Prologue. Orestes explains his plan of action, and then goes with Pylades to make offerings at Agamemnon's grave (1—85).—Electra's lament (86—120) properly belongs to the πρόλογος, since it precedes the entrance of the Chorus (121).

δυστανοτάτας , of guilt, as in 806: so 273 ταλαίνῃ, 275 τλήμων (and 439): 888 δύσποτμος: 1026 ἄνολβος.

τάκεις … οἰμωγὰν =ποιεῖ τακερὰν οἰμωγάν, makest a languishing lament. Cp. 848 τέγγει δακρύων ἄχναν (n.): 55 ἔκειρε...φόνον. For τήκομαι, said of pining in grief, cp. 283, Eur. 158 μὴ λίαν τάκου δυρομένα σὸν εὐνάταν.

ἀκόρεστον : cp. Aesch. 1143(of the nightingale) ἀκόρετος βοᾶς.

τὸν πάλαι κ.τ.λ., acc. depending on τάκεις οἰμωγάν as=οἰμώζεις: cp. 556, 710: 223 δέος ἴσχετε μηδὲν ὅσ’ αὐδῶ (n.).

πάλαι , some seven or eight years ago (13 f., n.).— ἐκ , here no more than ὑπό ( 335 ἐκ Φοίβου δαμείς, n.).

ἀθεώτατα : cp. 1181 (n.).

κακᾷ … χειρὶ πρόδοτον , betrayed (to death) by a dastardly hand. χειρὶ , following ἀπάταις, denotes the violent deed. Sophocles thinks of both Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus as active agents in the murder (99 σχίζουσι). This is against understanding, ‘betrayed (by her) to (his) hand.’

ὡς is properly an exclamation (‘how!’), as in ὡς ὤφελον: here it stands, like utinam, with the optat. There are Homeric examples, as 18. 107 ὡς ἔρις... ἀπόλοιτο: ib. 22. 286 ὡς δή μιν σῷ ἐνὶ χροῒ πᾶν κομίσαιο: 17. 243 ὡς ἔλθοι: which must be distinguished from instances of ὥς (‘thus’) with optat., as 14. 142 ἀλλ’ ὁ μὲν ὣς ἀπόλοιτο: 1. 47 ὣς ἀπόλοιτο καὶ ἄλλος. In Attic this ὡς with optat. is rare: Eur. 407 ὡς ὄλοιτο παγκάκως.

ὁ τάδε πορὼν might refer to Clytaemnestra (for the masc., cp. 464 n.), but is rather general, including both the authors of the crime.

εἴ μοι θέμις , like 809 εἰ θέμις δ’, ἐπεύχομαι: Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra are the rulers of Mycenae. Cp. Eur. 83 ὄλοιτο μὲν μή· δεσπότης γάρ ἐστ’ ἐμός. And the Chorus might shrink from imprecations on the mother in her daughter's presence.

γενέθλα (fem. sing.), as 226: but γένεθλα (neut. pl.) 180.

γενναίων , in disposition (cp. 1636).

παραμύθ‐ ιον might be nomin. in appos. with the subject of the verb, but is better taken as acc. in appos. with the sentence: cp. 564 (ποινὰς), 966 (πημονὴν): 603(n.): Eur. 1105 Ἑλένην κτάνωμεν, Μενελέῳ λύπην πικράν.

ξυνίημι (ι^): as Ar. 946 begins a trimeter with ξυνίημ’ ὅτι βούλει. The initial ι of ἵημι is properly long in pres. (and impf.) indic., imper., infin., and partic. This is the regular quantity in Attic: cp. 596. In Homeric verse the pres. indic. and imper., and the pres. part., (act. and midd.,) have ι— in arsis (and once, even in thesis, 12. 274 ἀλλὰ πρόσωἵεσθε): but ι^ in thesis, as when ἵενται closes a verse. The impf., too, has ι^ in thesis, as 1. 479(ἵει). The Tragoedians, following epic precedent, sometimes shorten ι in these parts of ἵημι: thus ἵησιν (ι^) in lyrics, Aesch. 310.But it is noteworthy that in tragic dialogue the examples of ι^ seem to be confined to the pres. part.; thus Aesch. 493 ἱέντα: Eur. 338 and 1101 ἱεῖσα: 298 ἱείς.

τάδ’ : your kindly purpose.

φυγγάνει . This by-form of φεύγω occurs first in Aesch. 513.Greek presents in ‐ανω are of two classes,—those in which the stem remains unchanged, as ἁμαρτ‐άνω; and those in which a nasal is added to it, as φυγγάνω, θιγγάνω, λαμβάνω, etc. (Curtius, , ch. IX, p. 174, Eng. tr.). In its compound forms, φυγγάνω was familiar to Attic prose: thus Dem. or. 23 has § 74 ἀποφυγγάνει: Aeschin. or. 3 § 208 καταφυγγάνῃ.

οὐδ’ ἐθέλω =ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἐθέλω: cp. 222 ἀγγελίαν ἄτλατον οὐδὲ φευκτάν: 24. 25 ἔνθ’ ἄλλοις μὲν πᾶσιν ἑήνδανεν, οὐδέ ποθ’ Ἥρῃ. So δέ=ἀλλά, 85 n.

μὴ οὐ : 107 n.

τὸν ἐμὸν … πατέρ’ ἄθλιον : an adj., though not a predicate, is sometimes thus placed; cp. 1144: 393 τὸν μέγαν Πακτωλὸν εὔχρυσον: 1199 f. τὰν γαμψώνυχα παρθένον | χρησμῳδόν (n.).

παντοίας , perh. a reminiscence of 15. 245 ὃν περὶ κῆρι φίλει Ζεύς τ’ αἰγίοχος καὶ Ἀπόλλων | παντοίην φιλότητα. Literally: ‘reciprocating the graciousness (kindliness) of friendship in every form,’ —bound to me by a mutual friendship, which is sympathetic with every mood. (Not: ‘replacing’ kindliness in every relation,—as though these friends compensated her for the absence of paternal or fraternal sympathy.)

Electra's lyrics contain some Doricisms (129, 146 f., etc.): but it is best to retain φιλότητος, with the MSS. The form in η was so familiar through Homer that it may have been preferred to φιλότατος even in lyrics. Cp. 236.

ἀλύειν , to ‘wander’ in mind; to be wild with grief: cp. 1194 ἀλύοντα χειμερίῳ | λύπᾳ: and n. ib. 174.

αἰαῖ, ἱκνοῦμαι =152 αἰεὶ δακρύεις. The pause after αἰαῖ excuses the hiatus: cp. 1276 φεῦ φεῦ, ὦ πόνοι.

τόν γ’ ἐξ Ἀΐδα … λίμνας : cp. Dem. or. 9 § 42 τὸν χρυσὸν τὸν ἐκ Μήδων εἰς Πελοπόννησον ἤγαγεν: Soph. 1076 τά τ’ ἐκ νεὼς | στείλωσι (n.). As to the Ἀχερουσία λίμνη, cp. fr. 480 (where the ψυχή of Achilles speaks), ἀκτὰς ἀπαίωνάς τε καὶ μελαμβαθεῖς | λιποῦσαλίμνης ἦλθον.

παγκοίνου : so 1193 τὸν πολύκοινον Ἅιδαν: Aesch. 860 πάνδοκον εἰς ἀφανῆ τε χέρσον.

ἀνστάσεις : for the apocopè of ἀνά, cp. 335 n.

οὔτε †γόοις οὔτε λιταῖσιν . The strophic verse (123) probably represents the true metre: τάκεις ὧδ’ ἀκόρεστον οἰμωγάν. On this point most modern critics are agreed, though they differ as to whether the verse should be considered glyconic or dactylic. But the correction of v. 139 remains quite uncertain. Many edd. have received Hermann's ingenious emendation, οὔτε γόοισιν οὔτ’ ἄνταις . Doubtless ΑΝΤΑΙΣ could easily have generated ΛΙΤΑΙΣ. But the form ἄντη is most dubious. Hermann relies solely on Hesychius, ἀντήσει, λιτανείαις, ἀντήσεσιν. He supposes that ἀντήσει was corrupted from ἄντῃσι: though it might also have come from ἀντήσε(ς)ι,—the second ἀντήσεσιν being a later addition. There is no other vestige of ἄντη. Erfurdt's οὔτε γόοισιν οὔτ’ εὐχαῖς would be satisfactory; but then we should have to assume that οὔτε λιταῖσιν arose from a perverse view of the metre. See Appendix.

For the repetition of ἀλλά , so soon after the ἀλλά in 137, see 879—882: 524 n.

ἀπὸ τῶν μετρίων : deserting moderation (τὰ μέτρια).

ἀμήχανον , admitting of no alleviation, like νόσων ἀμηχάνων 363(n.).

ο=ιόλλυσαι here =προβαίνεις διολλυμένη: cp. Dem. or. 21 § 139 φθείρεσθαι πρὸς τοὺς πλουσίους. With the help given by ἀπό and εἰς, such a sense for the verb is not forced. It would be harsher to evolve the idea of motion from στενάχουσα.

ἐν οἷς , referring to the general sense of what precedes, ‘in which course.’

ἀνάλυσις … κακῶν , properly, a ‘dissolution,’ a ‘cancelling,’ of troubles. They are not dissipated by grieving. The parallel sense of ἀναλύειν is common.

τί μοι κ.τ.λ.: the ethic dat. nearly=‘I pray thee’ (887: 1475 n.).

νήπιος : for the general masc., cp. 771: 151(n.).

γονέων , meaning πατρός: for the plur., cp. 346, 498, 594: 366 n.

ἐμέ γ’ … ἄραρεν , suits, is congenial to, me. In this intrans. sense ἤραρον would naturally take a dat.; as in 4. 777 μῦθον, ὃ δὴ καὶ πᾶσιν ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ἤραρεν ἡμῖν. For the acc. here, cp. 584 οὐ γάρ μ’ ἀρέσκει. It may have been suggested by the acc. which follows this aor. when transitive; ἤραρε θυμὸν ἐδωδῇ ( 5. 95), ‘satisfied.’ Simonides has ἀραρεῖν (fr. 41), but the form is otherwise epic only.

φρένας , defining ἐμέ: cp. 99 κάρα, n.

αἰὲν Ἴτυν . The υ— need not be explained by ictus, for it was originally long in these words, though in ordinary Attic usage it had become shortened. In 5. 470 ἐς κλιτὺν ἀναβάς, and a few passages of Tragedy (as Eur. 5 στάχυς, 1214 γένυν), the υ— remains. Aristophanes, too, has Ἴτυ—ν ἐλελιζομένη ( 212). On the other hand κλιτὺν (υ^) in 271 represents the later practice. (For the varied quantity here, cp. 296 πέτροισι πέτρον, n.) The reiterated Ἴτυν was heard in the nightingale's note; cp. Eur. fr. 773. 25 ὀρθρευομένα γόοις | Ἴτυν Ἴτυν πολύθρηνον, and Aesch. 1144.

ὄρνις with ι^, as in 1021(n.).

ἀτυζομένα , bewildered, distraught with grief: cp. 135 ἀλύειν.

Διὸς ἄγγελος , as the harbinger of spring. The nightingale appears in Attica about the end of March, or early in April ( , Introd. p. xii, n. 2). Cp. 24. 344 Διὸς ὧραι.

Νιόβα, σὲ δ’ , κ.τ.λ.: for this δέ, cp. 1097(Φοῖβε, σοὶ δὲ). By θεόν Electra means μακαρτάτην: cp. Sappho's φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θεοῖσιν. Niobe is happy in the highest, the divine, sense, because, by her perennial grief, she is true to the memory of those whom she has lost.

ἅτ’ , fem. of the epic relat. ὅς τε: so the neut. ὅ τε in 824.

ἐν τάφῳ πετραίῳ : the stone into which Niobe was turned on Mount Sipylus is her ‘rocky tomb’: see nn. on 825 f. τὰν κισσὸς ὡς ἀτενὴς | πετραία βλάστα δάμασεν.

αἰεὶ is the best reading, since the point is that Niobe's grief is perpetual. αἰαῖ would be an interjection by Electra, an echo of the αἰαῖ in 136.

οὔτοι σοὶ μούνᾳ : cp. 289. Cic. 3. 33 § 79 Ne illa quidem consolatio firmissima est, quanquam et usitata est et saepe prodest: Non tibi hoc soli.

πρὸς ὅ τι , ‘in respect to whatever (grief).’

τῶν ἔνδον εἶ περισσά , ‘you are more excessive than those in the house,’—i.e., less moderate in showing sorrow: the gen., as after περιγίγνομαι, περιεῖναι, περισσεύω ( Xen. 4. 8. 11 περιττεύσουσιν ἡμῶν οἱ πολέμιοι). ‘They are equally affected by every one of those troubles which you lament so much more vehemently than they do.’

οἷς , the masc. of general reference (145 n.), should be retained, though τῶν ἔνδον (also masc.) alludes to the two sisters only.

ὁμόθεν , of the same stock, is more closely defined by γονᾷ ξύναιμος , which denotes the fraternal tie. Cp. 12 n.

οἵα Χρ. ζώει . These words, explanatory of τῶν ἔνδον, seem to mean simply, ‘such as Chrysothemis, who is living,’ etc. (For οἵα Χρ. ζώει,=οἵα Χρ. ἐστίν, ἣ ζώει, cp. 1451 n.).

Acc. to the version followed by Sophocles, Agamemnon had four daughters, Iphigeneia, Electra, Chrysothemis, Iphianassa. This was the account given in the cyclic Κύπρια ἔπη, as the schol. here mentions; a poem of which there is another trace in this play (566 ff.). Sophocles wrote an Ἰφιγένεια (Nauck, frag. Soph. 284—292); but her name is not mentioned in the reference to her death below (530—594). In 9. 145Agamemnon has three daughters, Chrysothemis, Laodicè, Iphianassa: Homer does not mention Iphigeneia. Lucretius gives the name of Iphianassa to the victim at Aulis (1. 85).

ζώει has more point when it is remembered that one sister had perished. The Ionic form occurs also in 1213.—Others understand: ‘considering the manner in which Chr.lives’ etc.;—i.e., Electra is found to be περισσά relatively to the standard of moderation which her sisters set. This seems to strain οἵα...ζώει.

καὶ Ἰφιάνασσα : so in 9. 145 Χρυσόθεμις καὶ Λαοδίκη καὶ Ἰφιάνασσα, the name having the digamma.

ἀχέων is unquestionably the participle, familiar from the Homeric poems ( 2. 724, Il. 5. 399, Il. 18. 446: 11. 195). Orestes is conceived as pining in exile for the moment when he shall return as an avenger. Cp. 171 ἀεὶ μὲν γὰρ ποθεῖ: 602 δυστυχῆ τρίβει βίον. The mention of his present sorrow prompts the augury of his future triumph (160).

Hermann, taking ἀχέων as gen. pl. of ἄχος, joined it with κρυπτᾷ : semota a doloribus in iuventa felix. But (a) it seems impossible that κρυπτᾷ ἀχέων should mean, ‘secluded from sorrows,’ as if the idea of separation (or exemption) were sufficiently expressed by ‘hidden.’ And (b) in this context, where Electra is reminded that others suffer with her, a reference to the sorrow of the exile is evidently more fitting than an allusion to his immunity from her particular troubles.

ὄλβιος, ὃν κ.τ.λ. The respect in which he is ‘happy’ is defined by the following clause, according to a frequent poetical idiom. Hes. 954 ὄλβιος, ὃς μέγα ἔργον ἐν ἀθανάτοισιν ἀνύσσας | ναίει ἀπήμαντος. Hom. 11. 450 ὄλβιος· ἦ γὰρ τόν γε πατὴρ φίλος ὄψεται ἐλθών. And so with other words: Hom. 1. 8 νήπιοι, οἳ κατὰ βοῦς Ὑπερίονος ἠελίοιο | ησθιον: ib. 3. 161 σχέτλιος, ὅς ῥ) ἔριν ὦρσε κ.τ.λ.

For the simple ὅς, instead of ὅς γε or ὅστις, with causal force, cp. below, 188, 261, 959; 817.

δέξεται εὐπατρίδαν , i.e., will receive him, so that he shall be once more a noble of the land, instead of an exile; for the proleptic force, cp. 68 δέξασθέ μ’ εὐτυχοῦντα (n.). So Orestes exultingly imagines how men will say of him ( Aesch. 757), Ἀργεῖος ἁνὴρ αὖθις, ἔν τε χρήμασιν | οἰκεῖ πατρῴοις.

Διὸς εὔφρονι | βήματι , by the kindly guidance of Zeus; βῆμα here having a sense parallel with that of the causal tenses, βήσω, ἔβησα. Schol. βήματι· ἀντὶ ὁδῷ, πομπῇ. This is certainly bold, though not too much so (I think) for Sophocles. No correction seems probable (see cr. n.). The most ingenious, perhaps, is Mekler's εὐπατριδᾶν ἕδος (in appos. with γᾶ...Μυκηναίων). It is, however, somewhat weak; and the rhythm seems to favour the slight pause after εὐπατρίδαν.

γᾶν , notwithstanding γᾶ in 161: cp. 375, 379 (γόων): 511, 515 (αἰκίαις, αἰκία): 871, 873 (ἡδονῆς, ἡδονὰς): 554 n.

Ὀρέσταν , emphatically placed at the end, is drawn into the case of the relative ὃν : cp. 1. 69 Κύκλωπος κεχόλωται, ὃν ὀφθαλμοῦ ἀλάωσεν, | ἀντίθεον Πολύφημον. Aesch. 553 τῷδ’, ὃν λέγεις τὸν Ἀρκάδα.

ἀκάματα with initial α^: but in 339 ἀκαμάταν with α— (n.). For the neut. plur. as adv., cp. 786: 883 ὑπέροπτα (n.).

ἀνύμφευτος is merely a rhetorical amplification of the thought expressed by ἄτεκνος , and hence the poet is indifferent to the order of the words; just as in 962 ἄλεκτρα precedes ἀνυμέναια, and as Oedipus forebodes the fate of his daughters, χέρσους φθαρῆναι κἀγάμους ( 1502). Antigone makes a similar lament ( 813 ff., Ant. 917 f.).

οἰχνῶ , simply ‘go about’ (περιέρχομαι, schol.), here implying her loneliness. Not =οἴχομαι (‘I am lost’), as some take it. οἰχνέω is, indeed, a poetical by-form of οἴχομαι, but does not share this sense. Cp. 313, 564.This verb is not extant in Eur. ; Aesch. uses compounds of it, but only in lyrics (εἰς‐, Aesch. 122; δι‐, Aesch. 315).

δάκρυσι μυδαλέα : as 270 (κόνις) δάκρυσι μυδαλέη. The υ is properly short, as in μυδάω ( 1278, 410).

τὸν ἀνήνυτον : the art. means, ‘that endless doom of mine’; cp. 176 τὸν ὑπεραλγῆ: 1187 τὰν ἄπαυστον... | ...μόχθων ἄταν. (Cp. 476, ὁ δεινὸς ἵμερος, with n. in appendix there.)

οἶτον ἔχουσα : 9. 559 ἀλκυόνος πολυπενθέος οἶτον ἔχουσα.

ὧν τ’ ἔπαθ’ . The schol. understands, ‘the benefits which he has received’ at Electra's hands, who saved him from perishing with his father (12, 1128, 1350). And it might be said that she is here thinking of his ingratitude. But it seems worthier of her heroic nature that she should mean,—‘he forgets his wrongs—those great wrongs which he is bound to avenge.’ This agrees, too, with ὧν τ’ ἐδάη , ‘what he has learned’ by the messages which she has sent from Mycenae to Phocis, as to the subsequent conduct of the partners in crime. ‘He forgets his father's murder, and his sister's misery.’

Wecklein, reading ἐδάην, explains,— ‘what I have heard from him,’—viz., his promises of coming.

τί γὰρ … ἀγγελίας : cp. 1229 ἐν τῷ συμφορᾶς (n.).

