Chapter XVI: Part 16

CHORUS. This Chorus, SCHNEIDER remarks, naturally divides itself into four, or, as I think, rather into five distinct parts, (1) The Chorus enter the stage in great hurry and agitation, indicated by the Dochmiac verse--σποράδην, according to the analogy of the Eumenides--(see the βιος Αισχύλου)--in scattered array, and, perhaps in the person of their Coryphæus, describe generally the arrival of the Theban host, and their march against the walls of Thebes. (2) But as the agitation increases, continuity of description becomes impossible, and a series of broken and irregular exclamations and invocations by individual voices follows. (3) Then a more regular prayer, or the chaunting of the Theban litany begins, in which we must suppose the whole band to join. (4) This is interrupted, however, by the near terror of the assault, and the chaunt is again broken into hurried exclamations of individual voices. (5) The litany is then wound up by the whole band. Of course no absolute external proof of matters of this kind can be offered; but the internal evidence is sufficiently strong to warrant the translator in marking the peculiar character of the Chorus in some such manner as I have done. For dramatic effect, this is of the utmost consequence. Nothing has more hurt the dramatic character of Æschylus, than the practice of throwing into the form of a continuous ode what was written for a series of well-arranged individual voices. Whoever he was among more recent scholars that first analyzed the Choruses with a special view to separate the exclamatory parts from the continuous chaunt deserves my best thanks.--See Note 19 to the EUMENIDES, p. 377.

Note 6 (p. 265). "With clattering hoofs, on and on still they ride."

πεδιοπλόκτυπος. Before this word, another epithet ελεδεμνας occurs, which the intelligent scholar will readily excuse me for having omitted altogether.

Note 7 (p. 265). ". . . the white-shielded host."

The epithet λεύκασπις seems characteristic of the Argive host in the Bœotian legend. SOPHOCLES, in the beautiful opening Chorus of the _Antigone_, and EURIPIDES in the _Phœnissæ_, has it. Such traits were of course adopted by the tragedians from the old local legends always with conscientious fidelity. STAN. refers it to the general white or shining aspect of the shields of the common soldiers, distinguished by no various-coloured blazonry; which may be the true explanation.

Note 8 (p. 265). "With chaplet and stole."

In modern times, the mightiest monarchs have not thought it beneath their dignity to present, and sometimes, even, to work a petticoat to the Virgin Mary. In ancient times, the presentation of a πέπλος to the maiden goddess of Athens was no less famous--

"Take the largest and the finest robe that in thy chamber lies--
Take the robe to thee so dear, and place it duly on the knees
Of the beautiful-haired Athena."--IL. VI. 273.

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VIRGIL has not forgotten this--_Æneid_ I. 480. The _peplos_ was a large upper dress, often reaching to the feet. YATES, in the _Dict. Antiq._, translates it "shawl," which may be the most accurate word, but, from its modern associations, of course, unsuitable for poetry.--See the article.

Note 9 (p. 265). "O Ares, that shines in the helmet of gold."

Mars was one of the native ὲπιχώριοι gods of Thebes, as the old legend of the dragon and the sown-teeth sufficiently testifies. The dragon was the offspring of Mars; and the fountain which it guarded, when it was slain by the Phœnician wanderer, was sacred to that god. APOLLODOR. III. 4; UNGER. _de fonte Aret_. p. 103.

Note 10 (p. 266) "And their steeds with ringing bridles."

Bells were often used on the harness of horses, and on different parts of the armour, to increase the war-alarm--the κλαγγή τε ἐνοπή τε (Il. III. 2), which is so essential a part of the instinct of assault. See the description of Tydeus below, and Dict. Antiq. _tintinnabulum_, where is represented a fragment of ancient sculpture, showing the manner in which bells were attached to the collars of war-horses. Dio Cassius (Lib. LXXVI. 12) mentions that "the arms of the Britons are a shield and short spear, in the upper part whereof is an apple of brass, which, being shaken, terrifies the enemy with the sound." Compare κωδωνο, φαλαραπωλους. _Aristoph. Ran._ 963.

Note 11 (p. 266). "God of pawing steeds, Poseidon."

Neptune is called equestrian or ἱππίος, no doubt, from the analogy of the swift waves, over which his car rides, to the fleet ambling of horses. In the mythical contest with Pallas, accordingly, while the Athenian maid produces the olive tree, the god of waves sends forth a war-horse.

Note 12 (p. 266). "Save us, Cypris, mother of Thebans."

"Harmonia, whom Cadmus married, was the daughter of Mars and Aphrodite."--SCHOLIAST.

Note 13 (p. 266). "Save us, save us, Wolf-Apollo."

Here is one of those pious puns upon the epithets of the gods, which were alluded to in Note 1 above. With regard to this epithet of Apollo, who, in the Electra of SOPHOCLES, v. 6, is called distinctly _wolf-slayer_ (λυκοκτόνος), there seems to me little doubt that the Scholiast on that passage is right in referring this function to Apollo, as the god of a pastoral people (νὸμιος). PASSOW (_Dict. in voce_), compare _Pausan_. (Cor. II. 19).

Note 14 (p. 267). "O Onca, blest Onca."

Onca, says the Scholiast, was a name of Athena, a Phœnician epithet, brought by Cadmus from his native country. The Oncan gate was the same as the Ogygian gate of Thebes mentioned by other writers, and the most ancient of all the seven.--UNGER. p. 267; Pausan. IX. 8.

Note 15 (p. 267). "The seven-gated city deliver, deliver."

The current traditional epithet of Thebes, whose seven gates were as famous as the seven mouths of the Nile--

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"Rari quippe boni: numerus vix est totidem quot
Thebarum portæ vel divitis ostia Nili."--JUV. Sat. XIII. 26.

And _Homer_, in the Odyssey XI. 263, talks of--

"Amphion and Zethus,
First who founded and uptowered the seat of seven-gated Thebes."

These may suffice from a whole host of citations in UNGER. Vol. I. p. 254-6, and Pausan. IX. 8. 3.

Note 16 (p. 267). ". . . a foreign-speaking foe!"

This appears strange, as both besieged and besiegers were Greeks, differing no more in dialect than the Prussians and the Austrians, or we Scotch from our English neighbours. I agree with E. P. that it is better not to be over-curious in such matters, and that Butler is right when he says that ἐτερόφωνος is only _paullo gravius dictum ad miserationem_--that is, only a little tragic exaggeration for _hostile_ or _foreign_.

