Chapter IV: Part 4

[142] _I.e._ "he will fight by wholesale." See comm.
Perhaps the English phrase to "deal a blow," to "lend a
blow," is the nearest approximation to this curious idiom.
Boyes quotes some neat illustrations.

[143] This passage is a fair instance of the impossibility
of construing certain portions of AEschylus as they are
edited. Dindorf in his notes approves of Dobree's
emendation, [Greek: kai ton son aut' adelphou es patros
moron Exyptiazon onoma], and so Paley, except that he
reads [Greek: omma] with Schutz, and renders it "_oculo in
patrio OEdipi fatum religiose sublato_." Blomfield's
[Greek: prosmolon homosporon] seems simpler, and in better
taste. [Greek: homosporon] was doubtless obliterated by the
gloss [Greek: adelpheon] (an Ionic form ill suited to the
senarius), and the [Greek: homoioteleuton] caused the
remainder of the error. Burges first proposed [Greek:
homosporon] in Troad. Append. p. 134, D. As to Paley's idea
that OEdipus' death was caused "_per contentiorim filii
indolem_," I can not find either authority for the fact,
or reason for its mention here, and I have therefore
followed Blomfield. Dindorf's translation I can not
understand. The explanations of [Greek: exyptiazon onoma]
are amusing, and that is all.

[144] _I.e._ saying [Greek: Polyneikes polyneikes]. Paley
ingeniously remarks that [Greek: endateisthai] is here
used in a double sense, both of _dividing_ and
_reproaching_. See his note, and cf. Phoen. 636. [Greek:
alethos onoma Polyneike pater etheto soi theia, pronoia,
neikeon eponymon].

[145] See Griffiths.

[146] Porson, and all the subsequent editors have
bracketed this verse, as spurious, but the chief objection
to this sense of [Greek: karpizesthai] seems to be
obviated by Paley. See his note.

[147] Either with [Greek: palin] or [Greek: polin] there
is much difficulty, as without an epithet [Greek: polis]
seems harshly applied to Hades. Paley thinks that [Greek:
ten makran] refers both to [Greek: pompen] and [Greek:
polin]. Dindorf adopts his usual plan when a difficulty
occurs, and proposes to omit the line. Fritzsche truly
said of this learned critic, that if he had the privilege
of omitting every thing he could not understand, the plays
of the Grecian dramatists would speedily be reduced to a
collection of fragments.

[148] When the spear was not in use, it was held in the
left hand, under the shield. See Blomfield.

[149] Sc. king, or victor. Blomfield adopts the former.

[150] This passage is not satisfactory. Paley reads
[Greek: andrelaton], but I am doubtful about [Greek: tos
... tonde ... tropon].

[151] In the original there is, perhaps, a slight mixture
of construction, [Greek: haimatos] partly depending upon
[Greek: karpos] implied in [Greek: pikrokarpon], and
partly upon [Greek: androktasian], [Greek: androkt..
haim.] being _the slaughter of a man, by which his blood
is shed_.

[152] Wellauer: _denuntians lucrum, quod prius erit morte
posteriore_: _i.e._ victoriam quam sequetur mors. And so
Griffiths and Paley.

[153] Shakespeare uses this name in the opening speech of
King Henry, in part I.:

No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil
Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood.
OLD TRANSLATOR.

[154] See above, v. 383.

[155] Somewhat to the same effect is the dream of Atossa
in the Persae.

[156] I prefer Blomfield's transposition to Dindorf's
correction, [Greek: blapsiphronos], which, though
repudiated in the notes, is still adopted by Paley.

[157] A noble impersonation of the sword.

[158] Shakespeare, King John, Act 4, sc. 2:

That blood, which own'd the breadth of all this isle,
Three foot of it doth hold.

King Henry IV. part I. Act 5, sc. 5:

Fare thee well, great heart!
Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
But now, two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough.

[159] Surely the full stop after [Greek: polin] in v. 749
should be removed, and a colon, or mark of hyperbaton
substituted. On looking at Paley's edition, I find myself
anticipated.

[160] This is Griffiths' version of this awkward passage.
I should prefer reading [Greek: alkan] with Paley, from
one MS. So also Burges.

[161] See my note on Soph. Philoct. 708, ed. Bohn.

[162] This seems the best way of rendering the bold
periphrase, [Greek: ho polybotos aion broton]. See
Griffiths.

[163] I follow Paley. Dindorf, in his notes, agrees in
reading [Greek: trophas], but the metre seems to require
[Greek: epikotos]. Griffiths defends the common reading,
but against the ancient authority of the schol. on OEd.
Col. 1375. See Blomfield.

