Chapter 23

“Like to Jove that rules the thunder were his kingly head and eyes;Belted round the loins like Ares; like Poseidon was his breast.”Il. II. 478.The connection of the god of the waters with Delphi is given by Pausanias x. 5, where it is said, that originally Poseidon possessed the oracle in common with Gaea; a legend easily explained by the fact, that all high mountains necessarily produce copious streams of water of which, no less than of the waves of ocean, Poseidon is lord.Note 10 (p. 142).“A gray-haired woman, weaker than a child.”Stan. refers here to the account given by Diodorus of the origin of the Delphic oracle, c. xvi. 26, where he relates, that in the most ancient times the prophetess was a young woman; but that, afterwards, one Echecrates, a Spartan, being smitten with the beauty of a prophetess, had offered violence to her, in consequence of which an edict was published by the Delphians, forbidding any female to assume the office of Pythoness till she was fifty years old.Note 11 (p. 142).“. . . the ravenous crewThat filched the feast of Phineus.”The Harpies; who, from the names given to them in Homer and Hesiod (and specially from Odyssey xx. 66 and 77 compared) seem to have been impersonations of sudden and tempestuous gusts of wind; though, again, it is not impossible that these winds may be symbolical of the rapacious power of swift and sudden death—“Venit Mors velociterRapit nos atrociter,”as suggested byBraun. See the article by Dr.Schmitzin the Biographical Dictionary.Note 12 (p. 142).“Such uncouth sisterhood, apparel’d so.”With regard to the dress of the Furies,Stan. quotes a curious passage from Diogenes Laertius, which I shall translate:—“Menedemus, the Cynic,” says he, “went to such fantastic excess as to go about in the dress of the Furies, saying, that he was sent as a visitant of human iniquity from Hades, that he might descend again, and report to the Infernal powers. His garb was as follows—a dun-coloured tunic (χιτων) reaching down to the feet, girt with a crimson sash; on his head an Arcadian cap, with the twelve signs of the Zodiac inwoven; tragic buskins, a very long beard, and an ashen rod in his hand.”—VI. 9. 2. The Romans were once put to flight by the Gauls, dressed in the terrible garb of the Furies, with burning torches in their hands.—LivyVII. 17.Note 13 (p. 143).“. . . A bitter pasture trulyWas thine from Fate.”So I have thought it best to translate somewhat freely τὸνδε βουκολούμενος πόνον in order to express the original meaning of the verb βουκολουμαι. In this I have followedMüller—diese Schmerzentrift zu weiden.This is surely more pregnant and poetical than to say withFr. “Diese Lebensbahn durcheilend.” The idea ofsoothingandbeguiling, the only one given byHesychius, cannot apply to this place.Pal., who agrees with me in this, translates the word in both places of our author where it occurs (here and in Agam. 655) by “brooding over” which differs little from my idea offeeding on.Note 14 (p. 143).“Her ancient image.”“The image of Athena Pallas, on the citadel, which existed in the days of Pausanias, and had maintained for ages its place here by a sort of inviolable holiness. In the narrow area of the temple, on the north-east slope of the Acropolis, Erechtheus had placed a carved image, either first made by himself, or, perhaps, fallen from Heaven; and round this, as a centre, the most ancient groups of Attic religion and legend assembled themselves.”—Gerhard, “über die Minerven Idole Athen’s,” quoted bySchoe.Note 15 (p. 144).“Behold these wounds.”I am not able to see what objection lies against the literal rendering ofὁρά δε πληγὰς τάσδε καρδίᾴ σέθεν,as I read withFr. andLinw.Pal. andSchoe. take πληγὰς metaphorically to signify the contumelious language used by Clytemnestra to the Furies; but this is surely rather going out of the way. If there were any necessity for deserting the literal meaning, I would rather take Hermann’s way of turning it (Opusc. VI. v. 2, p. 28), and read—ὁρά δε πληγὰς τάσδε καρδιάς ὃθεν.Siehe diese Wunden meines Herzens woher sie kommen!Note 16 (p. 144).“Read with thy heart; some things the soul may scanMore clearly, when the sensuous lid hath dropt,Nor garish day confounds.”This method of speaking is quite in keeping with ancient ideas on the nature of the connection ’twixt mind and body, asSchoe. has proved from Galen (Kühn. Med. gr. V. 301). As to the sentiment which follows,Stan. has quoted—“Quum ergo est somno sevocatus animus a societate et a contagione corporis, tum meminit praeteritorum, praesentia cernit, futura providet”—Cic. Divinat. I. 30. According to Aelian (var. hist. III. 11). the Peripatetics held the same opinion.Note 17 (p. 144).“Once Clytemnestra famous, now a dream.”There is another translation of this passage—the old one inStan.—“In somno enim vos nunc Clytemnestra voco,”to whichPot., E. P. Oxon., andMül. adhere; but I cannot help thinking with Hermann (Opusc. VI. p. ii. 30), that it is rather flat (matt) when compared with the other. Which of the two the poet meant cannot perhaps be settled now, as the meaning might depend on the rhetorical accent which the player was taught to give by the poet; but I am certain that the version in the text, sanctioned as it is byWakefield,Schütz,Herm.,Lin., andPal. does not deserve to be stigmatised (in E. P.’s language) as “fanciful nonsense.” When Clytemnestra calls herself “a dream,” she uses the same sort of language which Achilles does to Ulysses regarding his own unsubstantial state as a Shade.—Odys. XI.Note 18 (p. 144).“. . . and seeksFor help from those that are no friends to me.”I have thought it better to retain the old and most obvious interpretation of this passage; not seeing any proof that προσίκτορες can be used in this general way as applied to the gods who are supplicated, without being affixed as an epithet to some special god; as when we say Ζεὺς ἀφίκτωρ (Suppl. I.)Note 19 (p. 144).Chorus. Whether Hermann in his “Dissertatio de Choro Eumenidum” (Leipzig, 1816) was the first that directed special attention to the peculiar character of this Chorus as indicated by the Scholiast, I do not know (Wellauer says so, and I presume he knew). Certain it is thatPot., by neglecting this indication, has lost a great deal of the dramatic effect of this part of the tragedy. The style of the chorus is decidedly fitful and exclamatory throughout, and must have formed a beautiful contrast to the steady stability of the solemn hymn that follows, beginning, “Mother night that bore me.” As to the particular distribution of the parts of this chorus, that is a matter on which, asSchoe. remarks, no two critics are likely to agree; nor is minute accuracy in this respect, even if it were attainable, a matter of any importance to the dramatic effect of the composition as now read. The only thing to be taken care of is, that we do not blend in a false continuity what was evidently spoken fitfully, and by different speakers, with a sort ofstaccatomovement, as the musicians express it. This isPot.’s grand error, not only here, but in many other of the choral parts of our poet; and, in this view, some of Hermann’s remarks (Opusc. VI. 2, 38) on Müller’s division are perfectly just. As for myself, by distributing the parts of the chorus among three voices, I mean nothing more than that these parts were likely spoken by separate voices. Scholefield and Dyer’s view (Classical Museum, Vol. I. p. 281), that there were three principal Furies prominent above the rest in this piece, is not improbable, but admits of no proof. In my versification I have endeavoured to imitate the rapid Dochmiacs of the original.Note 20 (p. 145).“Thou being young dost overleap the old.”The idea of a succession of celestial dynasties proceeding on a system of “development,” as a certain class of modern philosophers are fond to express it, is characteristic of the Greek mythology.—(Seep. 47above, Antistrophe I.) The Furies, according to all the genealogies given of them, were more ancient gods than Apollo, with whom they are here brought, into collision. Our poet, as we shall see in the opening invocation of the first grand choral hymn of this piece, makes them the daughters of most ancientNight, who, according to the Theogony (v. 123), proceeded immediately from the aboriginalChaos. Hesiod himself makes the Erinyes, along with the giants, to be produced from the blood of Uranus, when his genitals were cut off by Kronos (Theog. 185); a genealogy, by the way, quite in consistency with the Homeric representation given in the Introductory Remarks, of the origin of the Furies from the curses uttered by injured persons, worthy of special veneration, on those by whom their sacrosanct character had been violated.Note 21 (p. 147).“But where beheading, eye-out-digging dooms.”In this enumeration of horrors I have omitted κακοῦ τε χλ(ο)υνις, concerning whichLin. says, “Omnino de hoc loco maximis in tenebris versamur; nam neque de lectione, neque de verborum significatione certi quidquam constat.”Note 22 (p. 147).“She was murdered here,That murdered first her husband.”The reasons given byWell. andHer. (Opusc. vi. 2. 42.) why the two lines, 203-4 W., should not both be given withStan.,Schütz, andMül., to Apollo, have satisfiedLin.,Pal.,Fr.,Schoe.,Dr., E. P. Oxon., andBut. Certainly the epithets ὅμαιμος and αυθέντης (which latter the Scholiast interprets μιαρὸς) sound anything but natural in the mouth of Apollo. The emphasis put on ὃμαιμος in this very connection by the Furies, in v. 575,infra, noted by Hermann, should decide the question.Note 23 (p. 147).“. . . matrimonial Hera.”Literally theperfectHera, theperfectingorconsummatingHera, Ἤρα τελεια, marriage being considered the sacred consummating ceremony of social life, and, therefore, designated among the Greeks by the same term, τέλος, which they used to express initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries. As Jove presides over all important turns in human fate, there is also necessarily a Ζὲυς τελειος. SeeBlom. Agam. 946, and Passowin voceτέλειος. Conf. Æn. iii. 605,Juno pronuba.Note 24 (p. 147).