Note 17 (p. 268). ". . . the painted gods upon the prow."

The general practice was, that the tutelary gods were on the poop, and only the figure-head on the prow (Dict. Antiq., _Ships_ and _Insigne_), but, as there was nothing to prevent the figure-head being itself a god, the case alluded to by Æschylus might often occur.--See the long note in STAN.

Note 18 (p 268). "Who knows not That, when a city falls, they pass to the Victor"

The Roman custom of evoking the gods of a conquered city to come out of the subject shrines, and take up their dwelling with the conqueror, is well known. In LIVY, V. 21, there is a remarkable instance of this in the case of Veii--"Tuo ductu," says CAMILLUS, "Pythice Apollo, tuoque numine instinctus pergo ad delendam urbem Veios: tibique hinc decumam partem prædæ voveo. Te simul, JUNO REGINA, quæ nunc Veios colis, precor ut nos victores in nostram tuamque mox futuram urbem sequare; ubi te dignum amplitudine tua templum accipiat."

Note 19 (p. 269). "For blood of mortals is the common food."

I read φόνῳ, not φόβῳ, principally for the sake of the sentiment, as the other idea which φοβῳ gives, has been already expressed. Certainly WELL. is too positive in saying that φόβῳ is "_prorsus necessarium_." Both readings give an equally appropriate sense: that in the text, which POT. also gives; or this other--

"Your fear but heaps the fuel of hot war
I' the hearts o' the foe."

Note 20 (p. 270). "Dirce and Ismenus' sacred stream."

These were waters in Theban legend no less famous than INACHUS and ERASINUS in that of Argos. The waters of Dirce, in particular, were famous for their clearness and pleasantness to drink. "Dirce, flowing with a pure and sweet stream," says AELIAN, _Var. Hist._ XII. 57, quoted by UNGER. p. 187, and Æschylus in the Chorus immediately following, equals its praise to that of the Nile, sung so magnificently in the Suppliants."

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Note 21 (p. 271). "From Poseidon earth-embracing, And from Tethys' winding sons."

Γαιήοχος--the "_Earth-holder_" or "_Earth-embracer_," is a designation of Poseidon, stamped to the Greek ear with the familiar authority of Homer. According to Hesiod, and the Greek mythology generally, the fountains were the sons of Ocean either directly or indirectly, through the rivers, who owned the same fatherhood. Tethys is the primeval Amphitrite.--See Note 13 to Prometheus, p. 390 above.

Note 22 (p. 273). ". . . at the Prœtian portal Tydeus stands."

"A gate of doubtful parentage, from which the road went out from Thebes direct to Chalcis in Eubœa."--UNGER. p. 297. "Here, by the wayside, was the tomb of Melanippus, the champion of this gate, who slew his adversary Tydeus."--PAUSAN. IX. 8. This Tydeus is the father of Diomedes, whose exploits against men and gods are so nobly sung in Iliad V. From the frequency of the words βοᾶν, βοὴν, βρέμειν, etc. in this fine description, one might almost think that Æschylus had wished to paint the father after the Homeric likeness of the son, who, like Menelaus, was βοὴν ἀγαθός. In the heroic ages, a pair of brazen lungs was not the least useful accomplishment of a warrior. The great fame of the father of Diomedes as a warrior appears strikingly from that passage of the Iliad (IV. 370), where Agamemnon uses it as a strong goad to prick the valorous purpose of the son.

Note 23 (p. 273). ". . . the wise Oiclidan seer."

"Amphiaraus, the son of Oicles, being a prophet, and foreseeing that all who should join in the expedition against Thebes would perish, refused to go himself, and dissuaded others. Polynices, however, coming to Iphis, the son of Alector, inquired how Amphiaraus might be forced to join the expedition, and was told that this would take place if his wife Eriphyle should obtain the necklace of Harmonia. This, accordingly, Polynices gave her, she receiving the gift in the face of an interdict in that matter laid on her by her husband. Induced by this bribe, she persuaded her husband to march against his will, he having beforehand promised to refer any matter in dispute between him and Adrastus to the decision of his wife.--APOLLODOR. III. 6; Confr. Hor. III. 16, 11.

Note 24 (p. 273). "The brazen bells ring fear."

A Scottish knight, in an old ballad, has these warlike bells on his horse's mane--

"At ilk tail o' his horse's mane,
There hung a siller bell:
The wind was loud, the steed was proud,
And they gied a sindry knell."--YOUNG WATERS.

And one of SOUTHEY's Mexican heroes has them on his helmet--

"Bells of gold
Embossed his glittering helmet, and where'er
Their sound was heard, there lay the press of war,
And Death was busiest there."--MADOC. II. 18.

Note 25 (p. 274). "His race from those whom Ares spared he draws."

That is to say, he belonged to one of the oldest originally Theban families--was one of the children of the soil, sprung from the teeth of the {421} old Theban dragon, which Cadmus, by the advice of Athena, sowed in the Earth; and from that act, the old race of Thebans were called σπαρτόι, or the _Sown_. See STAN.'s note.

Note 26 (p. 274). "Proud Capaneus before the Electran gate."

This gate was so called from Electra, the sister of Cadmus. _Pausan_. IX. 8-3. And was the gate which led to Platæa and Athens. _Unger_. p. 274.

Note 27 (p. 275). ". . . The third lot to Eteocles Leapt from the upturned brazen helm."

The custom of using the helmet, for the _situla_ or urn, when lots were taken in war, must have been noted by the most superficial student of Homer. STAN. has collected many instances, of which one may suffice--

"Quickly, in the brazen helm, we shake the lot; and first of all,
Of Eurylochus, mighty-hearted, leapt the lot."--ODYSSEY X. 206.

Note 28 (p. 275). "At the Netaean gate."

So called from Neis, a son of Zethus, the brother of Amphion. _Pausan_. IX. 8; _Unger_. p. 313.

Note 29 (p. 276). "Black smoke, the volumed sister of the flame."

Just as Homer, in a familiar passage, calls "sleep the mother of death" (Il. XIV. 231), adopted by SHELLEY in the exquisite exordium of Queen Mab--

"How beautiful is Death,
Death and his brother Sleep!"