ἀπατώμενον , ‘disappointed’ by the result. The message is poetically identified with the hope which it inspires. Cp. 630 ἀπάτας λεχέων, a cheating (of his hope), a disappointment, concerning marriage. The partic. here expresses the leading idea of the sentence: ‘what comforting message comes to me that is not belied?’ (The pres. part., because the thought is, ἀεὶ ἀπατᾶται.) Cp. 1038 χωρῶν ἀπείλει νῦν (n.): 592 ἀλλ’ εἰδέναι χρὴ δρῶσαν. For τί … οὐκ as=πᾶν τι, cp. 1526 (n.).

Herwerden's οὐχί μοι , for οὐκ ἐμοί , is specious; but ἐμοί may be defended by the antithesis with ὁ δέ .

ποθεῖ, ποθῶν δ’ : cp. 319 φησίν γε· φάσκων δ’ οὐδὲν ὧν λέγει ποεῖ. There, as here, there is a touch of mournful bitterness, which οὐκ ἀξιοῖ brings out. As to the frequent messages sent to Electra by Orestes, cp. 1154.

ἔτι μέγας οὐρανῷ =154 ἄχος ἐφάνη βροτῶν. Hermann saves the ἐν of the MSS. by reading μέγας ἔτ’ ἐν etc.; but the simple dat. of place seems warranted by such instances as 313 (ἀγροῖσι), 1451 ναίειν ὄρεσιν, Hes. 8 αἰθέρι ναίειν, Pind. 10. 58 θεὸς ἔμμεναι οἰκεῖν τ’ οὐρανῷ.

τὸν ὑπεραλγῆ : for the art., cp. 166 n.

νέμουσα , ‘assigning,’ or ‘committing,’ it to Zeus. The verb is used as in νέμειν μοῖραν ( 1238) or νέμειν γέρα ( 1396) τινί. Wrath against evildoers is an attribute and a prerogative of Zeus, to whom the injured should leave the task of inflicting retribution. As the avenger of blood, Zeus was styled ἀλάστωρ, ἀλιτήριος, παλαμναῖος, τιμωρός.

μήτε ὑπεράχθεο (τούτοις) οὓς ἐχθαίρεις μήτε ἐπιλάθου (αὐτῶν). For οἷς (by attraction, for οὕς), cp. 3. 5. 18 σὺν οἷς εἶχεν ᾔει. The clauses are co-ordinate, but the emphasis is upon μὴ ὑπεράχθεο. ‘Without forgetting thy foes, refrain from excess of wrath against them.’ The Chorus allow that, as Electra has said (145), she cannot forget the murder of her father. They only counsel moderation of behaviour.

εὐμαρὴς θεός , a god who brings ease,—soothing difficulties, and making burdens tolerable (cp. 7, O. C. 437). εὐμαρής has here an active sense: cp. 44 φύλλον...νώδυνον, a herb that soothes pain. Eur. 17 συμφορὰς δὲ τὰς ἐμὰς | ἐξευμαρίζων. Philon vol. 2. p. 43 (ap. Nauck) describes χρόνος as ἱκανὸς καὶ πένθος ἀνελεῖν καὶ θυμὸν σβέσαι καὶ φόβον θεραπεῦσαι· πάντα γὰρ ἐξευμαρίζει. For this use of θεός , cp. Soph. 27 n.

οὔτε γὰρ , after χρόνος γὰρ in 179: Sophocles often thus uses γάρ in two successive clauses ( 20 f., Ai. 215 f., Ai. 514 f., Ai. 1262 f.; 1158 f.; 1255 f.). Here the second γάρ introduces a reason for thinking that, in this instance, Time will bring a remedy.

Κρῖσαν . Most MSS. have Κρίσαν: Triclinius wrote Κρίσσαν. But in favour of Κρῖσαν Hermann appeals to a grammarian of Hadrian's age, Dracon of Stratonicea, in his treatise περὶ μέτρων (p. 21, 4).

Crisa stood about two miles W.S.W. of Delphi, on a spur of Parnassus, at the lower outlet of the gorge through which the river Pleistus issues into the plain. The mentions ‘sacred Crisa’ (ζαθέην, 2. 520). But the Homeric Hymn to the Pythian Apollo is the best witness to its ancient power. There, just as here, the name Κρῖσα includes the land which stretches southward from the town to its harbour on the ‘wide gulf’ (vv. 253— 261). We need not, then, read Κρίσᾳ or Κρίσας. Crisa was the earliest seat of trade on the western sea; Delphi, when first founded, was merely a sanctuary in its territory. Pindar recalls the old prominence of its name when he describes a Pythian victory as won Κρισαίαις ἐνὶ πτυχαῖς ( 6. 18).

Cirrha, a town of much later date, was the port of Crisa on the gulf. About 585 B.C., the Delphians, aided by Cleisthenes of Sicyon and his allies, succeeded, after a long struggle, in humbling Crisa and destroying Cirrha. The Crisaean plain was then devoted to Apollo, whose domain was thus extended from his temple to the coast. When Sophocles wrote, that ground was still a βούνομος ἀκτή, inviolable by plough or spade. It was not till the middle of the next century that the alleged encroachments of Amphissa on the ἱερὰ χώρα gave a pretext for war to the Amphictyons (355 B.C.).

Ulrichs () was the first to place the relations of Crisa and Cirrha in a clear light. Strabo correctly describes the site of Cirrha, but erroneously places Crisa to the east of it (9. p. 418).

βούνομον , ‘grazed over by oxen,’ seems fitter here than βουνόμον , ‘giving pasture to oxen’: but there is little to choose. Cp. Aesch. fr. 249 βούνομοί τ’ ἐπιστροφαί: and Soph. 26(n.).

βούνομον ἀκτὰν is in appos. with Κρῖσαν : see last n.

ἀπερίτροπος , ‘regardless.’ The word occurs only here; and περιτρέπομαι does not occur in a corresponding sense. But the poet has followed the analogy of ἐντρέπομαι and the epic μετατρέπομαί τινος as=‘to regard.’ With a somewhat similar boldness, he has elsewhere used στραφείην with a gen. as=ἐπιστραφείην ( 1117). The meaning is rightly given by Suidas s. v. ἀπερίτροπος,—ἔχει ἐπιστροφὴν καὶ ἐπιμέλειαν ποιεῖται. In the quotation of the verse by Suidas there, the word ἀνεπίτροπος (which would mean ‘without a guardian’) has accidentally been substituted for ἀπερίτροπος. Suidas, like the schol., explains ἀπερίτροπος by ἀνεπίστροφος. They both notice a second, but clearly erroneous, view, acc. to which ἀπερίτροπος has a twofold sense here:— (1) in relation to Orestes, ‘not returning,’ ἀνεπέλευστος: (2) in relation to Hades, ‘regardless.’

παρὰ τὸν Ἀχέροντα , because his realm extends along its banks: see n. on 1123 f. For the place of ἀνάσσων after θεὸς , cp. 695: 1316 τὰς...ἐκ θεῶν | τύχας δοθείσας: 1245(n.). The ‘god’ is, of course, Hades; the King of the Dead is their avenger: cp110: 1075 Ἅιδου...Ἐρινύες. Some suppose, however, that the θεός meant is the spirit of Agamemnon. Prof. Campbell, who inclines to that view, thinks that the next best course is to refer the words to Hermes χθόνιος (111).

μὲν merely emphasises ἐμέ: there is no corresponding clause with δέ: cp. 11(ἐμοὶ μὲν) n.

ὁ πολὺς … βίοτος , the best part of it: see on 962, where she speaks of her sister as γηράσκουσαν. When ὁ πολύς thus means ὁ πλείων, the noun (with art.) usu. precedes it; as Her. 1. 102 ὁ στρατὸς...ὁ πολλός, Thuc. 1. 24 τῆς δυνάμεως τῆς πολλῆς.

ἀνέλπιστος , predic., has passed away from me without leaving me any hopes.

187 *τεκέων . I am now satisfied that this is a true correction of τοκέων , for these reasons. (1) She is saying that the best days of her life have gone by without giving her anything to hope for. It would be inappropriate to justify this (as the causal ἅτις does) by saying that she is pining away ‘without parents,’ or a husband's care, while the mention of children is perfectly in place. (2) The very order of the words, τεκέων...ἀνήρ, is confirmed by vv. 164 f., ἄτεκνος...ἀνύμ‐ φευτος. (3) If τοκέων be right, it means that, while Agamemnon is dead, the living Clytaemnestra is a μήτηρ ἀμήτωρ (1154): but this is forced.

ἁπερεί , like the common ὡσπερεί ( 264).

ἔποικος ..., an immigrant, an alien: cp. 742 A μισθωτοῖς, δούλοις καὶ ἐποίκοις, ‘hirelings, slaves or immigrants.’ 9. 648 ὡσεί τιν’ ἀτίμητον μετανάστην, ‘like some worthless sojourner’ (or ‘alien’).

οἰκονομῶ θαλάμους : for the verb compounded with a noun similar in sense to θαλάμους, cp. 760 ταυροκτονεῖ...βοῦς: 4. 3 νέκταρ ἐῳνοχόει. By οἰκονομῶ was meant properly the ‘management’ of a household, either by the master, or by a domestic of the higher grade, a ταμίας or οἰκονόμος, ‘house-steward.’ But here οἰκονομῶ θαλάμους denotes the discharge of humbler duties, in attending to the daily service of the house: as in Aesch. 84 the δμωαὶ are δωμάτων εὐθήμονες. Electra describes her own condition by the word δουλεύω in 814, Aesch. Ch. 1192: as in Aesch. 135 she says κἀγὼ μὲν ἀντίδουλος.

ἀεικεῖ σὺν στολᾷ : cp. the reference to her ζῶμα in 452; and the comments of Orestes on her whole appearance (1177, 1181).

κεναῖς δ’ ἀμφίσταμαι τραπέζαις . κενὴ τράπεζα, a ‘bare,’ or scantily furnished, table, is opposed to τράπεζα πλήρης ( Eur. 110): it would be prosaic to insist that it must mean a table with nothing on it. While the docile Chrysothemis fares sumptuously (361), the rebel Electra is treated like a halfstarved slave. In v. 265 there is another hint of her privations (τὸ τητᾶσθαι).— ἀμφίσταμαι , because to lie at meals on a κλίνη was a luxury refused to the δούλη: such food as she receives must be taken standing. This touch seems quite in keeping with what she says below as to the treatment inflicted upon her (1196 λύμαισι). The plur. τραπέζαις refers to her experience from day to day.

Hartung, reading κενὰ δ’ ἀμφίσταμαι τραπέζαις, takes the sense to be that she stands ‘hungry’ by the tables at which the others feast. But κενή as=νῆστις would be neither usual nor elegant.

Hitherto the Chorus have offered consolation or counsel. At v. 213 they return to that strain. But here, moved by Electra's misery, they join with her in bewailing its cause.

οἰκτρὰ μὲν … πλαγά . At v. 95 it was noticed that verses 95—99 clearly show a reminiscence of 11. 406—411,— the earlier part of the passage in which the departed Agamemnon relates his death to Odysseus. I believe that an instructive light on these verses is gained by observing that a later portion of the same passage was here present to the poet's mind,—viz., Od. vv. 418—424, where Agamemnon goes on to describe the scene at the murderous banquet:—ἀλλά κε κεῖνα μάλιστα ἰδὼν ὀλοφύραο θυμῷ, | ὡς ἀμφὶ κρητῆρα τραπέζας τε πληθούσας | κείμεθ’ ἐνὶ μεγάρῳ [cp. κοίταις here], δάπεδον δ’ ἅπαν αἵματι θῦεν. | οἰκτροτάτην δ’ ἤκουσα ὄπα [cp. οἰκτρὰ … αὐδὰ ] Πριάμοιο θυγατρός, | Κασσάνδρης, τὴν κτεῖνε Κλυταιμνήστρη δολόμητις | ἀμφ’ ἐμοί· αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ ποτὶ γαίῃ χεῖρας ἀείρων | βάλλον, ἀποθνῄσκων περὶ φασγάνῳ.

Sophocles, who follows the Homeric story as to the banquet, could not but remember the οἰκτροτάτην ὄπα of the dying Cassandra. And this might naturally suggest to him that other οἰκτρὰ αὐδή which she had uttered at an earlier moment, immediately after Agamemnon's return,—her presage of his fate, and her own: Aesch. 1072—1314.

The sense then is:—‘There was a voice of lamentation at the return from Troy’; alluding especially to Cassandra's laments, but also, perhaps, to forebodings in the mouth of the people at Mycenae. ‘And there was a voice of lamentation ἐν κοίταις πατρῴαις, when thy father lay on the couch at the fatal banquet.’ The ‘voice’ at the banquet is, first, that of the dying Agamemnon; but Sophocles may have thought also of Cassandra's death-cry, which was sounding in the king's ears as he fell.—For other interpretations, see Appendix.

νόστοις might be governed by ἐν (cp. 734 n.), but is more simply taken as a temporal dat., denoting the occasion, like τοῖς ἐπινικίοις (Plat. 174 A), etc.: cp. n. on 691.For the poet. plur., cp. 900 ὤμοι ἐμῶν νόστων. The plural was familiar in relation to the return from Troy; thus the poem ascribed to Agias (c. 750 B.C.) was entitled Νόστοι.

κοίταις , ‘couch,’ here of feasting, as δείπνων (203) shows. This may be the sense, as Neue suggests, in Eur. 748 f. κρῆναί τ’ ἀμβρόσιαι χέονται | Ζηνὸς μελάθρων παρὰ κοίταις. The word κοίτη (from stem κει) implies merely reclining, and does not necessarily involve the notion of sleeping.

ὅτε οἱ : for the hiatus cp. 650 ἁ δέ οἱ (n.). The MS. σοι is certainly wrong (see Appendix).— ἀνταία , striking full: cp. 89 ἀντήρεις (n.).

γενύων , the blades of the two-edged πέλεκυς (99 n.): cp. 485. Hence a pickaxe is γενῄς ( 249 n.).

δόλος … ἔρος : guile planned the deed,—i.e., devised the means of doing it: lust was ‘the slayer,’ as having supplied the motive. Some would transpose, reading ἔρος ἦν ὁ φράσας, δόλος ὁ κτείνας: i.e., lust prompted the deed, and guile executed it. But this is tamer and more prosaic. There is a higher tragic force in the old reading.—The epic form ἔρος is not used by Aesch. , and by Soph. only here; by Eur. , in dialogue also, as Eur. 337 ο<*>ον, μῆτερ, ἠράσθης ἔρον.

δεινὰν δεινῶς : cp. 989: 166 n.—The phrase δεινὰν … μορφάν must be viewed in the light of the following words, εἴτ’ οὖν θεὸς εἴτε βροτῶν | ἦν ὁ ταῦτα πράσσων. The Chorus doubt whether the agency in the terrible crime was merely human. Perchance an evil δαίμων was there, wor<*>ng out the curse upon the line of Pelops (504—515). The δεινὴ μορφή, offspring of δόλος and ἔρος, is the act of murder, embodied in the image of a supernatural ἀλάστωρ. Sophocles may have had in mind the words of the Aeschylean Clytaemnestra ( 1500 f.); the slayer of Agamemnon, she says, was in truth the Avenger of the house, who took her form:—φανταζόμενος δὲ γυναικὶ νεκροῦ | τοῦδ’ ὁ παλαιὸς δριμὺς ἀλάστωρ | Ἀτρέως, χαλεποῦ θοινατῆρος, | τόνδ’ ἀπέτεισεν, | τέλεον νεαροῖς ἐπιθύσας.

εἴτ’ οὖν … εἴτε : cp. 560: 1049 n.— βροτῶν , partitive gen.: 1. 3. 9 ε<*>ναι τῶν σωφρονικῶν ἀνθρώπων.—Cp. 1258 λυσσῶντι δ’ αὐτῷ δαιμόνων δείκνυσί τις· | οὐδεὶς γὰρ ἀνδρῶν. 243 κακὰ δεννάζων ῥήμαθ’, ἃ δαίμων | κοὐδεὶς ἀνδρῶν ἐδίδαξεν.

πλέον … ἐχθίστα (instead of ἐχθρά), by redundant emphasis: cp. 743 πλεῖστον ἀνθρώπων.. | κάκιστος.

δὴ with the superl., as 858 πανύστατον δή: Thuc. 1. 50 μεγίστη δή.

νὺξ , because the banquet was prolonged into the night; cp. 7. 102 φαίνοντες νύκτας κατὰ δώματα δαιτυμόνεσσι.

δείπνων , a poet. plur. ( 268 δείπνοις), like γάμοι ( 575), αὐλαί ( 901).

ἄχθη (a nomin., like νύξ) is defined by the following words. But instead of saying ἄχθη, θάνατοι αἰκεῖς, τοὺς ἴδε κ.τ.λ., the poet has drawn θάνατοι αἰκεῖς into the relative clause. He thus gains more prominence for τοὺς ἐμὸς ἴδε πατήρ . The conjecture τοῖς (neut., ‘by which’) would enfeeble the passage. For the tragic plur. θανάτους , cp. 1276(Deianeira's death), 497 (that of Laïus): so below, 779 φόνους: 1313 μόρων: Eur. 137 αἱμάτων .

διδύμαιν χειροῖν , the hand of Clytaemnestra and the hand of Aegisthus. Cp. 1080 διδύμαν..Ἐρινύν. Nauck wishes to write διδύμοιν . But Meisterhans ( p. 49) quotes λιθίναιν from an Attic inscr. of 439 B.C. Cp. 1133.

εἷλον … πρόδοτον . The murderous hands ‘took her life captive,’ since the crime placed her wholly in their power (264); and this was done by treachery. πρόδοτον is predicative, expressing the mode of capture; cp. Thuc. 6. 102 ἡγούμενοι (τὸν κύκλον) ἐρῆμον αἱρήσειν. But in Soph. 240, ᾕρει...ἀνάστατον.. | χώραν, the adj. is proleptic.

οἷς , not αἷς, since χειροῖν (206) implies the persons; cp. 730 τῆς ἐμῆς ἐπεισόδου· | ὃν μήτ’ ὀκνεῖτε.

Ὀλύμπιος : cp. 176 n.: 315 οἷ’ Ὀλύμπιοι θεοὶ | δοῖέν ποτ’ αὐτοῖς ἀντίποιν’ ἐμοῦ παθεῖν.

ποίνιμα κ.τ.λ.: the alliteration (παρήχησις) adds bitter emphasis: for other examples, see 370 n.

ἀγλαΐας , the external splendour of their life (cp. 268 f., 280); as in 17. 310 it is said of dogs whose value consists only in their beauty, ἀγλαΐης δ’ ἕνεκεν κομέουσιν ἄνακτες (‘for ornament’). The word is especially fitting here, as suggesting triumph, for Ἀγλαΐα was especially the Grace of victory; cp. Pind. 14. 13(with Gildersleeve's note): and Pind. 13. 14 νικαφόρον ἀγλαΐαν.

ἀποναίατο : for the Ionic form, cp. 1274 n.

πόρσω , restored by conjecture, in place of πρόσω, to 178, 181, 226, is here supported by L and other MSS. It is used by Pindar and by Eur. ( Eur. 189). The Homeric form, where a spondee is required, is πρόσσω: the Attic prose form, πόρρω.

γνώμαν ἴσχεις =γιγνώσκεις ( 837, Ph. 853).

ἐξ οἵων , ‘by what kind of conduct.’ (Not, ‘from what a position’ of possible comfort,—like that of her more prudent sisters.)

τὰ παρόντ’ , ‘in respect to present circumstances,’—‘as matters stand’; i.e., already they are bad enough (217, 235). Cp. Thuc. 4. 17 ἀεὶ γὰρ τοῦ πλέονος ἐλπίδι ὀρέγονται διὰ τὸ καὶ τὰ παρόντα ἀδοκήτως εὐτυχῆσαι: where, as here, τὰ παρόντα is acc. of respect, not subj. of the inf. Groundless objections to τὰ παρόν<*>) have prompted conjectures (cr. n.).

οἰκείας , ‘caused by thyself’: 260 οἰκεῖα πάθη, | μηδενὸς ἄλλου παραπράξαντος.

πολύ … τι κακῶν , a large measure of trouble; cp. 497 μέγα τι σθένος. After πολύς, τις has usually a limiting force, and occurs chiefly in negative phrases, such as οὐκ ἐν πολλῷ τινι ἔλασσον ( Thuc. 6. 1), οὐ πολύ τι διαφέρει (Plat. 484 D), οὐ πολλοί τινες, etc.