“The nuptial bed, to man and woman fated.”Stan. has remarked that this wordfated, μορσίμη, so applied, is Homeric (Od. XVI. 392); and, indeed, though we seem to choose our wives, we choose them oft-times so strangely, that a man may be said, without exaggeration, to have as little to do with his marriage as with his birth or his death—but all the three in a peculiar sense belong to that Μοῖρα, or divine lot, which distributes all the good and evil of which human life is made up.Note 25 (p. 149).Chorus. For the arrangement of this Chorus I refer the reader back to what I said on the previous one. The concluding part I have here arranged as an Epode, because it seems more continuous in its idea than what precedes—less violent and exclamatory.Note 26 (p. 150).“On Libyan plains beside Tritonian pools.”Æschylus here follows the tradition of Apollodorus (I. 3, § 6), that the epithet Τριτογένεια, given by Homer to Pallas, was derived from the lake Tritonis in Libya, near which she is said to have been born. Compare Virgil Æn. IV. 480.Note 27 (p. 150).“. . . with forward foot firm planted,Erect, or with decorous stole high-seated.”I have not the slightest doubt that τίθησιν (ο)ρθὸν πόδα in this passage can only mean toplant the foot down firmly and stand erect; if so, τίθησι κατηρεφῆ πόδα can only mean tosit, “the feet being covered by the robes whilesitting”—Lin.; so alsoPal. andSchoe. Sitting statues of the gods were very common in ancient times, as we see in the Egyptian statues, and in the common representations of the Greek and Roman Jupiter (see Thirlwall’s History of Greece, c. VI.). I am sorry that Hermann (p. 57) should have thrown out the idea that κατηρεφῆς in this passage may mean “enveloped in clouds,” which has been taken up by Franz—“Sichtbar sic jezt herschreitet, oder Wolkumhüllt,”because manifestly κατηρεφῆς, in this sense, forms no natural contrast to ὀρθὸς. The “forward foot firm-planted,” I have taken from Müller’s note, p. 112, as, perhaps, pointing out more fully what may have been in the poet’s eye, without, however, meaning to assert seriously against a severe critic like Hermann, that the words of the text necessarily imply anything of the kind.Note 28 (p. 150).“The ordered battle on Phlegrean fieldsThou musterest.”The peninsula of Pallene in Macedonia, as also the district of Campania about Baiæ and Cumae, were called Phlegraean, orfire-fields(φλέγω), in all likelihood from the volcanic nature of the country, to which Strabo (Lib. V. p. 245) alludes. These volcanic movements in the religious symbolism of early Greece became giants; and against these the Supreme Wisdom and his wise daughter had to carry on a war worthy of gods.Note 29 (p. 151).Choral Hymn. “This sublime hymn is of a character, in some respects, kindred to the καταδέσεις, or incantations of antiquity, which were directed to Hermes, the Earth, and other infernal Deities for the purpose ofbinding downcertain hated persons to destruction. For this reason it is called ὕμνος δέσμιος. This character is specially indicated by the refrain or burden, which occurs in the first pair of Strophes; such repetitions containing the emphatic words of the incantation being common in all magical odes. So in Theocritus (Idyll. 2), we have constantly repeated, ‘Iungx, bring me the man, the man whom I mean, to my dwelling,’ and, in the song of the Fates at the marriage of Thetis in Catullus, the line—‘Currite ducentes subtemina, currite fusi!’ and there can be no question, the movements and gestures of the Furies while singing this hymn were such as to indicate the scapeless net of woe with which they were now encompassing their victim.”—Mül. The reader will observe how impressively the metre changes on the recurrence of this burden, the rhythm in the original being Pæonicv v v—, the agitated nature of which foot, when several times repeated, is sufficiently obvious. I have done what I could to make the transition and contrast sensible to the modern ear.Note 30 (p. 151).“The seeing and the sightless.”αλα(ο)ισι και δεδορκόσι,i.e.the living and the dead; an expression familiar to the Greeks, and characteristic of a people who delighted to live in the sun. βλέπειν φάος—to look on the light, is the most common phrase in the tragedians for to live; and wisely so—“Since light so necessary is to life,And almost life itself, if it be trueThat light is in the soul,The soul in every part.”—Milton.Pot. has allowed himself to be led quite astray here by a petulant criticism of De Pauw.Note 31 (p. 151).“The gleeless song, and the lyreless strain.”ὕμνος ἀφόρμιγκτος. “The musical character of this Choral Hymn must be imagined as working upon the feelings with a certain solemn grandeur. The κιθάρα or lyre is silent; an instrument which, as the Greeks used it, always exercised a soothing power, restorative of the equipoise of the mind: only the flute is heard, whose notes, according to the unanimous testimony of antiquity, excited feelings, now of thrilling excitement, now of mute awe; always, however, disturbing the just emotional tenor of the soul. Assuredly the ὕμνος ἀφόρμιγκτος in this place is no mere phrase.”—Müller.Note 32 (p. 152).“This work of labour earnest.”I have paraphrased, or rather interpolated, in this Antistrophe, a little, because I do not see much in it that is either translatable or worth translating. A meaning has been squeezed out of the two lines beginning σπευδόμενοι; but one cannot help feeling, after all, that there is something wrong, and saying with honest Wellauer, “certi nihil video.” The main idea, shimmering through the first three lines, is plain enough—that the Furies exercise a function, the legitimacy of which no one is entitled to question.This the words, μηδ ες ἄγκρισιν ἐλθεῖν, plainly indicate; and it is upon this, andSchoe.’s conjectural emendation of the first line—σπευδομένος ἀπέχειν τινὰ τᾶσδε μερίμνας,“Diesem Geschäft das wir treiben verbleibe man ferne,”that my paraphrase proceeds. With regard to the second part of this Strophe, beginning with Μάλα γὰρ (ὀ)υν, I followWell. and all the later editors, exceptSchoe., in retaining it for metrical reasons, in the place to which Heath transposed it.Schoe’s observations, however, are worthy of serious consideration, as it is manifest that, if these Pæonic lines be replaced to where they stand in all the old editions, viz.:—between ὀρχησμοῖς τ᾽ (ε)πιφθόνοις ποδός and πιπτων δ᾽ ουκ ὀιδεν, their connection with what precedes, and also with what follows, will be more obvious than what it is now.Fr.’s observation, however, in answer to this, is not to be kept out of view—that this second part of the Antistrophe takes up the idea, as it takes up the measure, with which the corresponding part of the Strophe, as now arranged, ends, viz.—διόμεναί κρατερὸν ὄνθ, which the reader will find clearly brought out in my version—the concluding lines of the Pæonic section of the Strophe—“Though fleet we shall find him,”being taken up in the opening lines of the Pæonic section of the Antistrophe—“But swift as the wind,We follow and find.”Note 33 (p. 154).“The cry that called me from Scamander’s banks.”The Sigean territory in the Troad was disputed between the Athenians and the people of Mitylene; which strife Herodotus informs us (V. 94) ended, by the activity of Pisistratus, in favour of the Athenians—B.C. 606. In that same territory, continues the historian, there was a temple of Pallas, where the Athenians hung up the arms of the poet Alcæus, who, though “ferox bello,” had been obliged to flee from the battle which decided the matter in favour of the Athenians. Æschylus, like a true patriot and poet, throws the claim of the Athenians to this territory as far back into the heroic times as possible; and, by the words put into the mouth of Athena, makes the claimon the part of the Lesbians tantamount to sacrilege.—SeeScholiastandStan.Note 34 (p. 155).“He’ll neither swear himself, nor take my oath.”“The Greek words, ἀλλ ὅρκον ὀυ δεξαιτ ἄν, ὀυ δοῦναι θέλει have, in the juridical language of Athens, decidedly only this meaning; and, in the present passage, there is no reasonable ground for taking them in any other sense, though it is perfectly true that in some passages, ὅρκου διδόναι signifies simply toswear, and ὅρκον δέχεσθαι,to accept an attestation on oath.”—Schoemann.Note 35 (p. 155).“In old Ixíon’s guise.”“Ixíon was the son of Phlegyas, his mother Dia, a daughter of Deioneus. He was king of the Lapithæ, or Phlegyes, and the father of Peirithous. When Deioneus demanded of Ixíon the bridal gifts he had promised, Ixíon treacherously invited him as though to a banquet, and then contrived to make him fall into a pit filled with fire. As no one purified Ixíon from this treacherous murder, and all the gods were indignant at him, Zeus took pity on him, purified him, and invited him to his table.”—Mythol. Dict.Note 36 (p. 156).“The ancient city of famous Priam thouDidst sheer uncity.”The original ἄπολιν Ιλίου πόλιν ἔθηκας, contains a mannerism of the tragedians too characteristic to be omitted. ’Tis one of the many tricks of that wisdom of words which the curious Greeklings sought, and did not find, in the rough Gospel of St. Paul.Note 37 (p. 156).“For thee, in that thou comest to my halls.”The best exposition that I have seen of the various difficulties of this speech, is that ofSchoe., unfortunately too long for extract. As to κατηρτὺκὼς,Lin. has, in the notes to his edition, justly characterised his own translation of it, in the Dictionary asdurissimum. The first ὃμως, of course, must go; and there is nothing better than changing it withPauw,Müll., andSchoe., into ἐμ(ο)ις. The second ὅμως must likewise go; say ὁσιὼς withMüll. or ὅυτως withSchoe. There is then no difficulty.Note 38 (p. 157).Choral Hymn. This chorus contains a solemn enumeration of some of the main texts of Greek morality, and is in that view very important. The leading measure is the heptasyllabic trochaic verse so common in English, varied with cretics and dactyles. I have amused myself with giving a sort of imitation of the rhythm, so far as the trochees and cretics are concerned; to introduce the dactyles in the places where they occur, would produce—as I found by experiment—a tripping effect altogether out of keeping with the general solemnity of the piece.Note 39 (p. 158).