MITCHELL, in a note on the metaphors of Æschylus (Aristoph. Ran. 871), mentions this as being one of those tropes, where the high-vaulting tragedian has jerked himself over from the sublime into the closely-bordering territory of the ridiculous; but neither here nor in διαδρομᾶν (ο)μαίμονες, which he quarrels with, is there anything offensive to the laws of good taste. It sounds, indeed, a little queer to translate literally, _Rapine near akin to running hither and thither_; but, as a matter of plain fact, it is true that, when in the confusion of the taking of a city, men run hither and thither, rapine is the result. In my version, _Plunder, daughter of Confusion_ (p. 272 above), expresses the idea intelligibly enough, I hope, to an English ear.

Note 30 (p. 276). "Round its hollow belly was embossed A ring of knotted snakes."

The old Argolic shield, round as the sun--

"Argolici clypei aut Phœbæœ lampadis instar."

See Dict. Antiq. _Clypeus_. The kind described in the text finds its modern counterpart in those hollow Burmese shields often found in our museums, only larger.

Note 31 (p. 276). ". . . by the god of war Indwelt."

ἔνθεος δ᾽ Αρει, literally, "ingodded by Mars," or having the god of war dwelling in him. This phrase shows the meaning of that reproach cast by the Pharisees in the teeth of Christ--ἔχει δαιμόνιον--_he hath a devil_, or, as the Greeks would have said, _a god--i.e._ he is possessed by a moral power {422} so far removed from the common, that we must attribute it to the indwelling might of a god or devil.

Note 32 (p. 276). ". . . a hostile pair Well matched by Hermes."

The Greeks ascribed to Hermes every thing that they met with on the road, and every thing accidentally found, and whatever happens by chance--and so two adversaries well matched in battle were said to have been brought together by the happy contrivance of that god."--SCHOL.; and see Note 59 to the Eumenides, p. 386.

Note 33 (p. 278). "The sixth a sober man, a seer of might, Before the Homoloidian gate stands forth."

_i.e._ AMPHIARAUS--see above, Note 23, p. 420. Homer (Odys. XV. 244) speaks of him as beloved by Jove and Apollo. The Homoloidian gates were so called either from mount Homole in Thessaly (Pausan. IX. 8), or from Homolois, a daughter of Niobe and Amphion.--UNGER. p. 324.

Note 34 (p. 278). "With bitter taunts his evil-omened name, Making it spell his ugly sin that owns it."

The name Polynices means literally _much strife_; and there can be no question that the prophet in this place is described as taunting the Son of Oedipus with the evil omen of his name after the fashion so familiar with the Greek writers. See _Prometheus_, Note 8, p. 388. The text, however, is in more places than one extremely corrupt; and, in present circumstances, I quite agree with WELL. and LIN. that we are not warranted in introducing the conjectural reading of ὄμμα for ὄνομα, though there can be no question that the reading ὄμμα admits of a sufficiently appropriate sense.--See DUNBAR, _Class. Museum_, No. XII. p. 206.

Note 35 (p. 278). "The wise man is what fools but seem to be."

"When this tragedy was first acted, ARISTIDES, surnamed the JUST, was present. At the declamation of these words--

ὀυ γὰρ δοκ(ε)ιν ἄριστος ἀλλ᾽ (ἐ)ίναι θέλει,

the whole audience, by an instantaneous instinct, directed their eyes to him."--PLUTARCH, _Apoth. Reg. et duc._ SALLUST describes Cato in the same language--"_Esse quam videri bonus malebat._"--STAN.

Note 36 (p. 280). "O god-detested! god-bemadded race!"

In modern theological language we are not accustomed to impute mental infatuation, insanity, or desperate impulses of any kind to the Supreme Being; but in the olden time such language as that of the text was familiarly in the mouth of Jew and Gentile. "_The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart_," is a sentence which we all remember, perhaps with a strange sensation of mysterious terror, from our juvenile lessons; and "_quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat_," is a common maxim in our mouths, though we scarcely half believe it. In Homer and the tragedians instances of this kind occur everywhere; and in the Persians of our author the gods are addressed in a style of the most unmitigated accusation. In such cases, modern translators are often inclined {423} to soften down the apparent impiety of the expression into some polite modern generality; but I have scrupulously retained the original phraseology. I leave it to the intelligent reader to work out the philosophy of this matter for himself.

Note 37 (p. 281). ". . . the god will have it so."

This is one of the cases so frequent in the ancient poets (Note 76 to Choephoræ, p. 372) where θεός is used in the singular without the article. In the present case the translators seem agreed in supplying the definite particle, as Phœbus, mentioned in the next line, may naturally be understood. In modern language, where a man is urged on to his destruction by a violent unreasoning passion, reference is generally made to an overruling decree or destiny, rather than directly to the author of all destiny. "But my ill-fate pushed me on with an obstinacy that nothing could resist; and, though I had several times loud calls from my reason and my more composed judgment to go home, yet I had no power to do it. _I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret overruling decree that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush upon as with our eyes open_. Certainly nothing but some such decreed unavoidable misery attending, and which it was impossible for me to escape, could have pushed me forward against the calm reasonings and persuasions of my most retired thoughts."--_Robinson Crusoe_. On this subject see my _Homeric Theology_. _Class. Mus._ No. XXVI. Propositions 5, 12, and 18 compared.

Note 38 (p. 281). "Death is thy only gain, and death to-day Is better than to-morrow!"

λέγουσα κέρδος πρότερον ὑστερου μόρου--_mentioning to me an advantage_ (viz., in my dying now) _preferable to a death at a later period;_ as his good genius might have whispered to Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo. In translating thus a confessedly difficult passage I have WELCKER (Trilog. 363), BUTLER, BLOM., and SCHÜTZ., and E. P. Oxon., on my side, also the simple comment of Scholiast II.--κερδ(ο)ς, _i.e._ τὸ νῦν τεθνᾶναι πρότερον, _i.e._ τιμιώτερον. LIN. agreeing with WELL. translates "urging the glory of the victory which precedes the death which follows after it." CONZ. is singular, and certainly not to be imitated in translating with Schol. I.--

"_Wer der erste tödlet gewinnt den Sieg._"
"He who inflicts the first lethal blow gains the victory."

POT. has not grappled with the passage. If LIN.'s interpretation be preferred, I should render--

"Beside me sits
The Fury with dry tearless eye, and points to
One glimpse of glory heralding black death."

or--

"The glorious gain that shall precede the death."

It will be observed that if πρότερον be taken in the sense of τιμιώτερον, with the Scholiast, and το νῦν τεθναναι understood to κέρδος, Wellauer's objection falls that μαλλον or μειζον must be understood to render the rendering in my text admissible.

Note 39 (p. 282). ". . . goddess most ungodlike."

