius coniungantur. Similiter in Oed. R. v. 555. ἔπειθες, ἢ οὐκ ἔπειθες, ὡς χρείη μὲ ἐπὶ τὸν σεμνόμαντιν ἄνδρα πέμψασθαί τινα; Et in Philoct. v. 626. ubi sequitur statim incisio, οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ἐγὼ ταῦτ᾽. ἀλλ᾽ ἐγὼ μὲν εἶὶ ἐπὶ ναῦν· σφῶν δ᾽ ὅπως ἄριστα συμφέροι θεός. Deinde ipsa sententiae ratio ostendit non posse haec ita ab Aeschylo scripta esse. Denique quae sequuntur, ὅμοια χέρσον καὶ θάλασσαν ἐκπερῶν — πρόςειμι δῶμα καὶ βρέτας τὸ σόν, θεά, non sunt connexa cum praecedentibus. Itaque, ut in Opusc. VI. 2. p. 45 seq. faciendum esse dixi, mutato versuum ordine, sic scripsi, οὐ προςτρόπαιον, οὐδ᾽ ἀφοίβαντον χέρα ἄλλοισιν οἴκοις καὶ πορεύμασιν βροτῶν· ἀλλ᾽ ἀμβλὺς ἤδη προςτετριμμένον μύσος, ὅμοια χέρσον etc. Προςτετριμμένον μύσος dictum est ut πρόςτριμμα Ag. v. 378. Neque dissimiliter dicitur Prom. v. 331. γλώσσῃ ματαία ζημία προςτρίβεται. Videtur autem μύσος legisse scholiastes, qui haec adscripsit, ἄλλοις προςτριψάμενον τὸ μύσος, quamquam potuit sane ita interpretari, etiamsi non scriptum invenit μύσος. Quod restitui, ἀμβλὺς ἤδη προςτετριμμένον μέσος, confirmatur eo quod v. 465. Minerva dicit, ἄλλως τε καὶ σὺ μὲν κατηρτυκὼς δρόμοις ἱκέτης προςῆλθες καθαρὸς ἀβλαβὴς δόμοις ἐμοῖς· AESCHYLUS II. 38 Quod enim καθαρός ει ἀβλαβής dicitur, idem est ἀμβλὺς ἤδη τὸ μύσος. Innocuus ad templum Minervae Orestes accedere poterat, quia hebetatum erat et evanuerat piaculum quod sibi contraxerat. Ipse Orestes ν. 437. οὐκ εἰμὶ προςτρόπαιος, οὐδ᾽ ἔχει μύσος πρὸς χειρὶ τήμῃ τὸ σὸν ἐφημένου βρέτας. Πορεύμασιν itineribus est, ut Εuripides Iph. Αul. v. 300. νάϊον πόρευμα dixit. Vniversam autem horum versuum sententiam Orestes v. 443. sic repetit, πάλαι πρὸς ἄλλοις ταῦτ᾽ ἀφιερώμεθα οἴκοισι καὶ βοτοῖσι καὶ ῥυτοῖς πόροις. Non recte hanc meam horum versuum emendationem impugnavit Schoemannus.

mvp-comment-174-1 σώζων: σώζων (σώζων Μ.) M. G. Ald. Rob. Turn. σώζων τ' Ven. (Bekkero teste) Flor. Farn.

mvp-comment-175-1 ἀναμενῶ: Libri ἀναμένω. Recte Stanleius in curis secundis ἀναμενῶ.

mvp-comment-176-1 εἶεν: Introeunt Furiae σποράδην in orchestram. ἔπι τ᾽ ἀν- δρος Α.

mvp-comment-177-1 μηνυτῆρος ... ἀφθέγκτου: μηνυτή, relicto duarum vel trium litterarum spatio, Ven. Idem, sed adscripto in margine μηνυτῆρος, Flor. μηνυτῇσιν Farn. ἀφθέκτου Farn. Rob.

mvp-comment-178-1 νεβρὸν: νεβρόν Victorius, et sic M. Franzio teste. νεκρὸν G. Ven. Flor. Farn. Ald. Rob. Turn.

mvp-comment-179-1 ἐκμαστεύομεν: ἐμαστεύομεν Ven. Dindorfius scribendum putat ἐκματεύομεν. Recte fortasse. V. ad Ag. v. 1058.

mvp-comment-180-1 ἀνδροκμῆσι: ἀνδροκμῇσι Farn. Ald. ανδροκμοῖσι Flor. ἀρδροκμῆσι Rob. typographi errore, neque debebat Schoemannus dooozµžσi seribendum putare, quod dicendum esset γυιοκμήσι. Hoc dicunt Furiae, anhelant viscera ex multo virum defatigante labore, i. e. anhelamus ex multo labore quo virum persecutae sumus. Eodem modo ανδροκμής activum est infra v. 943. ἀνδροκμήτας δ᾽ ἀώρους ἀπεννέπω τύχας. Suppl. v. 652. μηδέ τις ἀνδροκμής λοιγὸς ἐπελθέτω τάνδε πόλιν δαΐζων. Choeph. v. 877. δοίη τις ἀνδροκμῆτα πέλεκυν ὡς τάχος. Et apud Euripidem Suppl. v. 524. οὐ βλάπτων πόλιν, οὐδ᾽ ἀνδροκμήτας προςφέρων ἀγωνίας.

mvp-comment-181-1 πᾶς: πᾶν pro πᾶς Rob.

mvp-comment-182-1 πόντον ... ἀπτέροις: πόντου Farn. ἀπέτροις Rob.

mvp-comment-183-1 που ... καταπτακών: ἐπί που Αld. καταπτακὼν Μ. G. Par. Ven. Flor. Farn. Ald. Rob. καταπτιτακώς Turn. ex lemmate, ut videtur, scholii in ed. Rob. In M. scholion, καταπτήξας πρὸς τῷ ἀγάλματα, nullum lemma habet. Hue recte videtur referre Dindorfius Hesychii καταπλακών, καιταπλήξας, διαμαρτών, ubi καταπτακών, καταπτήξας scribendum esse, διαμαρτών autem ad καταπλακών pertinere vidit Lobeckius Paralip. p. 541.

mvp-comment-184-1 ὀσμὴ: ἐς μὴ ριο ὀσμὴ Ald.

mvp-comment-185-1 ὅρα, ὅρα: In G. adscriptum est ὁ αὐτὸς χορός. In Ald. Turn. xo. quod ceteri libri omittunt. Scholiastes recte τὸ αὐτὸ πρόςωπόν ἐστι. Dixerat princeps chori ea quae v. 243-252. continentur: nunc eadem persona carmen orditur quod sequitur. Sed non eadem persona totum carmen recitat, immo aperte his versibus colloquium continetur Furiarum. Distribuendos esse hos versus inter septem Furias, quae canunt dum reliquae in orchestram irrumpunt, neque antistrophica haec esse, et res ipsa monstrat et indicatum est a me in Opusc. VI. 2. p. 51.

mvp-comment-186-1 ὅρα, ὅρα μάλ' αὖ, λεῦσσέ τε πάντα, μὴ λάθῃ φύγδα βὰς ὁ ματροφόνος ἀτίτας: ὅρα ὅρα μάλ' αὖ codices et Rob. δέα δρα μάλ' αὖ Ald. Turn. Deinde λεύσσε τὸν, erasis aliquot post λεύσσε litteris, Μ. λεύσσετὸν G. λευσσετὸν Ald. λεύσσετον Rob. λεῦσσε τὸν Ven. Flor. Turn. Deinde πάντα M. Ceteri πάντα. Deinde φύγδα M. Rob. Ven. et, ut videtur, Flor. Farn. φυγάδα G. Ald. Turn. Deinde libri ὁ ματροφόνος cum articulo. Denique ἀτίτας M. G. Ald. Rob. Τurn. ἀτίμας Ven. Flor. Farn. Scribendum erat δρα, ὅρα μάλ' αὖ, λεῦσσέ τε πάντα, μὴ λάθη σύγδα βὰς ματροφόνος ἀτίτας.

mvp-comment-187-1 ὃ δ᾽ αὖτέ γ' ἀλκὰν ἔχων: ὅδ' αυτέ γ' οὖν ἀλκὼν ἔχων M. G. Par. Ald. Turn. αὐτε γοῦν ἀλκὰν ἔχων Rob. Farn. et Bekkero teste Ven. ὅδ᾽ αὖτέ γ' οὐκ ἀλκὰν ἔχων Victorius, et sic, ut Franzius dicit, Flor. qui potius cum Ven. Farn. consentire videtur. Scribendum ὃ δ' αυτέ γ' ἀλκὰν ἔχων.

mvp-comment-188-1 περὶ βρέτει πλεχθεὶs: περὶ βρέτει Rob. Turn. περιβρέτει M. G. Ald. περιβλέπει Ven. Flor. Farn. Deinde πλαγχθεὶς Ven. Flor. Farn.

mvp-comment-189-1 χερῶν: Libri χερῶν. Recte Scaliger et Wakefieldius χρεῶν. Et legisse hoc videtur scholiastes, qui haec adnotavit, ἀνθ' ὧν ἡμῖν χρεωστεῖ πρόςφυξ θέλει γενέσθαι τῆς θεοῦ. Quamquam potest hoc ad solum vocabulum ὑπόδικος pertinere, quod Hesychius ita interpretatur, ὑπεύθυνος, χρεώστης, ἔνοχος δίκης.