“But who sports, a careless liver.”’Tis impossible not to agree withSchoe. that these two lines are corrupt beyond the hope of emendation. He proposes to read—τίς δὲ μηδὲν ἐυσεβεῖκαρδίας ἄγᾳ τρεων.A very ingenious restoration; and one which, as matters now stand, I should have little scruple in introducing into the text; but, for poetical purposes, I have not been willing to lose the image with which the present reading, ἐν φάει, supplies me andFr.—“Wer der nicht bei WonneglanzTrauer auch im Herzen hegt,” etc.Note 40 (p. 158).“To the wise mean strength is given,Thus the gods have ruled in heaven.”This is one of those current common-places of ancient wisdom, which are now so cheap to the ear, but are still as remote from the general temper and the public heart as they were some thousands of years ago, when first promulgated by some prophetic Phemonoe of the Primeval Pelasgi. The great philosopher of common sense, Aristotle, seized this maxim, as the groundwork of practical ethics, some three hundred years before Christ—῾Φθείρεται γαρ, says he, ἡ σωφροσύνη και ἡ ἀνδρεία ὑπὸ τῆς ὑπερβολῆς καὶ τῆς ἐλλειψεως, ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς μεσότητος σώζεται; and Horace, the poet of common sense, preached many a quiet, tuneful sermon to the same ancient text—“Auream quisquis mediocritatemDiligit, tutus caret obsoletiSordibus tecti, caret invidendaSobrius aula.”Note 41 (p. 158).“Pride, that lifts itself unduly.”I will not multiply citations here to show the reader how this pride or insolence of disposition, ὓβρις (the GermanUebermuth), is marked by the Greek moralists as the great source of all the darker crimes with which the annals of our floundering race are stained (See Note,p. 349above). They are wrong who tell us that Humility is a Christian and not a Heathen virtue: no doubt the name ταπεινοφροσύνη, used in the New Testament, was not the fashionable one among the Greeks: but that they had the thing, every page of their poetry testifies, with this difference, however, to be carefully noted, that while Heathen humility is founded solely on a sense of dependence, Christian humility proceeds also, and perhaps more decidedly, from a sense of guilt. Neither does the phraseology of Heathen and Christian writers on this subject differ always so much as people seem to imagine; between the μη ὐπερφρον(ε)ιν παρ ὃ δεῖ φρονεῖν of St. Paul (Rom. xii. 3), and the ὀυδεπώποτε ὐπερ ἄνθρωπον ἐφρόνησα of Xenophon (Cyropaed. VIII), it were a foolish subtlety that should attempt to make a distinction.Note 42 (p. 159).“Give the air-shattering Tyrrhene trump free voice.”“It is a correct and significant observation made by the Scholiast on Iliad XVIII. 219, that Homer never mentions the trumpet (σάλπιγξ) in the narrative part of his poem, but only for a comparison: familiar as he was with the instrument, he was not ignorant that the use of it was new, and not native in Greece. Indeed, it was never universally adopted in that country: the Spartans and Cretans marching into battle, first to the accompaniment of the lyre, and afterwards of the flute. The tragedians again are quite familiar with the Tuscan origin of the trumpet, though they make no scruple of introducing it into their descriptions of the Hellenic heroic age”—Müll.; Etrusker I. p. 286.Note 43 (p. 160).EnterApollo. Here commences a debate between the daughters of Night and the god accusing and defending, which, as Grote (History of Greece, I. 512) remarks, is “eminently curious.” And not only curious, but unfortunately, to our modern sense at least, not a little ludicrous in some places. The fact is, that the strange moral contradictions and inconsistencies so common in the Greek mythology, so long as they are concealed or palliated under a fair imaginative show, give small offence; but when placed before the understanding, in order to be interrogated by the strict forms of judicial logic, they necessarily produce a collision with our practical reason and a smile is the result.Note 44 (p. 161)“. . . himself did bindWith bonds his hoary-dated father Kronos.”“In the fable of the binding of Kronos by his son Jove, Æschylus saw nothing disrespectful to the character of the supreme ruler, but only the imaginative embodiment of the fact, that one celestial dynasty had been succeeded by another. The image of binding, and of the battles of the Titans generally, might seem to his mind not the most appropriate; but the offence that lay in them was softened not a little by the consideration that the enchainment of Kronos and the Titans was only a temporary affair, leading to a reconciliation. The result was, that the Titans themselves at last acknowledged the justice of their punishment, and submitted themselves to Jove, as the alone legitimate ruler of Earth; and Herr Welcker is quite wrong in supposing that either here, or in the Agamemnon, or the Prometheus, there is any indication that the mind of Æschylus was fundamentally at war with his age in regard to the celestial dynasties.”—Schoemann’s Prometheus, p. 97.Note 45 (p. 162).“. . . HowWith any clanship share lustration?”Or, withBuck., “what laver of his tribe shall receive him?”—the word in the original being φρατόρων. The ancient Hellenic tribes φράτραι were social unions, founded originally in the family tie, and afterwards extended. These unions had certain religious ceremonies which they performed in common, and to which allusion is here made. (Compare Livy VI. 40, 41,nos privatim auspicia habemusof the Patrician families.) To be ἀφρήτωρ, orexcluded from a tribe(Il. IX. 63), was among the Greeks of the heroic ages a penalty half-civil, half-religious, similar in character to theexcommunicationof the middle ages. Of this extremely interesting subject, the English reader will find a most luminous exposition inGrote’sGreece, vol. iii. p. 74.Note 46 (p. 162).“. . . whom we callThe mother begets not.”Strange as this doctrine may seem to our modern physiologists, it seems founded on a very natural notion; and to the Greeks, who had such a low estimate of women, must have appeared perfectly orthodox. The same doctrine is enunciated by the poet in the Suppliants, v. 279, when he says, “the male artist has imprinted a Cyprian character on your female features”—the image being borrowed from the art of coining. And this, like many fancies cherished by the Greeks, seems to have had its home originally inEgypt.Stan. quotes from Diodorus I. 80, who says—“The Egyptians count none of their sons bastards, not even the sons of a bought slave. For they are of opinion that the father is the only author of generation; the mother but supplieth space and nourishment to the fœtus.” In the play of Euripides, Orestes uses the same argument (Orest. 543).Note 47 (p. 162).“Now, hear my ordinance, Athenians!”This address of the goddess, of practical wisdom, in constituting the Court of the Areopagus, was pointed by the poet directly against the democratic spirit, in his day beginning to become rampant in Athens; and is applicable not less to all times in which great and, perhaps, necessary social changes take place. The poet states, with the most solemn distinctness, that the mere love of liberty will never protect liberty from degenerating into licentiousness; but that a religious reverence for law is as essential to society as a religious jealousy of despotism. Only he who profoundly fears God can dispense with the fear of man; and he who fears both God and man is the only good citizen.Note 48 (p. 162).“. . . Here, on this hill,The embattled Amazons pitched their tents of yore.”The Amazons, “as strong as men” (αντιάνειραι, Il. III. 189), are famous in the history of the Trojan war; and their expedition against Athens, mentioned here, was familiar to every Athenian eye, from the painting in theStoa Pœcile, described by Pausanias (I. 15). As to the historical reality of these hardy females, the sober Arrian (VII. 13) is by no means inclined (after the modern German fashion) to brush them, with a stroke of his pen, out of the world of realities; and, considering what a strange and strangely adaptable creature man is, I see no reason why we should be sceptical as to their historical existence.Note 49 (p. 163).“Thou say’st.”“This is an ancient way of replying to a captious question, as we see in the Gospel (Matth. xxvii.), where, when Pilate asks, ‘art thou the king of the Jews,’ our Lord, Jesus Christ, answers in these very words Συ λέγεις—‘Thou say’st.’”—Stan.Note 50 (p. 163).“Such were thy deeds in Pheres’ house.”“Alluding to Admetus, son of Pheres, whom Apollo raised from the dead, having obtained this boon from the Fates, on condition that some one should die in his stead.—See the well-known play of Euripides, the Alcestes.”—Stan. The Scholiast on that play, v. 12, as Dindorf notes, remarks that, on this occasion, Apollo moved the inflexible goddesses by the potent influence of wine. This is alluded to a few lines below.Note 51 (p. 164).“. . . all my father lives in me.”κάρτα δ᾽ ειμι τοῦ πατρος; specially wisdom and energy.—So Milton—“All my father shines in me.”—Paradise Lost, VII.Compare the Homeric epithet of Pallas ὁβριμοπάτρη with Nägelsbach’s Comprehensive Commentary—Hom. Theologie, p. 100.Note 52 (p. 164).Apollo,Fr., who examined the Medicean Codex, says that there is here discernible the mark which introduces a new speaker. Who that speaker is, however, the sense does not allow us to decide; but Orestes and the Chorus having spoken, I do not see why Apollo, who showed such eagerness before, should not now also, put in his word; and, therefore, desertingWell., I follow the old arrangement ofVict. andStan.Note 53 (p. 167).“Sharing alone the strong keys that unlockHis thunder-halls.”As Pallas possesses all her father’s characteristic qualities of wisdom and strength, so she is entitled to wield all his instruments, and even the thunder.Stan. quotes—“Ipsa (Pallas) Jovis rapidum jaculata e nubibus ignem.”—Virgil,Æn. I. 46.And Wakefield comparesCallim, Lavac. Pall, 132. So theaegis, orshield of dark-rushing storms(ἀισσω), belongs to Pallas no less than to Zeus (Il. V. 738).