I have remarked, in a Note above, that the Greeks, so far from having any objection to the idea that the gods were the authors of evil, rather {424} encouraged it; and accordingly, in their theology, they had no need for a devil or devils in any shape. This truth, however, must be received with the qualification, arising from the general preponderating character of the Greek deities, which was unquestionably benign, and coloured more from the sunshine than the cloud; in reference to which general character, it might well be said that certain deities, whose function was purely to induce misery, were ὀυ θεοῖς ὅμοιοι--_nothing like the gods_.

Note 40 (p. 282). "O son of Scythia, must we ask thine aid? Chalybian stranger thine."

We see here how loosely the ancients used Certain geographical terms, and especially this word SCYTHIA; for the CHALYBES or CHALDAEI, as they were afterwards called, were a people of PONTUS. Their country produced, in the most ancient times, silver also; but, in the days of Strabo, iron only.--STRABO, Lib. XII. p. 549.

Note. 41 (p. 284). ". . . for sorry tendance wrathful."

I read ἐπίκοτος τροφᾶς with HEATH., BLOM., and PAL. For the common reading, ἐπικότους τροφάς, WELL., with his usual conservative ingenuity, finds a sort of meaning; but the change which the new reading requires is very slight, and gives a much more obvious sense; besides that it enables us to understand the allusion to Æschylus in Schol. Oedip. Col. 1375.--See Introductory Remarks, WELCKER's _Trilogie_, p. 358, and PAL.'s Note.

Note 42 (p. 284). ". . . (for still in four and three The god delights)."

These words are a sort of comment on the epithet ἑβδομαγέτας given to Apollo in the text, of which PAPE, in his Dictionary, gives the following account: "Surname of Apollo, because sacrifice was offered to him on the seventh day of every month, or as LOBECK says (Aglaoph. p. 434), because seven boys and seven girls led the procession at his feasts.--Herod. VI. 57. The ancients were not agreed in the interpretation of this epithet." It is not _necessary_, however, I must admit with SCHNEIDER, to suppose any reference to this religious arithmetic here. Phœbus receives the seventh gate, because, as the prophet of the doom, it was his special business to see it fulfilled; and this he could do only there, where the devoted heads of Eteocles and Polynices stood.

Note 43 (P. 285). "And I for plaints no less than pæans bring thee."

I see no sufficient case made out for giving these words from τοιᾶυτα down to φορουμενοι to the Chorus. The Messenger, surely, may be allowed his moral reflections without stint in the first place, as the Chorus is to enlarge on the same theme in the chaunt which immediately follows. It strikes me also, that the tone of the passage is not sufficiently passionate for the Chorus.

Note 44 (p. 289). "Ay, drenched in gore, in brothered gore."

In the old editions, and in POT. and GLASG. these words are given to Ismene; but never was a scenic change made with greater propriety than that of BRUNCK, when he continued these speeches down to the end of Antistrophe IV. to the Chorus. Nothing could be more unnatural than that the {425} afflicted sisters, under such a load of woe, should open their mouths with long speeches--long, assuredly, in comparison of what they afterwards say. They are properly silent, till the Chorus has finished the wail; and then they speak only in short exclamations--articulated sobs--nothing more. For the same reason, deserting WELL., I have given the repeated burden Ἰὼ Μοιρα, etc. to the Chorus. The principal mourners in this dirge should sing only in short and broken cries.

Note 45 (p. 290). "Moera, baneful gifts dispensing."

The word μοῖρα originally means _lot, portion, part, that which is dealt or divided out to one_. In this sense it occurs frequently in Homer, and is there regarded as proceeding from the gods, and specially from Jove. But with an inconsistency natural enough in popular poetry, we sometimes find μοῖρα in Homer, like ἀτη, elevated to the rank of a separate divine personage. "Not I," says Agamemnon, in the Iliad (XIX. 86), "was to blame for the quarrel with Achilles,

_But_ JOVE _and_ MOERA _and the_ FURY, _walking through the darkness
dread_."

The three Fates, CLOTHO, LACHESIS, and ATROPOS, like the three FURIES, were a post-Homeric birth. We thus see how, under the influence of the Polytheistic system, new gods were continually created from what were originally mere functions of the divine mind, or results of the divine activity.

Note 46 (p. 292). "Due burial in its friendly bosom."

θάπτειν ἔδοξε γῆς φιλαις κατασκφαῖς. The words here used seem to imply interment in the modern fashion, without burning, but they may also refer to the depositing of the urns in subterranean chambers. Ancient remains, as well as the testimony of classical authors, prove that both practices existed among the ancients, though cremation was latterly the more common. The reader will be instructed by the following extract on this subject from Dr. Smith's admirable Dictionary of Antiquities, article _Funus_: "The body was either buried or burnt. Lucian, _de luctu_, says that the Greeks burn, and the Persians bury, their dead; but modern writers are greatly divided in opinion as to which was the usual practice. Wachsmuth (_Hell. Alt._ II. 2, p. 79) says that, in historical times, the dead were always buried; but this statement is not strictly correct. Thus we find that Socrates (Plut. Phædon) speaks of his body being either burnt or buried; the body of Timoleon was burnt; and so was that of Philopæmon (Plutarch). The word θάπτειν is used in connection with either mode; it is applied to the collection of the ashes after burning; and accordingly we find the words κάιειν and θάπτειν used together (Dionys. Archæolog. Rom. V. 48). The proper expression for interment in the earth is κατορύττειν; whereas we find Socrates speaking of το σῶμα η καόμενον, ἠ κατορυττόμενον. In Homer, the bodies of the dead are burnt; but interment was also used in very ancient times. Cicero (_de leg._ II. 25) says that the dead were buried at Athens in the time of Cecrops; and we also read of the bones of Orestes being found in a coffin at Tegea (Herod. I. 68). The dead were commonly buried among the Spartans (Plut. Lycurg. 27) and the Sicyonians (Paus. II. 7); and the prevalence of this practice is proved by the great number of skeletons found in coffins in modern times, which have evidently not been exposed to the action of fire. Both burning and burying appear to have been always used, to a greater or less extent, at different periods; till the spread of Christianity at length put an end to the former practice."

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Note 47 (p. 293). "Mighty Furies that triumphant Ride on ruin's baleful wings."