mvp-comment-190-1 τὸ δ᾽: τὸ δ' Victorius. Libri τόδ'.

mvp-comment-191-1 δυςαγκόμιστον, παπαῖ: θυσαγκόμιστρον Ven. Flor. Farn. Male δυςαγκόμιστον ad praecedentia referebatur, fracta orationis vi. Interpungendum esse post χαμαί, si quem non sensus admoneret, vel scholiastae admonere poterant, qui haec adscripserunt, τὸ ἅπαξ χυθὲν αἷμα δυςίατον, et πᾶν διερὸν ἐκκεχυμένον εἰς τὴν γῆν δυςαγκόμιστον. τοιοῦτο οὖν καὶ τὸ αἷμα. Deinde παπαί Farn.

mvp-comment-192-1 τὸ διερὸν πέδῳ χύμενον: τὸ διερὸν Victorius et sic M. τόδ᾽ ἱερὸν G. Ald. τὸ δ' ἱερὸν Ven. Flor. Farn. Turn. τὸ δι᾽ ἱερὸν Rob. Deinde libri πέδῳ, praeter Par. qui πέδον habet. Denique libri κεχυμένον, praeter Ald. in qua ob male lectum compendium codicis κεχνμίον est. Porsonus χύμενον. V. Elmsl. ad Heracl. v. 76.

mvp-comment-193-1 φεροίμαν βόσκαν πώματος: βοσκαν φεροίμαν M. G. Par. Ald. Rob. Turn. βοσκὰν φεροίμην Ven. Flor. Scribendum esse φεροίμαν βοσκαν vidit etiam 38* Wellauerus. Deinde πώματος M. G. Ald. Rob. Turn. πόματος Par. Flor. πόρπατος Ven. Farn.

mvp-comment-194-1 καὶ ζῶντά σ' ἰσχνάνασ᾽ ἀπάξομαι κάτω: καὶ ζῶντας codex Rob. Deinde ἰσχνάνασ' Turn. ἰχνάνασ' M. G. Ald. Rob. ἰσχύνασ' Ven. Flor. Deinde αἰσπήζομαι codex Rombortelli: ipse απάξομαι dedit, ut ceteri habent praeter Ald. in qua ἀπάζομαι est. Denique καὶ κάτω Rob.

mvp-comment-195-1 ἀντίποιν᾽ ὡς τίνῃς ματροφόνας δύας: ἀντιποίνους τείνεις Μ. ἀντιποίνους τείνης Rob. ἀντιποίνους τείνεις G. Par. Ald. ἀντιποίνους τίνεις Turn. ἀντιποίνους τίνης (τίνης Vict.) Ven. Flor. Victorius. ἀντιφοίνους τίνῃς, supra adscripto ἵνα ad τίνης, Farn. Deinde libri μητροφόνας δύας. Casaubonus ματροφόνου δύας. Vulgatum ἀντιποίνους τίνης qui defensum iret ellipsi particulae va, de qua a Lamberto Bosio et eius editoribus dictum est, graviter falleretur. Illa enim Homerica, ἀλλ᾽ ἄγε νῦν ἐπίμεινον, ἀρήτα τεύχεα δύω· — θάπτε με ὅττι τάχιστα, πύλας Αίδαο περήσω, et simmilia, nullam continent ellipsin, sed orta est ista loquendi ratio ex deliberatione. V. Opusc. 1. p. 208. seq. Potuit Aeschylus scribere artiποίνους τίνειν ματροφόνους δύας, possunt ante hunc versum aliquot verba in iisque particula, e qua penderet coniunctivus, excidisse: sed vera videtur elegans Schützii emendatio, ἀντίποιν᾽ ὡς τίνῃς ματροφόνου δύας. Similiter dictum est in Persis v. 471. ὧν ἀντίποινα παῖς ἐμὸς πράξειν δοκῶν.

mvp-comment-196-1 ὄψει δὲ κεἴ τις ἄλλος ἤλιτεν βροτῶν: Libri ὄψει δ᾽ ἐκεῖ τις ἄλλον ἤλιτεν βροτῶν, nisi quod ἤλιτε habent Ven. Flor. et βροτον G. Ald. Turn. In Farn. εἰς ad ἄλλον supra adscriptum est. Heathius og scribendum vidit, quod Faehsius in Par. esse dicit. ὄψει δὲ κεἴ τις ἄλλος ἤλιτεν βροτῶν recte Schutzius.

mvp-comment-197-1 ἢ θεὸν ἢ ξένον τιν' οὐκ εὐσεβῶν: Libri τίν' ἀσεβῶν, nisi quod τίτ᾽ ἀσεβῶν habent Ald. Turn. Wellauerus post τιν ἀσεβῶν excidisse putabat quod dochmiacum expleret. Veri similius est scripsisse Aeschylum ἢ θεὸν ἢ ξένον τιν οὐκ εὐσεβῶν. Si per errorem scriptum erat ἀσεβῶν pro εὐσεβῶν, consequens erat ut οὐκ omitteretur.

mvp-comment-198-1 ἔχονθ᾽: ἔχονθ' Victorius, et sic Franzio teste M. Ceteri ἔχοντ'. Adscriptum est ?ωνικόν in Farn.

mvp-comment-199-1 Ἅιδης: άδης Ven. Flor. Rob. άδος Αld.

mvp-comment-200-1 ἔνερθε: ἔνερθεν Farn.

mvp-comment-201-1 ἐπωπᾷ φρενί: ἐπωπᾷ φρενί M. G. Ald. Turn. ἐπωπᾶ τῇ φρενὶ Rob. ἐποπτᾶ τῇ φρενὶ Ven. Flor. ἐποπτᾶ τῇ φρενει Farn.

mvp-comment-202-1 φωνεῖν: φρωνεῖν vitium Ald. unde φρονεῖν Turn.

mvp-comment-203-1 χερός: Iacobsius Anthol. t. XII. p. 10. ad epigr. incert. 239. scribendum putabat βρίζει γὰρ αἷμα καὶ μαραίνεται χρέος μητροκτόνον, μίασμα δ᾽ ἔκπλυτον πέλει. Εt distinctio haec est in ed. Rob. Equidem, quum libri habeant χέρος, neque id reprehendi possit, nihil novandum esse existimo.

mvp-comment-204-1 ἔκπλυτον: ἔκπλητον Ald. Eadem mox τοταίνιον.

mvp-comment-205-1 χοιροκτόνοις: χειροκτόνοις Rob. χοιροκτόνοις supra adscripto χει Par. teste Boissonado adnot. in Zachariam scholast. p. 408.

mvp-comment-206-1 ὅσοις ... ἀβλαβεῖ: 8ools M. G. Par. Ven. Flor. Rob. östois Ald. unde öçTIS infelici coniectura Turn. aßhaß Par. et ante correctionem G.

mvp-comment-207-1 χρόνος καθαιρεῖ πάντα γηράσκων ὁμοῦ.: καθαίρει malebat Stanleius. Deinde γηράσκων M. G. Ald. Rob. Turn. ye didúozor Ven. Farn. et yɛ supra adscripto Flor. Nexum turbare hunc versum et ab hoc loco alienum esse dixi in Opusc. VI. 2. p. 55. seq. Delendum eum esse viderat iam Musgravius. Adscriptus fuit ad versus 277. 278. Similis versus apud Stobaeum CXXVI. 8. legitur, χρόνος δ᾽ ἀμαυροῖ πάντα κεἰς λήθην ἄγει.

mvp-comment-208-1 Ἀργεῖον: ἀργείων Ven.

mvp-comment-209-1 Λιβυστικοῖς: Libri ßvorizois. Ea adiectivi forma Aeschylus usus est in Suppl. v. 266. et in Myrmidonibus fr. 145. Tzetzes ad Lycophr. v. 519. καὶ Αἰσχύλος μυθικῶς “ εἶτ᾽ ἀμφὶ χεῦμα γενεθλίου σπόρου Τρίτωνος ἐν τόποις Λιβυστίοις,” ita enim codices duo Vitebergenses aliique et Favorinus in v. tqiyέvvytos. Auratus et Casaubonus scribendum putarunt Aißvotizs. Eo non opus est: zooaç enim, ut saepius in huiusmodi formulis, abundat.

mvp-comment-210-1 χεῦμα ... πόρου: ἀμφιχεῦμα Ald. σπόρου Tzetzes.

mvp-comment-211-1 κατηρεφῆ: zatŋoeg лóda si scripsit Aeschylus, non videtur aliud significare potuisse quam pedem nube amictum, ut hoc dixerit, sive palam incedens, sive latens opem fert amicis, oppositumque sit ỏo òv nóða Tidéra, i. e. recto pede in campo stare, inter ipsos quibus praesidio est. Comparari quodammodo potest quod Sophocles dixit in Oed. R. v. 419. βλέποντα νῦν μὲν ὄρθ᾽, ἔπειτα δὲ σκότον. V. Opusc. VI. 2. p. 56. seqq. VII. p. 4. seq. Dubitari tamen potest an non scripserit Aeschylus xaτηorqй. Et videri potest aliud legisse scholiastes qui haec ita interpretatus est, καταβάλλει γὰρ ἡ ὀρθοῖ, quod scholion non invenitur in M. G. sed Triclinii esse videtur. Burgesius zaraqεon, similiterque Fritzschius (Zweiter anhang zu O. Müllers Eumeniden p. 39.) zaτηfεoñ scribendum esse censuit, ut intelligeretur Minerva aut stans inter eos quibus praesidio est, aut deorsum ex aere delata. Neque caret haec con-. iectura probabilitate.