ὑπερεκτήσω (a compound found only here), above what was necessary.

τὰ δὲ , ‘but those things’ (referring to πολέμους), i.e. ‘such contests,’ οὐκ ἐριστὰ τοῖς δυνατοῖς , ‘cannot be waged with the powerful,’ (ὥστε) πλάθειν (αὐτοῖς), ‘so that one should come into conflict with them.’ The epexegetic inf. further explains the meaning of ἐριστά. Such contentions must not be pushed to an actual trial of force with those who are stronger than ourselves. For the inf. thus defining an adj., cp. 21. 482 χαλεπή τοι ἐγὼ μένος ἀντιφέρεσθαι (for thee to encounter): Pind. 10. 72 χαλεπὰ δ’ ἔρις ἀνθρώποις ὁμιλεῖν κρεσσόνων (how hard, they know only when they are fairly engaged in it).

ἐριστά (only here)=‘contested,’ then, ‘what can be contested’ (cp. , append. p. 225).

πλάθειν ( 728), in a hostile sense; cp. Her. 9. 74 ὅκως πελάσειε..τοῖσι πολεμίοισι: Soph. 1093 λέοντ’, ἄπλατον θρέμμα.

δεινοῖς ἠναγκάσθην : dread causes forced her (at the first) to adopt this course; and they are still valid. For the reiteration, cp. 1101 ὦ τλάμων τλάμων ἄρ’ ἐγώ: ib. 1462 λείπομεν ὑμᾶς, λείπομεν ἤδη.

ὀργά alludes to δυσθύμῳ..ψυχᾷ (218 f.). She knows that her resentment is shown with passion. The schol.'s paraphrase, τοῦτο τὸ ἔπος, φησίν, οὐ λανθάνε<*> με ἀλλ’ οἶδα τὸ ἀσφαλὲς καὶ συμφέρον, might seem to suggest a different reading, such as οὐ λάθει μ’ <*>ν δεῖ. But probably it was meant to explain ἔξοιδ’ only.

ἀλλὰ … γὰρ is here elliptical; ‘but (ye speak in vain), for,’ etc. Cp. 167.In 256 there is no ellipse. Cp. 148 n.

ἐν … δεινοῖς : cp. 185 ἔν τ’ ὀδύναις.. | λιμῷ τ’ οἰκτρός.

σχήσω : this form occurs also in 375 and 684.

ταύτας ἄτας , these infatuated laments. (Others understand, ‘I will not put an end to these miseries which I suffer’: but σχήσω is then less fitting.)

ὄφρα is not elsewhere used by Sophocles: Aesch. has it twice in lyrics ( Aesch. 360, Aesch. 340): Eur. never. For the omission of ἄν, cp. Soph. 764 ἕως ἀνῇ.

βίος ἔχῃ με is simply, ‘while life is in me’: there is no reference to σχήσω , such as Nauck assumes (‘I will not check these laments while life detains me’).

τίνι γάρ … τίνι φρονοῦντι καίρια , ‘for in the judgment of what person who thinks aright,’ ἀκούσαιμ’ ἂν πρόσφορον ἔπος , ‘could I possibly hear a word of comfort suited to my case?’ That is: What reason for desisting from these lamentations could possibly be suggested to me, which a right-minded person would think satisfactory? For the ethic dat. τίνι κ.τ.λ., cp. 1446 ἀνάξιαι γὰρ πᾶσίν ἐστε δυστυχεῖν, and ib. 810 (n.). For πρόσφορον , ‘suitable,’ and hence ‘suited to one's needs,’ ‘profitable,’ cp. 1774 πρόσφορά θ’ ὑμῖν | καὶ τῷ κατὰ γῆς.

Other explanations are:—(1) Taking the dative with πρόσφορον:—‘To what person who feels aright would that word be suitable which I should hear (=which would be said of me)?’ That is: Should I not deserve to incur a censure from which every right-minded person would shrink? Should I not deserve to be called δυσσεβής? This seems forced; and it does not well suit ἔπος. (2) Taking the dative with ἀκούσαιμι:—‘At whose mouth (=from whom), that thinks aright, could I hear a suitable word of comfort?’ But such a dative seems impossible. In 16. 515 δύνασαι δὲ σὺ πάντοσ’ ἀκούειν | ἀνέρι κηδομένῳ, the dat. is one of interest, denoting the person whose prayer is heard (‘for him’); cp. 5. 115 κλῦθί μοι: 24. 335 ἔκλυες ᾧ κ’ ἐθέλῃσθα.

ἄνετε is more than ἐᾶτε, since it implies relaxing a strain; cp. 721: 1101 ἄνες (κόρην), release her.

ἄλυτα , irremediable; cp. 939: so λύσις, of a remedy ( 598 n.).

κεκλήσεται : they must be permanently accounted such: cp. 1368 σὸν ἆρα τοὔργον, οὐκ ἐμόν, κεκλήσεται. So κεκλήσομαι, 522.

231 f. For ἐκ , where the simple gen. would suffice, cp. 291, 987.

ἀνάριθμος has the second α short (as in Aesch. 40, etc.). For the form of the word, and also for the gen. θρήνων , cp. Soph. 247 ἡμερῶν ἀνήριθμον (n.).

ἀλλ’ οὖν =‘well, at any rate (though I speak in vain)’: γε emphasises εὐνοίᾳ : ‘it is with good-will that I speak’: cp. 1035: 84 n.

μάτηρ ὡσεί τις : these words have been taken as indicating that the Chorus was composed (in part, at least) of women older than Electra. Her own tone to them rather suggests ὁμήλικες (134). (In 526 the words ἐγὼ δὲ μάτηρ μὲν οἷα φράζω are corrupt.)

μὴ τίκτειν , since a command is implied by αὐδῶ here, as elsewhere by λέγω, φωνῶ, ἐννέπω ( 101 n.).

ἄταν ἄταις : the mere iteration suggests the notion of adding; but this is developed by the sense of the verb: cp. 195 δάκρυα δάκρυσί μοι φέρων: and n. on 175 ἄλλον δ’ ἂν ἄλλῳ προσίδοις.

καὶ τί μέτρον ...; for this καί prefixed to an indignant question, cp. 263 (n.): 1247: 462.— κακότατος is better attested than κακότητος here. In 521, too, the MSS. give κακότατ’. Cp. 134 n.

φέρε in the sense of φέρ’ εἰπέ: so Ar. 541 ff. φέῤ, εἰ Λακεδαιμονίων τις κ.τ.λ. | καθῆσθ’ ἂν ἐν δόμοισιν;

ἐπὶ τοῖς φθ. , in their case: for the prep., cp. 829 n.

ἔβλαστ’ : in what human being has such impiety ever been inborn? Cp. 440: 563 οὐδ’ ὃς ἂν βλάστῃ μένει | νοῦς τοῖς κακῶς πράσσουσιν. The gloss ἐνομοθετήθη points to another interpretation of ἔβλαστ’, viz., ‘has become usual’ (cp. 296 κακὸν νόμισμ’ ἔβλαστε): and to this the conjecture τίσι for τίνι (cr. n.) was adapted.

τούτοις , the persons who approve such forgetfulness of the dead: cp. 456 ὅπου θ’ ὁ χείρων τἀγαθοῦ μεῖζον σθένει,... | τούτους ἐγὼ τοὺς ἄνδρας οὐ στέρξω ποτέ (n.).

εἴ τῳ πρόσκειμαι χρηστῷ : prosperity is here conceived as a region of comfort, close to which the person is securely established. ‘When my lot is cast in pleasant places.’ Cp. 1040: Eur. fr. 418 κακοῖς γὰρ οὐ σὺ πρόσκεισαι μόνη. Conversely, Soph. 1243 ἀνδρὶ πρόσκειται κακόν. (See n. on Soph. 94.)

ξυνναίοιμ’ : cp. 1205 τίς ἄταις..τίς ἐν πόνοις | ξύνοικος: Plat. 587C ἡδοναῖς ξυνοικεῖ: conversely, 1134 κηλὶς κακῶν ξύνοικος: 1168 ἄχθος ὃ ξυνοικει—.

εὔκηλος : the only instance of this Homeric form in Tragedy (for in Eur. 644Blomfield restored ἕκηλον). The stem of ἕκηλος being vεκ, εὔκηλος is perh. for ἐvέκηλος, ἔvκηλος (Curt. § 19).

γονέων | ἐκτίμους , not paying honour to parents: the gen. as with adjectives compounded with α privative (36). For this negative sense of ἐκ in composition, cp. ἔκδικος, ἐξαίσιος, ἔξωρος.

ἐκτίμους ἵσχουσα , restraining so that they shall not honour: for the proleptic adj., cp. Aesch. 298 ἄνανδρον τάξιν ἠρήμου θανών.

πτέρυγας … γόων , as Pind. 1. 64 πτερύγεσσιν ἀερθέντ’ ἀγλααῖς | Πιερίδων: cp. Eur. 93(γόους) πρὸς αἰθέρ’ ἐκτενοῦμεν.

ὀξυτόνων , as 630 ὀξυτόνους...ᾠδὰς | θρηνήσει: ib. 321 ὀξέων κωκυμάτων.

εἰ γὰρ κ.τ.λ. She says:— ‘I will not cease to lament, and to invoke retribution on the murderers (209 f.). , if they are not to pay with their blood for the blood which they have shed, there will be an end to regard for man and to fear of heaven.’

γᾶ here=σποδός, of the dead: Eur. fr. 522 κατθανὼν δὲ πᾶς ἀνὴρ | γῆ καὶ σκιά· τὸ μηδὲν εἰς οὐδὲν ῥέπει.

οὐδὲν (not μηδὲν) ὢν , though εἰ precedes: cp. 935 βίᾳ τε κοὐχ ἑκών (after εἰ μή): 1131 εἰ...οὐκ ἐᾷς. Here the parataxis affords a special excuse for οὐδέν,—viz., that this first clause, though formally dependent on εἰ, is not really hypothetical: he is dead. In the second clause (εἰ..μὴ.. δώσουσ’), a real hypothesis, the negative is μή. Cp. Lys. or. 10 § 13 οὐκ οὖν δεινόν, εἰ ὅταν μὲν δέῃ σε..τοὺς ἐχθροὺς τιμωρεῖσθαι, οὕτω τοὺς νόμους...λαμβάνεις, ὅταν δ’ ἕτερον παρὰ τοὺς νόμους εἴπῃς κακῶς, οὐκ ἀξιοῖς δοῦναι δίκην;

Electra is contrasting her father, whose earthly life has been cut short, with his murderers, who survive. But she believes that his spirit lives in the world below, and will be active in aiding the vengeance (453 ff.).

πάλιν , in recompense: 100 φόνῳ φόνον πάλιν | λύοντας.

ἀντιφόνους δίκας , a penalty which exacts blood for blood: cp. 1156 ἀντίφονον...στόμα: Aesch. 464 ἀντικτόνοις ποιναῖσι φιλτάτου πατρός.

ἔρροι τ’ : the τε should properly. follow αἰδώς: cp. 258 κυρῶ τ’ ἐγὼ instead of ἐγώ τε κυρῶ.

αἰδὼς is respect for those opinions and feelings of mankind which condemn wrong-doing; as εὐσέβεια is reverence for the gods. Cp. 2. 65 ἄλλους τ’ αἰδέσθητε περικτίονας ἀνθρώπους | οἳ περιναιετάουσι· θεῶν δ’ ὑποδείσατε μῆνιν.

ἐγὼ μὲν : here μέν merely emphasises the pron.: cp. 11 n.

καὶ τὸ σὸν … καὶ τοὐμὸν : cp. 1313 ὅρα μὴ τοὐμὸν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ σόν. The chief stress is upon τὸ σόν: but the meaning is not merely that her interests are to them as their own. These women, representing the people of Mycenae, desire the downfall of the usurper whose unpunished crime lays an ἄγος upon the land. Their attitude is, so far, like that of the Argive elders in the They wish Electra, not to renounce her purpose, but quietly to await her opportunity (177 ff.).

νίκα : cp. 1353 παῦσαι· κρα<*>εῖς τοι τῶν φίλων νικώμενος.

ἅμα is best taken as an adv. (cp. 814 ἅμ’ ἕψεται: 471 ἅμ’ ἕπονται). It might, however, be a prep.; cp. 563 ξὺν Ἡρακλεῖ... εσπόμην.

πολλοῖσι θρήνοις , causal dat.; cp. 42 n.

ἀλλὰ … γὰρ : cp. 223 n.

ἥτις εὐγενὴς γυνή , sc. εἴη: cp. 5. 481 τά τ’ ἔλδεται, ὅς κ’ ἐπιδευής (sc. <*>ησι): and id. 14. 376. Here the adj. combines the ideas of birth and character: cp. 989: 874 ἀλλ’ εὐγενὴς γὰρ ἡ φύσις κἀξ εὐγενῶν: 38 εἴτ’ εὐγενὴς πέφυκας εἴτ’ ἐσθλῶν κακή.

πατρῷα … πήματα , the woes arising from her father's murder; and so, here, the woes of her father's house. For this large sense of the adj., cp. 1196 πατρῷα καὶ μητρῷα πήμαθ’ ἅπαθες: 856 πατρῷον...ἆθλον, an ordeal bequeathed by him.

κατ’ εὐφρόνην is illustrated by 271 f.

θάλλοντα : cp. 258 ἡ δ’ ἐμὴ νόσος | ἀεὶ τέθηλε. Shakesp. 5. 1. 76, ‘His May of youth and bloom of lustihood.’

ᾗ , causal: cp. 160 n.

πρῶτα μὲν … εἶτα … ἔπειτα (266). The influence of the relat. pronoun ᾗ is confined to the first clause, as in 632 ff.: ὅτῳ πρῶτον μὲν...ἔπειτα δ’ ἱκέτης κ.τ.λ.

τὰ μητρὸς is not a mere synonym for ἡ μήτηρ, but rather denotes her mother's relations with her: 268 τὰ μητρὸς καὶ πατρός.

ἔχθιστα συμβέβηκεν , have come to be such. This verb, though often joined with the participles of εἰμί and γίγνομαι, is rarely construed with a simple adj.: cp. however Plat. 329D νεότης χαλεπὴ τῷ τοιούτῳ ξυμβαίνει.

κἀκ τῶνδ’ ἄρχομαι . Cp. 63 ἀρχόμεσθ’ ἐκ κρεισσόνων: 67 ἐκ τοῦ κατ’ ἄστυ βασιλέως τάδ’ ἄρχεται. 3. 1. 6 ἐκείνῳ δ’ αὕτη ἡ χώρα δῶρον ἐκ βασιλέως ἐδόθη. In such phrases ἐκ is somewhat more than a mere equivalent for ὑπό (124). It suggests the head and fount of authority; a sense fitting here.

λαβεῖν … τὸ τητᾶσθαι . The aor. inf. expresses the act of receiving; the pres. inf., the state of privation. Cp. 95 ἐξαμαρτεῖν...νικᾶν. For λαβεῖν (without art.) as subject of πέλει, cp. 134 f. ἐπέρχεται | χαίρειν τε καὶ στέρεσθαι: for the use of the art. with τητᾶσθαι only, Soph. 495 καὶ σοφοῖς | καὶ τοῖσι φαύλοις. Somewhat similar is Soph. 808 χωρὶς τό τ’ εἰπεῖν πολλὰ καὶ τὰ καίρια, unless τὸ καίρια be read. For τητᾶσθαι, cp. 1326: 1200 n.

ποίας ... δοκεῖς κ.τ.λ.: cp. 276 σὺ δή, τέκνον, ποίαν μ’ ἀναστασιν δοκεῖς | αὐτῶν βεβώτων ἐξ ὕπνου στῆναι τότε;

ἴδω is followed by εἰσίδω δ’ and ἴδω δὲ (271). For such change of the word in ‘epanaphora,’ cp. 898 f. φίλη μὲν .. προσφιλὴς δὲ .. φίλη δὲ: 530 f. φίλτατον μὲν...ἥδιστος δ’...φίλοι δὲ.

μὲν is omitted in the first clause; cp. 105 n.

ἐσθήματα , the royal robes. He carried Agamemnon's sceptre (420). Cp. Eur. 319 ὃς δ’ ἐκεῖνον ἔκτανεν, | ἐς ταὐτὰ βαίνων ἅρματ’ ἐκφοιτᾷ πατρί, | καὶ σκῆπτρ’ ἐν οἷς Ἕλλησιν ἐστρατηλάτει, | μιαιφόνοισι χερσὶ γαυροῦται λαβών.

ἐκείνῳ =τῷ πατρί, implied in πατρῴοις: so 942 αὐτοὺς refers to πόλιν (ib. 939), and 260 τόνδε to π<*>λιν Εὐρυτείαν.

παρεστίους … λοιβάς (52 n.). In v. 1495 the words ἔνθαπερ κατέκτανες denote the place within the palace where Agamemnon was slain at the banquet (203). The words ἔνθ’ ἐκεῖνον ὤλεσεν here similarly denote the banqueting-hall. At the daily meals in the μέγαρον, Aegisthus, as master of the house, pours the libations to Hestia and other deities. Eustathius (on 22. 335) rightly observes that the Homeric βωμὸς Ἑρκείου Διὸς in the open αὐλὴ ( 11. 774) is distinct from the ἑστία proper in the megaron. His remark is illustrated by the phrase ξενίη τε τράπεζα | ἱστίη τ’ Ὀδυσῆος ( 14. 158, etc.). See below, Od. 419 n.

Acc. to 29. 4 ff., feasts began and ended with libations to Hestia: οὐ γὰρ ἄτερ σοῦ | εἰλαπίναι θνητοῖσιν, ἵν’ οὐ πρώτῃ πυμάτῃ τε | Ἱστίῃ ἀρχόμενος σπένδει μελιηδέα οἶνον. Soph. fr. 658 <*> πρῷρα λοιβῆς Ἑστία. Other divinities, including Zeus σωτήρ, were similarly honoured; then the paean was sung, and the πότος began ( Plat. p. 176 A).

τούτων (neut.), partitive gen.: ‘the crowning outrage in all this.’ Others make it fem., sc. τῶν ὕβρεων: or masc. (Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus). The last seems weaker.

αὐτοέντην , the form in 107. αὐθέντης, u<*>ed by Aesch. and Eur. , does not occur in Sophocles. The second part of the compound is akin to ἔντεα, ἐντύνω: cp. Hesych. συνέντης· συνεργός. Phrynichus explains it by αὐτόχειρ φονεύς (Lobeck, p. 120). Wilamowitz on Eur. 839 strangely holds that the post-classical sense of αὐθέντης, ‘master’ (whence effendi), was the primary one, quoting 442 ὅπου γε δῆμος αὐθέντης χθονός: but there Markland's correction, εὐθυντής, seems certain.

Brunck first adopted αὐτοέντην from the schol., in place of αὐτοφόντην , the reading of all the MSS. The latter word occurs only in Eur. 1269.Most editors have followed Brunck. Bergk and Campbell retain αὐτοφόντην, as Monk wished to do ( 1. 73). They may be right. But αὐτοέντην is exquisitius dictum, and also distinctively Sophoclean.

ἡμὶν , ethic dat., expressing indignant horror.

ταλαίνῃ , like τλήμων (275), refers to infatuated guilt; cp. 121 δυστανοτάτας (n.).

ταύτην … τῷδε : cp. 1437 οὗτος σὲ καὶ σὺ τόνδ’ : and ib. 841, 1331.

μιάστορι , one who defiles by bloodshed, as 353: but below, 603, one who punishes the blood-guilty.— Ἐρινὺν : cp. 114 n.

ἐγγελῶσα τοῖς ποιουμένοις , with mocking exultation in her course of conduct (cp. 85 τῶν δρωμένων, n.). So ἐγγελῶσα in 807. ἐγγελᾶν τινι properly=to laugh at a person or thing; and that is strictly the sense here, since Clytaemnestra's deeds are Electra's misfortunes. Cp. Ar. 1197 κᾆτ’ ἐγχανεῖται ταῖς ἐμαῖς τύχαισιν. Sophocles uses also the simple γελᾶν in this sense, Soph. 957(ἄχεσιν), ib. 1042 (κακοῖς).