I have here, by a paraphrase, endeavoured to express the remarkably pregnant expression of the original κῆρες Εριννύες--combining, as it does, in grammatical apposition, two terrible divine powers, that the ancient poets generally keep separate. The κῆρες, or goddesses of destruction and violent death, occur frequently in Homer. Strictly speaking, they represent only one of the methods by which the retributive Furies may operate; but, in a loose way of talking, they are sometimes identified with them. Schoemann, in a note to the Eumenides, p. 62, has quoted to this effect, Hesiod v. 217, and Eurip. Elect, v. 1252:--

"The terrible Kerés, blushless persecutors,
Will chase thee wandering frenzied o'er the earth."

NOTES TO THE PERSIANS

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Note 1 (p. 301). "Forth they went with arrow and bow."

The bow was as characteristic of Persian as the spear of Hellenic warfare; and, accordingly, they are contrasted below, p. 305. The Persian Darics bore the figure of an archer. DICT. ANTIQ _voci_ DARIC. "The army of Xerxes, generally," says GROTE, "was armed with missile weapons, and light shields, or no shield at all; not properly equipped either for fighting in regular order, or for resisting the line of spears and shields which the Grecian heavy-armed infantry brought to bear upon them."--Vol. V. p. 43. This was seen with striking evidence when an engagement took place on confined ground as at Thermopylæ, Do. p. 117.

Note 2 (p. 302). ". . . golden Sardes."

So Creon, in the Antigone of Sophocles, in wrathful suspicion that Tiresias is in conspiracy to prophesy against him for filthy lucre, is made to exclaim (v. 1037)--

"Traffic as ye will
In the amber-ore that opulent Sardes sends,
And Indian gold."

So also, "golden Babylon," below; which will recall to the Christian reader the famous words, "Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased, the golden city ceased!"--Isaiah xiv. 4. In the same way XERXES is called "the god-like son of a golden race," in the choral hymn which immediately follows the present introductory chaunt. SOUTHEY, the most learned of our poets, has not forgotten this orientalism when he says--

"Hark! at the golden palaces
The Brahmin strikes the hour."
--CURSE OF KEHAMA V.

where see the note.

Note 3 (p. 302). "The well-poised dart."

The Mysians had on their heads a peculiar sort of helmet belonging to the country, small shields, and javelins burnt at the point.--HERODOT. VII. 74.--STAN.

Note 4 (p. 302). "The Asian tribes that wear the sword."

The μάχαιρα here is the _acinaces_, or short scimitar, of which the fashion may be seen in the _Dict. Antiq._ under that word.

Note 5 (p. 303). "Shepherd of many sheep."

A phraseology inherited from the times when "Mesha, king of Moab, was a _sheepmaster_, and rendered unto the king of Israel 100,000 lambs, and 100,000 rams, with the wool."--2 Kings iii. 4. So Agamemnon, in Homer (Od. III. 156), is called ποιμήν λάων--the shepherd of the people. See above, p. 413, Note 48.

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Note 6 (p. 304). "But, when the gods deceive."

The sudden change of tone here from unlimited confidence in the strength of their own armament, to a pious doubt arising from the consideration that the gods often disappoint "the best laid schemes of men and mice," and that "the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong"; this is at once extremely characteristic of ancient Hellenic piety (see the Note on ὕβρις, p. 348), and serves here the dramatic purpose of making the over-weening pride of Xerxes, by contrast, appear more sinful. With regard to the style of religious conception here, and the general doctrine that the gods deceive mortal men, especially at moments of extraordinary prosperity and on the point of some sudden reversal, the student will read GROTE's Greece, Vol. V. p. 13.

Note 7 (p. 306). "Let us fall down before her with humble prostration."

This very humble way of expressing respect was quite oriental, and altogether abhorrent to the feelings of the erect Greek, boasting of his liberty. The reader of history may call to mind how this was one of the points of oriental court state, the mooting of which in his later years caused a breach between Alexander the Great and his captains. For references, see STAN.

Note 8 (p. 307). "And dipped my hands in the fair-flowing fount."

This purification, as STAN. has noted, was customary among the ancients, after an ill-omened dream. He quotes ARISTOPHANES, Ran. 1338.

"But come, attendants, light a lamp
And take a pail, and from the stream
Water bring, and warm it well,
To wash away the god-sent dream"--

and other passages.

Note 9 (p. 307). "I saw an eagle flying to the altar."

The sight in reality, or in vision, of one bird plucking another under various modifications, was familiar to the ancient divination, as the natural expression of conquest and subjugation. So in the Odyssey shortly before the opening of the catastrophe--

"Thus as he spake, on his right hand a bird of omen flew,
A hawk, Apollo's messenger swift, and held within its claws
A pigeon, which it rudely plucked, and scattered on the ground
Its feathery plumes, between the skies and where Telemachus
stood."--XV. 525.

In such matters, the ancients did not strain after originality, as a modern would do, but held closely by the most natural, obvious, and most significant types.

Note 10 (p. 308). "Where, O friends, is famous Athens on the broad face of the earth?"

Here commences a series of questions with regard to Attic geography, topography, and statistics, which to the most inexperienced reader will appear to come in here not in the most natural way. That the mother of Xerxes should have actually been so ignorant of the state of Athens, as she is here dramatically represented, seems scarcely supposable. But that she {429} and the mighty persons of the East generally were grossly ignorant of, and greatly underrated the resources of the small state that was rising in the West, is plain, both from the general habit of the oriental mind, and from what Herodotus (V. 105, quoted by PAL.) narrates of Darius, that, when he heard of the burning of Sardes by the Athenians and the Ionians, he asked "_who the Athenians were_." On this foundation, a dramatic poet, willing "to pay a pleasant compliment to Athenian vanity" (BUCK.), might well erect such a series of interrogatories as we have in the text, though it may be doubted whether he has done it with that tact which a more perfect master of the dramatic art--Shakespere, for instance--would have displayed. There are not a few other passages in the Greek drama where this formal style of questioning _ab ovo_ assumes somewhat of a ludicrous aspect.

Note 11 (p. 309). "Slaves are they to no man living, subject to no earthly name."

As in the quickness of their spirits, the sharpness of their wits, and their love of glory, so particularly in the forward boast of freedom, the ancient Hellenes were very like the modern French. 'Twere a curious parallel to carry out; and that other one also, which would prove even more fertile in curious results, between the ancient Romans and the modern English.

Note 12 (p. 310). "The sundered planks, and the drifted dead."