mvp-comment-212-1 ὅπως γένοιτο: Quum dicit önws yévoito, optare se ait, ut veniat illa, quo, si velit, opem ferat. V. ad Soph. Ai. v. 1222.

mvp-comment-213-1 οὔτοι σ' Ἀπόλλων οὐδ᾽ Ἀθηναίας σθένος ῥύσαιτ᾽ ἂν ὥςτε μὴ οὐ παρημελημένον ἔρρειν, τὸ χαίρειν μὴ μαθόνθ' ὅπου φρενῶν, ἀναίματον βόσκημα τῶνδε δαιμόνων.: Hos versus inter tres Furias distribuendos esse indicavi in Opusc. VI. 2. p. 61. τῶνδέ μοι Farn. ovtis o Ven. Farn. et adscripto in margine yo. ovτoi σè Flor. Deinde vains Farn. áðŋvalois Ven. et ad ultimam syllabam supra adscripto as Flor. Jos tε pro stɛ Ald. qui tam mirus error ex eo ortus est, quod in G. quum librarius neglecto çre scripsisset in, statim autem animadverso errore hanc voculam mutasset in wore, confusi ductus litterarum un et a negligentius considerati speciem praebent similem litterarum ρου. μαθῶν θ' Rob. Libri αναίματον βόσκημα δαιμόνων σκιά. Scholiastes ἀναίματον ita interpretatur, simul aliam lectionem, ἐναίματον, commemorans, ὁ μηδὲ αἷμα σχήσων ἐξ ἡμῶν, ἀλλὰ γενησόμενος σκιά· οφήσομεν γάρ σου τὸ αἷμα (conf. v. 261.). ἢ ἐναίματον, ἀντὶ τοῦ. ζῶντά σε νεκρὸν ποιήσομεν. Heathii coniecturam, σκιάν, Schutzius recepit, post δαιμόνων commate interpungens, ut δαίμονες intelligerentur Furiae. Verum sic σκιάν languidius adiectum est. Quare olim ita interpunxi, αναίματον βόσκημα, δαιμόνων σκιάν, ut acerbe diceretur Orestes futurus esse umbra dei alicuius, quemadmodum in Iliade V.242. de diis dicitur τούνεκ' αναίμονές εισι. Postea in Annalium Vindobonensium vol. CXI. p. 250. aliam et, ut puto, veriorem rationem ineundam esse ostendi. Nam δαίμονες dicuntur sane Furiae: sed accuratius definiendum erat illud δαιμόνων. Quod autem libri habent, σκιά, ex interpretatione in ipsius poetae versum illatum est. Quare scripsi, ἀναίματον βόσκημα τῶνδε δαιμόνων.

mvp-comment-214-1 ἀλλ᾽: οὐδ pro ἀλλ' Ven. Flor.

mvp-comment-215-1 καθιερωμένος: καθιερωμένος Ald. Addidi interrogationis signum. V. Opusc. VI. 2. p. 61. VII. p. 19.

Commentary on the Eumenides (OCR draft) (Brief English notes on Aeschylus' Eumenides by F. A. Paley, 1885.) focus

mvp-comment-78-1 τῶνδε] The case, he says, is so full of difficulty that the Goddess of Wisdom shall herself decide it.

mvp-comment-79-1 ἔμπας] You, as a supernal god, are great even without such prerogatives as mine, viz. the worship paid to a Chthonian power.

mvp-comment-80-1 προστροπαίου] The sense is, that the protection of a suppliant is so solemn an obligation both on earth and in heaven, that a ban attaches to the intentional and deliberate neglect of him.

mvp-comment-81-1 An interval of some time is supposed to have elapsed, during which Orestes, in obedience to Apollo's injunction at v. 79, has come to seek the protection of Pallas in the Erechtheum on the Athenian acropolis.

mvp-comment-82-1 προστρόπαιον] Schol.

ἀκάθαρτον.

mvp-comment-83-1 The MSS. have ἀμβλὺν and προστετριμμένον, but the syntax seems to demand the nominative, ἀλλ᾽ ἀμβλὺς ἤδη πρόσειμι (adsum). The metaphor in blunted and rubbed against other abodes of men is taken from a sharp edge worn down and made dull against a wall. The sense is, that he has already undergone purification at the hands of many persons in the course of his long travels. It seems from the scholiast that there was an ancient reading προστε τραμμένον, and perhaps also a variant προστετριμμένον τ' ayos, which he explains by ἄλλοις προστριψάμενον τὸ μύσος.

mvp-comment-84-1 χέρσον καὶ θάλασσαν] Cf. 77, ὑπέρ τε πόντον καὶ περιρρύτας πόλεις.

mvp-comment-85-1 αὐτοῦ] here. Eur. Herc. F. 1397

αὐτοῦ γενοίμην πέτρος ἀμνήμων κακῶν.
In Ag. 433 1568 it means there.

mvp-comment-86-1 Even here the Furies rush in, unwearied by the long pursuit. This is a very fine passage, and the versification is splendid. The voiceless informer' is of course the smell of blood.

mvp-comment-87-1 ἀνδροκμῆσι] fatiguing. See Cho. 875 . Suppl. 661 , inf. 916. From the Scholium μεγαλοκμῆσιν Heimsoeth ingeniously restores ἀρθροκμῆσιν· μελοκμῆσιν, limb-tiring. Both of these however are strange compounds.

mvp-comment-88-1 καταπτακών] Schol.

καταπτήξας πρὸς τῷ ἀγάλματι.
See Veitch, Gr. Verbs, p. 566, in πτήσσω.

mvp-comment-89-1 ἀτίτας] Schol.

ἀτιμώρητος.
In Ag. 72 it seems to mean taking no part in the vengeance.

mvp-comment-90-1 The Schol. seems to have read χρεῶν for χερῶν, and to have construed ὑπόδικος χρεῶν (ὢν) θέλει γενέσθαι πλεχθεὶς περὶ κ.τ.λ., which however is clearly wrong. We must understand that Orestes is willing, under the protection of the goddess, and while clasping her statue, to place himself ἐν χερῶν δίκῃ, in the hands of his persecutors, and to submit himself to justice.

mvp-comment-91-1 αἷμα κ.τ.λ.] Blood once shed can never be taken up again from the earth and restored to the veins from which it flowed. Compare Ag. 987-9 . Inf. 617.

mvp-comment-92-1 τὸ διερόν] Life-blood once shed on the ground is gone for ever. Hesych.

διερόν· ὑγρὸν, χλωρὸν, ζωὸν, ἔναιμον.
In Od. v1. 201
οὐκ ἔσθ' οὗτος ἀνὴρ διερὸς βροτὸς,
 it is exactly the Latin vivax. Curtius, Gr. Et. 235 , refers it to the root δι, implying scared restlessness.

mvp-comment-93-1 ἀλλ᾽ ἀντιδοῦναι κ.τ.λ.] No! you have shed lifeblood, and life-blood you must give to me in return to suck from your veins. The notion attaching to these demons was very like that which people had of witches but a few generations ago, viz. that leanness and pining, blight and sickness were caused by them. See inf. 900, sup. 133.

mvp-comment-94-1 οὐκ εὐσεβῶν for ἀσεβῶν is Hermann's correction to restore the dochmiac verse. Impiety to gods or parents, sacrilege or revealing mysteries, violating an oath or betraying a suppliant, were the high misdemeanours with the Greeks, who show little consciousness of the sin of sensual excesses.

mvp-comment-95-1 δελτογράφῳ] This notion of recording sins in a book or tablet is curious. We have the same in a fragment of Euripides, Melanipp. 488 , where the poet says that the whole heaven would not be space enough for Zeus to write down the sins of man.

mvp-comment-96-1 Orestes addresses the spectators perhaps rather than the chorus. He says he has had a lesson in suffering, and his acquaintance with many forms and rites of expiation (sup. 230) has taught him when to speak and when to be silent; but on this occasion, although murderers as a rule can neither speak nor be spoken to, he has been ordered by Apollo himself to plead his own cause, and to assert his innocence.

mvp-comment-97-1 ἀβλαβεῖ] 'It would be long to tell how many I have visited since the first commission of the crime, and the first purification at Delphi, none of whom have received any harm from converse with me.' Schol.

ἐβλάπτοντο γὰρ οἱ μυσαροῖς ξυντυγχάνοντες.

mvp-comment-98-1 καὶ νῦν] ‘And accordingly now, viz. as I have the full right and even the command to speak. See on Agam. 1 8.

mvp-comment-99-1 πιστόν] This is one of the many allusions in tragedy to treaties either made or contemplated between Athens and Argos. It is again alluded to in v. 733. Schol.