εὑροῦς’ , if sound, means simply, ‘having ascertained.’ We may suppose that at least some interval had elapsed between the murder and the institution of these rites. The usurper could not at first feel secure. Having resolved to institute such a festival, Clytaemnestra was careful to see that the day of the month chosen should be precisely that on which the crime was committed. The word τότε , implying some lapse of time, confirms this view: cp. 650.For εὑρίσκειν as=‘to discover by reflection’ cp. 1178 n.—Others take εὑροῦσα as=ἐπειδὰν εὕρῃ, i.e., ‘when she has found that day’ by its coming to her in the course of each successive month (Bellermann). So, too, Wecklein, who suggests that εὑροῦσα expresses joy at the happy εὕρημα.

The conjecture φρουροῦς’ (cr. n.) is, from a palaeographical point of view, slightly preferable to the rival conjecture τηροῦς’ , and is supported by Eur. 27 φρουρῶν τόδ’ ἦμαρ. But no change seems necessary.

χοροὺς ἵστησι , the regular phrase ( Her. 3. 48, Dem. or. 21 § 51, etc.): whence Στησίχορος.

μηλοσφαγεῖ … ἱερὰ : cp. 190 οἰκονομῶ θαλάμους (n.).

ἔμμην’ ἱερά . Every month, on the date of Agamemnon's death, choruses sang paeans, victims were sacrificed to the saving gods, and a banquet (284) followed. Monthly celebrations were frequent in Greece. Thus offerings were made on the Athenian acropolis at each νουμηνία ( Her. 8. 41: [Dem. ] or. 25 § 99). There were also ἐπιμήνια to Heracles at the Cynosarges (Athen. p. 234 E). At Sparta Apollo was propitiated on the first and the seventh of each month ( Her. 6. 57). Cp. 828 C θύοντας τούτων (τῶν θεῶν) ἑκάστοις ἔμμηνα ἱερὰ χορούς τε καὶ ἀγῶνας μουσικούς. Lucian 15 αἱ πόλεις...τὰς μὲν δἰ ἔτους τὰς δὲ ἐμμήνους ἑορτὰς ἐπιτελοῦσι.

τοῖς σωτηρίοις : especially to Zeus Σωτήρ, and to Apollo προστατήριος (637). Artemis, too, was often worshipped as σώτειρα or σωσίπολις: but indeed all the greater Olympian deities shared this attribute. Cp. Xen. 3. 2. 9 τῷ θεῷ τούτῳ (Zeus Sôter) θύσειν σωτήρια..συνεπεύξασθαι δὲ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις θεοῖς θύσειν κατὰ δύναμιν.

Argive tradition placed Agamemnon's death on the 13th of Gamelion (about the end of January). So said ‘the Argive historians’ (οἱ Ἀργολικοὶ συγγραφεῖς),— according to an Argive writer named Deinias, who lived about 225 B.C. (Schol. here: Müller, vol. III. p. 25.) Possibly, then, the idea of Clytaemnestra's hideous festival may have been suggested to the poet by some actual commemoration of the event in Argolis. There was a cult of Agamemnon in various places,—notably in Laconia. (Cp. Roscher's , p. 96.)

ἡ δύσμορος . The article is omitted by Nauck (cr. n.). It is not necessary, but it adds emphasis. δύσμορος, referring to the speaker, takes the article in 951, Ph. 1352, 919.Cp. ἡ τάλαιν’ below, Ant. 304, Ant. 1138.For the place of the art., as 1st syll. of 3rd foot, cp. 257, O. C. 280, 95.— κατὰ στέγας goes with κλαίω rather than with ὁρῶσα. Seeing the festivities in front of the palace, she retires to weep in secret (285).

τέτηκα has the force of an intensive present, like γέγηθα, δέδοικα, κέκηδα (Tyrtaeus fr. 12. 38), μέμηνα, etc. (Cp. Curtius, , ch. XVI., p. 378 Eng. transl.) So 3. 176 τὸ καὶ κλαίουσα τέτηκα.—Cp. 977 κατὰ δὲ τακόμενοι... | κλαῖον.

πατρὸς κ.τ.λ. The normal order would be, τὴν πατρὸς ἐπωνομασμένην δυστάλαιναν δαῖτα. (As the words stand, the partic. would properly be predicative; ‘I lament that the feast has been called after him.’) Cp. Thuc. 7. 23 αἱ πρὸ τοῦ στόματος νῆες ναυμαχοῦσαι, and n. on Soph. 1245.For the gen., Eur. 1329(τεμένη) ἐπωνομασμένα σέθεν.

The δαίς is the feast which, in Homeric fashion ( 1. 467), would follow the sacrifice (281). Acc. to Eustathius p. 1507. 61 (on Hom. 4. 524 ff.), Ἀγαμεμνόνειος δαὶς (or τράπεζα) was a proverb ἐπὶ τῶν ἐπ’ ὀλέθρῳ εὐωχουμένων. The poet may mean that Clytaemnestra called the festival Ἀγαμεμνόνειος δαίς, in direct allusion to δεῖπνα ἄρρητα (203): and this would give a special point to ἐγγελῶσα (277). Cp. Eur. 1008 τά τ’ ἐπώνυμα δεῖπνα Θυέστου. But the words do not necessarily imply more than that she called it Ἀγαμεμνόνεια.

αὐτὴ πρὸς αὑτήν . For αὑτήν (=ἐμαυτήν) cp. 1132, 138(n.).

κλαῦσαι , rather than κλαίειν, since the thought is that she is not allowed to complete the indulgence of her grief. Cp. 788 οἴμοι τάλαινα· νῦν γὰρ οἰμῶξαι πάρα. 360 ἐπεὶ )δάκρυσα κεῖνον.

ἡδονὴν φέρει : lit., ‘as much as my inclination makes it pleasant (to weep).’ φέρειν ἡδ.=‘to afford pleasure’ (but ἔχειν, ‘to feel’ it): 779 ὅτ’ οὐδὲν ἡ χάρις χάριν φέροι: 1094 ἐπὶ ἦρα φέροντα. For θυμός, cp. Her. 8. 116 ἢ ἄλλως σφι θυμὸς ἐγένετο θεήσασθαι τὸν πόλεμον.

ἡ λόγοισι γενναία , noble in her professions (though not in her deeds), inasmuch as she claimed to be the instrument of heaven in avenging her daughter: ἡ γὰρ Δίκη νιν εἷλεν, οὐκ ἐγὼ μόνη (528). The Aeschylean Clytaemnestra speaks in the same lofty strain ( 1431 ff.).— Others understand, ‘this so-called noble woman,’ as if λόγοισι denoted words said of (not by) her.

φωνοῦσα expresses the loud tone in which the taunts are uttered: cp. 267(Eurytus taunting Heracles), φωνεῖ δέ, δοῦλος κ.τ.λ.

δύσθεον =ἄθεον, ἀσεβές: properly, ‘having untoward gods,’ as δυσδαίμων= ‘having evil fortune.’ The only other examples of δύσθεος are 421, 1590, 46, Ch. 191, Ch. 525.

μίσημα , like στύγημα, δούλευμα, etc. ( 320 n.). Cp. 991 ὦ μῖσος.

σοὶ μόνῃ : cp. 153 n.

τέθνηκεν , euphemistic for ἀνῃρέθη (schol.).

ἐν πένθει , as 847 τὸν ἐν πένθει: Plat. 605D ἐν πένθει ὄντα.

ἐκ γόων , instead of the simple gen.; cp. 231, 987.

οἱ κάτω θεοί . Electra has invoked these deities as avengers (110). The prayer is that they may leave her in her present wretchedness. (Not, that, after death, she may lament for ever in the shades.)

τάδ’ , instead of ταῦτ’, referring to the words just quoted: cp. 1045 βαρύς τε καὶ βαρεῖαν ὁ ξένος φάτιν | τήνδ’ εἶπ’.

ἥξοντ’ Ὀρέστην . In vv. 778 ff. Clytaemnestra speaks as if this threat, which kept her in constant alarm, was made by Orestes himself. But his messages to Electra were secret (1155). The meaning is that rumours of his purpose reached her from friends in Phocis, such as Phanoteus (45).

παραστᾶς’ , coming up to her in a threatening manner: cp. 992 εἴ τίς σε... | κτείνοι παραστάς.

ἥτις after σόν, as in 731 ὃν after τῆς ἐμῆς.

ὑπεξέθου , to Strophius at Crisa (180). Cp. 1350 ὑπεξεπέμφθην. Thuc. 1. 89 διεκουίζοντο εὐθὺς ὅθεν ὑπεξέθεντο (from Aegina) παῖδας καὶ γυναῖκας: ib. 137 ἦλθε...καὶ ἐξ Ἄργους ἃ ὑπεξέκειτο.

ἀλλ’ ἴσθι τοι τείσουσά γ’ . Though τείσουσ’ ἔτ’ (cr. n.) is a specious conjecture, the text is confirmed by other examples of γε combined with ἀλλά τοι in threats: 1064 ἀλλ’ εὖ γέ τοι κάτισθι: 1107 ἀλλ’ εὖ γέ τοι τόδ’ ἴστε. For the spelling of τείσουσα, cp. 810 n.

ὑλακτεῖ , the word used of a dog's bark, here describes a yell of rage, as in Eur. 760 ἄμουσ’ ὑλακτῶν is said of the drunken Heracles.

σὺν is here an adv. (and not, as in 746, a case of tmesis): cp. 1288 ὅδ’ ἦν ὁ πράσσων ταῦτα, σὺν δ’ ἐγὼ παρών.

πέλας is combined with παρών as in 83: so with παρέστατε, ib. 1183: and παραστατήσειν, 400.— παρών implies support and aid; cp. 373, Ph. 1405.

301 The adv. πάντα often thus strengthens an adj., as 911 ὁ πάντα κωφός, ὁ πάντ’ ἄϊδρις.

ἄναλκις : 3. 310 ἀνάλκιδος Αἰγίσθοιο: Aesch. 1224 λέοντ’ ἄναλκιν.

ἡ πᾶσα βλάβη , equiv. in sense to ὁ πᾶς βλάβη ὤν: see on 622, where this phrase is applied to Odysseus: and cp. ib. 927 ὦ πῦρ σὺ καὶ πᾶν δεῖμα.

σὺν γυναιξὶ , i.e. with Clytaemnestra for his ally.

τὰς μάχας , such fights as he wages: for the art., cp. 190 τοὺς φίλους ποιούμεθα.

ἐφήξειν : cp. 34(Ajax to Athena) καιρὸν δ’ ἐφήκεις (come to my aid).

μέλλων … δρᾶν τι , intending to do something great,—as his frequent messages promised (1155). For this sense of δρᾶν τι, cp. 160 ἀλλ’ ὥς τι δράσων εἷρπε, and 732(n.): for μέλλων with pres. inf., 967 n.

τὰς οὔσας τε … καὶ τὰς ἀπούσας , simply, ‘all possible’ hopes; (not, ‘present, or more distant’:) cp. 1108 ἴτ’ ἴτ’ ὀπάονες, | οἵ τ’ ὄντες οἵ τ’ ἀπόντες (n.).

μου is unobjectionable, though I should prefer μοι (cr. n.). In 355 μοι is a probable correction of μου.

διέφθορεν . The perf. διέφθορα has always this act. sense where it occurs in Attic writers (Eur. , and the Comic poets). In 15. 128(φρένας ἠλέ, διέφθορας) it has a pass. sense; so, too, with Hippocrates (8. 246), and with later writers, as Plutarch and Lucian.

σωφρονεῖν , to observe such moderation as the Chorus recommend; εὐσεβεῖν , to abstain from the unfilial behaviour which Clytaemnestra resents (596), and which Electra herself deplores as a cruel necessity (616—621). The passage is grievously marred by changing εὐσεβεῖν, as some do, to εὐστομεῖν (cr. n.). In Aesch. 140Electra says, αὐτῇ τέ μοι δὸς σωφρονεστέραν πολὺ | μητρὸς γενέσθαι χεῖρά τ’ εὐσεβεστέραν.

ἔν τοι κακοῖς : similarly τοι can separate the art. from its noun ( 880, etc.). The vulg. ἐν τοῖς κακοῖς is not unmetrical (since not only τοῖς, but also ἐν, coheres with κακοῖς), but is weak. In 776, too, τοι was corrupted to τοῖς.

πολλή )στ’ ἀνάγκη , as 293, 295.— κἀπιτηδεύειν κακά : i.e., as her circumstances are evil, so, on her own part (καί, 1026), she is driven to an evil behaviour, —i.e., to defying her mother: as she says in 621 αἰσχροῖς γὰρ αἰσχρὰ πράγματ’ ἐκδιδάσκεται .

I place only a comma, not a colon, after πάρεστιν , as the context requires; for the opposition expressed by ἀλλά is merely to the negative form of the preceding clause, not to its sense.

ὄντος … βεβῶτος . The leading idea of the sentence is here expressed by the gen. absol., as so often by the participle in other cases ( 1038 n.).—It was necessary for the plot that the absence of Aegisthus should be notified to the spectators at some early moment; Clytaemnestra reminds them of it at v. 517.

ἦ κάρτα recurs below, 1278; 379; 1359: but only here as an independent affirmative, which is elsewhere καὶ κάρτα ( 65, O. C. 301).

θυραῖον , fem., as is θυραῖος in 533(n.).

οἰχνεῖν : 165 n.

ἀγροῖσι , like 174 οὐρανῷ n.

τυγχάνει , without ὤν, 46 n.

ἦ κἂν … ἱκοίμην ..; The force of ἦ καί, which inquires with a certain eagerness (663, 368, 757), seems exactly in place here. The leader of the Chorus, not without trepidation, approaches the subject which is uppermost in their thoughts. With ἦ τ<*>ν , or ἦ δἂν (a crasis for which ἐπειδὰν is quoted), there would be no interrogation. But neither seems nearly so fitting as ἦ κᾄν.

ἐς λόγους τοὺς σοὺς ἱκοίμην instead of ἐς λόγους ἱκοίμην σοι: cp. Her. 2. 28 τῶν ἐμοὶ ἀπικομένων ἐς λόγους.

ὡς νῦν is better here than ὥς νυν .

ἱστόρει· τί σοι φίλον ; This punctuation is necessary unless the text is to be altered. It has been called ‘harsh.’ But it is not more abrupt than εἰδέναι θέλω in 318, and it suits the slight surprise with which Electra hears the question. The conjecture τό (or τά ) σοι φίλον throws an awkward stress on the enclitic σοι: and σοὶ would be inappropriate.

With the other punctuation, ἱστόρει τί σοι φίλον , the words could mean only, ‘ask what it is that you wish’; not, ‘ask whatever you wish.’ Classical Greek writers use τίς instead of ὅστις only where there is an indirect question (as λέγε τί χρῄζεις). In the Appendix I have examined the alleged exceptions to this rule. It will be found that, when they are real, they are post-classical.

καὶ δὴ , i.e., without further preface: cp. 892: 245 καὶ δὴ λέγω σοι: 31 n.

τοῦ κασιγνήτου τί φής ...; Cp. 11. 174 εἰπὲ δέ μοι πατρός τε καὶ υἱέος: 439 ἀναξίου μὲν φωτὸς ἐξερήσομαι (n.).

ἥξοντος , about to come (soon), ἢ μέλλοντος , or delaying? Do his messages indicate zeal, or do they not? Cp. 1627 τί μέλλομεν | χωρεῖν; The words could also mean, ‘about to come soon, or (at least) purposing to do so’ (cp. 75 ἐπιστρατεύειν..ἢ μέλλειν ἔτι): but the antithesis recommends the former view.— The participles explain τί, being equiv. to ὅτι ἥξει, ἢ μέλλει; cp. Aesch. 271 εὖ γὰρ φρονοῦντος ὄμμα σοῦ κατηγορεῖ.

φησίν γε , sc. ἥξειν: cp. 171 f.

ποεῖ : for the spelling, cp. 120 n.

καὶ μὴν ἔγωγ’ . It depends on the context in each case whether καὶ μήν signifies (1) ‘and indeed,’ as in 556; or (2) ‘and yet,’ as here, and' in 1045, 1188. For the addition of γε , cp. 1045 n.

οὐκ ὄκνῳ , a dat. of manner (=οὐκ ὀκνοῦσα). The emphasis is upon this phrase.

ἀρκεῖν =ἐπαρκεῖν, as in 262.

ἐπεί , ‘for else’; i.e., εἰ μὴ ἐπεποίθη. So in 433 ἐπεὶ implies εἰ ᾔδη.

μακρὰν means, ‘so long as I actually have lived.’ ‘If I had not (hitherto) been confident, I should not have continued to live so long.’

324 Here, as in 316, νῦν is better than νυν . The Chorus wish Electra to cease speaking of Orestes, because they regard Chrysothemis as a partisan of Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus.

δόμων , gen. of the place whence, with φέρουσαν : cp. 613 ἄγοιντο νήσου: 152 Πυθῶνος..ἔβας.

ὅμαιμον is further defined, as in 12: cp. 156. Lys. or. 32 § 4 ἀδελφοὶ...ὁμοπάτριοι καὶ ὁμομήτριοι.

φύσιν , adverbial acc., ‘by birth’: cp. 1125:— 380 πατρὸς μὲν οὖσα γένεσιν Εὐρύτου.

Χρυσόθεμιν : the name occurs nowhere else in the play, except in v. 158. Eur. uses it once, Eur. 23 Χρυσόθεμις Ἰφιγένειά τ’ Ἠλέκτρα τ’ ἐγώ. For the place of the name in the sentence, cp. 695.— ἐντάφια, ἐναγίσματα, offerings for the grave of Agamemnon, viz., (1) libations, χοαί, and (2) some other articles, such as flowers, and perhaps cakes, described at v. 434 by the word κτερίσματα, as distinct from λουτρά. Cp. v. 405 ἔμπυρα (n.). It is evident that, even if she is attended by a πρόσπολος, Chrysothemis carries some, at least, of the gifts in her own hands: cp. 431 ὧν ἔχεις χεροῖν.—For the tribrach in the 5th foot, cp. 719 n.

οἷα is nom. to νομίζεται , not acc., as though φέρειν were understood: cp. 691. To pay funeral rites was τὰ νομιζόμενα ποιεῖν ( Aeschin. or. 1 § 14) or φέρειν ( Dem. or. 18 § 243). Isae. or. 2 § 46 ἐναγίζῃ αὐτῷ καθ’ ἕκαστον ἐνιαυτόν.

πρὸς θυρῶνος ἐξόδοις , close to the thoroughfare of the θυρών or vestibule ( 1242): cp. Aesch. 33 πυλῶν ἐπ’ ἐξόδοις. These words go with φωνεῖς , while ἐλθοῦσα emphasises her boldness in seeking such publicity. As αὖ implies, she has often done so before; cp. 517 ὅς σ’ ἐπεῖχ’ ἀεὶ | μή τοι θυραίαν γ’ οὖσαν αἰσχύνειν φίλους.

330 For the absence of caesura, cp. 101 n.

θυμῷ … χαρίζεσθαι : cp. Antiphon Γ. γ. § 2 (μέθη) ἐπαίρει τῷ θυμῷ χαρίζεσθαι: Eur. fr. 31 ὀργῇ γὰρ ὅστις εὐθέως χαρίζεται | κακῶς τελευτᾷ. So Soph. 855 ὀργῇ χάριν δούς. The verb χαρίζομαι is nowhere else used by Sophocles.

καίτοι τοσοῦτόν γ’ οἶδα , as in 1455: cp. 441 καίτοι τοσοῦτόν γ’ ἐξεπίστασθαι δοκῶ.

κἀμαυτήν, ὅτι , instead of ὅτι κἀγὼ: cp. 520 f.: 444 τοῦτον οἶσθ’ εἰ ζῶν κυρεῖ; (n.).

333 f. For the repeated ἄν , cp. 339 n.

οἶ) αὐτοῖς φρονῶ : cp. Ar. 446 Τηλέφῳ δ’ ἁγὼ φρονῶ.