I do not think there can be any doubt as to the meaning of the original here, πλαγκτοῖς (ε)ν διπλάκεσσιν--_among the wandering planks_--δίπλαξ can mean nothing but a double or very strong plank, plate, or (if applied to a dress, as in HOMER) _fold_. There is no need of supposing any "clinging to the planks," as LIN., following BUTLER, does. Nevertheless, I have given, likewise, in my translation, the full force of BLOM.'s idea that δίπλαξ means the _ebb and flow of the sea_. This, indeed, lies already in φέρεσθαι. CONZ. agrees with my version. "_Wie treiben stürmend umher sie die Planken!_"

Note 13 (p. 311). ". . . There Amestris."

PAL. asserts confidently that the three following verses are corrupt. One of them sins against Porson's canon of the Cretic ending, and (what is of much more consequence) connects the name of Ariomardus with Sardes, which we found above (p. 302), connected with Thebes. For the sake of consistency, I have taken PORSON's hint, and introduced Metragathus here, from v. 43.

Note 14 (p. 312). ". . . Pallas saves her city."

The apportionment of the last clause of this, and the whole of the following lines, I give according to WELL. and PAL., which BUCK. also approves in his note. The translation, in such a case, is its own best vindication.

Note 15 (p. 312). "There came a Greek."

The sending of this person was a device of Themistocles, to hasten on a battle, and keep the Greeks from quarrelling amongst themselves. The person sent was Sicinnus his slave, "seemingly an Asiatic Greek, who understood Persian, and had perhaps been sold during the late Ionic revolt, {430} but whose superior qualities are marked by the fact, that he had the care and teaching of the children of his master."--GROTE.

Note 16 (p. 312). "And darkness filled the temple of the sky."

The word τέμενος, says Passow, in the post-Homeric writers of the classical age was used almost exclusively in reference to sacred, or, as we should say, consecrated property. I do not think, therefore, that LIN. does full justice to this word when he translates it merely "the _region of the air_"; as little can I be content with CONZ.'s "_Hallen_." DROYSEN preserves the religious association to well-instructed readers, by using the word _Hain_; but surely _temple_ is better in the present connection and to a modern ear. Lucretius (Lib. I. near the end) has "_Coeli tonitralia templa._"

Note 17 (p. 314). ". . . dance-loving Pan."

PAN, "the simple shepherd's awe-inspiring god" (Wordsworth, Exc. IV.), was in the mind of the Athenians intimately associated with the glory of the Persian wars, and regarded as one of their chief patrons at Marathon (Herod. VI. 105). This god was the natural patron of all wild and solitary places, such as are seldom disturbed by any human foot save that of the Arcadian shepherds, whose imagination first produced this half-solemn half-freakish creation; and in this view no place could be more appropriate to him than "the barren and rocky Psyttaleia" (STRABO, 395). That he was actually worshipped there, we have, besides the present passage of our poet, the express testimony of Pausanias (I. 36)--"What are called Panic terrors were ascribed to Pan; for loud noises whose cause could not be easily traced were not unfrequently heard in mountainous regions; and the gloom and loneliness of forests and mountains fill the mind with a secret horror, and dispose it to superstitious apprehensions."--KEIGHTLEY.

Note 18 (p. 315). ". . . slowly with much hard toil."

The verse in the original--

Θρῄκην περάσαντες μόγις πολλῷ πονῳ

--is remarkable for being divided into two equal halves, in violation of the common cæsuras, the laws of which Porson has pointed out so curiously. Whether there was a special cause for this in the present case--the wish, namely, on the part of the poet to make a harsh line suit a harsh subject, I shall not assert, as the line does not fall particularly harsh on my ear; I have at least done something, by the help of rough consonants and monosyllables, to make my English line come up to the great metrician's idea of the Greek.

Note 19 (p. 317). "By the mute sea-monsters riven."

It needs hardly be mentioned here that the restless state of the dead body in death by drowning, implied, according to the sensuous metaphysics of the vulgar Greeks, an equally restless condition of the soul in Hades. Hence the point of Achilles' wrath against Lycaon, in Iliad XXI. 122--

"Go, and with the fishes lay thee; they shall lick thy bloody wound
With a greedy unconcern; thy mother shall not weep for thee
There, nor dew thy bier with sorrow; but Scamander's whirling flood
To the bosom deep shall bear thee of the broad and briny sea."

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And, in the same book, of another victim of the same inexorable wrath it is said--

"To the eels and to the fishes, occupation meet he gave,
As they gnawed his flesh, and nicely picked the fat from off his
bones."--v. 203.

Note 20 (p. 318). "Of the pale green olive, ever leafy-fair."

I think it right so to translate, because such is actually the colour of the olive; but I must state, at the same time, that the word in the original is ξανθῆς, which has been imitated by Virgil, Æn. V. 309. How the same word should mean both _yellow_ and _green_, I cannot understand. No doubt the light green of many trees, when the leafage first comes out in spring, has a yellowish appearance; but the ever-green olive is always γλαυκός, as Sophocles has it (O. C. 701). What we call _olive-coloured_ is a mixture of green and yellow; does this come from the colour of the fruit or the oil?

Note 21 (p. 318). "The god Darius."

The word δαίμονα here used is that by which both Homer and Æschylus designate the highest celestial beings, from which practice we see what an easy transition there was in the minds of the early Christians to the deification of the martyrs, and the canonization of the saints. Compare Æn. V. v. 47. There is nothing in Popery which is not seated in the deepest roots of human nature.

Note 22 (p. 319). "O Aïdóneus, thy charge release."

_i.e._ Pluto. The reader must not be surprised to see Æschylus putting the names of Greek gods and Greek feelings and ideas generally into the mouths of Persian characters. His excuse lies partly in the fact, that these divine powers and human feelings, though in a Greek form, belonged to the universal heart of man, and partly in the extreme nationality of the old Hellenic culture, which was not apt to go abroad with curiously inquiring eyes into the regions of the barbarian. A national poet, moreover, addressing the masses, must beware of being too learned. Shakespere, in his foreign dramas, though less erudite, is much more effective than Southey in his Epics.

Note 23 (p. 319). "Come, dread lord!"

The word in the original here is βαλὴν, a Phœnician word, the same as _Baal_ and _Belus_, meaning _lord_.--See Gesenius, _voce Baal_. This root appears significantly in some Carthaginian names, as HANNIBAL, HASDRUBAL, etc.

Note 24 (p. 319). "The disc of thy regal tiara showing."

This word belongs as characteristically to the ancient kings of the East, in respect of their head-gear, as the _triregno_ or triple crown, in modern language, belongs to the Pope, and the iron crown to the sovereigns of Lombardy. Accordingly we find Virgil giving it to Priam--

"Sceptrumque sacerque tiaras."--ÆNEID VII. 247.