[164] Blomfield with reason thinks that a verse has been
lost.

[165] The care which the Messenger takes to show the
bright side of the picture first, reminds us of
Northumberland's speech, Shakespeare, King Henry IV. part
II. Act 1, sc. 1:

This thou would'st say--Your son did thus and thus;
Your brother, thus; so fought the noble Douglas;
Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds;
But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed,
Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise,
Ending with--brother, son, and all are dead.
--OLD TRANSL.

[166] This is a good example of the figure chiasmus, the
force of which I have expressed by the bracketed words
repeated from the two infinities. See Latin examples in
the notes of Arntzenius on Mamertin. Geneth. 8, p. 27;
Pang. Vett. t. i.

[167] The Messenger retires to dress for the Herald's
part.

Horace's rule, "Nec quarta loqui persona laboret," seems
to have been drawn from the practice of the Greek stage.
Only three actors were allowed to each of the
competitor-dramatists, and these were assigned to them by
lot. (Hesychius, [Greek: Nemesis hypokriton].) Thus, for
instance, as is remarked by a writer in the Quarterly
Review, in the OEdipus at Colonus, v. 509, Ismene goes
to offer sacrifice, and, after about forty lines, returns
in the character of Theseus. Soon afterward, v. 847,
Antigone is carried off by Creon's attendants, and returns
as Theseus after about the same interval as before.--OLD
TRANSLATION. The translator had misquoted the gloss of
Hesychius.

[168] This is the tragic account. See Soph. Antig. 170,
sqq.; Eurip. Phaen. 757, sqq. But other authors mention
descendants of both.

[169] Another pun on [Greek: Polyneikes].

[170] Cf. Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, sec. 3:

"I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins."

[171] This passage is confessedly corrupt. Paley seems to
have rightly restored [Greek: astolon] from the [Greek:
astolon theorida] in Robertelli's edition. This ship, as
he remarks, would truly be [Greek: astolos], in opposition
to the one sent to Delphi, which was properly said [Greek:
stellesthai epi theorian]. The words [Greek: astibe
Apolloni] confirm this opinion. In regard to the allusions,
see Stanley and Blomfield, also Wyttenbach on Plato
Phaedon. sub. init.

[172] This repetition of [Greek: di' hon] is not altogether
otiose. Their contention for estate was the cause both of
their being [Greek: ainomoroi] and of the [Greek: neikos]
that ensued.

[173] _I.e._ the sword. Cf. v. 885.

[174] This epithet applied to their ancestral tombs
doubtless alludes to the violent deaths of Laius and
OEdipus.

[175] On the enallage [Greek: somati] for [Greek: somasi]
see Griffiths. The poet means to say that this will be all
their possession after death. Still Blomfield's reading,
[Greek: chomati], seems more elegant and satisfactory.

[176] Pauw remarks that Polynices is the chief subject of
Antigone's mourning, while Ismene bewails Eteocles. This
may illustrate much of the following dialogue, as well as
explain whence Sophocles derived his master-piece of
character, the Theban martyr-heroine, Antigone.

[177] Throughout this scene I have followed Dindorf's
text, although many improvements have been made in the
disposition of the dramatis personae. Every one will
confess that the length of [Greek: io io] commonplaces in
this scene would be much against the play, but for the
animated conclusion, a conclusion, however, that must lose
all its finest interest to the reader who is unacquainted
with the Antigone of Sophocles!

[178] Wellauer (not Scholfield, as Griffiths says) defends
the common reading from Herodot. V. 49.

[179] [Greek: trachyne] But T. Burgess' emendation [Greek:
trachys ge] seems better, and is approved by Blomfield.

[180] Soph. Ant. 44. [Greek: e gar noeis thaptein sph'
aporreton polei].

[181] I have taken Griffiths' translation of what Dindorf
rightly calls "lectio vitiosa," and of stuff that no sane
person can believe came from the hand of AEschylus. Paley,
who has often seen the truth where all others have failed,
ingeniously supposes that [Greek: ou] is a mistaken
insertion, and, omitting it, takes [Greek: diatetimetai]
in this sense: "_jam hic non amplius a diis honoratur;
ergo ego eum honorabo._" See his highly satisfactory note,
to which I will only add that the reasoning of the
Antigone of Sophocles, vss. 515, sqq. gives ample
confirmation to his view of this passage.

[182] Blomfield would either omit this verse, or assign it
to the chorus.

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