ὡς τότε συμμαχούντων ᾿Αργείων ᾿Αθηναίοις.

mvp-comment-100-1 Τρίτωνος] The name of the goddess, Tritogenia, the real or mystical meaning of which we do not know, was referred to a lake and river Triton in Libya. See Herod. Iv. 180 , Pind. Pyth. 1v. 36 .

mvp-comment-101-1 ὀρθὸν κ.τ.λ.] The description refers to ancient statues of the goddess in a standing or sitting posture. - φίλοις, in allusion perhaps to the aid afforded by Athens to the EUM. Libyan king Inaros. See Thuc. 1. 104, 109 . The Schol. remarks that the address well suits Orestes who himself requires a staunch protectress.

mvp-comment-102-1 Φλεγραίαν] Another epithet of the goddess, Νίκη, is here alluded to, as appears from Eur. Ion 1528

μὰ τὴν παρασπίζουσαν ἅρμασίν ποτε Νίκην ᾿Αθάναν Ζηνὶ γηγενεῖς ἔπι.

mvp-comment-103-1 ὅπως γένοιτο] The optative follows ἔλθοι by the common law of Attic attraction.

mvp-comment-104-1 οὔτοι κ.τ.λ.] 'No! not Apollo nor yet Athene's might can protect you from perishing (going to the bad') in utter neglect, without knowing the feeling of joy in your mind,a bloodless victim of us deities, a shadow of your former self.' There is a pause after this, and as Orestes makes no reply, the second Fury says, What! not a word in reply? Do you spurn converse, you who are fed and consecrated as my victim? The third adds, A victim too who shall be devoured alive, &c. Then the whole body of the chorus chant the spell, or binding hymn, which is to entrance the victim and place him wholly in their power. The fourteen introductory anapaestics form the parode.

mvp-comment-105-1 τραφείς] There is an allusion to the human victims called φαρμακοὶ οι δημόσιοι, who were sacrificed by the Athenians at the feast of Thargelia. See Photius in v. φαρμακός.

Selected scholia accompanying Blass's Eumenides (OCR draft) (The mixed Greek, Latin, and German scholia register printed with Friedrich Blass's 1907 edition, aligned to O. L. Smith's later recensional editions.) focus

mvp-comment-92-1 ἡσυχαιτέραν: δολιωτέραν (δολ. auch f; σχολαιστέραν Voigt). δίκη τοῦ μητρώιου αἵματος.

mvp-comment-93-1 μή τοί τι (τι τοι Μ) θεῶν μήνιμα γένωμαι (Hom. X 358).

mvp-comment-94-1 ἀκάθαρτον.

mvp-comment-95-1 ἀντὶ τοῦ) ἐπελθόντα.

mvp-comment-96-1 ἄλλοις προστριψάμενον τὸ μύσος. ...

mvp-comment-97-1 ταῖς ἐννοίαις.

mvp-comment-98-1 ὡς αὐτόχρημα αἵματος ὄντος (αἷμα στάζοντος, vgl. u., Weckl.) Ὀρέστου καὶ μιαίνοντος τὴν γῆν ἧς ἐφάψεται. τετραυματισμέ(νον): τὸ μὲν ἀπορρεῖν τὸ αἷμα παραδοξολογίας ἐστὶ τραγικῆς· ὅρα δὲ μὴ ἐκβαίνει τὴν πίστιν ὁ ἀπὸ Ἄργους εἰς Δελφοὺς ἥκων, εἶτα ἐκεῖθεν εἰς Ἀθήνας, καὶ ἔτι αἷμα στάζων ἀπὸ τοῦ ξίφους. φαντασία οὖν ἀμήχανος· ἀλλὰ καὶ συγκέχυται τῆι παραδοξολογίᾶι.

mvp-comment-99-1 τὸ ἡμέτερον σπλάγχνον.

mvp-comment-100-1 ὅτι μὴ πτερωτὰς εἰσήγαγεν αὐτάς (auf ein x be-

mvp-comment-101-1 μεγαλοκμῆσιν. züglich).

mvp-comment-102-1 καταπτήξας πρὸς τῶι ἀγάλματι.

mvp-comment-103-1 προσσαίνει.

mvp-comment-104-1 τὸ αὐτὸ πρόσωπόν ἐστι.

mvp-comment-105-1 ἀτίτας: ἀτιμώρητος (ἀτιμ. auf f).

mvp-comment-106-1 ἀνθ᾿ ὧν ἡμῖν χρεωστεῖ πρόσφυξ θέλει γενέσθαι τῆς θεοῦ.

mvp-comment-107-1 οὐ πάρεστιν αὐτῶι νικῆσαι ἡμᾶς.

mvp-comment-108-1 τὸ ἅπαξ χυθὲν αἷμα δυσίατον.

mvp-comment-109-1 πᾶν διερὸν ἐκκεχυμένον εἰς τὴν γῆν δυσαγκόμιστον· τοιοῦτο οὖν καὶ τὸ αἷμα. τὸ βρέξαν τὴν γῆν.·

mvp-comment-110-1 ἐγὼ

mvp-comment-111-1 καταπίνειν.

mvp-comment-112-1 θρόμβον αἵματος.

mvp-comment-113-1 δικαστής. γρά(φωι): ἐφορᾶι δὲ πάντα ἀναγραφόμενος αὐτὰ τῆι ἰδίᾶι δέλτωι. διδαχ(θείς): διδαχθεὶς πολλοὺς καθαρμούς, ὅ ἐστι, τηλικαῦτα ἀτυχήσας (Steph. f. ἀψ.), ἃ πολλῶν ἐδεήθη καθαρμῶν. ἄλλως· οἱ ἐναγεῖς οὔτε ἐν ἱερῶι προσ ήιεσαν οὔτε προσέβλεπον (προέβλ. Μ) οὐδὲ (Rob. f. οὐ) διελέγοντό τινι. (καὶ παρ᾿ Εὐριπίδηι) (Frg. 996 Ν.) „τί σιγᾶις; μῶν φόνον τιν᾿ ἠργάσω“; (εἰργ. Μ). ἐπεὶ οὖν Ὀρέστης μέλλει διαλέγεσθαι δοκῶν ἔτι ἐναγὴς εἶναι, ἐγώ, φησί, διδαχθεὶς σὺν κακῶι τῶι ἐμαυτοῦ, καὶ οἷον διδασκάλοις χρησάμενος ταῖς ἐμαῖς συμφοραῖς, ἐπίσταμαι καὶ σιγᾶν καὶ λαλεῖν ὅπου δεῖ, ἑκατέρου καιρὸν γινώσκων.

mvp-comment-114-1 κοιμάται.

mvp-comment-115-1 ἐκκεκαθαρμένον.

mvp-comment-116-1 ἐβλάπτοντο γὰρ οἱ μυσαροῖς (Steph. f. -ροὶ) ξυντυγχάνοντες.

mvp-comment-117-1 λείπει ἐμέ. ὡς τότε συμμαχούντων Ἀργείων Αθηναίοις.

mvp-comment-118-1 ὅτι

mvp-comment-119-1 ὡς θρασὺς (auf ein x bezüglich) διὰ τοῦτο οἴεται αὐτὴν Τριτογένειαν. ἡγεμών. ἁρμόττουσα δὲ ἡ εὐχή· δεῖται γὰρ ἐνδρανοῦς (L. Dindorf f. έδρανοῦς) βοηθοῦ.

mvp-comment-120-1 τὸ ἑξῆς· ἔλθοι, ὅπως γένοιτο.

mvp-comment-121-1 ὁ μηδὲ αἷμα σχήσων ἐξ ἡμῶν, ἀλλὰ γενησόμενος σκιά· ῥοφήσομεν γάρ σου τὸ αἷμα. ἢ ἐναίματον, ἀντὶ τοῦ ζῶντά σε νεκρὸν ποιήσομεν.

mvp-comment-122-1 οὐκ ἀποκρίνηι, ἢ ἀντὶ τοῦ) οὐδὲ ἀντιφωνήσεις μοι, ἀλλὰ σοῦ βουλομένου λαλεῖν τὸ φθέγμα δεθήσεται.

Wecklein’s commentary on Eumenides (1888; German; OCR draft) (Explanatory commentary, pp. 251–322; HW42J8 and HXJHA8 OCR collated, with missing comparison pages 294–295 explicitly marked. Unresolved OCR and provisional reference mappings are explicitly marked.) focus

mvp-comment-104-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 265

mvp-comment-104-2 erstes Epeisodion. Apollon tritt wieder hervor und jagt nachher die Erinyen aus seinem Tempel: der Chor tritt also auf die Bühne heraus und Apollon folgt ihnen. Damit wird die zu 63 erwähnte Maschinerie zurückgedreht.

mvp-comment-128-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 268

mvp-comment-128-2 Das eine (die That des Orestes) nimmst du dir sehr zu Herzen, das andere (die That der Klyt.) behandelst du augenscheinlich ruhiger (von dem anderen läfst du dich nicht aufregen); du bist also parteiisch.

mvp-comment-129-1 1

mvp-comment-129-2 Wecklein 1888, p. 268

mvp-comment-129-3 καὶ . . τίθου, und mache dir nur Mühe zu Mühe; etwas anderes wirst du mit der Verfolgung nicht erreichen. πόνῳ πόνον wie Soph. Ai. 866

πόνος πόνῳ πόνον φέρει
. Vgl. Pers. 1042
δόσιν κακὰν κακῶν κακοῖς
 und die besonders bei Euripides häufigen Ausdrücke wie ἄχεα ἄχεσι, πήματα πήμασι, δάκρυα δάκρυσι, φόνῳ φονος.