See further, Dr. Smith's Dict. Antiq. _in voce tiara_, and also φάλαρον, which I translate _disc_. As for the _sandals_, the reader will observe that _saffron_ is a colour, like _purple_, peculiarly regal and luxurious--στολίδα κροκόεσσαν ἀνεῖσα τρυφᾶς.--Eurip. Phœniss. 1491.--_Matth_.

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Note 25 (p. 320). "Why should'st thou die, and leave the land, Thou master of the mighty hand? Why should thy son with foolish venture Shake thy sure Empire to its centre?"

Here I may say with BUCK., "I have given the best sense I can to the text, but nothing is here certain but the uncertainty of the reading." For a translator, δι ἄνοιαν, proposed by BLOM., is convenient enough.

Note 26 (p. 320). "Triremes no more?"

ναες ἄναες (α)ναες--A phraseology of which we have found many instances, and of which the Greeks are very fond. So in Homer, before the fight between Ulysses and Irus, one of the spectators foreseeing the discomfiture of the latter, says--

Ἠ τάχα ῏Ιρος (α)Ιρος ἐπίσπαστον κακον ἔξει
ὁιην ἐκ ρακέων ὁ γέρων ἐπιγουνίδα φαινει.

"Irus soon shall be no Irus, crushed by such dire weight of woes,
Self-incurred; beneath his tatters what a thigh the old man shows!"

Note 27 (p. 322). "But when man to run is eager, swift is the god to add a spur."

This is sound morality and orthodox theology, even at the present hour. _Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat_. Observe here how high Æschylus rises in moral tone above Herodotus, who, in the style that offends us so much in Homer, represents Xerxes, after yielding to the sensible advice of his father's counsellor Artabanus, as urged on to his ruin by a god-sent vision thrice repeated (VII. 12-18). The whole expedition, according to the historian, is as much a matter of divine planning as the death of Hector by Athena's cruel deceit in Iliad XXII. 299. Even Artabanus is carried along by the stream of evil counsel, confessing that δαιμονίη τις γίνεται ὁρμὴ, _there is an impulse from the gods_ in the matter which a man may not resist.--See GROTE.

Note 28 (p. 323). "Converse with the sons of folly taught thy eager son to err."

The original word for _eager_ here is the same as that translated above _impetuous_--θούριος, and had a peculiar significancy to a Greek ear, as being that epithet by which Mars is constantly designated in the Iliad; and this god, as the readers of that poem well know, signifies only the wild, unreasoning hurricane power of battle, as distinguished from the calmly-calculated, surely-guided hostility of the wise Athena. With regard to the matter of fact asserted in this line, it is literally true that the son of Darius was not of himself originally much inclined to the Greek expedition (ὲπὶ μεν τὴν Ἑλλάδα ὀυδαμῶς πρόθυμος ᾖν κατ ἀρχὰς στρατέυεσθαι.--Herod. VII. 5), but, like all weaklings in high places, was wrought upon by others; in this case, specially, by his cousin Mardonius, according to the account of Herodotus.--See GROTE, Vol. V. p. 4.

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Note 29 (p. 323). ". . . First the Mede was king Of the vast host of people."

Two peculiarities in this enumeration of the early Persian kings will strike the reader. _First_, Two of the Median kings--ASTYAGES and CYAXARES, according to the common account, are named before CYRUS the Great, who, as being the first native Persian sovereign, is commonly regarded as the founder of the later Persian empire. _Second_, Between MARDUS (commonly called SMERDIS), and Darius, the father of Xerxes, two intermediate names--contrary to common account--are introduced. I do not believe our historical materials are such as entitle us curiously to scrutinize these matters.

Note 30 (p. 328). "A Maryandine wailer."

The _Maryandini_ were a Bithynian people, near the Greek city of Heraclea, Xenoph. Anab. vi. 2; Strabo xii. p. 542. The peasants in that quarter were famous for singing a rustic wail, which is alluded to in the text. See POLLUX, Lib. iv. περὶ ᾳσμάτων ἐθνικῶν. The _Mysians_ mentioned, p. 331, below, were their next door neighbours; and the Phrygians generally, who in a large sense include the Mysians and Bithynians, were famous for their violent and passionate music, displayed principally in the worship of Cybele. So the Phrygian in Euripides (Orest. 1384) is introduced wailing ἁρμάτειον μέλος βαρβαρῳ βοᾳ. The critics who have considered this last scene of the cantata ridiculous, have not attended either to human nature or to the customs of the Persians, as STAN. quotes them from HEROD. ix. 24, and CURTIUS iii. 12.

Note 31 (p. 328).

_Leader of the Chorus_. I have here adopted LIN.'s view, that the Leader of the Chorus here addresses the whole body; and, for the sake of symmetry, have repeated the couplet in the Antistrophe. No violence is thus done to the meaning of ἐκπεύθου. Another way is, with PAL., to put the line into the mouth of Xerxes--"_Cry out and ask me!_"

Note 32 (p. 331). "Oaring with the oars of woe!"

I have carefully retained the original phraseology here, as being characteristic of the Greek tragedians, perhaps of the maritime propensities of the Athenians. See in SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, p. 286 above, and CHŒOPHORÆ, p. 112, Strophe VII. Euripides, in Iphig. Aul. 131, applies the same verb to the lower extremities, making Agamemnon say to his old servant ερέσσον σὸν πόδα--as if one of our jolly tars should say in his pleasant slang, "_Come along, my boy, put the oars to your old hull, and move off!_"

Note 33 (p. 332). "Sons of Susa, with delicate feet."

I should be most happy for the sake of Æschylus, and my translation, to think there was nothing in the ἁβροβάται. of this passage but the natural expression of grief so simply given in the scriptural narrative, I Kings xxi. 27; and in that stanza of one of Mr. Tennyson's most beautiful poems--

"Full knee-deep lies the wintry snow,
And the winter winds are wearily sighing;
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Toll ye the church bell sad and slow,
And _tread softly_ and speak low,
For the old year lies a-dying."

But there is more in ἁβρός than mere _gentleness_, and to the Greek ear it would no doubt speak of the general luxuriance and effeminacy of the Persian manners. To put such an allusion into the mouth of Xerxes on the present occasion is no doubt in the worst possible taste; but the Greeks were too intensely national in their feelings to take a curious account of such matters.