“Like to Jove that rules the thunder were his kingly head and eyes;Belted round the loins like Ares; like Poseidon was his breast.”Il. II. 478.

“Like to Jove that rules the thunder were his kingly head and eyes;

Belted round the loins like Ares; like Poseidon was his breast.”

Il. II. 478.

The connection of the god of the waters with Delphi is given by Pausanias x. 5, where it is said, that originally Poseidon possessed the oracle in common with Gaea; a legend easily explained by the fact, that all high mountains necessarily produce copious streams of water of which, no less than of the waves of ocean, Poseidon is lord.

Note 10 (p. 142).“A gray-haired woman, weaker than a child.”

“A gray-haired woman, weaker than a child.”

Stan. refers here to the account given by Diodorus of the origin of the Delphic oracle, c. xvi. 26, where he relates, that in the most ancient times the prophetess was a young woman; but that, afterwards, one Echecrates, a Spartan, being smitten with the beauty of a prophetess, had offered violence to her, in consequence of which an edict was published by the Delphians, forbidding any female to assume the office of Pythoness till she was fifty years old.

Note 11 (p. 142).“. . . the ravenous crewThat filched the feast of Phineus.”

“. . . the ravenous crewThat filched the feast of Phineus.”

“. . . the ravenous crew

That filched the feast of Phineus.”

The Harpies; who, from the names given to them in Homer and Hesiod (and specially from Odyssey xx. 66 and 77 compared) seem to have been impersonations of sudden and tempestuous gusts of wind; though, again, it is not impossible that these winds may be symbolical of the rapacious power of swift and sudden death—

“Venit Mors velociterRapit nos atrociter,”

“Venit Mors velociter

Rapit nos atrociter,”

as suggested byBraun. See the article by Dr.Schmitzin the Biographical Dictionary.

Note 12 (p. 142).“Such uncouth sisterhood, apparel’d so.”

“Such uncouth sisterhood, apparel’d so.”