mvp-comment-130-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 268

mvp-comment-130-2 οὐδ᾽ ἂν δεχοίμην : zu Ag. 287 (,, nicht einmal geschenkt möchte ich dein Ehrenamt annehmen“). — ὥστε: zu Ag. 1394 .

mvp-comment-131-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 269

mvp-comment-131-2 Du bedarfst freilich meiner Ehren nicht; denn immerhin bist du grofs am Thron des Zeus. - πάρ: durch die epische Apokope wird die Auflösung der Länge vermieden.

mvp-comment-132-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 269

mvp-comment-132-2 δίκας tritt als inneres Objekt zu μέτειμι τόνδε ( Ag. 1666 ). Eur. Bakeh. 345 τῆς σῆς δ᾽ ἀνοίας τόνδε τὸν διδάσκαλον δίκην μέτειμι und zu Cho. 144 . Das Präsens ἐκκυνηγετῶ, weil bei diesen Worten der Chor (durch den linken Zugang der Bühne) hinausstürmt. Dagegen hat μέτειμι die gewöhnliche Bedeutung des Fut. ( Krüger II § 53, 1, 6 nimmt hier wie Sept. 360

εἶμι
als Präsens).

mvp-comment-133-1 2

mvp-comment-133-2 Wecklein 1888, p. 269

mvp-comment-133-3 Der Daktylus des dritten Fulses ist gebildet wie 449, 589, Ag. 1584 u. a. Vgl. zu Cho. 567 .

mvp-comment-134-1 3

mvp-comment-134-2 Wecklein 1888, p. 269

mvp-comment-134-3 Der Relativsatz ὃς προδῷ (zu 211) σφ' ἑκών vertritt einen Dativ zu δεινὴ πέλει. Der Schol. erinnert an Hom. X 358

φράζει νῦν μή τοί τι θεῶν μήνιμα γένωμαι
. Apollon tritt zurück in den Tempel. Dann, nachdem die Bühne vollständig leer ist, ändert sich wie Soph. Ai. 814 die Scenendekoration; die neue Hauptdekoration stellt den Tempel der Athena Polias in Athen vor mit dem Bildnisse der Göttin. Orestes erscheint und kniet an dem Bildnisse nieder. Zwischen dem ersten und zweiten Teile mufs man sich geraume Zeit vergangen denken. Vgl. 284 f.

mvp-comment-135-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 269

mvp-comment-135-2 ist gewissermafsen ein zweiter Prolog vor der Epiparodos (vgl. zu_1).

mvp-comment-136-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 269

mvp-comment-136-2 αλάστορα, den infolge einer Blutschuld Umherirrenden. Vgl. Einl. S. 19 N.

mvp-comment-137-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 269

mvp-comment-137-2 προστρόπαιος wie 448 einer der als befleckt um Sühne fleht. ἀφοίβαντον, ἀκάθαρτον Schol. und Hesych.

mvp-comment-137-3 4

mvp-comment-138-1 5

mvp-comment-138-2 Wecklein 1888, p. 269

mvp-comment-138-3 ἀμβλύς und προστετριμμένος von der Befleckung, welche durch Berührung abgerieben und matt gemacht ist, auf die befleckte Person übertragen. Von einer Reinigung, die dem Orestes bei den Trözeniern zu teil geworden sein soll, berichtet Paus. II 31, 8

τοῦ δὲ ἱεροῦ τοῦ ᾿Απόλλωνός ἐστιν οἶκοδόμημα ἔμπροσθεν, Ὀρέστου και λουμένη σκηνή. πρὶν γὰρ ἐπὶ τῷ αἵματι καθαρθῆναι τῆς μητρός, Τροιζηνίων οὐδεὶς πρότερον ἤθελεν αὐτὸν οἴκῳ δέξασθαι· καθίσαντες δὲ ἐνταῦθα ἐκάθαιρον καὶ εἱστίων, ἐς ὁ ἀφήγνισαν
. . . καθῆραι δέ φασιν Ορέστην καθαρσίοις καὶ ἄλλοις καὶ ὕδατι τῷ ἀπὸ τῆς ἱππου κρήνης. Aschylos spricht 282 und 581 blofs von einer Reinigung durch Apollon (vgl. Cho. 1057 ). Der unschädliche Verkehr mit anderen Menschen war eine Probe der Reinheit (283) und trug dazu bei, das Schuldbewusstsein abzuschwächen. πρὸς | ἄλλοισιν wie Soph. Oed. Τ. 555 ἐπὶ [ τὸν σεμνόμαντιν, Phil. 626 ἐπὶ | ναῦν, Oed. K. 495 ἐν | τῷ μὴ δύνασθαι.

mvp-comment-139-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 270

mvp-comment-139-2 ἐκπερῶν: ich bin zu anderen Häusern und in Verkehr mit den Menschen gekommen, als ich über Land und Meer wanderte.

mvp-comment-140-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 270

mvp-comment-140-2 Dem Auftrag des Loxias gemäfs nahe ich deinem Tempel. Vgl. 79 f. Zu δῶμα ergänzt sich τὸ σόν leicht.

mvp-comment-141-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 270

mvp-comment-141-2 βρέτας τὸ σὸν φυλάσσων (wie 442 f.), dein Bild bewachend d. i. es nicht verlassend. αὐτοῦ drückt den Entschlufs aus nicht vorher von der Stelle zu weichen.

mvp-comment-142-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 270

mvp-comment-142-2 Epiparodos (vgl. zu 1). Der Chor tritt zerstreut auf ( τινὲς δέ φασιν ἐν τῇ ἐπιδείξει τῶν Εὐμενίδων σποράδην εἰσαγαγόντα τὸν χορὸν τοσοῦτον ἐκπλῆξαι τὸν δῆμον κτέ. im βίος Αἰσχύλου); zuerst erscheint wie Soph. Ai. 866 der eine Halbchor, dem der Koryphaios als Führer vorausgeht; den Worten der Führerin (1) erwidert der Halbchor (2). Dann kommen nach einander die sechs Mitglieder des anderen Halbchors (3-8). Erst bei 307 ( χορὸν ἅψωμεν) ordnen sie sich in Reihe und Glied. τόδε auf den Boden deutend, wo sie Blutspuren zu sehen glaubt, vgl. αἵματι στάζοντα χείρας 41 f., wiewohl Orestes jetzt von Apollon gereinigt ist. Zu 281.

mvp-comment-143-1 6

mvp-comment-143-2 Wecklein 1888, p. 270

mvp-comment-143-3 Das Blut ist ihm ein uŋvvτὴρ ἄφθεγκτος. Vgl. zu Ag. 82 und ἀφώνους μάρτυρας Eur. Hipp. 1076 .

mvp-comment-144-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 270

mvp-comment-144-2 ὡς γὰρ κύων τετραυματισμέ νον νεβρὸν κτἑ.

mvp-comment-145-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 270

mvp-comment-145-2 πρός: vgl. Ag. 344

πρὸς οὐδὲν . . τεκμήριον
und unten zu 1006. πρὸς αἷμα καὶ σταλαγμόν d. i. πρὸς αἵματος σταλαγμόν.

mvp-comment-146-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 270

mvp-comment-146-2 ανδροκμής hier nicht Männer (Menschen) ermüdend (tötend)" wie 957, Cho. 888 , Eur. Suppl. 525

ἀνδροκμήτας προσφέρων αγωνίας,
sondern den Mann (Orestes) ermüdend". Schömann vermutet άg θροκμήσι und Heimsäth betrachtet das Schol. μεγαλοκμῆσιν, welches er in μελοκμῆσιν ändert, als Bestätigung von ἀρθροκμῆσι.

mvp-comment-147-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 270

mvp-comment-147-2 σπλάγχνον: τὸ ἡμέτερον Schol. πεποίμανται, „ist abgetrieben worden".

mvp-comment-148-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 270

mvp-comment-148-2 ἀπτέροις (51) ποτήμασιν: zu Ag. 82 . νεώς von dem Schiffe des Orestes.

mvp-comment-149-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 270

mvp-comment-149-2 Hesych. καταπτακών· καταπτήξας (nach der Verbesserung von Lobeck für καταπλακών· καταπλήξας).

mvp-comment-150-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 270

mvp-comment-150-2 Asyndeton bei der Erklärung ( ὀσμὴ γὰρ κτέ). προσγελάwie

τῶνδε προσσαίνει σέ τι;
Prom. 861 , παιδός με σαίνει φθόγγος Soph. Ant. 1214 , blickt mich bekannt und traut an, erweckt in mir eine willkommene Erinnerung, ein angenehmes Gefühl.

mvp-comment-150-3 7

mvp-comment-151-1 8

mvp-comment-151-2 Wecklein 1888, p. 271

mvp-comment-151-3 ὅρα ruft der Halbchor der spähenden Führerin zu. Soph. Oed. K. 118

ὅρα. τίς ἄρ᾽ ἦν; ποῦ ναίει; .. προσδέρκου, λευσσέ νιν, προσπεύθου πανταχῇ.
μάλ᾽ αὖ (,,gar abermal" d. h. ich wiederhole es) wie μάλ' αὖθις Cho. 650 .

