mvp-sidgwick-173-1-1
Again an obscure passage. MSS. read :
σπευδόμεναι δ᾽ ἀφελεῖν τινὰ τάσδε μερίμνας
θεῶν δ᾽ ἀτέλειαν ἐμαῖσι λιταῖς ἐπικραίνειν
Ζεὺς γὰρ αἱματοσταγὲς ἀξιόμισον ἔθνος τόδε λέσχας
And then should follow what has got displaced in the MSS.:
μάλα γὰρ οὖν ἁλομένα, κ.τ.λ.
mvp-sidgwick-173-2-1
Where the general drift seems to be:
[I pursue the guilty] and am eager to relieve another (the gods) of this charge, and set the gods free, and prevent the crime from coming to trial-for Zeus has banished the guilty from his sight, etc.
mvp-sidgwick-173-3-1
This seems to make a fair sense, and it is best with most editors to suppose the nom. pendens σπευδόμεναι to be taken up again by μάλα γὰρ οὖν, so that the sentence is only grammatically completed when we reach καταφέρω.
mvp-sidgwick-173-4-1
[This anacoluthon is rather harsh: Wecklein and Kirchhoff take Döderlein's suggestion σπεύδομεν αΐδ',
we here are eager. But the phrase is then abrupt and unnatural.]
mvp-sidgwick-173-5-1
The points that remain are:
mvp-sidgwick-173-6-1
(1) 362 ἐμαῖσι λιταῖς, which, if right, must be referred to the prayer of the Eumenides to Apollo not to interfere. But the passage is too general to refer specially to Orestes, though he is of course in their minds. So that perhaps ἐμαῖς μελέταις is better, and
by my labour to set the gods free (lit.
to bring about the freedom or immunity of the gods, i. e. freedom from the duty of punishing the criminal).
mvp-sidgwick-173-7-1
(2) 363 μηδ' εἰς ἄγκρισιν ἐλθεῖν: i. e. to take the guilty into my own hands and prevent the matter from being tried by the gods;the very thing they feared was going to be done with Orestes. ἄγκρισις or ἀνάκρισις is the technical term for the preliminary investigation by a magistrate.
mvp-sidgwick-173-8-1
(3)
Bloody hateful race, i.e. as Schol. explains,
the race of murderers: the whole passage from
l. 348
being a general description of the office of the Furies and their relation to the gods. [H. P. and others refer ἔθνοs to Furies: but they would hardly call themselves ἀξιώμισον.]
mvp-sidgwick-173-9-1
The whole passage may then be translated as follows:
And eager to lighten another of this charge,
And by our care to set free the gods,
And that [it] come not to trial:
For with this bloody hateful troop
Zeus deigns not to commune.
μάλα
with
ἁλομένα
:
For mightily indeed leaping from on high
I bring down the weighty power of my foot-
Limbs which trip even the swiftest runner, -
The emendation adopted [
ὅμως
inserted and
μάταν
, see above
l. 359
] is almost necessary to give the right sense,
even though they fly swiftly.
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.