With regard to the dress of the Furies,Stan. quotes a curious passage from Diogenes Laertius, which I shall translate:—“Menedemus, the Cynic,” says he, “went to such fantastic excess as to go about in the dress of the Furies, saying, that he was sent as a visitant of human iniquity from Hades, that he might descend again, and report to the Infernal powers. His garb was as follows—a dun-coloured tunic (χιτων) reaching down to the feet, girt with a crimson sash; on his head an Arcadian cap, with the twelve signs of the Zodiac inwoven; tragic buskins, a very long beard, and an ashen rod in his hand.”—VI. 9. 2. The Romans were once put to flight by the Gauls, dressed in the terrible garb of the Furies, with burning torches in their hands.—LivyVII. 17.

Note 13 (p. 143).“. . . A bitter pasture trulyWas thine from Fate.”

“. . . A bitter pasture trulyWas thine from Fate.”

“. . . A bitter pasture truly

Was thine from Fate.”

So I have thought it best to translate somewhat freely τὸνδε βουκολούμενος πόνον in order to express the original meaning of the verb βουκολουμαι. In this I have followedMüller—diese Schmerzentrift zu weiden.This is surely more pregnant and poetical than to say withFr. “Diese Lebensbahn durcheilend.” The idea ofsoothingandbeguiling, the only one given byHesychius, cannot apply to this place.Pal., who agrees with me in this, translates the word in both places of our author where it occurs (here and in Agam. 655) by “brooding over” which differs little from my idea offeeding on.

Note 14 (p. 143).“Her ancient image.”

“Her ancient image.”

“The image of Athena Pallas, on the citadel, which existed in the days of Pausanias, and had maintained for ages its place here by a sort of inviolable holiness. In the narrow area of the temple, on the north-east slope of the Acropolis, Erechtheus had placed a carved image, either first made by himself, or, perhaps, fallen from Heaven; and round this, as a centre, the most ancient groups of Attic religion and legend assembled themselves.”—Gerhard, “über die Minerven Idole Athen’s,” quoted bySchoe.

Note 15 (p. 144).“Behold these wounds.”

“Behold these wounds.”

I am not able to see what objection lies against the literal rendering of

ὁρά δε πληγὰς τάσδε καρδίᾴ σέθεν,

as I read withFr. andLinw.Pal. andSchoe. take πληγὰς metaphorically to signify the contumelious language used by Clytemnestra to the Furies; but this is surely rather going out of the way. If there were any necessity for deserting the literal meaning, I would rather take Hermann’s way of turning it (Opusc. VI. v. 2, p. 28), and read—

ὁρά δε πληγὰς τάσδε καρδιάς ὃθεν.Siehe diese Wunden meines Herzens woher sie kommen!

ὁρά δε πληγὰς τάσδε καρδιάς ὃθεν.

Siehe diese Wunden meines Herzens woher sie kommen!

Note 16 (p. 144).“Read with thy heart; some things the soul may scanMore clearly, when the sensuous lid hath dropt,Nor garish day confounds.”

“Read with thy heart; some things the soul may scanMore clearly, when the sensuous lid hath dropt,Nor garish day confounds.”

“Read with thy heart; some things the soul may scan

More clearly, when the sensuous lid hath dropt,

Nor garish day confounds.”

This method of speaking is quite in keeping with ancient ideas on the nature of the connection ’twixt mind and body, asSchoe. has proved from Galen (Kühn. Med. gr. V. 301). As to the sentiment which follows,Stan. has quoted—“Quum ergo est somno sevocatus animus a societate et a contagione corporis, tum meminit praeteritorum, praesentia cernit, futura providet”—Cic. Divinat. I. 30. According to Aelian (var. hist. III. 11). the Peripatetics held the same opinion.

Note 17 (p. 144).“Once Clytemnestra famous, now a dream.”

“Once Clytemnestra famous, now a dream.”

There is another translation of this passage—the old one inStan.—

“In somno enim vos nunc Clytemnestra voco,”

to whichPot., E. P. Oxon., andMül. adhere; but I cannot help thinking with Hermann (Opusc. VI. p. ii. 30), that it is rather flat (matt) when compared with the other. Which of the two the poet meant cannot perhaps be settled now, as the meaning might depend on the rhetorical accent which the player was taught to give by the poet; but I am certain that the version in the text, sanctioned as it is byWakefield,Schütz,Herm.,Lin., andPal. does not deserve to be stigmatised (in E. P.’s language) as “fanciful nonsense.” When Clytemnestra calls herself “a dream,” she uses the same sort of language which Achilles does to Ulysses regarding his own unsubstantial state as a Shade.—Odys. XI.

Note 18 (p. 144).“. . . and seeksFor help from those that are no friends to me.”

“. . . and seeksFor help from those that are no friends to me.”

“. . . and seeks

For help from those that are no friends to me.”

I have thought it better to retain the old and most obvious interpretation of this passage; not seeing any proof that προσίκτορες can be used in this general way as applied to the gods who are supplicated, without being affixed as an epithet to some special god; as when we say Ζεὺς ἀφίκτωρ (Suppl. I.)

Note 19 (p. 144).

Chorus. Whether Hermann in his “Dissertatio de Choro Eumenidum” (Leipzig, 1816) was the first that directed special attention to the peculiar character of this Chorus as indicated by the Scholiast, I do not know (Wellauer says so, and I presume he knew). Certain it is thatPot., by neglecting this indication, has lost a great deal of the dramatic effect of this part of the tragedy. The style of the chorus is decidedly fitful and exclamatory throughout, and must have formed a beautiful contrast to the steady stability of the solemn hymn that follows, beginning, “Mother night that bore me.” As to the particular distribution of the parts of this chorus, that is a matter on which, asSchoe. remarks, no two critics are likely to agree; nor is minute accuracy in this respect, even if it were attainable, a matter of any importance to the dramatic effect of the composition as now read. The only thing to be taken care of is, that we do not blend in a false continuity what was evidently spoken fitfully, and by different speakers, with a sort ofstaccatomovement, as the musicians express it. This isPot.’s grand error, not only here, but in many other of the choral parts of our poet; and, in this view, some of Hermann’s remarks (Opusc. VI. 2, 38) on Müller’s division are perfectly just. As for myself, by distributing the parts of the chorus among three voices, I mean nothing more than that these parts were likely spoken by separate voices. Scholefield and Dyer’s view (Classical Museum, Vol. I. p. 281), that there were three principal Furies prominent above the rest in this piece, is not improbable, but admits of no proof. In my versification I have endeavoured to imitate the rapid Dochmiacs of the original.

Note 20 (p. 145).“Thou being young dost overleap the old.”

“Thou being young dost overleap the old.”

The idea of a succession of celestial dynasties proceeding on a system of “development,” as a certain class of modern philosophers are fond to express it, is characteristic of the Greek mythology.—(Seep. 47above, Antistrophe I.) The Furies, according to all the genealogies given of them, were more ancient gods than Apollo, with whom they are here brought, into collision. Our poet, as we shall see in the opening invocation of the first grand choral hymn of this piece, makes them the daughters of most ancientNight, who, according to the Theogony (v. 123), proceeded immediately from the aboriginalChaos. Hesiod himself makes the Erinyes, along with the giants, to be produced from the blood of Uranus, when his genitals were cut off by Kronos (Theog. 185); a genealogy, by the way, quite in consistency with the Homeric representation given in the Introductory Remarks, of the origin of the Furies from the curses uttered by injured persons, worthy of special veneration, on those by whom their sacrosanct character had been violated.

Note 21 (p. 147).“But where beheading, eye-out-digging dooms.”

“But where beheading, eye-out-digging dooms.”

In this enumeration of horrors I have omitted κακοῦ τε χλ(ο)υνις, concerning whichLin. says, “Omnino de hoc loco maximis in tenebris versamur; nam neque de lectione, neque de verborum significatione certi quidquam constat.”

Note 22 (p. 147).“She was murdered here,That murdered first her husband.”