mvp-comment-151-4 9

mvp-comment-152-1 10

mvp-comment-152-2 Wecklein 1888, p. 271

mvp-comment-152-3 Mit ὅδε weist die Führerin des zweiten Halbchors auf Orestes Wenn die Lesart γουνόν hin. richtig ist (vgl. Anhang), so scheint Aschylos das Homerische γουνὸν Αθηνάων ἱεράων (λ 323) von der Akropolis verstanden zu haben. In dem delphischen Orakel bei Plut. Thes. c. 3 , Schol. zu Eur. Med. 679 , Apollod. III 15, 6 wechseln die Lesarten πρὶν δημὸν ᾿Αθηνέων εἰσαφικέσθαι, πρὶν γουνὸν ᾿Αθηναίων ἀφικέσθαι, πρὶν ἐς ἄκρον Αθηναίων ἀφίκηαι. ζάθεον ist willkürliche Ergänzung zur Herstellung eines Trimeters, wie er die fünf folgenden Teile beginnt; ὡς scheint dem Sinne zu entsprechen:,,hier wieder eine hochheilige Höhe als Schutz, wie er sich einbildet, innehabend".

mvp-comment-152-4 11

mvp-comment-153-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 271

mvp-comment-153-2 ὑπόδικος: ὑπεύθυνος, χρε ώστης, ἔνοχος δίκης Hesych. Er will sich vor Gericht rechtfertigen wegen Gewaltthat. Mit χερῶν vgl. αυτόχειρ.

mvp-comment-154-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 271

mvp-comment-154-2 αἷμα μητρῷον τὸ ( ὃ) χαμαὶ διερὸν οἴχεται πέδοι χύμενον δυσ αγκόμιστον ( δυσανακομιστόν ἐστι, das Mutterblut, welches auf den Boden geflossen ist, zur Erde vergossen, ist nicht wieder zurückzubringen. Mit δυσαγκόμιστον vgl. τίς ἂν πάλιν ἀγκαλέσαιτο Ag. 1005 f. Die epische Form χύμενον auch Cho. 400 , Eur. Herakl. 76 .

mvp-comment-155-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 271

mvp-comment-155-2 In δεῖ σ᾿ ἀντιδοῦναι ἐρυθρὸν πέλανον ῥοφεῖν ἀπὸ ζῶντος ἐκ μελέων steht der Infin. ῥοφεῖν wie in δοῦναι οἶνόν τινι πιεῖν. ἐρυθρὸν πέλανον: Pers. 818

πέλανος αἱματοσφαγής
, Etym. M. p. 695, 15
Ἀττικοὶ λέγουσι πέλανον πᾶν τὸ πεπηγός
.

mvp-comment-156-1 12

mvp-comment-156-2 Wecklein 1888, p. 271

mvp-comment-156-3 ἀντίποινα ματροφόνου δύας, Bufse für den muttermordenden Schmerz d. i. für den von Schmerzen begleiteten Muttermord. Vgl. zu Ag. 735 .

mvp-comment-157-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 272

mvp-comment-157-2 ἤλιτεν θεὸν . . τοκῆας wie ἀθανάτους ἀλιτέσθαι Hom. δ 378 , ἐκ γὰρ δή μ' ἀπάτησε καὶ ἤλιτεν 1 375, ὅ τις σφ᾽ ἀλίτηται Τ 265 u. a.

mvp-comment-158-1 13

mvp-comment-158-2 Wecklein 1888, p. 272

mvp-comment-158-3 Der Ahndung der Erinyen fallen diejenigen anheim, welche sich gegen die drei Hauptgebote der griechischen Sittenlehre verfehlen. Vgl. zu 548. So sagt Horaz carm. II 13, 5 von dem, welcher der schlimmsten Verbrechen fähig ist, illum et parentis crediderim sui fregisse cervicem et penetralia sparsisse nocturno cruore hospitis. - Wegen des Plur. ἀσεβοῦντες nach dem kollektiven τὶς ἄλλος Krüger I § 58, 3, 5 . Die epische Form τοκῆας wie Eur. Phoen. 829

βασιλῆας
.

mvp-comment-159-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 272

mvp-comment-159-2 εὔθυνος: δικαστής Schol. Pers. 830

Ζεύς τοι κολαστὴς τῶν ὑπερκόμπων ἄγαν φρονημάτων ἔπεστιν, εὔθυνος βαρύς
.

mvp-comment-160-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 272

mvp-comment-160-2 δελτογράφῳ: Soph. frg. 535

θὲς δ᾽ ἐν φρενὸς δέλτοισι τοὺς ἐμοὺς λόγους
, Cic. Acad. II 1
ut nos litteris consignamus quae monumentis mandare volumus, sic ille (Lucullus) in animo res insculptas habebat
 und zu Cho. 448 . Cho. 1 . ἐπωπα: 20

mvp-comment-161-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 272

mvp-comment-161-2 zweites Epeisodion. Orestes ruft Athena zu Hilfe. Die Chorführerin weist jeden Beistand zurück.

mvp-comment-162-1 14

mvp-comment-162-2 Wecklein 1888, p. 272

mvp-comment-162-3 καιρούς d. i. die rechte Zeit für das Reden wie für das Schweigen, vgl. Plat. Staat p. 374 Cov παριεὶς τοὺς καιρούς und zu Cho. 580 . Diese Stelle scheint die Vorlage für frg. I der Eumen. des Ennius gewesen zu sein: Ita sapere opino esse optumum, ut pro viribus Tacere ac fabulari tute noveris.

mvp-comment-163-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 272

mvp-comment-163-2 μητροκτόνον μίασμα: Vgl. κηλὶς μητροκτόνος Eur. Iph. T. 1200 und zu Ag. 735 . Wenn die Erinyen 247 u. a. immer noch Blut sehen, so wollen sie jede Möglichkeit der Reinigung eines Muttermörders in Abrede stellen.

mvp-comment-164-1 15

mvp-comment-164-2 Wecklein 1888, p. 272

mvp-comment-164-3 ποταίνιον ὄν, als es noch frisch war. Vgl. Cho. 1053 . πρὸς ἑστία θ. Φ. gehört zu ἠλάθη. χοιροκτόνοις (zu Ag. 735 ): Ferkelblut galt als entsühnend und wurde bei Reinigungsopfern vielfach gebraucht, so bei den περίστια vor Be- ginn der Volksversammlung (Schol. zu Aristoph. Ekkl. 128 , Poll. VIII 104 ), denen die römischen suovetaurilia entsprechen, und sonst, vgl. zu 453 und Plaut. Men. 292 . Einl. S. 17 N. 2.

mvp-comment-165-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 273

mvp-comment-165-2 πολὺς . . ἐξ ἀρχῆς λόγος d.i. ich würde viel zu sagen haben, wenn ich von Anfang an erzählen wollte.

mvp-comment-166-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 273

mvp-comment-166-2 Schol. ἐβλάπτοντο γὰρ οἱ μυσαροῖς ξυντυγχάνοντες.

mvp-comment-167-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 273

mvp-comment-167-2 Der Vers, welcher dem Zusammenhange der Stelle, nach der Phöbos den Orestes gereinigt hat, nicht entspricht, ist von Musgrave ausgeschieden worden. Der Sinn ist:,,alles (also auch die Befleckung) entkräftet die mit ihm alternde Zeit" d. i. je älter eine Sache wird, um so mehr wird sie geschwächt. Die Zeit wird als alternd mit dem Alternden gedacht, vgl. Prom. 1013

ἀλλ' ἐκδιδάσκει πάνθ' ὁ γηράσκων χρόνος
. Ein ähnlicher Vers findet sich bei Stob. fl. 126, 8 χρόνος δ᾽ ἀμαυροῦ πάντα κεἰς λήθην ἄγει.

mvp-comment-168-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 273

mvp-comment-168-2 Ἀθηναία, die alte feierliche, in Inschriften bis auf die Zeit des Euklides herab häufig (gewöhnlich mit Artikel ἡ ᾿Αθηναία) vorkommende Form, auch 299, 617, Eur. Iph. T. 1436 , sonst bei den Tragikern Ἀθάνα.

mvp-comment-169-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 273

mvp-comment-169-2 κτήσεται, nämlich als Herrin dieses Landes ", also für Attika. Vgl. zu 765.

mvp-comment-170-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 273

mvp-comment-170-2 αὐτόν scil. ἐμέ. τὸν Ἀργεῖον λεὼν . . σύμμαχον: Schol. :

ὡς τότε συμμαχούντων Ἀργείων Ἀθηναίοις
. Einl. S. 23. δικαίως, ὀρθῶς, ἀληθῶς, aufrichtig, ehrlich. Vgl. πανδίκως εὐσεβής Suppl. 424
ὀρθῶς ἐνδίκως τ᾽ ἐπώνυμον
 Sept. 392
ἣν εὑρεθῇς ἐς τήνδε μὴ δίκαιος ὤν
 Soph. Trach. 411 .

mvp-comment-171-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 273

mvp-comment-171-2 Die Gottheit hört gern von den Stätten, wo sie besonders verehrt wird. Daher ist bei Anrufungen der Götter die Aufzählung solcher Örtlichkeiten beliebt. Vgl. Soph. Ant. 1118 f. Mit εἴτε — εἴτε, wie hier, Aristoph. Wo. 269