ὑφειμένῃ , submisse: cp. Eur. 524 κατθανεῖν ὑφειμένην, ‘resigned to die.’ Here the figurative πλεῖν gives a special sense to the partic., viz., ‘with lowered sail.’ So Ar. 1220 ὑφέσθαι μοι δοκεῖ· | τὸ ληκύθιον γὰρ τοῦτο πνευσεῖται πολύ. Plut. 3 μεθ’ ἡμέραν μὲν ὑφειμένοις πλέων τοῖς ἱστίοις καὶ ταπεινοῖς, νύκτωρ δὲ ἐπαιρομένοις.

For the image, cp. Eur. 524 ἄκροισι λαίφους κρασπέδοις (with close-reefed sails) ὑπεκφυγεῖν | τὴν σὴν στόμαργον, ὦ γύναι, γλωσσαλγίαν: Ar. 997 ἀλλ’ ὅπως, ὦ γεννάδα, | μὴ πρὸς ὀργὴν ἀντιλέξεις, | ἀλλὰ συστείλας, ἄκροισι | χρώμενος τοῖς ἱστίοις κ.τ.λ.: and conversely Soph. 715 ναὸς ὅστις ἐγκρατῆ πόδα | τείνας ὑπείκει μηδέν. Ovid 1. 8. 71 moderatius opta, | Et voti, quaeso, contrahe vela tui. Shakesp. , pt. iii, act 3 sc. 3. 5 ‘Now Margaret | Must strike her sail, and learn awhile to serve | Where kings command.’

καὶ μὴ δοκεῖν κ.τ.λ. Her thought is, δοκεῖς μὲν δρᾶν τι, πημαίνεις δὲ οὔ: ‘you have merely the semblance of being active against our foes, without really harming them. I will not imitate you.’ The first μὴ affects all that follows it. Such a combination of independent negatives is especially frequent in denials of illogical conduct; since Greek idiom loved to bring out a want of consistency by a parataxis with μέν and δέ. Thus I. p. 124 C ἐγὼ γάρ τοι οὐ περὶ μὲν σοῦ λέγω ὡς χρὴ παιδευθῆναι, περὶ δ’ ἐμοῦ οὔ. Dem. or. 18 § 179 οὐκ εἶπον μὲν ταῦτα, οὐκ ἔγραψα δέ (‘I did not say these things and then fail to propose them’). Similar is Soph. 277 καὶ μὴ θεοὺς τιμῶντες εἶτα τοὺς θεοὺς | †μοίραις†ποεῖσθε μηδαμῶς.

τοιαῦτα δ’ ἄλλα . She wishes Electra's behaviour to be a faithful copy of her own. Cp. Her. 1. 191 τά περ ἡ τῶν Βαβυλωνίων βασίλεια ἐποίησε..., ἐποίεε καὶ ὁ Κῦρος ἕτερα τοιαῦτα. Plat. 372D γηραιοὶ τελευτῶντες ἄλλον τοιοῦτον βίον τοῖς ἐκγόνοις παραδώσουσιν.—The MS. ἀλλὰ is impossible. Thus placed, it could not have the ‘appealing’ force claimed for it by Schneidewin (‘, thus do thou also’): cp. 411 n. It is strange that any doubts should be felt as to ἄλλα (cr. n.).

καίτοι τὸ μὲν δίκαιον κ.τ.λ. Chrysothemis, like Ismene ( 65), recognises the duty from which she shrinks. The poet's object is not to contrast a good with a base nature, but the heroic with the commonplace.

κρίνεις , decide, choose. The contrast is between the pronouns rather than between the verbs: thus the sense would be the same, if we had, οὐχ ᾗ ἐγὼ κρίνω, ἀλλ’ ᾗ σύ. (Cp. 54 n.)

εἰ … με δεῖ =εἰ μέλλω: cp. 1110 εἰ χρή τι κἀμέ κ.τ.λ.: 749 εἰ χρὴ μαθεῖν σε.

ἐλευθέραν , whereas Electra is a slave (1192).

ζῆν . A monosyllable, followed by a pause, can begin the verse even when, as here, it is non-emphatic: so 1448 θοῦ. But more often it has emphasis, as 546 σοῦ, ib. 986 ζῇ.

πάντ’ , adv. (301).

ἀκουστέα : for the plur., cp. 677 f. ἀμυντέα...ἡσσητέα (n.).

δεινόν γε . For this γε in comment, cp. 1225 δεινόν γε φωνεῖς (n.).

τῆς … τικτούσης , as 1247, the pres. part. expressing the permanent relationship; cp. Eur. 1560 ἥδε τίκτει σ’ (‘is thy mother’), and Soph. 437 n.

μέλειν : schol. φροντίζειν. The personal use of μέλειν was admitted by Aesch. ( Aesch. 370 θεοὺς βροτῶν ἀξιοῦσθαι μέλειν), and Eur. ( Eur. 772 θεοὶ τῶν ἀδίκων | μέλουσι). We are not obliged to assume it here, nor in Soph. 688, Τεύκρῳ τ’, ἢν μόλῃ, σημήνατε | μέλειν μὲν ἡμῶν, εὐνοεῖν δ’ ὑμῖν ἅμα: but in both places it gives the simplest construction.

τἀμὰ νουθετήματα : the possessive pron.=an objective gen., ἐμοῦ: cp. 969 τὠμῷ πόθῳ: 332 σῇ... προμηθίᾳ.

κείνης διδακτά : cp. 934 ἐκδιδαχθεὶς τῶν κατ’ οἶκον: 1437 μηδενὸς προσήγορος.

ἐκ σαυτῆς : cp. 885.

The text, which has been suspected (cr. n.), is sound; but the train of thought is somewhat obscured by compression.

‘You forget your father, and care only for your mother. All your counsels to me come from her. Then (ἔπειτα),—that being so,—give up the attempt at a compromise. Make a choice (ἑλοῦ γε). You can be imprudent (φρονεῖν κακῶς),—as you say that I am,—and loyal to your dead father. Or you can be prudent (φρονοῦσα), and forgetful of him,—as you actually are; you who (ἥτις) say, indeed, that you would show your hatred of the murderers if you could; and yet, when I do resist them, you try to turn me from my purpose. You merely add the shame of cowardice to our woes.’

ἔπειθ’ , ‘then,’ ‘after that’; i.e., ‘such being the case,’—that you side with Clytaemnestra. This use of the word in logical inference is not rare (cp. 5. 812, Il. 10. 243). Others render it: (1) ‘Further’—which does not fit the context: or (2) ‘And yet,’ ‘nevertheless,’—a sense which ἔπειτα seldom bears except in a question; e.g., Eur. 821 f. ΘΕ. γυνὴ μὲν οὖν ὄλωλεν Ἀδμήτου, ξένε. ΗΡ. τί φής; ἔπειτα δῆτά μ’ ἐξενίζετε; Nor is that sense so suitable here.

ἑλοῦ γε . The effect of γε is merely to emphasise the verb,—opposing a definite choice to a compromise. Cp. 411 συγγένεσθέ γ’: 1035 ἐπίστω γ’. When γε is thus added to the imperative, it is more often in such combinations as ὅρα γε μήν ( 587), or παῦσαί γε μέντοι ( 483).

φρονεῖν κακῶς , to be imprudent. The chief theme of the timid sister's speech (328—340) has been prudence; as in 994 she insists on τὴν εὐλάβειαν, and Electra says (1027) ζηλῶ σε τοῦ νοῦ, τῆς δὲ δειλίας στυγῶ.

Other explanations are:—(1) ‘Choose to be thought either lost to right feeling, or, if you have such feeling, then at least forgetful of your duty.’ (2) ‘Choose to seem either unintelligent (if you are merely the blind instrument of our rulers); or, if you act with clear understanding (φρονοῦσα),—thinking to benefit me,—at least forgetful of your father.’ Both these views assume that the question is merely between two interpretations which might be placed on the present conduct of Chrysothemis. But Electra is putting the dilemma between imprudent loyalty and prudent disloyalty.

τῶν φίλων , meaning esp. her father: cp. 241 γονέων: 652 φίλοισι. (In 368, however, φίλους=Electra and Orestes.)

ἥτις , causal, because v. 346 describes the course which she is actually taking. The words λέγεις μὲν..ἐκδείξειας ἄν correspond with φρονοῦσα , as illustrating her prudence; while 349 f. explain the sense in which she forgets her father.— μῖσος : Electra puts bluntly what Chrysothemis veiled by the euphemism οἷ’ αὐτοῖς φρονῶ (334).

πάντα , adv.

τιμωρουμένης : the midd., as in 399, where the active would be normal. ‘To avenge one’ is usu. τιμωρεῖν τινι (the accus., denoting the person chastised, being often omitted), as 136 γῇ τῇδε τιμωροῦντα. ‘To punish a person’ is usu. τιμωρεῖσθαί τινα (to which a dat. of the person avenged can be added): 1258 ὅς σε τιμωρήσεται. Conversely in 107, O. T. 140 τιμωρεῖν= τιμωρεῖσθαι.

οὔτε … τε : cp. 1397 n.: 1321 f., Ph. 1363.

τήν τε δρῶσαν : more pointed here than ἐμέ τε δρῶσαν: ‘her who does act.’

πρὸς κακοῖσι , ‘in addition to the miseries’ of the family.—Not:—‘Do not these things involve cowardice in addition to being base?’ That would require πρὸς τῷ κακῷ, as Plat. p. 46 A μὴ ἅμα τῷ κακῷ καὶ αἰσχρὰ ᾖ (=ἅμα τῷ κακὰ εἶναι).

δειλίαν ἔχει , cp. Dem. or. 18 § 279 τὸ δὲ δὴ καὶ τοὺς πρὸς ἐμὲ αὐτὸν ἀγῶνας ἐάσαντα νῦν ἐπὶ τόνδ’ ἥκειν καὶ πᾶσαν ἔχει κακίαν.

ἐπεὶ , i.e., if there be indeed any good in such counsels. Cp. 323. For this controversial ἐπεί with the imperat., see 390, 969.

ἢ μάθ’ ἐξ ἐμοῦ : cp. 565 ἢ )γὼ φράσω. For the parenthesis, Schneid. cp. Eur. 121 σπείρουσι δ’, ἢ τῷ ζῶσι, Δήμητρος στάχυν.

ἐπαρκούντως occurs nowhere else in classical Greek: though, as Dindorf notes, it is cited by the grammarian Joannes Philoponus (7th cent. A.D. ) in his τονικὰ παραγγέλματα, p. 39. 17. But the corresponding sense of ἐπαρκεῖν, though rare, is well-attested: Solon fr. 5, 1 τόσον κράτος, ὅσσον ἐπαρκεῖ . It seems unnecessary, then, to read ἀπαρκούντως.

προσάπτειν , render as a tribute: cp. 24. 110 τόδε κῦδος Ἀχιλλῆι προτιάπτω. Pind. 8. 36 ὡς παισὶ κλέος | μὴ τὸ δύσφαμον προσάψω. Plat. 231A μὴ μεῖζον αὐτοῖς προσάπτωμεν γέρας.

εἴ τις ἔστ’ ἐκεῖ χάρις , if any gratification can be felt in the nether world,— ὅπου τὸ χαίρειν μηδαμοῦ νομίζεται ( Aesch. 423). For ἐκεῖ=ἐν Ἅιδου, cp. Soph. 855, Soph. 76.

ἡμὶν , ethic dat., (thou, whom I am asked to regard as hating,) 272.— ξύνει , here=‘art their ally’: whereas in 263 the same phrase, applied to Electra, means merely that she dwells in the same house.

τὰ σὰ … δῶῤ , the privileges (in regard to soft living) which the rulers confer upon her.

ἐφ’ οἶσι , as in 333, instead of the simple dat.

χλιδᾷς , superbis. Eur. fr. 986 πλούτῳ χλιδῶσα θνητὰ δή, γύναι, φρόνει.

ὑπεικάθοιμι : on these forms, see 651 n.

πλουσία : in contrast with the κεναὶ τράπεζαι of 192.

περιρρείτω , be superabundant; a sense of περιρρεῖν not elsewhere found in Greek of this age; but cp. Plut. 16(referring to the domestic economy of Pericles), οὐδενὸς οἷον (as is usual) ἐν οἰκίᾳ μεγάλῃ καὶ πράγμασιν ἀφθόνοις περιρρέοντος.

τοὐμὲ μὴ λυπεῖν : ‘For me, let it be food enough that I do not pain myself (by a base compliance with the murderers)’: ἐμὲ for ἐμαυτήν, as ἐμοί for ἐμαυτῷ in 736 ἄλλῳ γὰρ ἢ )μοὶ χρή με τῆσδ’ ἄρχειν χθονός; For the figurative sense of βόσκημα, cp. Aesch. 26 δἰ αἰῶνος δ’ ἰυγμοῖσι βόσκεται κέαρ. The phrase λυπεῖν ἑαυτόν seems to have been familiar: Eur. 336 ὡς τοὐμπιεῖν γε καὶ φαγεῖν τοὐφ’ ἡμέραν, | Ζεὺς οὗτος ἀν‐ θρώποισι τοῖσι σώφροσι, | λυπεῖν δὲ μηδὲν α<*>τόν: Eur. (?) fr. 174 (Nauck) μὴ οὖν ἔθελε λυπεῖν σαυτόν (where Hermann conjectured μή νυν θέλε | λυπεῖν σεαυτόν). The tone of the phrase here is explained by the context. In the preceding verses Electra has fully set forth her view: now she is summing it up, in words suited to a hearer of whose sympathy she despairs. ‘Enough for me if I do not offend my own sense of right’; i.e., ‘I must obey my own instincts,—as you follow yours.’

Remark the resemblance to the passage where Antigone—summing up her position—compares the moral pain of neglecting her duty with those penalties which she contemns:—κείνοις ἂν ἤλγουν· τοῖσδε δ’ οὐκ ἀλγύνομαι ( 468). There, too, we have a Sophoclean triad of clauses, the third echoing the first,—as τῆς σῆς δ’ οὐκ ἐρῶ τιμῆς τυχεῖν here reiterates the sense of σοὶ δὲ πλουσία... βίος (n. on 465 ff.).

One of the scholia recognises the traditional reading, and explains it correctly: —τοῦτο μόνον ἐμὲ βοσκέτω, τὸ μὴ λυπεῖν ἐμὲ αὐτήν, εἰ (‘as I should do, if’) τοῖς φονεῦσι τοῦ πατρὸς πείθεσθαι ἀναγκασθήσομαι.—The conjectures have been numerous: see Appendix.

οὐδ’ ἂν σὺ κ.τ.λ., sc. ἐρῴης (or ἤρας), as οὖσα=εἰ εἴης (or ἦσθα): for the ellipse of a verb after ἄν, cp. 462, 115.

παῖδα , where the dat. παιδὶ is also admissible: cp. 838 n.

κεκλῆσθαι : cp. fr. 83 καταρκεῖ τοῦδε κεκλῆσθαι πατρός. By forgetting her duty to her father, she as it were repudiates him, and will be known only as Clytaemnestra's daughter. Here (as in 341 f.) it is implied that the paternal claim on filial piety is naturally stronger than the maternal ( Aesch. 658 ff.: Eur. 552 f.). In the case of a son, τὸ μητρὸς καλεῖσθαι conveyed a reproach of effeminacy: thus in Soph. fr. 139 (from a satyrplay) a boy is described as now too old μητρὸς καλεῖσθαι παῖσα, τοῦ πατρὸς παρόν. (See, too, Eur. 933 ff.)

πλείστοις : as below, in vv. 975— 985, she imagines how she and her sister, if they act nobly, will be praised by all.

μηδὲν , sc. εἴπῃς: πρὸς ὀργὴν , ‘angrily’; like πρὸς βίαν, πρὸς ἡδονήν, etc. ( 90 n.): Ar. 856 σὺ δὲ μὴ πρὸς ὀργήν, Αἰσχύλ’, ἀλλὰ πραόνως | ἔλεγχ’.

ἀμφοῖν is best taken as dat. fem., ‘for both of you,’ ‘on both your parts’: though (notwithstanding its position) it could be also gen. fem. The objection to taking it as dat. masc. with τοῖς λόγοις is that the noun or pron. joined to ἄμφω or ἀμφοτέρω is usu. dual, as 483 ἐξ ἀμφοῖν χεροῖν, 683 ἀμφοῖν ἀπ’ αὐτοῖν. Similarly ἀμφότεροι usu. takes a plur.; for 21. 115 χεῖρε πετάσσας | ἀμφοτέρας is exceptional. A discrepancy in the number of the verb is more frequent, as Plat. 478A δυνάμεις δὲ ἀμφότεραί ἐστον.

τῆσδε … αὕτη , referring to the same person, as 841 τοῦδε...τοῦτον (n.). Electra is in need of caution, and Chrysothemis of loyalty. For πάλιν , cp. 1434.

ἐγὼ μὲν : 251 n.

πως , fere: Ai. 327 τοιαῦτα γάρ πως καὶ λέγει κὠδύρεται.

μύθων , in a disparaging sense, as Eur. 744 τοὺς σοὺς δὲ μύθους ῥᾳδίως ἐγὼ φέρω.

οὐδ’ , ‘nor.’ Brunck wrote κοὐδ’ , wishing οὐδέ to mean ‘not even’ (cp. 1429 οὐδ’ ἀγγελοῦμεν φλαῦρα). But this is unnecessary, esp. as ποτέ follows.

ἰὸν : cp. 1771 ἰόντα φόνον | τοῖσιν ὁμαίμοις.

σχήσει : 223.

τὸ δεινὸν : so Antigone to Ismene, 95 ἔα με.. | παθεῖν τὸ δεινὸν τοῦτο.

εἰ γὰρ τῶνδέ μοι . Elmsley proposed δὲ instead of γάρ. But the spondee can stand in the 5th foot, since εἰ coheres with the following words (the metrical effect being as that of one word, e.g. ἐξαιρούμενον): so 115 ἐν γὰρ τῷ μαθεῖν.

γὰρ , prefatory: 32.

γόων , though v. 375 ends with the same word: cp. 161, 163 (γᾶ...γᾶν). This may have prompted the weak v.l. λόγων .

ἐνταῦθα =ἐνταυθοῖ, as in 1193.

ἔνθα μή ποτε … προσόψει : cp. 436: 1412 ἐκρίψατ’, ἔνθα μήποτ’ εἰσόψεσθ’ ἔτι: 800, 659.

ζῶσα , implying that it will be a living death; cp. 888 ζῶσα τυμβεύειν.

κατηρεφεῖ , lit. ‘roofed over’; the στέγη meant is a vault or dungeon, not a natural cavern (though the adj. would suit that also). So the sepulchral chamber of Antigone is a κατηρεφὴς τύμβος ( 885, n.: cp. ib. 774, and 891).

χθονὸς τῆσδ’ ἐκτὸς , because the usurpers might well fear the sympathy which disaffected Mycenaeans (like the women of the Chorus) would feel with Electra. Some critics seek to alter the text (cr. n.), thinking that the prison ought to be either in or near the house, or at least in Argolis. But they have overlooked Electra's own words in 391, referring to this threat—ὅπως ἀφ’ ὑμῶν ὡς προσώτατ’ ἐκφύγω.

ὑμνήσεις , decantabis: cp. 658 πρὸς ταῦτ’ ἐφυμνείτω Δία | ξύναιμον. 292 βαἴ, ἀεὶ δ’ ὑμνούμενα.

πρὸς ταῦτα is often joined to the imperat. in warning or menace; cp. 820; 426; 455; 658; 971, Ai. 1066, Ai. 1115.

Nauck reads κοὔ , the conjecture of Blaydes. But καί is right. She says, ‘reflect (now), and do not blame me after the event.’ This is manifestly fitter than, ‘reflect, and you will not blame me,’ etc.

ἐν καλῷ, εὔκαιρον schol.: 4. 3. 5 νομίσαντες οὐκ ἐν καλῷ εἶναι πρὸς τοὺς ὁπλίτας ἱππομαχεῖν: so, too, Eur. 971, etc. Cp. καλόν (ἐστι)=καίριον in Soph. 1155; and εἰς καλόν=καιρίως in 78.