“She was murdered here,That murdered first her husband.”

“She was murdered here,

That murdered first her husband.”

The reasons given byWell. andHer. (Opusc. vi. 2. 42.) why the two lines, 203-4 W., should not both be given withStan.,Schütz, andMül., to Apollo, have satisfiedLin.,Pal.,Fr.,Schoe.,Dr., E. P. Oxon., andBut. Certainly the epithets ὅμαιμος and αυθέντης (which latter the Scholiast interprets μιαρὸς) sound anything but natural in the mouth of Apollo. The emphasis put on ὃμαιμος in this very connection by the Furies, in v. 575,infra, noted by Hermann, should decide the question.

Note 23 (p. 147).“. . . matrimonial Hera.”

“. . . matrimonial Hera.”

Literally theperfectHera, theperfectingorconsummatingHera, Ἤρα τελεια, marriage being considered the sacred consummating ceremony of social life, and, therefore, designated among the Greeks by the same term, τέλος, which they used to express initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries. As Jove presides over all important turns in human fate, there is also necessarily a Ζὲυς τελειος. SeeBlom. Agam. 946, and Passowin voceτέλειος. Conf. Æn. iii. 605,Juno pronuba.

Note 24 (p. 147).“The nuptial bed, to man and woman fated.”

“The nuptial bed, to man and woman fated.”

Stan. has remarked that this wordfated, μορσίμη, so applied, is Homeric (Od. XVI. 392); and, indeed, though we seem to choose our wives, we choose them oft-times so strangely, that a man may be said, without exaggeration, to have as little to do with his marriage as with his birth or his death—but all the three in a peculiar sense belong to that Μοῖρα, or divine lot, which distributes all the good and evil of which human life is made up.

Note 25 (p. 149).

Chorus. For the arrangement of this Chorus I refer the reader back to what I said on the previous one. The concluding part I have here arranged as an Epode, because it seems more continuous in its idea than what precedes—less violent and exclamatory.

Note 26 (p. 150).“On Libyan plains beside Tritonian pools.”

“On Libyan plains beside Tritonian pools.”

Æschylus here follows the tradition of Apollodorus (I. 3, § 6), that the epithet Τριτογένεια, given by Homer to Pallas, was derived from the lake Tritonis in Libya, near which she is said to have been born. Compare Virgil Æn. IV. 480.

Note 27 (p. 150).“. . . with forward foot firm planted,Erect, or with decorous stole high-seated.”

“. . . with forward foot firm planted,Erect, or with decorous stole high-seated.”

“. . . with forward foot firm planted,

Erect, or with decorous stole high-seated.”

I have not the slightest doubt that τίθησιν (ο)ρθὸν πόδα in this passage can only mean toplant the foot down firmly and stand erect; if so, τίθησι κατηρεφῆ πόδα can only mean tosit, “the feet being covered by the robes whilesitting”—Lin.; so alsoPal. andSchoe. Sitting statues of the gods were very common in ancient times, as we see in the Egyptian statues, and in the common representations of the Greek and Roman Jupiter (see Thirlwall’s History of Greece, c. VI.). I am sorry that Hermann (p. 57) should have thrown out the idea that κατηρεφῆς in this passage may mean “enveloped in clouds,” which has been taken up by Franz—

“Sichtbar sic jezt herschreitet, oder Wolkumhüllt,”

because manifestly κατηρεφῆς, in this sense, forms no natural contrast to ὀρθὸς. The “forward foot firm-planted,” I have taken from Müller’s note, p. 112, as, perhaps, pointing out more fully what may have been in the poet’s eye, without, however, meaning to assert seriously against a severe critic like Hermann, that the words of the text necessarily imply anything of the kind.

Note 28 (p. 150).“The ordered battle on Phlegrean fieldsThou musterest.”

“The ordered battle on Phlegrean fieldsThou musterest.”

“The ordered battle on Phlegrean fields

Thou musterest.”

The peninsula of Pallene in Macedonia, as also the district of Campania about Baiæ and Cumae, were called Phlegraean, orfire-fields(φλέγω), in all likelihood from the volcanic nature of the country, to which Strabo (Lib. V. p. 245) alludes. These volcanic movements in the religious symbolism of early Greece became giants; and against these the Supreme Wisdom and his wise daughter had to carry on a war worthy of gods.

Note 29 (p. 151).

Choral Hymn. “This sublime hymn is of a character, in some respects, kindred to the καταδέσεις, or incantations of antiquity, which were directed to Hermes, the Earth, and other infernal Deities for the purpose ofbinding downcertain hated persons to destruction. For this reason it is called ὕμνος δέσμιος. This character is specially indicated by the refrain or burden, which occurs in the first pair of Strophes; such repetitions containing the emphatic words of the incantation being common in all magical odes. So in Theocritus (Idyll. 2), we have constantly repeated, ‘Iungx, bring me the man, the man whom I mean, to my dwelling,’ and, in the song of the Fates at the marriage of Thetis in Catullus, the line—‘Currite ducentes subtemina, currite fusi!’ and there can be no question, the movements and gestures of the Furies while singing this hymn were such as to indicate the scapeless net of woe with which they were now encompassing their victim.”—Mül. The reader will observe how impressively the metre changes on the recurrence of this burden, the rhythm in the original being Pæonicv v v—, the agitated nature of which foot, when several times repeated, is sufficiently obvious. I have done what I could to make the transition and contrast sensible to the modern ear.

Note 30 (p. 151).“The seeing and the sightless.”

“The seeing and the sightless.”

αλα(ο)ισι και δεδορκόσι,i.e.the living and the dead; an expression familiar to the Greeks, and characteristic of a people who delighted to live in the sun. βλέπειν φάος—to look on the light, is the most common phrase in the tragedians for to live; and wisely so—

“Since light so necessary is to life,And almost life itself, if it be trueThat light is in the soul,The soul in every part.”—Milton.

“Since light so necessary is to life,

And almost life itself, if it be true

That light is in the soul,

The soul in every part.”—Milton.

Pot. has allowed himself to be led quite astray here by a petulant criticism of De Pauw.

Note 31 (p. 151).“The gleeless song, and the lyreless strain.”

“The gleeless song, and the lyreless strain.”

ὕμνος ἀφόρμιγκτος. “The musical character of this Choral Hymn must be imagined as working upon the feelings with a certain solemn grandeur. The κιθάρα or lyre is silent; an instrument which, as the Greeks used it, always exercised a soothing power, restorative of the equipoise of the mind: only the flute is heard, whose notes, according to the unanimous testimony of antiquity, excited feelings, now of thrilling excitement, now of mute awe; always, however, disturbing the just emotional tenor of the soul. Assuredly the ὕμνος ἀφόρμιγκτος in this place is no mere phrase.”—Müller.

Note 32 (p. 152).“This work of labour earnest.”

“This work of labour earnest.”