ἔλθετε εἴτ᾽ ἐπ᾽ Ὀλύμπου κορυφαῖς ἱεραῖς χιονοβλήτοισι κάθησθε κτέ. χώρας τόποις
steht wie ein einziger Begrif, daher Λιβυστικοῖς. Vgl. ποῖον . . γαίας πέδον Sept. 291
, χθονὸς . . τηλουρόν. . πέδον
 Prom. 1
τὸ Πυθικὸν Θεοῦ μαντείον
 Soph. Oed. T. 242
ὄγκον ὀνόματος μητρῷον
 Trach. 817
, Ηπειρώτις ψυχὴ γυναικῶν
 Eur. Andr. 159 u. Ähnliches oft, z. B. unten 327.

mvp-comment-172-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 273

mvp-comment-172-2 γενεθλίου: Schol. ( σημείωσαι) ὅτι διὰ τοῦτο οἴεται αὐτὴν Τριτογένειαν. Nach Herod. IV 180 (vgl. Paus. I 14, 6 ) glaubten die am Tritonischen See wohnenden Auseer (indem sie eine ihrer Gottheiten mit Athena identifizierten) τὴν ᾿Αθηναίην Ποσειδέωνος εἶναι θυγατέρα καὶ τῆς Τριτωνίδος λίμνης. Dals Aschylos der gewöhnlichen Sage sich anschliefst, zeigt 667 f. Er scheint also den Ort der Geburt an den See oder vielmehr Strom ( πόρου) Triton zu verlegen. In Wirklichkeit ist es ur- sprünglich die gleiche Vorstellung, wenn Athena als Blitzgöttin dem Haupte des Wolkensammlers Zeus, dem Wolkenberge, und wenn sie der Tritonischen See, den himmlischen Wassern, entstammt. Denn dafs die Tritonische See ursprünglich am Himmel war, ergiebt sich schon daraus, dafs sie nicht nur in Libyen, sondern auch anderwärts angenommen wurde ( Paus. VIII 26, 6 u. IX 33, 7, Strab. IX p. 407 ). Vgl. Schwartz, Der Ursprung der Mythologie. S. 87.

mvp-comment-173-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 274

mvp-comment-173-2 τίθησιν . . πόδα erklärt man ,,aufrecht schreitet oder sitzt" (vgl. Hom. p 158 ἥμενος ἢ ἕρπων), weil der sitzenden Göttin die Füfse mit dem Gewande bedeckt sind. Aber eine solche Erklärung von κατηρεφῆ ist mindestens weit hergeholt. In der Deutung von Dutheil „visible ou invisible" und Hermann: sive palam incedens sive latens ( Hom. E 186

νεφέλῃ εἰλυμένος ὤμους
) opem fert amicis, worin κατηρεφής der durch eine Wolke verhüllte Fufs sein soll, lässt sich ỏodóv schwer verstehen. Es scheint vielmehr ὀρθὸν πόδα den hohen, gleichsam steilen Fufs (vgl. ὀρθόπους Soph. Ant. 985 ) der hochgeschürzten Göttin zu bezeichnen, wie sich κατηρεφῆ auf das lange Gewand bezieht.

mvp-comment-174-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 274

mvp-comment-174-2 φίλοις ἀρήγουσα: Der Dichter scheint weniger an die Auseer als an die Athener zu denken, welche dem libyschen König Inaros zu Hilfe gezogen waren ( Thuk. I 104 ff. ). Vgl. die ähnliche Anspielung auf Zeitverhältnisse in Eur. El. 1347 νώ δ᾽ ἐπὶ πόντον Σικελὸν σπουδῇ σώσοντε νεῶν πρῴρας ἐνάλους. Φλεγραίαν πλάκα, Schauplatz des Gigantenkampfes, bei welchem Athena, Φλεγραίων ὀλέ τειρα Γιγάντων (Prokl. hymn. 32), unter anderen den Enkelados tötete ( Eur. Ion 209 ).

mvp-comment-175-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 274

mvp-comment-175-2 κλύει θεός, es hört ein Gott auch in der Ferne. Vgl. Eur. Iph. T. 1447 κλύεις γὰρ αὐδὴν καίπερ οὐ παρὼν θεᾶς. Vielleicht hat ursprünglich πρόσωθεν οὖσ όμως geheilsen. es

mvp-comment-175-3 16

mvp-comment-176-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 274

mvp-comment-176-2 γένοιτο nach ἔλθοι, s. g. Assimilation der Modi. Vgl. Soph. Ai. 1217

γενοίμαν. . ὑπὸ πλάκα Σουνίου, τὰς ἱερὰς ὅπως προσείποιμεν ᾿Αθάνας
, Krüger I § 54, 8, 3 .

mvp-comment-177-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 274

mvp-comment-177-2 παρημελημένον d. i. so dafs keiner nach dir fragt ( ἄιστον ἄπυστον). Sept. 689

θεοῖς μὲν ἤδη πως παρημελήμεθα
.

mvp-comment-178-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 274

mvp-comment-178-2 ,,Ohne erfahren zu haben wo im Herzen die Freude wohnt“, weil du keine Freude genieſsen wirst. Vgl. 426 ὅπου τὸ χαίρειν μηδαμοῦ νομίζεται. Etwas anders Soph. Oed. K. 1217

τὰ τέρποντα δ᾽ οὐκ ἂν ἴδοις ὅπου
.

mvp-comment-179-1 Wecklein 1888, p. 274

mvp-comment-179-2 Du eine blutleere Weide, nur Schatten von solchen die Blut haben, erwiderst mir nicht einmal?

Commentary (Arthur Sidgwick, 1887) (OCR draft) (Arthur Sidgwick's commentary on the Eumenides, aligned to the canonical Greek text.) focus

πράσσουσαν ἡσυχαιτέραν , ' more remiss in act, the adj. by a common poetic variation for adv. with verb. Somewhat similarly in prose σχολαῖος, χρόνιος, ἄσμενος, etc., are used adverbially.

δίκας ἐποπτεύσει , shall watch the pleadings, i. e. direct the trial.' δίκαι plural is usually pleas of right, not vengeance. So

δίκας κλύοντες
Ag. 813 , hearing the cause :
κραίνετε δίκας
Cho. 462 ,
ὑστάτας δίκας
Suppl. 230 , the last trial.

δ᾽ οὖν , well then, impatient and contemptuous. So Prom. 935

ὁ δ᾽ οὖν ποιείτω. τίθου
( put or make for yourself, middle), get. πλέω must be read for MSS. πλέον. In Ag. 1299 we have the opposite blunder of the copyist, χρόνῳ πλέω for χρόνον πλέω: mistakes constantly arising from terminations being erroneously assimilated.

mvp-sidgwick-122-1-1 The Chorus understand Apollo to threaten, and they proudly defend their privileges.

ὥστε , 202.

mvp-sidgwick-124-1-1 No need to alter πάρ into παρά (Porson): both the rhythm and the Epic use are like Aeschylus.

δίκας μέτειμι τόνδε , i.e. I will sue for justice on him; δίκας being a rather strange sort of internal acc., the δίκαι or pleadings shewing the nature of the pursuit; see line 224. The phrase implies. that the Eumenides are going to submit to a trial: δίκην μέτειμι τόνδε would mean simply I will visit vengeance on his head. μέτειμι and μετελθεῖν are used with three kinds of accusatives, the trial or vengeance, the crime, and the criminal. Here we have trial and criminal:

μετῆλθόν σ᾽ αἷμα
Eur. Or. 423 (crime and criminal): so
ἁρπαγὰς μετήλθετ᾽ Ἰλίου πόλιν
Eur. Cycl. 280 : Ag. 1666 (criminal only), Cho. 996 (crime only). *

εἰ προδῶ , Epic use of eἰ with subj. So

εἰ κρανθῇ πρᾶγμα
Suppl. 91 ,
μηδ᾽ εἰ στράτευμα πλεῖον ᾖ
Pers. 791 ,
εἰ μὴ τοῖον τύχῃ
Supp. 400 . [Apollo retires : and the Chorus leave the stage. Then the scene is changed to Athens: the temple of Athena Polias on the Acropolis: Orestes enters and kneels as a suppliant before the statue of Athena in the front.] This change of scene, being from one temple to another, would only require the alteration of the side scenes or περίακτοι. These were prismatic or three-sided scenes which were turned round to exhibit different surroundings: rather a primitive device. The altar and temple would remain; only the statues would have to be changed (242). [235-243. SCENE II, Part 1. Orestes prays for protection.]