ἦ ταῦτα δὴ κ.τ.λ. The formula ἦ … δὴ expresses lively surprise, just as in 565 η<*> ταῦτα δὴ Φοῖνίξ τε χοἱ ξυνναυβάται | ..δρῶσιν..; There is no reason for preferring ἦ … γὰρ (cr. n.), which is slightly less animated. It may be noticed that ἦ γάρ, as used by Sophocles, usually asks whether an inference from the previous speaker's words is correct (‘am I to understand that...’): see e.g. O. T. 1000, O. T. 1039, O. T. 1173; 248, Ph. 322, Ph. 654.But here the question is virtually no more than an astonished comment.

καὶ βεβούλευνται : καί emphasises the verb: cp. 726 οἱ τηλικοίδε καὶ διδαξόμεσθα δή..; 772 n. For the perf. pass. with middle force, cp. 947.

ἀλλ’ ἐξίκοιτο : cp. 44 ἀλλ’ ἵλεῳ...δεξαίατο.

τοῦδέ γ’ οὕνεκ’ , ‘for that matter,’ ‘if that is all’; cp. 605, 787: 22 n.

τίνα … τόνδ’ <*> cp. 184 τίν’ εἶπας, <*> γεραιέ, τόνδε μοι λόγον ; O. C. 68 n.

τάλαινα , ‘misguided,’ as Ismene says to Antigone, οἴμοι ταλαίνης ( 82).

εἴ τι τῶνδε , with a shade of irony, ‘anything of this kind’: 1034 νοεῖς τι τούτων ; O. T. 1140 λέγω τι τούτων κ.τ.λ.

ποῦ ποτ’ εἶ φρενῶν ; Cp. 42 ποῦ γνώμης ποτ’ εἶ; (n.).

ὅπως without ἄν, as in 688.— ὑμῶν , bitterly identifying her sister with her foes, whom she has hitherto called ‘them’ (348, 355, 361).

προσώτατ’ . Several recent editions read προσωτάτω φύγω with L. Dindorf, on the ground that this was the correct form of the superl. adv. It is certainly the only form which elsewhere occurs in classical But HerodotusAttic. , at least, could say προσώτατα ἀπικέσθαι (2. 103); as also τὰ ἀνώτατα (2. 125), οἱ...κατώτατα ἑστεῶτες (7. 23), where an Attic writer would have used ἀνωτάτω, κατωτάτω. Pindar has περαίτερον ἄλλων ( 8. 63), instead of περαιτέρω. Thucydides uses ἐγγύτατα (1. 13 etc.) even more frequently than ἐγγυτάτω (3. 38 etc.). It seems rash, then, to asser<*> that Sophocles could not possibly have used προσώτατα, especially when it is so decidedly commended by euphony.

βίου … τοῦ παρόντος , as compared with the life in the vault (3<*>1). Electra herself had said that it sufficed for her (354).

καλὸς γὰρ κ.τ.λ. For this use of γὰρ in a sarcastic retort, cp. Ar. 71, where the πρέσβυς has described himself and his colleagues as ἀπολλύμενοι, and Dicaeopolis rejoins, σφόδρα γὰρ ἐσῳζόμην ἐγώ κ.τ.λ.

θαυμάσαι : cp. Thuc. 1. 138 ἄξιος θαυμάσαι.

τοῖς φίλοις , i.e. τῷ πατρί, as in 346.

εἰκαθεῖν : cp. 361 n.

ταῦτα , cogn. acc., ταύτην τὴν θωπείαν. For the verb, cp. 1336.— οὐκ ἐμοὺς κ.τ.λ.: ἐμοὺς is predicative, like τίν’ in 388 (n.).

γε emphasises καλόν: μέντοι = ‘however’: 442 n.

μὴ )ξ . The crasis of μή with ἐκ occurs also in 278, 1075, 467, 727, Tr. 1235.

πεσεῖν , to be ruined; as 50, O. T. 146, O. T. 376: 395.

399 A woman, speaking of herself in the plur., uses the masc.: 926 παθόντες ἂν ξυγγνοῖμεν ἡμαρτηκότες.

συγγνώμην . Ismene defends herself by a like excuse,—αἰτοῦσα τοὺς ὑπὸ χθονὸς | ξύγγνοιαν ἴσχειν ( 65).

τἄπη , maxims, sentiments: cp. Aesch. 717 οὐκ ἄνδρ’ ὁπλίτην τοῦτο χρὴ στέργειν ἔπος.

πρὸς κακῶν , it befits them: for this use of πρός, cp. 319, Ai. 581, Ai. 1071.

μή πω , ironical; cp. Eur. 1278 μή πω μανείη Τυνδαρὶς τοσόνδε παῖς: id. Eur. 365 ἀλλ’ οὔ τι ταύτῃ ταῦτα· μὴ δοκεῖτέ πω.

οἷπερ … ὁδοῦ . The gen. is partitive, just as in 1035 οἷ..ἀτιμίας. The only peculiarity is that ὁδοῦ is used in an abstract sense,—‘to that point of journeying’;—as we might have οἷ πορείας, or οἷ πλανημάτων.

τῷ φέρεις . ποῖ has better authority than τῷ (cr. n.), but the latter is certainly to be preferred here.

ἔμπυρα probably refers to some articles of food, perhaps cakes, which she (or a handmaid) was carrying to be burned at the grave (cp. 326 n.). Thus Lucian, speaking of offerings to the dead, says ( 22), καίουσί τε τὰ πολυτελῆ δεῖπνα, καὶ ἐς τὰ ὀρύγματα ο<*>=νον καὶ μελίκρατον, ὡς γοῦν εἰκάσαι, ἐκχέουσιν. Chrysothemis, in her reply, naturally speaks of the χοαί, since they formed the most characteristic part of the rite. But it seems impossible that the word ἔμπυρα should directly denote the libations, as was supposed by the schol. (τάδ’ ἔμπυρα· ταύτας τὰς σπονδάς), and by Triclinius. There is nothing to show that the term ἔμπυρα, ‘burnt offerings,’ was ever extended to offerings generally; or that ἔμπυρα could mean, ‘offerings at a πυρά’ (as the grave is called in 901). In the only other place where Sophocles uses the word ἔμπυρα, it has its ordinary sense ( 1005).

τυμβεῦσαι χοάς , to offer them at the tomb; cp. 1063 σῶμα τυμβεῦσαι τάφῳ.

βροτῶν , though referring to the dead; cp. 462: Aesch. 129 χέουσα τάσδε χέρνιβας βροτοῖς (to Agamemnon). But in Soph. 851 βροτοί are opposed to νεκροί.

ὃν ἔκταν’ αὐτή . Not ὅν γ’ : she is finishing Electra's sentence for her. Cp. 105, Ph. 985.

τῷ τοῦτ’ ἤρεσεν ; The spondee in the 5th foot is correct, since τοῦτ’ coheres with its verb, giving the effect of a single word. (Cp. 376.)

δείματος , a word often used of a terrifying dream: Aesch. 523 ἔκ τ ὀνειράτων | καὶ νυκτιπλάγκτων δειμάτων πεπαλμένη | χοὰς ἔπεμψε τάσδε δύσθεος γυνή. Eur. 69 τί ποτ’ αἴρομαι ἔννυχος οὕτω | δείμασι, φάσμασιν; Lycophion 225 ἀπῶσαι νυκτίφοιτα δείματα.

δοκεῖν ἐμοί : cp. 82 ἀλλ’ εἰκάσαι μέν, ἡδύς (n.). At v. 426 she speaks positively; as if the recital of the dream had raised her surmise into certainty.

θεοὶ πατρῷοι , the gods of the Pelopid house: see on 756 πρὸς θεῶν πατρῴων: and for the synizesis in θεοί, also ib. 964 n.

συγγένεσθέ γ’ : cp. 275 εὖ ξυνεῖεν εἰσαεὶ θεοί: Aesch. 460(the Chorus invoking Agamemnon) ξὺν δὲ γενοῦ πρὸς ἐχθρούς. For γε, cp. 345 n.

ἀλλὰ νῦν , ‘now at least,’—though not sooner. Cp. 1276 πειράσατ’ ἀλλ’ ὑμεῖς γε (n.). She hails the dream as a sign from the nether world that vengeance is imminent, and invokes the gods of her house to co-operate with the χθόνιοι.

εἴποιμ’ ἂν τότε . When ἄν is the second syllable of the 5th foot, it is usually preceded by an elision; as in Eur. 935, Eur. Andr. 1184; Eur. 1619, Eur. Phoen. 1626; Eur. 456; Eur. fr. 362 κἀποσώσαἰ ἂν πατρός (Pors. p. xxxiv).

ἐπὶ σμικρὸν , lit. ‘to a small extent,’ like ἐπὶ πολύ, ἐπὶ μέγα, ἐπὶ μακρόν, etc. Cp. Plat. 254B κοινωνεῖν..τὰ μὲν ἐπ’ ὀλίγον, τὰ δ’ ἐπὶ πολλά. G. Wolff's reading, ἐπὶ σμικρῶν , could mean, ‘in a few words,’ but is less natural here.

φράσαι is almost redundant, as in 35, 50, 1582.

σμικροὶ λόγοι , here in the sense of ‘few,’ ‘brief,’ rather than trivial. Cp. 120 ἓν γὰρ πόλλ’ ἃν ἐξεύροι μαθεῖν. 443 ἔπους σμικροῦ χάριν.

πατρὸς … δευτέραν ὁμιλίαν = πατέρα αὖθις ὁμιλοῦντα: cp. 872 ναὸς κοινόπλουν ὁμιλίαν: Eur. 581 ὑμεῖς δ’, ἀδελφῶν ἡ παροῦσ’ ὁμιλία, | εὐδαιμονοῖτε. So Soph. 868 οἰκούρημα...ξένων (n.).

ἐφέστιον πῆξαι : cp. 1411 θαλάσσιον ἐκρίψατ’ (n.). The floor of the Homeric megaron was not of wood or stone, but merely of earth trodden hard; Odysseus, when he sets up the axes, digs a trench in it ( 21. 120). πῆξαι, then, affords no reason against referring ἐφέστιον to the hearth in the megaron (270 n.). But the vision of the tree becomes more intelligible if we imagine the sceptre planted at the altar of Zeus Herkeios in the open αὐλή of the house ( 487). The suppliants at the household altars of Oedipus can say of themselves, ἑζόμεσθ’ ἐφέστιοι ( 32).

This sceptre is described in the (2. 101 f.) as the work of Hephaestus, who gave it Zeus; Hermes transmitted it to Pelops, from whom it passed to Atreus and Agamemnon. The Homeric sceptre is often called χρύσεον ( 2. 268, etc.), prob. as being ornamented with gold foil, or studded with gold nails ( 1. 246 χρυσείοις ἥλοισι πεπαρμένον). Among the objects found at Mycenae are some supposed remains of such sceptres (Schliem., 201, etc.).

οὑφόρει ποτέ κ.τ.λ.: cp. 268 n.

ἔκ τε may have been preferred by the poet to ἐκ δὲ on account of τανῦν δ’.

βρύοντα , luxuriant (with foliage): cp. 17. 56(ἔρνος) βρύει ἄνθεϊ: 16 n.

ᾧ … γενέσθαι : for the inf. in a relative clause of oratio obliqua, cp. Her. 6. 117 ἄνδρα οἱ δοκέειν ὁπλίτην ἀντιστῆναι μέγαν, τοῦ τὸ γένειον τὴν ἀσπίδα πᾶσαν σκιάζειν. Thuc. 2. 102 λέγεται δὲ καὶ Ἀλκμαίωνι..., ὅτε δὴ ἀλᾶσθαι αὐτὸν..., τὸν Ἀπόλλω...χρῆσαι κ.τ.λ.

The vision resembles that of Astyages, who dreamed that a vine sprang from his daughter Mandanè, the wife of Cambyses, τὴν δὲ ἄμπελον ἐπισχεῖν τὴν Ἀσίην πᾶσαν. The ὀνειροπόλοι explained this to mean that her son (Cyrus) should reign in his grandfather's stead. ( Her. 1. 108.) The spreading branches figure also in the dream of Xerxes (7. 19): ἐδόκεε...ἐστεφανῶσθαι ἐλαίης θαλλῷ, ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς ἐλαίης τοὺς κλάδους γῆν πᾶσαν ἐπισχεῖν.

In choosing the sceptre of Agamemnon as the stock from which the wondrous growth is put forth, Sophocles may have had in mind the words of Achilles ( 1. 234 ff.); ναὶ μὰ τόδε σκῆπτρον· τὸ μὲν οὔποτε φύλλα καὶ ὄζους | φύσει, ἐπεὶ δὴ πρῶτα τομὴν ἐν ὄρεσσι λέλοιπεν, | οὐδ’ ἀναθηλήσει.

του παρόντος has better MS. authority than τοῦ παρόντος, and is preferred by most editors; but the choice is nicely balanced. (1) τοῦ gives the simplest construction for παρόντος , and the better rhythm. But it is also somewhat strange, as implying that the presence of one person, and no more, was to be expected on such an occasion. In 927, τοῦ πλησίον παρόντος ἡνίκ’ ὤλλυτο, the reference is definitely to the paedagogus. (2) του is strongly recommended by Eur. 67 ἤκουσά του λέγοντος, οὐ δοκῶν κλύειν. The constr. then is τοιαῦτα ἐξηγουμένου ἔκλυόν του, παρόντος ἡνίκα ἡλίῳ δείκνυσι τὸ ὄναρ: and παρόντος is properly predicative,=‘inasmuch as he was present’ (and therefore able to tell). On the whole, I now prefer του. Hartung, to show the constr., points thus, τοιαῦτά του, παρόντος ἡνίχ’ κ.τ.λ.: needlessly, I think.

Ἡλίῳ δείκνυσι τοὖναρ . Cp. 42 ἃ καινὰ δ’ ἥκει νὺξ φέρουσα φάσματα, | λέξω πρὸς αἰθέῤ, εἴ τι δὴ τόδ’ ἔστ’ ἄκος. Schol.: τοῖς γὰρ παλαιοῖς ἔθος ἦν ἀποτροπιαζομένους (by way of expiation) τῷ ἡλίῳ διηγεῖσθαι τὰ ὀνείρατα. The popular attributes ofἭλιος suggest more than one reason for such a custom. 1. He is the god of light and purity, ἁγνὸς θεός ( Pind. 7. 60), who dispels the terrors of darkness. 2. As the all-seeing god, πανόπτης, he is especially the detector of guilt ( Hom. 8. 270), able to reveal the lurking danger which an evil dream might foreshadow. 3. And, generally, he is a saving power (σωτήρ, Paus. 8. 31. 7): cp. 213 καλοῦμεν αὐγὰς Ἡλίου σωτηρίους.

οὐ κάτοιδα, πλὴν κ.τ.λ.: cp. 410 n.

πέμπει με κείνη . Ellendt agrees with Brunck in writing μ’ ἐκείνη, on the ground that the demonstrative pron. gains emphasis by the elision. But there is really nothing to choose. The fact that the best MS. (L) has the rarer form may be allowed to turn the scale. (Cp. 1091.)

These three verses, which the MSS. give to Electra, and which several recent critics reject (cr. n.), clearly belong to Chrysothemis, and are genuine. Electra's exclamation of joy (411) caused Chrysothemis to ask if her sister had any ground for hope (412). Electra replied that, when she had heard the dream, she would say. This showed her sister that Electra relied merely on the fact that Clytaemnestra had seen some fearful vision. Now, therefore, instead of asking for Electra's interpretation, she merely repeats her counsel (383 f.) before proceeding on her errand. The words πρός νυν θεῶν κ.τ.λ. (428 ff.) show the train of her thought. To Chrysothemis, the alarm of Clytaemnestra (427) is more important than the apparition of Agamemnon. The dream is only a new reason why Electra should be cautious,—not why she should hope.

The current ascription of the verses to Electra was doubtless prompted by verse 413. It was supposed that the recital of Chrysothemis must be immediately followed by the comments of Electra. But, as Hermann observed, the phrase ἀβουλίᾳ πεσεῖν would alone suffice to show that the verses belong to Chrysothemis (cp. 398). Nor could the warning, σὺν κακῷ μέτει πάλιν, be fitly uttered by Electra.

τῶν ἐγγενῶν , ‘the gods of our race’: cp. 199 γῆν πατρῴαν καὶ θεοὺς τοὺς ἐγγενεῖς (n.). The phrase of Electra, θεοὶ πατρῷοι (411),—recalling the memory of her father,—would be less fitting for Chrysothemis.

ἀβουλίᾳ , causal dat.; cp. 398 ἐξ ἀβουλίας. (In 597, αἰσχύνῃ πεσεῖ, the dat. is one of manner.)

σὺν κακῷ ,= κακὸν παθοῦσα (383 f.). Cp. 61 σὺν κέρδει.

μέτει , sc. με, ‘thou wilt come in search of me,’ to help thee: schol. αὐτὴ μετελεύσῃ με καὶ ἀξιώσεις μετὰ σοῦ γενέσθαι.

ἀλλ’ , beginning the appeal: 14, 238 f.

ὦ φίλη . The bitter feeling seen in vv. 391 and 403 has passed away before the new hope, and she speaks with affectionate earnestness. — τούτων μὲν , as opposed to the offerings recommended in 449.

οὐ … θέμις , it is not sanctioned by usage, οὐδ’ ὅσιον , nor is it pious towards the gods: ius fasque vetant. Cp. 74 n.: Plat. p. 108 A τῶν ὁσίων τε καὶ νομίμων (meaning rites in honour of the dead): Ar. 676 ὅσια καὶ νόμιμα.

ἐχθρᾶς ἀπὸ γυναικὸς : for ἀπό, ‘on the part of,’ cp. 1469: 1289 καὶ ταῦτ’ ἀφ’ ὑμῶν ... βουλήσομαι | ..κυρεῖν ἐμοί. The prep., emphasising the quarter from which the offerings come, is suitable here.

κτερίσματ’ , used at 931 as including libations (894), but here distinguished from them. See on 1410 ἀλλ’ ἐν τάφοισι θέσθε κἀν κτερίσμασιν. The verb κτερίζειν occurs in 204(n.).

λουτρὰ =χοάς: 84 n.

ἀλλ’ ἢ πνοαῖσιν κ.τ.λ., ‘cast them to the winds—or bury them deep in the earth.’ The first thought is a passionate utterance of scorn and loathing. Cp. Eur. 350, where Pentheus, in his rage against Teiresias, cries, καὶ στέμματ’ ἀνέμοις καὶ θυέλλαισιν μέθες. Eur. 418 Ἀργεἶ ὀνείδη καὶ Φρυγῶν ἐπαινέσεις | ἀνέμοις φέρεσθαι | παραδίδωμ’. Ap. Rhod. 1. 1334 ἀλλ’ ἀνέμοισι | δώομεν ἀμπλακίην . Theocr. 22. 167 ἴσκον (dicebam) τοιάδε πολλά· τὰ δ’ εἰς ὑγρὸν ᾤχετο κῦμα | πνοιὴ ἔχοισ’ ἀνέμοιο. (So, too, the Latin poets: Verg. 11. 795: Hor. 1. 26. 1: Ov. 1. 2. 15: Tibull. 1. 5. 35, etc.) The passage is wretchedly enfeebled by the conjecture ῥοαῖσιν (as if she were to sink them in a river).

κρύψον adapts the general notion (ἀφάνισον) to κόνει: with πνοαῖσιν we supply παράδος, or the like. The zeugma is of a common type: 9. 166 ἐς γαῖαν ἐλεύσσομεν … καπνόν τ’ αὐτῶν τε φθογγὴν ὀΐων τε καὶ αἰγῶν : 15. 374 οὐ μείλιχον ἔστιν ἀκοῦσαι | οὔτ’ ἔπος οὔτε τι ἔργον : 20. 312 οἴνοιό τε πινομένοιο | καὶ σίτου : Pind. 4. 104 οὔτε ἔργον | οὔτ’ ἔπος εὐτράπελον κείνοισιν εἰπών: Aesch. 21 ἵν’ οὔτε φωνὴν οὔτε του μορφὴν βροτῶν | ὄψει.

νιν here and in 624=αὐτά: it stands for the masc. pl. in 868, and for the fem. in 43.