I have paraphrased, or rather interpolated, in this Antistrophe, a little, because I do not see much in it that is either translatable or worth translating. A meaning has been squeezed out of the two lines beginning σπευδόμενοι; but one cannot help feeling, after all, that there is something wrong, and saying with honest Wellauer, “certi nihil video.” The main idea, shimmering through the first three lines, is plain enough—that the Furies exercise a function, the legitimacy of which no one is entitled to question.This the words, μηδ ες ἄγκρισιν ἐλθεῖν, plainly indicate; and it is upon this, andSchoe.’s conjectural emendation of the first line—

σπευδομένος ἀπέχειν τινὰ τᾶσδε μερίμνας,“Diesem Geschäft das wir treiben verbleibe man ferne,”

σπευδομένος ἀπέχειν τινὰ τᾶσδε μερίμνας,

“Diesem Geschäft das wir treiben verbleibe man ferne,”

that my paraphrase proceeds. With regard to the second part of this Strophe, beginning with Μάλα γὰρ (ὀ)υν, I followWell. and all the later editors, exceptSchoe., in retaining it for metrical reasons, in the place to which Heath transposed it.Schoe’s observations, however, are worthy of serious consideration, as it is manifest that, if these Pæonic lines be replaced to where they stand in all the old editions, viz.:—between ὀρχησμοῖς τ᾽ (ε)πιφθόνοις ποδός and πιπτων δ᾽ ουκ ὀιδεν, their connection with what precedes, and also with what follows, will be more obvious than what it is now.Fr.’s observation, however, in answer to this, is not to be kept out of view—that this second part of the Antistrophe takes up the idea, as it takes up the measure, with which the corresponding part of the Strophe, as now arranged, ends, viz.—διόμεναί κρατερὸν ὄνθ, which the reader will find clearly brought out in my version—the concluding lines of the Pæonic section of the Strophe—

“Though fleet we shall find him,”

being taken up in the opening lines of the Pæonic section of the Antistrophe—

“But swift as the wind,We follow and find.”

“But swift as the wind,

We follow and find.”

Note 33 (p. 154).“The cry that called me from Scamander’s banks.”

“The cry that called me from Scamander’s banks.”

The Sigean territory in the Troad was disputed between the Athenians and the people of Mitylene; which strife Herodotus informs us (V. 94) ended, by the activity of Pisistratus, in favour of the Athenians—B.C. 606. In that same territory, continues the historian, there was a temple of Pallas, where the Athenians hung up the arms of the poet Alcæus, who, though “ferox bello,” had been obliged to flee from the battle which decided the matter in favour of the Athenians. Æschylus, like a true patriot and poet, throws the claim of the Athenians to this territory as far back into the heroic times as possible; and, by the words put into the mouth of Athena, makes the claimon the part of the Lesbians tantamount to sacrilege.—SeeScholiastandStan.

Note 34 (p. 155).“He’ll neither swear himself, nor take my oath.”

“He’ll neither swear himself, nor take my oath.”

“The Greek words, ἀλλ ὅρκον ὀυ δεξαιτ ἄν, ὀυ δοῦναι θέλει have, in the juridical language of Athens, decidedly only this meaning; and, in the present passage, there is no reasonable ground for taking them in any other sense, though it is perfectly true that in some passages, ὅρκου διδόναι signifies simply toswear, and ὅρκον δέχεσθαι,to accept an attestation on oath.”—Schoemann.

Note 35 (p. 155).“In old Ixíon’s guise.”

“In old Ixíon’s guise.”

“Ixíon was the son of Phlegyas, his mother Dia, a daughter of Deioneus. He was king of the Lapithæ, or Phlegyes, and the father of Peirithous. When Deioneus demanded of Ixíon the bridal gifts he had promised, Ixíon treacherously invited him as though to a banquet, and then contrived to make him fall into a pit filled with fire. As no one purified Ixíon from this treacherous murder, and all the gods were indignant at him, Zeus took pity on him, purified him, and invited him to his table.”—Mythol. Dict.

Note 36 (p. 156).“The ancient city of famous Priam thouDidst sheer uncity.”

“The ancient city of famous Priam thouDidst sheer uncity.”

“The ancient city of famous Priam thou

Didst sheer uncity.”

The original ἄπολιν Ιλίου πόλιν ἔθηκας, contains a mannerism of the tragedians too characteristic to be omitted. ’Tis one of the many tricks of that wisdom of words which the curious Greeklings sought, and did not find, in the rough Gospel of St. Paul.

Note 37 (p. 156).“For thee, in that thou comest to my halls.”

“For thee, in that thou comest to my halls.”

The best exposition that I have seen of the various difficulties of this speech, is that ofSchoe., unfortunately too long for extract. As to κατηρτὺκὼς,Lin. has, in the notes to his edition, justly characterised his own translation of it, in the Dictionary asdurissimum. The first ὃμως, of course, must go; and there is nothing better than changing it withPauw,Müll., andSchoe., into ἐμ(ο)ις. The second ὅμως must likewise go; say ὁσιὼς withMüll. or ὅυτως withSchoe. There is then no difficulty.

Note 38 (p. 157).

Choral Hymn. This chorus contains a solemn enumeration of some of the main texts of Greek morality, and is in that view very important. The leading measure is the heptasyllabic trochaic verse so common in English, varied with cretics and dactyles. I have amused myself with giving a sort of imitation of the rhythm, so far as the trochees and cretics are concerned; to introduce the dactyles in the places where they occur, would produce—as I found by experiment—a tripping effect altogether out of keeping with the general solemnity of the piece.

Note 39 (p. 158).“But who sports, a careless liver.”

“But who sports, a careless liver.”

’Tis impossible not to agree withSchoe. that these two lines are corrupt beyond the hope of emendation. He proposes to read—

τίς δὲ μηδὲν ἐυσεβεῖκαρδίας ἄγᾳ τρεων.

τίς δὲ μηδὲν ἐυσεβεῖ

καρδίας ἄγᾳ τρεων.

A very ingenious restoration; and one which, as matters now stand, I should have little scruple in introducing into the text; but, for poetical purposes, I have not been willing to lose the image with which the present reading, ἐν φάει, supplies me andFr.—

“Wer der nicht bei WonneglanzTrauer auch im Herzen hegt,” etc.

“Wer der nicht bei Wonneglanz

Trauer auch im Herzen hegt,” etc.

Note 40 (p. 158).“To the wise mean strength is given,Thus the gods have ruled in heaven.”

“To the wise mean strength is given,Thus the gods have ruled in heaven.”

“To the wise mean strength is given,

Thus the gods have ruled in heaven.”

This is one of those current common-places of ancient wisdom, which are now so cheap to the ear, but are still as remote from the general temper and the public heart as they were some thousands of years ago, when first promulgated by some prophetic Phemonoe of the Primeval Pelasgi. The great philosopher of common sense, Aristotle, seized this maxim, as the groundwork of practical ethics, some three hundred years before Christ—῾Φθείρεται γαρ, says he, ἡ σωφροσύνη και ἡ ἀνδρεία ὑπὸ τῆς ὑπερβολῆς καὶ τῆς ἐλλειψεως, ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς μεσότητος σώζεται; and Horace, the poet of common sense, preached many a quiet, tuneful sermon to the same ancient text—

“Auream quisquis mediocritatemDiligit, tutus caret obsoletiSordibus tecti, caret invidendaSobrius aula.”

“Auream quisquis mediocritatem

Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti

Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda

Sobrius aula.”

Note 41 (p. 158).“Pride, that lifts itself unduly.”

“Pride, that lifts itself unduly.”

I will not multiply citations here to show the reader how this pride or insolence of disposition, ὓβρις (the GermanUebermuth), is marked by the Greek moralists as the great source of all the darker crimes with which the annals of our floundering race are stained (See Note,p. 349above). They are wrong who tell us that Humility is a Christian and not a Heathen virtue: no doubt the name ταπεινοφροσύνη, used in the New Testament, was not the fashionable one among the Greeks: but that they had the thing, every page of their poetry testifies, with this difference, however, to be carefully noted, that while Heathen humility is founded solely on a sense of dependence, Christian humility proceeds also, and perhaps more decidedly, from a sense of guilt. Neither does the phraseology of Heathen and Christian writers on this subject differ always so much as people seem to imagine; between the μη ὐπερφρον(ε)ιν παρ ὃ δεῖ φρονεῖν of St. Paul (Rom. xii. 3), and the ὀυδεπώποτε ὐπερ ἄνθρωπον ἐφρόνησα of Xenophon (Cyropaed. VIII), it were a foolish subtlety that should attempt to make a distinction.

Note 42 (p. 159).“Give the air-shattering Tyrrhene trump free voice.”