προστρόπαιον , guilty here: see note on l. 41

. ἀφοίβαντον, uncleansed, from φοῖβος, bright (of course here with reference to the god). (Theocr. uses φοιβάω, to cleanse, later writers φοιβάζω : and φοιβαίνω is found in lexicographers.)

mvp-sidgwick-128-1-1 Orestes by a bold figure is said to be blunted and worn away, when what the poet really means is that the guilt is blunted and worn. In English we must say so. πρός, the light ending, where the sentence is broken in the most closely bound phrase, is rare in Aeschylus, though common enough in Sophocles : e.g. ἢ κατεῖχε τὸν | νέκυν: ἐὰν δέ τοι | ληφθῇ : τὸ γὰρ | πρᾶγμ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἔδρασα: εἰ δὲ ταῦτα μὴ | φανεῖτε: παίσαντές τε καὶ | πληγέντες : all from Antigone. But there is no reason to suspect it.

mvp-sidgwick-129-1-1 The sentence begins very abruptly without connecting particle, so that many suspect corruption, and some (Prien. Pal.) attempt to cure it by reading l. 238

ἀλλ᾿ ἀμβλὺς ἤδη, προστετριμμένος τε and destroying stop at βροτῶν. Others make other alterations. But the antithesis οὐ προστροπαῖον . . . ἀλλ᾽ ἀμβλύς is very harsh: and the sentence inordinately long. The abruptness of ὅμοια χέρσον κ.τ.λ. does not seem impossible in the worn-out wanderer passionately seeking sanctuary. We have it again l. 242
.

mvp-sidgwick-129-2-1 [Orestes sinks down clasping the base of the statue. Enter the Chorus hunting the trail.]

mvp-sidgwick-130-1-1 The voiceless informer is of course the blood, which mysteriously continues to drop wherever he goes. The Scholiast, not a highly poetical person, remarks on the tragic improbability of blood yet dropping from the sword of a man who had come from Argos to Delphi and from Delphi to Athens.

φυσιᾷ σπλάγχνον , my heart gasps, loaded and emphatic diction. ἀνδροκμῆσιν has nothing to do with Orestes (as H. Mors.): it is simply, as Schol. understands it, right wearisome.

ἀπτέροις . : the Eumenides were not winged, l. 51

.

προσγελᾷ , delights : the bold figure not Aeschylean specially, but belonging to the Greek idiom : so σὲ τὰ φυτὰ προσγελάσεται Ar. Pax 600. It is exactly the Lat. adrideo.

ἀτίτας , unpunished: lit. unpaying (act.) as Aeschylus always uses τίνω of the culprit who pays penalty. [The word seems used in pass. sense Ag, 72.]

mvp-sidgwick-134-2-1 [There is no antistrophe to guide us here, and there are several minor variations of the MSS.: the metre, however, seems mainly dochmiac, and I have taken Hermann's emendations, which are the simplest: see crit. notes.]

πλεχθείς , twined, a strong word, describing Orestes' despairing clasp of the image.

mvp-sidgwick-136-1-1 The difficulty here is removed if we see that the emphasis (as so often in Greek) is on the participles. The Chorus just catch sight of him and cry:

But he again with sure defence,
And clasping the image of the immortal goddess,
Would fain take his trial for the deeds of his hands...
i. e. 'Here he is! see, clasping the statue, and hoping to be tried under the goddess' protection; but it may not be, etc.' The trial is the necessary way to safety, and the Furies try to prevent it.

mvp-sidgwick-136-2-1 [Schol. has a strange note, ἀνθ᾽ ὧν ἡμῖν χρεωστεί προσφὸξ θέλει γενέσθαι τῆς θεοῦ, for what he owes to us he wishes to become suppliant of the goddess, which looks as if he read χρεῶν, to answer for his debts, and so Scaliger reads (followed by H. Linw. Hart. Weil. Wakef.). But χερῶν is a finer expression, and we may take the Medicean MS. against an inference from an obscure and prosaic note.]

mvp-sidgwick-137-1-1 This is best taken as two sentences (with M.), the idea being repeated, as commonly in all poetry, in two forms. The sense and language are then very fine :

It may not be a mother's blood upon the earth
None can restore: alas!
The drops once shed upon the ground are lost!
The sentiment may be called the keynote of the three dramas; it is true of Iphigeneia τὸ δ᾽ ἐπὶ γᾶν πεσὸν ἅπαξ θανάσιμον ... μέλαν αἷμα τίς ἂν
πάλιν ἀγκαλέσαιτ᾽ ἐπαείδων;
(Ag. 1019 ), and is the real basis of all the forebodings in the midst of the king's triumphal return: it is true of Agamemnon,
τί γὰρ λύτρον πεσόντος αἵματος πέδοι;
(Cho. 48 ), and
νόμος ...φονίας σταγόνας χυμένας ἐς γᾶν ἄλλο προσαιτεῖν αἷμα
(ib. 400 ), and there it is the ground of the confident hope of vengeance; and it is true here of Orestes. See again below l. 647
.

δυσαγκόμιστον for δυσανάκομ- : the poetic use

χαμαί for χαμαὶ ὄν, and Epic passive form χύμενος, cf. Cho. 401 .

ῥοφεῖν , epexegetic for us to drink.

mvp-sidgwick-139-1-1 Generally read μελέων : better μελῶν, as an iambus is wanted for metre.

mvp-sidgwick-140-1-1 I take the best correction, the nearest to the MSS. and the best sense, ἀντιποίν᾽ ὡς τίνῃς ματροφόνου δύας, that thou may'st pay the full penalty for thy murdered mother's woe: the adj. ματροφόνου used with poetic elasticity, which is particularly noticeable in these compound adjectives.

τιν᾿ . ἀσεβῶν is perhaps incomplete, as coming between two dochmiacs it probably should be one itself. The neatest suggestion for completing it is Hermann's τιν᾿ οὐκ εὐσεβῶν. But in the uncertainty of the metre I have left the reading as the MSS. have it, especially as τιν' ἀσεβῶν is a resolved cretic, and we have cretics introduced l. 262

, and l. 266
.

mvp-sidgwick-142-1-1 For Hades under the earth is a mighty controller of men, and watches all with his recording heart. This conception of the Justice and Moral supremacy of the powers below is very fine, and noticeable as being rather unusual. The Powers below are often spoken of as terrible, and unforgetting, and so forth; but here the tone is higher. See Introduction.

καὶ λέγειν , i. e. and I know where it is right to speak. The double construction of ἐπίσταμαι is perhaps a little harsh, but there is no reason to suspect it.

mvp-sidgwick-143-2-1 The Schol. tells us that an ἐναγής (or person under a curse) might not go near anyone or look at or speak to him till purified. So Aeschylus himself below l. 448

. But the purification is complete l. 445
; and he has been ordered by the god l. 279
; and therefore he may speak l. 287
.

mvp-sidgwick-144-1-1 In the fine figurative style of Aeschylus the blood-stain slumbers and withers.

mvp-sidgwick-145-1-1 i. e. it would be long to tell from the beginning. ἐξ ἀρχῆς is by a slight stretch of usage, used closely with λόγος, equivalent to τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς λέγειν.

ἀβλαβεῖ , harmless; proving that he was purified.

mvp-sidgwick-147-1-1 I agree with Musgr. Herm. Hart. Dind. Weil. etc., that this line is spurious. It is clearly a proverbial line about the destructiveness of time; and even if we alter καθαιρεῖ τo καθαίρει with Stanl. Pal. etc. Aeschylus could not have said ( l. 283

) that Orestes was cleansed by sacrifice, and then abruptly ( l. 286
), Time cleanses all.

αὐτόν , myself: the me is not wanted after emphatic ἐμοί

mvp-sidgwick-148-2-1 The reference to the treaty formed 459 B. C. (the year before the play) between Athens and Argos against Sparta is obvious. See Introduction.

Τρίτων was in the stories of Athena a Libyan lake from which she was supposed to have sprung; afterwards identified with the large salt lake in the south of Tunis.

mvp-sidgwick-149-2-1 The story very likely arose out of the obscure Homeric epithet for Athena, Τριτογένεια, which perhaps meant born of the water, and anyhow was not clearly understood by the later Greeks.

mvp-sidgwick-150-1-1 Whether with upright step or covered foot: whether standing as in the ordinary statues or covering her feet, i.e. sitting. Pal. quotes Strabo (13. 1) as saying

In many of the ancient images of Athena she is represented as sitting.

mvp-sidgwick-150-2-1 This seems the best interpretation of an obscure passage.

mvp-sidgwick-150-3-1 Weil suggests the allusion is to the Athenian war in Egypt, in support of the Libyan chieftain Inaros, who had rebelled against Persia; a large Athenian fleet was sent out in 460, two years before this play. This explains φίλοις ἀρήγουσ᾽.

mvp-sidgwick-151-1-1 The Phlegraean plain is the narrow promontory of Pallene in Chalkidike, north east of Greece. The story was that the gods here fought the giants; a story as old as Pindar (Nem. 1. 100), in which fight we gather that the warrior goddess Athena marshalled the hosts.

mvp-sidgwick-151-2-1 The name Phlegraean plain was afterwards given to the volcanic coast of Campania, which some strangely have supposed to be meant here.

γένοιτο , regular sequence after ἔλθοι. In English we say May she come, and therefore naturally have the primary sequence, that she may prove.

ὅπου φρενῶν , where in the heart it lies.

mvp-sidgwick-154-1-1 A bloodless victim she calls Orestes, consistently with the threat ( ll. 264, 267

), I will drain thee dry and carry thee below.

δαιμόνων is the powers below, i, e. both the Furies who will drink his blood and Hades ( l. 274

) who ordains and directs the vengeance.

σκιάν , a shadow, not a ghost, for he was to be carried off below yet living ( l. 267

): but all the vigour sucked out of him with his blood. [Schol. reads σκιά with MSS., and takes it voc. Unlikely.]

mvp-sidgwick-155-1-1 Orestes maintains a patient and scornful silence: which rouses the Chorus to still greater fury. There would be a dramatic pause before this line; then the furious threat l. 305

. There is no need to divide the speech between different speakers, as Hartung, Paley, and others, following M. G.