ἔνθα μή ποτ’ , with fut.: cp. 380 n. The conjecture ἔνθεν is specious, but needless; the meaning is, ‘in a place where they will have no access’ to his tomb, i.e., where they will be remote from it.

εὐνὴν is peculiarly fitting here, since the offerings are those of a false wife. Cp. Aesch. 318 ἔνθα σ’ ἔχουσιν εὐναί. append. 260 κεῖμαι ἐς αὐχμηροὺς καὶ ἀλαμπέας Ἄϊδος εὐνάς.

ἀλλ’ ὅταν θάῃν . If the offerings are buried deep in the ground, they will thereby be committed to the care of the νέρτεροι: cp. 658 ff. κρύψω τόδ’ ἔγχος τοὐμόν, ἔχθιστον βελῶν, | γαίας ὀρύξας ἔνθα μή τις ὄψεται, | ἀλλ’ αὐτὸ νὺξ Ἅιδης τε σῳζόντων κάτω. When Clytaemnestra passes to the nether world, let her find these treasures laid up for her there. They will be witnesses to her conscious guilt.

The conjecture ἔστ’ ἂν for ὅταν is unnecessary, since σῳζέσθω =σῳζόμενα <*>.

κειμήλἰ : cp. 23. 618(of a cup), τῆ νῦν, καὶ σοὶ τοῦτο, γέρον, κειμήλιον ἔστω.

ἀρχὴν , omnino, preceding the negative, as in 92(n.), 1239.— τλημονεστάτη : cp. 275.

ἔβλαστε , with initial ε^, as in 1095, 1311 ἐξ ἧς ἔβλαστες (n.): but above, in 238, this ε is long.

ὅν γ’ … τῷδ’ : for ὅδε after a relat., cp. 1332 οἷς ἂν σὺ προσθῇ, τοῖσδ’ ἔφασκ’ εἶναι κράτος: 86 f.: 23, Tr. 820.

ἐπέστεφε : 53 n.

442 f. The position of αὐτῇ shows that the dat. must be influenced by προς‐ φιλῶς, though it would be sufficiently explained by δέξασθαι: cp. Eur. 535 δέξαι χοάς μοι τάσδε.

δέξεσθαι . Sophocles has joined δοκῶ (1) with the future infinitive in at least nine places:— 355, O. T. 368, O. T. 399, O. T. 401: 14: 1138, Tr. 1171: 1086: 471.(2) With the infin. (pres. or aor.) and ἄν in 584: 748: 263, Ai. 1078: 312, El. 614.(3) With the simple aor. inf. in 805, and 276: in both of which places the reference is to past time.

It seems, then, a reasonable inference that here, where the reference is to future time, he would have written δέξεσθαι rather than δέξασθαι , or else would have added ἄν to the aor. inf. In three of those passages which have the fut. inf., the aor. inf. would have suited the metre equally well ( 368 λέξειν: ib. 399 παραστατήσειν: 1171 πράξειν). It is a different question whether δοκεῖ δέξασθαι could, or could not, refer to the future: see Appendix.

444 ff. Join θανὼν ἄτιμος , ruthlessly slain: cp. 98: 1181: 1069 ψυχήν τ’ ἀτίμως ἐν τάφῳ κατῴκισας.

ἐμασχαλίσθη . The verb occurs only here and in Aesch. 439 ἐμασχαλίσθη δέ γ’, ὡς τόδ’ εἰδῇς. In his Sophocles used the phrase πλήρη μασχαλισμάτων, and probably also τὸν μασχαλισμόν (fr. 566). The explanation given by the scholiasts and the lexicographers dates at least from Aristophanes of Byzantium (see Appendix). Murderers used to cut off the extremities of their victim, and suspend these at his arm-pits (μασχάλαι) and from his neck. Hence μασχαλίζω is paraphrased by ἀκρωτηριάζω.

Two different motives are assigned by the Greek commentators; viz.:—(1) the desire to render the dead incapable of wreaking vengeance (ὥσπερ τὴν δύναμιν ἐκείνων ἀφαιρούμενοι): (2) the desire to make an atonement (ἐξιλάσασθαι τὴν δολοφονίαν—ἀφοσιοῦσθαι τὸν φόνον). There can be little doubt that the first of these motives was the primitive origin of the custom. If the second was afterwards blended with it, the idea may have been that of offering the severed portions to the gods below,—as a victim was devoted to death by cutting off a lock of hair ( Eur. 75). Apollonius Rhodius seems to present the practice in this light (4. 477): Jason, having slain a foe, ἐξάργματα τάμνε θανόντος. Cp. : ἀπάργματα λέγεται τὰ ὑπὸ τῶν τραγῳδῶν λεγόμενα μασχαλίσματα.

κἀπὶ λουτροῖσιν κ.τ.λ.: ‘and, for ablution, she wiped off the blood-stains (from her sword) on his head.’ ἐπὶ here= ‘with a view to’ (cp. 792 ἐπὶ λώβᾳ, 1457 ἐπὶ...κακῷ), and ἐπὶ λουτροῖς= ἐπὶ καθάρσει. The action was a symbolical way of saying, ‘on thy head, not mine, be the guilt,’—as though the victim had provoked his own fate (thus Clytaemnestra claimed to be the avenger of Iphigeneia). So the Greek commentators explain; see schol. on 446, ὥσπερ τὰς ἐπὶ τῷ μύσει κηλῖδας ἀποτρεπόμενοι: and Eustathius p. 1857. 7 ὡς εἰς κεφαλὴν δῆθεν ἐκείνοις (the victims) τρεπομένου τοῦ κακοῦ. Cp. 19. 92 ἔρδουσα μέγα ἔργον, ὃ σῇ κεφαλῇ <*>ναμάξεις, ‘of which thou shalt take the stain on thine own head,’ i.e. ‘of which the guilt shall rest upon thy head’: imitated by Her. 1. 155 τὰ μὲν γὰρ πρότερον ἐγώ τε ἔπρηξα καὶ ἐγὼ ἐμῇ κεφαλῇ ἀναμάξας φέρω. Besides the proverbial εἰς κεφαλὴν σοί ( Ar. 1063 etc.), cp. Dem. or. 18 § 294 οἷς ἂν εἰκότως..τὴν τῶν γεγενημένων αἰτίαν ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀναθεῖεν ἅπαντες.—This is better than to take ἐπὶ λουτροῖς as=‘for washing (of the corpse),’—i.e., in lieu of the λουτρά which it was the duty of relatives to give the dead ( 1405 λουτρῶν ὁσίων: 1602 n.: 901).

ἐξέμαξ ν , sc. ἡ Κλυταιμνήστρα: not ὁ νέκυς, which would require ἐξεμάξατ’. The change of subject is softened by the transition from a relative clause (ὑφ’ ἧς κ.τ.λ.) to an independent sentence (cp. 188 ff., 424, note in Appendix, p. 278); and Greek idiom was tolerant in this matter: see on 362 ff.

ἆρα μὴ ( 632), like μῶν (‘can it be that..?’).

οὐκ ἔστιν , finally rejecting the supposition, like οὐκ ἔστι ταῦτα ( 449: 470).

ταῦτα μὲν μέθες· σὺ δὲ κ.τ.λ. Here σὺ δὲ marks an antithesis, not of persons, but of clauses, and serves merely to emphasise the second clause. This is a peculiarly Ionic usage. 9. 300 εἰ δέ τοι (=σοι) Ἀτρείδης μὲν ἀπήχθετο.. | .. σὺ δ’ ἄλλους περ Παναχαιοὺς | τειρομένους ἐλέαιρε: 6. 46 ζώγρει, Ἀτρέος υἱέ, σὺ δ’ ἄξια δέξαι ἄποινα [ζώγρει=μὴ κτεῖνε]: 4. 491 τοῦ μὲν ἅμαρθ)· ὁ δὲ Λεῦκον, Ὀδυσσέος ἐσθλὸν ἑταῖρον, | βεβλήκει. Her. 3. 68 εἰ μὴ αὐτὴ Σμέρδιν..γινώσκεις, σὺ δὲ παρὰ Ἀτόσσης πύυευ: 7. 159 εἰ δ’ ἄρα μὴ δικαιοῖς ἄρχεσθαι, σὺ δὲ μηδὲ βοήθεε. The Attic poets took the idiom from the Ionians: Aesch. 1060 εἰ δ’ ἀξυνήμων οὖσα μὴ δέχει λόγον, | σὺ δ’ ἀντὶ φωνῆς φράζε καρβάνῳ χερί. It is rarer in Attic prose: Xen. 4. 2.§§ 5, Xen. An. 6: αὐτοὶ ἐνταῦθ’ ἔμενον, ὡς τὸ ἄκρον κατέχοντες· οἱ δ’ οὐ κατεῖχον.

βοστρύχων ἄκρας φόβας , since the offering at the grave was to be merely a lock of hair (πλόκαμος πενθητήριος, Aesch. 8), in token of grief. The hair is not now to be cut short, as for a recent death ( 1053 γυναικείοις ἂν οἰκτισαίμεθα | κουραῖσι καὶ θρήνοισι). The censure of Helen in Eur. 128, εἴδετε παρ’ ἄκρας ὡς ἀπέθρισεν τρίχας, | σῴζουσα κάλλος, refers to the time of her mother's death.

κἀμοῦ ταλαίνης is a possessive genitive, going with τήνδ’ ἀλιπ. τρίχα. It is so placed in the sentence as to heighten the pathos:—‘give him a lock cut from (thine own head),—and (give) on my part..this hair,’ etc.

†ἀλιπαρῆ . The schol.'s paraphrase αὐχμηράν, gives the sense which we require. Cp. Eur. 183 σκέψαι μου πιναρὰν κόμαν | καὶ πέπλων τρύχη τάδ’ ἐμῶν . But ἀλιπαρής, the negative of λιπαρής, could mean only, ‘not earnest,’ ‘not persevering.’ In v. 1378 Electra says (to Apollo), ἥ σε πολλὰ δὴ | ἀφ’ ὧν ἔχοιμι λιπαρεῖ προὔστην χερί, i.e., ‘with a zealous, a devout, hand.’ And we learn from the scholiast here that a variant, probably as old as Didymus (circ. 30 C.B. ), for ἀλιπαρῆ was λιπαρῆ : ὅ ἐστιν, ἐξ ἧς αὐτὸν λιπαρήσομεν, ὡς εἰ ἔλεγεν ἱκέτιν τρίχα, ‘a suppliant lock.’ It is surely manifest, however, that λιπαρὴς θρίξ could not mean, ‘a lock of hair offered by a suppliant.’ We may safely, then, reject Hermann's corresponding interpretation of ἀλιπαρῆ, comam non accommodatam supplicationi. Nor do I now think that ἀλιπαρὴς θρίξ could mean ‘not cared for,’ ‘neglected.’

We come, therefore, to a dilemma. (1) The words τήνδ’ ἀλιπαρῆ τρίχα may conceal some corruption: τήνδ’ ought possibly to be τήνδε τ’ (which is preferable to τήνδε γ’ here), followed by ἀλίπαρον (cr. n.), ‘not sleek or glossy,’ as with unguents. I incline to this view. The genuine word was in any case probably negative, parallel with οὐ χλιδαῖς ἠσκημένον in 452.

(2) Or else, if the text be sound, ἀλιπαρῆ may mean οὐ λιπαράν. There is no doubt that λιπ, ‘fat,’ is the root both of λι^παρός, ‘shining,’ and of λι—παρής, ‘sticking’; cp. Plat. 427 B τὸ λιπαρὸν καὶ τὸ κολλῶδες (Curt. § 340). Similarly γλίσχρος, ‘sticky,’ came to mean ‘importunate.’ It is barely possible that, in coining a new negative compound, the poet may have transferred the sense of λιπαρός to λιπαρής: but it seems improbable.

ζῶμα here = ζώνην, a sense which recurs only in later Greek; as in 6. 272 a woman dedicates her ζῶμα to Artemis. (As to the ζῶμα of the Homeric warrior, see , p. 65, n. 3.)

χλιδαῖς (cp. 52, 360), such as embroidery, or metal work. ζῶναι were often elaborate and costly. A golden girdle, found in Ithaca, has as clasp a knot of metal ornamented with garnets, etc. (, 2nd ed., vol. 1. p. 427).—The ζῶμα is to be laid on the grave, as ribands etc. sometimes were: cp. schol. Ar. 603 τὰς ταινίας ἃς τοῖς νεκροῖς ἔπεμπον οἱ φίλοι.

προσπίτνουσα , at the tomb.— αὐτὸν , ‘himself’ (rather than merely ‘him’), as the next verse shows.

ἐξ ὑπερτέρας χερός : ἐκ ex presses the condition: cp. 875 ἐξ ἀκινήτου ποδός: 91 n.

ζῶντ’ , instead of dying first, as his foes hope. The thought is, ‘may he live to do it.’

ἀφνεωτέραις . ἀφνεός is used by Pindar, Theognis, and Aesch. (though only in lyrics, Aesch. 3 and fr. 96): ἀφνειός is the only Homeric form.

στέφωμεν : cp. 53, 441.

δωρούμεθα : cp. Pind. 6. 78 ἐδώρησαν θεῶν κάρυκα λιταῖς θυσίαις.

οἶμαι μὲν οὖν : ‘Now (οὖν) I think (οἶμαι μὲν) that our father is already aiding us of his own accord; but still (ὅμως δέ, 461) pray for his help.’ Here the particles μὲν οὖν have each their separate force, as in 483, 664, 65: not their compound force, ‘nay rather’ (1503).

If μέλον be kept, we must supply ἦν, and take οἶμαι as parenthetic. This is possible, but harsh. οἶμαι cannot govern μέλον, as though it were οἶδα. (Nor can μέλον τι be the subject to πέμψαι, as Paley takes it: ‘I think that some concern affecting him also sent these dreams.’) Probably μέλειν was corrupted to μέλον through a misunderstanding of the construction. The sense is, νομίζω ὅτι καὶ ἐκείνῳ ἔμελέ τι (adv., ‘in some degree’) πέμψαι κ.τ.λ. She means that, though the gods below are the primary authors of the vision, the spirit of the dead was also in some measure active.

σοί =σεαυτῇ: cp. 363 (ἐμέ= ἐμαυτήν), n.

βροτῶν : cp. 407 n.

πρὸς εὐσέβειαν =εὐσεβῶς: cp. 369 πρὸς ὀργὴν (n.).

δράσω . Chrysothemis here accepts the lock of hair and the girdle which Electra offers to her. We must suppose that, after leaving the scene, she puts Clytaemnestra's gifts somewhere out of sight.

τὸ γὰρ δίκαιον κ.τ.λ. The sense is, ‘When a duty has once become clear, there is no more room for disputing,— one should act forthwith.’ Two constructions are possible; I prefer the first.

(1) τὸ δίκαιον is an acc. of general reference, and οὐκ ἔχει λόγον is impersonal. ‘With regard to what is (clearly) right, it is unreasonable for two persons to dispute; rather both should hasten on the doing (of it).’ With ἀλλ’ ἐπισπεύδειν we supply the notion δεῖ from the negative οὐκ ἔχει λόγον (as from οὐκ ἔξεστι in 1402 ff.; cp. 817 ff.). For the form of the sentence, cp. 7. 3. 7 τοὺς περὶ Ἀρχίαν...οὐ ψῆφον ἀνεμείνατε, ἀλλὰ ὁπότε πρῶτον ἐδυνάσθητε ἐτιμωρήσασθε. So here the acc. τὸ δίκαιον, which represents the object of δρᾶν, is separated from it by the parenthesis οὐκ ἔχει λόγον δυοῖν ἐρίζειν. (The first scholium gives substantially this view: οὐκ ἔχει λόγον φιλονεικεῖν περὶ τοῦ δικαίου, ὥστε περὶ αὐτοῦ δύο ὄντας ἐρίζειν.)

(2) Or τὸ δίκαιον might be nom.: ‘that which is clearly right does not afford any ground (οὐκ ἔχει λόγον) for two persons to dispute,’ etc. So the second schol.: ἢ τὸ οὐκ ἔχει λόγον ἀντὶ τοῦ οὐ παρέχει πρόφασιν. So far as the verb ἔχει is concerned, this sense is quite admissible: cp. Thuc. 2. 41 οὔτε τῷ πολεμίῳ ἐπελθόντι ἀγανάκτησιν ἔχει (ἡ πόλις). The objection is that the phrases ἔχειν λόγον, οὐκ ἔχειν λόγον, which are very common, regularly mean, ‘to be reasonable,’ ‘to be unreasonable.’ This is so both in the personal and in the impersonal constr.; as Plat. p. 62 D τὸ γὰρ μὴ ἀγανακτεῖν...οὐκ ἔχει λόγον: Dem. or. 36 § 54 πῶς ἔχει λόγον σὲ...δίκην ἀξιοῦν λαμβάνειν; The supposed sense, ‘not to afford a reason,’ is unexampled.

δυοῖν is taken by Hermann and others to mean Electra and the Chorus. ‘The right view (of the matter) affords no ground for me to contend against you both.’ But the controversy of Chrysothemis has been with Electra only. She is yielding to a new perception of her duty, not to a majority of voices.

παρ’ ὑμῶν , on your part: cp. 596 μόνον παρ’ ὑμῶν εὖ στεγοίμεθ’.

πικρὰν , to my cost: Eur. 356 ὡς ἂν λευσίμου δίκης τυχὼν | θάνῃ, πικρὰν βάκχευσιν ἐν Θήβαις ἰδών. 1315 πικράν, | πικρὰν ἰδοῦσα δυσελέναν.— For δοκῶ με … τολμήσειν , cp. 706 ὁρῶ δέ μ’ ἔργον δεινὸν ἐξειργασμένην (n.).—For ἔτι , cp. 66.

εἰ μὴ )γὼ κ.τ.λ. The sanguine prediction of the Chorus in 1086 ff. has a similar preface,—εἴπερ ἐγὼ μάντις εἰμὶ καὶ κατὰ γνώμαν ἴδρις.

γνώμας λειπομένα , failing in it: cp. 936 οὔτ’ ὀδυρμάτων | ἐλείπετ’ οὐδέν.

ἁ πρόμαντις Δίκα , because she has sent the dream, a presage of her own advent. In Aesch. 33Clytaemnestra's vision is itself called δόμων ὀνειρόμαντις. The fact that μάντις has just preceded gives no ground for suspecting πρόμαντις: cp. 163 (γᾶν after γᾶ) n. For Δίκη as an avenging power, cp. 528: 1390 μνήμων τ’ Ἐρινὺς καὶ τελεσφόρος Δίκη.

δίκαια φερομένα χεροῖν κράτη . The goddess Justice is here conceived as being in her person the victorious avenger. The words mean literally, ‘bearing away just triumphs of prowess.’ Cp. 13. 486 αἶψά κεν ἠὲ φέροιτο μέγα κράτος ἠὲ φεροίμην: for the plur. κράτη, 951 εἴη δὲ νίκη καὶ κράτη τοῖς ἄρσεσι: and for χεροῖν κράτη, above, V. 37 χειρὸς ἐνδίκους σφαγάς, 206 θανάτους αἰκεῖς διδύμαιν χειροῖν.—Others render: ‘carrying just victory in her hands,’ like Eris in 11. 4 πολέμοιο τέρας μετὰ χερσὶν ἔχουσαν. The use of φέρεσθαι as=φέρειν is rare, but not unexampled: Campbell quotes Her. 7. 50 πολλὴν φορβὴν φερόμενοι πορευόμεθα: and we might add 6. 177.But the picture thus given seems less clear and strong.

μέτεισιν , will come in pursuit (of the guilty): Aesch. 273 εἰ μὴ μέτειμι τοῦ πατρὸς τοὺς αἰτίους.

οὐ μακροῦ χρόνου : cp. 397 ἥξοντα βαιοῦ κοὐχὶ μυρίου χρόνου (n.).