“Give the air-shattering Tyrrhene trump free voice.”

“It is a correct and significant observation made by the Scholiast on Iliad XVIII. 219, that Homer never mentions the trumpet (σάλπιγξ) in the narrative part of his poem, but only for a comparison: familiar as he was with the instrument, he was not ignorant that the use of it was new, and not native in Greece. Indeed, it was never universally adopted in that country: the Spartans and Cretans marching into battle, first to the accompaniment of the lyre, and afterwards of the flute. The tragedians again are quite familiar with the Tuscan origin of the trumpet, though they make no scruple of introducing it into their descriptions of the Hellenic heroic age”—Müll.; Etrusker I. p. 286.

Note 43 (p. 160).

EnterApollo. Here commences a debate between the daughters of Night and the god accusing and defending, which, as Grote (History of Greece, I. 512) remarks, is “eminently curious.” And not only curious, but unfortunately, to our modern sense at least, not a little ludicrous in some places. The fact is, that the strange moral contradictions and inconsistencies so common in the Greek mythology, so long as they are concealed or palliated under a fair imaginative show, give small offence; but when placed before the understanding, in order to be interrogated by the strict forms of judicial logic, they necessarily produce a collision with our practical reason and a smile is the result.

Note 44 (p. 161)“. . . himself did bindWith bonds his hoary-dated father Kronos.”

“. . . himself did bindWith bonds his hoary-dated father Kronos.”

“. . . himself did bind

With bonds his hoary-dated father Kronos.”

“In the fable of the binding of Kronos by his son Jove, Æschylus saw nothing disrespectful to the character of the supreme ruler, but only the imaginative embodiment of the fact, that one celestial dynasty had been succeeded by another. The image of binding, and of the battles of the Titans generally, might seem to his mind not the most appropriate; but the offence that lay in them was softened not a little by the consideration that the enchainment of Kronos and the Titans was only a temporary affair, leading to a reconciliation. The result was, that the Titans themselves at last acknowledged the justice of their punishment, and submitted themselves to Jove, as the alone legitimate ruler of Earth; and Herr Welcker is quite wrong in supposing that either here, or in the Agamemnon, or the Prometheus, there is any indication that the mind of Æschylus was fundamentally at war with his age in regard to the celestial dynasties.”—Schoemann’s Prometheus, p. 97.

Note 45 (p. 162).“. . . HowWith any clanship share lustration?”

“. . . HowWith any clanship share lustration?”

“. . . How

With any clanship share lustration?”

Or, withBuck., “what laver of his tribe shall receive him?”—the word in the original being φρατόρων. The ancient Hellenic tribes φράτραι were social unions, founded originally in the family tie, and afterwards extended. These unions had certain religious ceremonies which they performed in common, and to which allusion is here made. (Compare Livy VI. 40, 41,nos privatim auspicia habemusof the Patrician families.) To be ἀφρήτωρ, orexcluded from a tribe(Il. IX. 63), was among the Greeks of the heroic ages a penalty half-civil, half-religious, similar in character to theexcommunicationof the middle ages. Of this extremely interesting subject, the English reader will find a most luminous exposition inGrote’sGreece, vol. iii. p. 74.

Note 46 (p. 162).“. . . whom we callThe mother begets not.”

“. . . whom we callThe mother begets not.”

“. . . whom we call

The mother begets not.”

Strange as this doctrine may seem to our modern physiologists, it seems founded on a very natural notion; and to the Greeks, who had such a low estimate of women, must have appeared perfectly orthodox. The same doctrine is enunciated by the poet in the Suppliants, v. 279, when he says, “the male artist has imprinted a Cyprian character on your female features”—the image being borrowed from the art of coining. And this, like many fancies cherished by the Greeks, seems to have had its home originally inEgypt.Stan. quotes from Diodorus I. 80, who says—“The Egyptians count none of their sons bastards, not even the sons of a bought slave. For they are of opinion that the father is the only author of generation; the mother but supplieth space and nourishment to the fœtus.” In the play of Euripides, Orestes uses the same argument (Orest. 543).

Note 47 (p. 162).“Now, hear my ordinance, Athenians!”

“Now, hear my ordinance, Athenians!”

This address of the goddess, of practical wisdom, in constituting the Court of the Areopagus, was pointed by the poet directly against the democratic spirit, in his day beginning to become rampant in Athens; and is applicable not less to all times in which great and, perhaps, necessary social changes take place. The poet states, with the most solemn distinctness, that the mere love of liberty will never protect liberty from degenerating into licentiousness; but that a religious reverence for law is as essential to society as a religious jealousy of despotism. Only he who profoundly fears God can dispense with the fear of man; and he who fears both God and man is the only good citizen.

Note 48 (p. 162).“. . . Here, on this hill,The embattled Amazons pitched their tents of yore.”

“. . . Here, on this hill,The embattled Amazons pitched their tents of yore.”

“. . . Here, on this hill,

The embattled Amazons pitched their tents of yore.”

The Amazons, “as strong as men” (αντιάνειραι, Il. III. 189), are famous in the history of the Trojan war; and their expedition against Athens, mentioned here, was familiar to every Athenian eye, from the painting in theStoa Pœcile, described by Pausanias (I. 15). As to the historical reality of these hardy females, the sober Arrian (VII. 13) is by no means inclined (after the modern German fashion) to brush them, with a stroke of his pen, out of the world of realities; and, considering what a strange and strangely adaptable creature man is, I see no reason why we should be sceptical as to their historical existence.

Note 49 (p. 163).“Thou say’st.”

“Thou say’st.”

“This is an ancient way of replying to a captious question, as we see in the Gospel (Matth. xxvii.), where, when Pilate asks, ‘art thou the king of the Jews,’ our Lord, Jesus Christ, answers in these very words Συ λέγεις—‘Thou say’st.’”—Stan.

Note 50 (p. 163).“Such were thy deeds in Pheres’ house.”

“Such were thy deeds in Pheres’ house.”

“Alluding to Admetus, son of Pheres, whom Apollo raised from the dead, having obtained this boon from the Fates, on condition that some one should die in his stead.—See the well-known play of Euripides, the Alcestes.”—Stan. The Scholiast on that play, v. 12, as Dindorf notes, remarks that, on this occasion, Apollo moved the inflexible goddesses by the potent influence of wine. This is alluded to a few lines below.

Note 51 (p. 164).“. . . all my father lives in me.”

“. . . all my father lives in me.”

κάρτα δ᾽ ειμι τοῦ πατρος; specially wisdom and energy.—So Milton—

“All my father shines in me.”—Paradise Lost, VII.

Compare the Homeric epithet of Pallas ὁβριμοπάτρη with Nägelsbach’s Comprehensive Commentary—Hom. Theologie, p. 100.

Note 52 (p. 164).

Apollo,Fr., who examined the Medicean Codex, says that there is here discernible the mark which introduces a new speaker. Who that speaker is, however, the sense does not allow us to decide; but Orestes and the Chorus having spoken, I do not see why Apollo, who showed such eagerness before, should not now also, put in his word; and, therefore, desertingWell., I follow the old arrangement ofVict. andStan.

Note 53 (p. 167).“Sharing alone the strong keys that unlockHis thunder-halls.”

“Sharing alone the strong keys that unlockHis thunder-halls.”

“Sharing alone the strong keys that unlock

His thunder-halls.”

As Pallas possesses all her father’s characteristic qualities of wisdom and strength, so she is entitled to wield all his instruments, and even the thunder.Stan. quotes—

“Ipsa (Pallas) Jovis rapidum jaculata e nubibus ignem.”—Virgil,Æn. I. 46.

And Wakefield comparesCallim, Lavac. Pall, 132. So theaegis, orshield of dark-rushing storms(ἀισσω), belongs to Pallas no less than to Zeus (Il. V. 738).

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