ὑπ᾿ αἰθέρι
,
beneath the sky, i.e. when they are living on earth.
κατὰ γᾶν
,
on earth, is the MS. reading: but as Hermann said, the sense
below the earth, κατὰ γᾶs, is required in antithesis to ὑπ᾿ αἰθέρι. The same mistake occurs again
ll. 838, 871
.
ll. 375, 376
. Bold and imaginative expressions :
Before our black-robed assault,
And the vengeful measures of our foot;
i.e. [their human glories come to naught] when we the Furies attack them and weave these magic dances which make them our captive (as we are doing to Orestes).
mvp-sidgwick-177-1-1
After this line in the MSS. comes μάλα γὰρ οὖν . . . μάταν (
ll. 367-371
). It is possible that the words are repeated as a refrain both here and after
l. 380
.
λυμή
is the destruction which attacks his mind, and blinds him to the threatening evil;
τόδε
is best taken (not of the fall as many edd., which would be simply
πίπτων οὐκ οἶδεν
, but) of the presence and power of the Furies.
κνέφας
. is in apposition to
μύσος
, and is predicative: we should say,
So dark a cloud of pollution hovereth over him.
ἐπί
, Epic adverbial use (tmesis) of the preposition, going with the verb.
mvp-sidgwick-180-1-1
Again a highly imaginative and picturesque phrase which needs no alteration:
And the voice of many a groan
Proclaims against the house a mist of gloom.
The groans of the past victims are heard as it were making a horror of gloom about the house of wickedness.
μένει γάρ
,
for the law abides: so
μίμνει
Ag. 1563
. But it is obscure and abrupt: and possibly corrupted.
ἐσμέν
is easily understood:
Crafty are we, and unfailing to accomplish.
διόμεναι
is rather a strange word (though the English
to pursue a task or charge exactly illustrates it): hence Heath ingeniously suggested διέπο- μεν. But διόμεναι was read by Schol. and the MS. may stand.
ἀνηλίῳ λάμπᾳ
, lit.
in sunless light, an oxymoron, meaning
in a light which is no light,
where no sunlight shines. [Others translate
λάμπᾳ
,
filth,
mould; for there is a very late word λάμπη, 'scum; and Dind. adopts Wieseler's conj. λάπᾳ in the same sense. But the strain of meaning is very harsh, and the word in the last degree unlikely.]
δυσοδοπαίπαλα
is suspicious, as the metaphor is rather harsh (though perhaps continued from διόμεναι): the metre does not correspond with the antistrophe (καίπερ ὑπὸ χθόνα); and the double compound with δυσis unusual, indeed unique.
mvp-sidgwick-184-3-1
There are many suggestions to cure the metrical fault, δυσποροπ., δυσποδοπ., δυσμολοπ., δυσβατοπ., etc. But it is best to leave it.
mvp-sidgwick-185-1-1
Compare
ἀλαοῖσι καὶ δεδορκόσιν
l. 322
.
δοθέντα τέλεον
, adj. used proleptically,
granted for sure accomplishment.
mvp-sidgwick-187-1-1
Two syllables are wanting to make the metre correspond: and they are usually supplied among the iambics of
l. 394
, with adoption of Hermann's κύρω for κῠρῶ; but possibly
l. 394
is all right, and the loss is in
l. 395
.
mvp-sidgwick-187-2-1
[Enter Athena from above in the air.]
γῆν καταφθατουμένη
. Some further alter γῆν into γῆς, and translate
hastening from; but
the land of Scamander would be a strange expression, and a much fuller and better sense is gained by translating
καταφθατουμένη
,
occupying,
hasting to claim the land. (So Hesych. who has καταφθατουμένη, κατακτωμένη.)
mvp-sidgwick-188-2-1
The Schol. tells us there was a reference here to a dispute between Athens and Mitylene for Sigeum in the Troad, settled in favour of M. by single combat. According to Herodotus (5.95) the dispute was an old one: the struggle began about 606, and was settled by mediation of Periander, who gave Sigeum to Athens. But evidently the dispute went on: for Herodotus tells us in the same chapter that Peisistratos (presumably about 550 B.C.) conquered Sigeum. It is quite in Aeschylus' manner to refer to this event in a bold and imaginative way, by making the land
given to Athena as choice offering of the spoil by the chiefs of Achaioi. There was a temple of Athena on the promontory.
αὐτόπρεμνον
, bold metaphor,
root and branch, i. e.
utterly,
land and all therein.
ἐξαίρετον
. : it was a custom, from Homer's time, to take out of the spoil a special gift for kings (or, as here, gods). So Homer frequently γέρας ἔξελον υἱὲς Ἀχαιῶν. So Thucydides tells us at the destruction of Mitylene (3. 30) the Athenians made 3000 holdings of the land, and 300 of these τοῖς θεοῖς ἱεροὺς ἐξεῖλον.
mvp-sidgwick-191-1-1
Flapping the fold of my aegis in wingless flight, a splendid and picturesque line: the goddess needing no wing to fly, the aegis serves her as a wing, and is accompanied with the ῥοῖβδος or
whirring noise of wings.
mvp-sidgwick-191-2-1
The αἰγίς was the wonderful shield of Zeus
gleaming and fringed, that Hephaistos made
(and therefore metal), Iliad 15. 307:
it was tasselled, crowned about with Terror, and Strife, and Might, and fearful Fray is therein, and the dread monster's Gorgon head
, Iliad 5. 738. Athena wears it also, as well as Zeus, in Homer. The word probably meant
storm or
rushing originally (αἰγ- ἀϊσσω) : but later it was conceived as a
goatskin (αἴγ), and so here has a κόλπος or
fold.
ἐπιζεύξασ᾽ ὄχον
. You can't talk of
yoking a car on your legs. It is better to take it metaphorically: the
ὄχος
is the aegis, the
πῶλοι
are the winds. So exactly Aristophanes calls Athena αἰγίδος ἠνιόχος Clouds 602.