[End of Notes]

LIST OF EDITIONS, COMMENTARIES, AND TRANSLATIONS USED BY THE TRANSLATOR

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_Editions of the whole Plays._

Aldus: Venet, 1518.

Victorius: ex officina Stephani; 1557.

Foulis: Glasguæ; 1746.

Schütz: 2 vols. Oxon.; 1810.

Butler: Cantab.; 1809-16, ex editione Stanleii; 4 vols. 4to.

Wellauer: cum. Lexico. Lipsiæ; 1823-31.

Scholefield: Cantab.; 1828.

Paley: Cantab.; 1844-47. 2 vols. 8vo.

_Editions of the Separate Plays._

THE AGAMEMNON.

Blomfield: Cantab.; 1822.

Kennedy (with an English version, and Voss, German one). Dublin; 1829.

Klausen: Gothæ et Erfordiæ; 1833.

Peile. London: Murray; 1839.

Connington (with an English poetical version). London; 1848.

Franz: with the Choephoræ and the Eumenides, and a German metrical translation. Leipzig; 1849.

CHOEPHORÆ.

Schwenk: Trajecti ad Rhenum; 1819.

Klausen: Gothæ et Erfordiæ; 1835.

Peile. London: Murray; 1844.

EUMENIDES.

K. O. Müller (with a German translation). Göttingen; 1833: and Anhang; 1834.

Linwood: Oxon.; 1844.

PROMETHEUS.

Bothe: Lipsiæ; 1830.

G. C. W. Schneider. Weimar; 1834.

Schoemann (with a German translation). Greifswald; 1844.

THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.

Blomfield. Cantab.; 1817.

G. C. W. Schneider. Weimar; 1834.

Griffith. Oxford.

THE PERSIANS.

Blomfield. Cantab; 1815.

G. C. W. Schneider. Weimar; 1837.

_Commentaries, Dissertations, Monograms, &c._

Apparatus Criticus et Exegeticus in Æschyli tragædias; continens STANLEII commentarium, ABRESCHII animadersiones, et REISIGII emendationes in Prometheum. 2 vols. 8vo. Halis Saxonum; 1832.

Linwood: lexicon to Æschylus, 2nd edition. London; 1847.

Blümner: Weber die Idee des Schicksals in den Tragoedien des Æschylus. Leipzig; 1814.

Welcker: Die Æschyleische Trilogie. Darmstadt; 1824.

Hermanni Opuscula: 6 vols. 8vo., Latin and German. Leipzig; 1827-35.

Unger: Thebana Paradoxa. Halis; 1839.

Klausen: Theologoumena Æschyli. Berolini; 1829.

Toepelmann: Commentatio de Æschyli Prometheo (with a German translation). Lipsiæ; 1829.

B. G. Weiske: Prometheus und sein Mythenkreis. Leipzig; 1842.

Schoemann: Vindiciæ Jovis Æeschylei. Gryphiswaldiæ; 1846.

_Translations._

Potter: English verse, 4to. Norwich; 1777.

Anon.: English prose (marked in my notes E. P. Oxon), 3rd edition. Oxford; 1840.

Droysen: German verse, 2nd edition. Berlin; 1842.

T. A. Buckley: English prose. London: 1849.

Wilhelm von Humboldt: Agamemnon metrisch übersetzt. Leipzig; 1816.

Symmons: the Agamemnon in English verse. London; 1824.

Harford: the Agamemnon in English verse. London; 1831.

Th. Medwyn: the Agamemnon in English verse. London; 1832.

Sewell: the Agamemnon in English verse. London; 1846.

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Schoemann: die Eumeniden, German verse. Greifswald; 1845.

Th. Medwyn: the Prometheus, in English verse. London; 1832.

Prowett: the Prometheus, in English verse. Cambridge; 1846.

Swayne: the Prometheus, in English verse. London; 1846.

C. P. Conz: die Perser, and die Sieben vor Tüebae. Tübingen; 1817.

FOOTNOTES

FOOTNOTES TO THE PREFACE

[f1] Life, Vol. I. p. 192.

[f2] SOUTHEY requested a Frenchman ambitious of translating his Roderick, to do so in prose, not because he preferred that method in general, but because he believed that "_poetry of the higher order is as impossible in French, as it is in Chinese!_"--Life, Vol. IV. p. 100.

[f3] Life, Vol. III. p. 44.

[f4] SOUTHEY--Preface to _A Vision of Judgment_.

[f5] As for Klopstock's Odes, written mostly in classical metres, Zelter, the Berlin musician, said significantly that, when reading them, _he felt as if he were eating stones!_--See _Briefwechsel mit_ GOETHE.

[f6] Τὸ μὲν γὰρ πρῶτον τετραμετρῳ εχρῶντο διὰ τὸ σατυρικὴν καὶ ὀρχηστκωτέραν (ἐ)ιναι τὴν ποίησιν. POET. 4.

[f7] As in the conclusion of the Agamemnon, when the passion of the interested parties has wrought itself up to a climax. So in the passionate dialogue between Eteocles and Polynices, in Eurip. Phœnis. 591. The use of the Trochees in these passages is thus precisely the same as that of the Anapæsts in the finale of the PROMETHEUS. In the PERSIANS, they serve to give an increased dignity to the person of Atossa, and the Shade of the royal Darius.

[f8] "Take our blank verse for all in all, in all its gradations from the elaborate rhythm of Milton, down to its lowest structure in the early dramatists, and I believe that there is no measure comparable to it, either in our own or in any other language, for might and majesty, flexibility and compass."--SOUTHEY, Preface to the _Vision of Judgment_. What BULWER says to the contrary (Athens and the Athenians, vol. II. p. 43), was crudely thought, or idly spoken, and unworthy of so great a genius.

[f9] Eumenides, § 16.

[f10] See Aristides and the musical writers; also Dionysius. Consider, also, what a solemnity Plutarch attributes to the ἐμβατηριος παιων of the Spartans (Lycurg. 22), which, of course, was either Dactylic or Anapæstic verse. Altogether, there can be no greater mistake than to imagine that our Dactylic and Anapæstic verse are the æsthetical equivalents of the ancient measures from which their names are borrowed. They are, in many parts of my translation, rather the equivalent of Dochmiac verse; and this, in obedience to the uniform practice of our highest poets, in passages of high passion and excitement.

[f11] MITCHELL (Aristoph. Ran. v. 1083) has remarked, with justice, that Æschylus is particularly fond of this verse. I was prevented from using it so often as might have been desirable in the choric odes, from having made it the representative of the Anapæsts.