ὕπεστί μοι θράσος is followed by κλύουσαν as if ὑφέρπει or ὑπῆλθέ με had preceded. Cp. Aesch. 913 λέλυται γὰρ ἐμοὶ γυίων ῥώμη | τήνδ’ ἡλικίαν ἐσιδόντ’ ἀστῶν: Aesch. 410 πέπαλται δ’ αῦτέ μοι φίλον κέαρ | τόνδε κλύουσαν ο<*>κτον. In other examples the presence of an infin. modifies the boldness: Soph. 1006 f. ποῖ γὰρ μολεῖν μοι δυνατόν, εἰς ποίους βροτούς, | τοῖς σοῖς ἀρήξαντ’ ἐν πόνοισι μηδαμοῦ; Eur. 814 σοὶ δὲ συγγνώμη λέγειν | τάδ’ ἐστί, μὴ πάσχουσαν, ὡς ἐγώ, κακῶς. (Cp. Soph. 838 n.)

ἁδυπνόων … ὀνειράτων : cp. the invocation of Sleep, 828, εὐαὲς ἡμῖν ἔλθοις. In Aesch. 32 ff. the dream is described as ‘breathing resentment’ against the murderers: τορὸς γὰρ ὀρθόθριξ φόβος, | δόμων ὀνειρόμαντις, ἐξ ὕπνου κότον | πνέων.

ἀμναστεῖ γ’ ὁ φύσας ς’ . The pronoun σε is indispensable here, and could have easily fallen out after φύσας. To add it there is better than to read ἀμναστεῖ σ’ ὁ φύσας: for the γε after the verb, marking assurance, is expressive.

χαλκόπλακτος , act., ‘striking with bronze’; cp. 688 ἀμφιπλάκτων ῥοθίων, ‘billows that beat around him’ (n.).

γένυς : cp. 159 γενύων (n.).

The very axe (φόνιος πέλεκυς, 99) with which the blow was dealt is imagined as nourishing a grudge against the murderers who had set it such a task. Such a personification recalls that practice of Athenian law by which inanimate objects which had caused death were brought to a formal trial in the court called τὸ ἐπὶ Πρυτανείῳ, and, after sentence, cast beyond the boundaries, in the presence of the Archon Basileus and the sacrificial officers of the tribes (φυλο‐ βασιλεῖς). Aeschin. or. 3 § 244 τὰ μὲν ξύλα καὶ τοὺς λίθους καὶ τὸν σίδηρον, τὰ ἄφωνα καὶ ἀγνώμονα, ἐάν τῳ ἐμπεσόντα ἀποκτείνῃ, ὑπερορίζομεν. (Cp. Dem. or. 23 § 76.) A like conception was implied in the English law (repealed in 1846) of ‘deodands’ (Deo danda), i.e., personal chattels (whether animals or things) which, having caused the death of a human being, were forfeited to the Crown for pious uses.

ἐν αἰκίαις : ἐν denotes the manner; cp. 1682 ἐν ἀφανεῖ τινι μόρῳ φερόμενον. The penultimate of αἰκία is always long (511, O. C. 515: 93, 178, 600: Eur. 1374).

καὶ πολύπους καὶ πολύχειρ : as with the might of a resistless host. Cp. 36.

λόχοις : cp. 1074 τούτων σε λωβητῆρες ὑστεροφθόροι | λοχῶσιν Ἅιδου καὶ θεῶν Ἐρινύες.

χαλκόπους : so 418 δεινόπους ἀρά (n.).

ἄλεκτρ’ ἄνυμφα : cp. 1154 ἀμήτωρ: 1214 ἄγαμον γάμον. The epithets, which properly describe the γάμοι, are given to the whole phrase: cp. 1290: 1390: 794 νεῖκος ἀνδρῶν ξύναιμον (n.).

γάμων ἁμιλλήμαθ’ , eager haste for marriage; the plur. is fitting, since both the partners in guilt were striving for that goal. (In Eur. 1140 f. νυμφιδίων δ’ ἀπόλωλε φυγᾷ σᾷ | λέκτρων ἅμιλλα κούραις, the sense is, ‘competition’ for marriage.)

ἐπέβα , like ἐπέπεσε, suggesting the violence of the passion which seized them: so 194 ἐπέβη is said of the sufferings sent upon the hero by Chrysè.

πρὸ τῶνδέ τοι … συνδρῶσιν : ‘therefore I am confident that we shall never see (ἡμῖν, ethic dat.) the portent draw near to the murderess and her accomplice without giving them cause to complain of it’;—i.e., ‘we shall assuredly find that the dream has been an omen of their ruin.’

Verses 495—497 (πρὸ τῶνδέ τοι...τέρας) answer metrically to vv. 479—481 ὕπεστί μοι...ὀνειράτων, where the text is certain, save for the doubt whether θράσος or θάρσος should stand in 479. Here we must first decide two points.

(1) Are the words πρὸ τῶνδε sound? I think so. The sense is, ‘for (=on account of) these things,’ πρό being used as ὑπέρ is in 165 ἄτας ὕπερ, 932 βραδυτῆτος ὕπερ. This is a rare, but not unexampled, sense of πρό, in which the notions ‘before’ and ‘by reason of it’ were associated, just as in Lat. prae and our own ‘for.’ See 17. 666 μή μιν Ἀχαιοὶ | ἀργαλέου πρὸ φόβοιο ἕλωρ δηίοισι λίποιεν,=prae timore, ‘for fear’ (not, as Düntzer explains, ‘forward on the path of flight’: cp. Leaf ad loc.). 505 κατέβαν πρὸ γάμων, ‘entered the contest for the marriage’ (not ‘before’ it, which would there be pointless).

(2) Could ἔχει με, μήποτε τέρας πελᾶν (etc.) mean, ‘the belief possesses me, that’ etc.? Surely not. No real parallel for so strange a phrase has been produced. It is irrelevant to quote those impersonal verbs which directly express the occurrence of a thought to the mind; as Xen. 6. 1. 17 εἰσῄει αὐτοὺς ὅπως ἂν καὶ ἔχοντές τι οἴκαδε ἀφίκοιντο (‘the thought came to them, how they might,’ etc.): Thuc. 6. 78.§ 1 εἰ δέ τῳ ἄρα παρέστηκε, τὸν μὲν Συρακόσιον...πολέμιον εἶναι κ.τ.λ. Either, then, the subject to ἔχει has dropped out, or the words μ’ ἔχει conceal a corruption.

The following remedies are possible: I incline to the first, as involving least change. (1) Reading in 479 ὕπεστί μοι θράσος, we may read here πρὸ τῶνδέ τοί μ’ ἔχει | <θάρσος τι>, μήποθ’ ἡμῖν etc. (It may be remarked that τι is in harmony with the tone of ὕπεστί μοι in 479.) Another available word is ξύννοια (cp. 279). (2) Or, reading in 479 ὕπεστί μοι θάρσος, we could read here πρὸ τῶνδέ τοι θάρσος ἴσχει με. On either view, the υ of ἁδυπνόων in 480 is long (as several critics have assumed). It should be noted that (1) involves a different constitution of the verses: see p. lxxxii.

In those MSS. which have μή ποτε μή ποθ’ ἡμῖν , the first μήποτε (absent from L) was probably an attempt to fill the gap: unless, indeed, μ’ ἔχει should be θράσος (as Wunder thought).—For other conjectures, see Appendix.

ἀψεγές : schol. θαρρῶ ὅτι τοῖς δρῶσι ταῦτα τὰ ἄδικα καὶ συνδρῶσιν αὐτοῖς οὐκ ἔσται ἄψεκτος ὁ ὄνειρος· παθόντες γὰρ ψέξουσι τὸ ὀφθέν.—Bergk, whom Hartung follows, reads ἀψεφές , ‘unheeded,’ a word known only from Hesychius: ἀψεφές, ἀφρόντιστον· Σοφοκλῆς Φαίδρᾳ. (Hesych. has also ψέφει· δέδοικεν...φροντίζει.)

πελᾶν , ‘Attic’ fut. inf. of πελάζω: cp. 1060 πελῶσ’: Aesch. 282 πελῶ. (In Soph. 1150 πελᾶτ’ should be πηδᾶτ’.)—Others take πελᾶν as pres. inf. of πελάω (as in 7. 44 πελάαν: cp. n. on , l.c.).

τοῖς δρῶσι , Clytaemnestra, to whom the dream came: τοῖς συνδρῶσιν , Aegisthus (cp. 97 ff.): for the plur. cp. 146 (γονέων), n.

μαντεῖαι βροτῶν , means of divination for men.

εὖ κατασχήσει , come safely into harbour,—as a seafarer was said κατέχειν εἰς γῆν ( 221 n.). Cp. 826(of oracles) καὶ τάδ’ ὀρθῶς | ἔμπεδα κατουρίζει.

ἱππεία here=driving of horses, like ἱπποσύνη ( 4. 303 etc.); a word used by Eur. 374 with ref. to the raids of Centaurs (χθόνα Θεσσαλῶν ἱππείαις ἐδάμαζον).

Oenomaüs, king of Pisa in Elis, had promised the hand of his daughter Hippodameia to the suitor who should defeat him in a chariot-race; the penalty of failure being death. The young Pelops, son of Tantalus, offered himself as a competitor. Myrtilus, the charioteer of Oenomaüs, was persuaded (either by Hippodameia or by Pelops) to betray his master. He did so by leaving out one or both of the linch-pins by which the naves of the chariot-wheels were secured to the axles. Tzetzes on Lycophron 156 ταῖς χοινίκισι (=πλήμναις, the naves) τῶν τροχῶν οὐκ ἐμβαλὼν τοὺς ἥλους. According to another story, he substituted a linch-pin of wax for a real one (schol. Apoll. Rh. 752 ἐμβαλόντα κήρινον ἔμβολον ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀκραξονίου). So Pelops won the race, and the bride. But Oenomaüs was soon avenged on the traitor; for Myrtilus insulted Hippodameia, and was thrown into the sea by Pelops; upon whose house he invoked a curse, as he sank.

Euripides, too, ( 990 ff., 386 f.) refers to this chariot-race as the event with which the troubles of the Pelopidae began. Apollonius Rhodius briefly describes the critical moment of the race as one of the subjects embroidered on the cloak of Jason (1. 752 ff.); there Oenomaüs was seen, ‘falling sideways, as the axle broke at the naves of the wheels,’—ἄξονος ἐν πλήμνῃσι παρακλιδὸν ἀγνυμένοιο | πίπτεν.

The eastern pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia (circ. 450 B.C.) was adorned with sculptures by Paeonius, representing the preparation for this contest ( Paus. 5. 10. 6). The fragments found on the site have sufficed for a reconstruction of the group. Zeus occupied the centre; to the right of him were Pelops and Hippodameia; to the left, Oenomaüs and his wife Steropè. On each side was a chariot drawn by four horses. Myrtilus was sitting in front of his team, with his face turned away from his master.

In the older and nobler form of the myth, Pelops won, not by a fraud, but by the grace of Poseidon, who gave him winged horses (Pindar 1. 87 ἔδωκεν δίφρον τε χούσεον πτεροῖσίν τ’ ἀκάμαντας ἵππους). On the chest (λάρναξ) of Cypselus, seen by Pausanias in the Heraeum at Olympia ( Paus. 5. 17. 5), Pelops was driving two winged horses.

αἰανὴς suits the idea of persistent calamity. Whatever its real etymology, it was associated with ἀεί ( Aesch. 572 ἐς τὸν αἰανῆ χρόνον, ib. 672 αἰανῶς μένοι), and was used to denote that which pains by wearying, or wearing (as Pind. 1. 82 κόρος...αἰανής: Pind. 1. 49 λιμὸν αἰανῆ).

The form αἰανὴς has the best authority, and some critics hold that αἰανὸς (Hesych.) was a Byzantine invention. But in Aesch. 416, ἡμεῖς γάρ ἐσμεν νυκτὸς αἰανῆς τέκνα (so L, schol., and Tzetzes on Lycophron 406), αἰανῆ is far less suitable.

εὖτε , ‘since,’=ἐξ οὖ, like ὅτε ( Thuc. 1. 13 ἔτη δ’ ἐστὶ μάλιστα τριακόσια...ὅτε Ἀμεινοκλῆς Σαμίοις ἦλθε).

ὁ ποντισθεὶς Μυρτίλος . The legendary scene was at Geraestus (now Cape Mandelo), the s. promontory of Euboea: Eur. 990 Πέλοψ ὁπότε πελάγεσι διεδίφρευδε, Μυρτίλου φόνον | δικὼν ἐς οἶδμα πόντου, | λευκοκύμοσιν | πρὸς Γεραιστίαις | ποντίων σάλων|ᾐόσιν ἁρματεύσας. Tzetzes on Lycophron 156 ῥίπτεται παρὰ Πέλοπος περὶ Γεραιστὸν ἀκρωτήριον. ὁ δὲ τελευτῶν ἀρὰς ἀρᾶται τοῖς Πελοπίδαις δεινάς κ.τ.λ. To Myrtilus was sometimes traced the name of the Μυρτῷον πέλαγος which lay S. of Euboea, E. of the Peoponnesus, and W. of the Cyclades. Pausanias (8. 14. 12) rejects this etymology, supposing Myrtilus to have perished on the coast of Elis. The Myrtoan sea was probably so called from the islet Myrto near Geraestus.

A vase found at Capua shows Pelops and Hippodameia in a ship, from which Myrtilus is falling backwards into the water. A winged Erinys hovers in the air above, brandishing a sword over the head of Pelops (Baumeister, p. 1204, referring to x. 25).

ἐκοιμάθη : cp. 831 καλῶ θ’ ἅμα | πομπαῖον Ἑρμῆν χθόνιον εὖ με κοιμίσαι.

παγχρυσέων δίφρων , the golden chariot given to Pelops by Poseidon: see Pind. 1. 87, in n. on 505. This plur. (750), as denoting one chariot (like ὄχεα, ἅρματα), is not Homeric. παγχρυσέων (¯¯˘¯), the epic form, suits the metre here. Cp. Soph. 1099 χρυσέων (¯˘¯). Dindorf, keeping the MS. παγχρύσων, inserts ἐκ after it. The strophic test is absent in an epode.

πρόρριζος here= πανώλεθρος, as in Ar. 587 πρόρριζος αὐτός, ἡ γυνή, τὰ παιδία, | κάκιστ’ ἀπολοίμην. It would strain the word to understand, ‘torn from his place’ in the chariot.

ἐκριφθείς . In Her. 6. 86 ἐκτέτριπται...πρόρριζος is said of a man whose family is exterminated (cp. Eur. 684); but ἐκτριφθείς is manifestly unsuitable here.

ἔλειπεν (cr. n.) is confirmed by metre, since every other v. of this epode has anacrusis, which ἔλιπεν would exclude. For the intrans. λείπω, cp. Eur. 133 τὸ δὲ κακοτυχὲς οὐ λέλοιπεν ἐκ τέκνων: 1156 οὔποτ’ ἔρις | λείψει κατ’ ἀνθρώπων πόλεις. And ἕλειπεν in turn confirms οἴκου as against οἴκους . For πω suits the imperf. in this sense (‘was never yet absent from the house’), but would require the aor. if the sense were, ‘has never yet left the house.’ For the sing. οἴκου (=family), cp. 978.

πολύπονος . πολυπάμονας is very possibly the word which was read by the schol. on 508 (see cr. n.). But πολύπονος, the reading of our MSS., suits the context far better. Even if the v. l. οἴκους were right, such an epithet as ‘wealthy’ is jarring here. In an epode, conjecture had freer scope than in a strophe; and πολυπάμονας may have been prompted by the desire to define οἴκους.— Remark αἰκία so soon after αἰκίαις (511): cp. 163 (γᾶν), n.

ἀνειμένη is emphasised by μέν , which has no corresponding δέ: the implied antithesis is, ἐπέχειν δέ σε ἐγὼ μόνη οὐ δύναμαι (519 f.). Cp. 578 ἐκ δὲ τοῦδε χρὴ | γυναῖκας εἶναι τάσδε μηδ’ ἀνειμένας, where see n.

ὡς ἔοικας : 1241 n.

στρέφει , versaris, go about (instead of remaining in the seclusion of the γυναικωνῖτις): cp. 6. 4. 16 ἐν τῷ φανερῷ ἀναστρεφομένους. 907 ἄλλῃ δὲ κἄλλῃ δωμάτων στρωφωμένη. The simple στρέφομαι is very rarely so used; but cp. Solon fr. 4. 23 ταῦτα μὲν ἐν δήμῳ στρέφεται κακά.

Clytaemnestra begins in the same strain as Chrysothemis, who likewise emphasised her reproof by the word αὖ (328).

μή τοι θυραίαν γ’ : τοι (Lat. sane) here limits with an ironical force, while γε lays stress on the adj. The combination μή τοί...γε occurs also in 1407, 472: μή τοι, without γε, in 1439, 544.

αἰσχύνειν φίλους : said from an Athenian point of view (on 578). The Homeric maiden of noble birth, such as Nausicaa, has more freedom.

καίτοι : you disregard my authority, and yet complain of it as oppressive.

δὴ goes with πολλούς : cp. 202 ἐχθίστα δή (n.).

ἐξεῖπάς με … ὡς : cp. 332 n.

θρασεῖα , ‘insolent’: cp. 630 B θρασεῖς καὶ ἄδικοι καὶ ὑβρισταί. 275 ἀνομίᾳ θρασύς. Aesch. 42(of Κράτος) ἀεί γε δὴ νηλὴς σὺ καὶ θράσους πλέως. The conj. τραχεῖα is plausible, but needless.

ἄρχω ‘rule’: it should not be taken with the partic., as= ‘provoke with insult’ (552). Cp. 264 κἀκ τῶνδ’ ἄρχομαι: 597 δεσπότιν.

ὕβριν … οὐκ ἔχω : cp. 300 πανουργίας...ἔχειν (n.). In the next clause, κακῶς κλύουσα , etc., are the emphatic words: ‘Insolent I am not; my words to you are only such as you address to me.’

πατὴρ γάρ κ.τ.λ. A comma should follow ἄλλο, since τέθνηκεν depends on πρόσχημά σοί (ἐστιν) ὡς: cp. Her. 7. 157 πρόσχημα μὲν ποιεύμενος ὡς ἐπ’ Ἀθήνας ἐλαύνει.—If there is no comma after ἄλλο, the constr. becomes most awkward. Thus Paley makes ὡς depend on κλύω (‘I am told’) supplied from v. 524. Campbell renders: ‘your father, that is what you are always holding forth, (how that he) died by my act’; adding: ‘By a kind of attraction, the main sentence, as it proceeds, becomes subordinated to the parenthesis.’

πρόσχημα here=σκῆψις, πρόφασις. Cp. 682.

ἡ γὰρ Δίκη . The γάρ, which has been impugned (cr. n.), is right. ‘He certainly died, and by my hand; for Justice, whose instrument I was, required his death.’ As to Δίκη the avenger, cp. 175 f. (n.). Aesch. 1432 μὰ τὴν τέλειον τῆς ἐμῆς παιδὸς Δίκην, | Ἄτην τ’, <*>ρινύν θ’, αἷσι τόνδ’ ἔσφαξ’ ἐγώ.

ᾗ χρῆν σ’ ἀρήγειν κ.τ.λ. The inf. represents the apodosis; i.e., ‘It was your duty to help,’ implies, ‘you would have helped,’ ἀρωγὸς ἂν ἦσθα. Cp. Eur. 586 χρῆν ς’, εἴπερ ἦσθα μὴ κακός, πείσαντ’ ἐμὲ | γαμεῖν γάμον τόνδ’ (i.e., πείσας ἂν ἐγάμεις). Lys. or. 32 § 23 εἱ ἐβούλετο δίκαιος εἶναι,... ἐξῆν αὐτῷ... μισθῶσαι τὸν ο<*>κον (i.e., ἐμίσθωσεν ἄν).

The order of words in the MSS., ἐπεὶ πατὴρ οὗτος σός, is probably right; the words would then fall from her with a certain deliberate bitterness. Cp. 542: 44 ἦ γὰρ νοεῖς θάπτειν σθ’ (n.): 101 λέγω σ’ ἐγὼ δόλῳ Φιλοκτήτην λαβεῖν.

μοῦνος ( 304 n.) Ἑλλήνων . He of all men—the father of the maiden —was the one who resolved on sacrificing her. The sacrifice was, indeed, approved by the other chiefs ( Aesch. 230 φιλόμαχοι βραβῆς); and several persons took part in the deed itself (ib. 240 ἕκαστον θυτήρων). But, in the first instance, when Calchas spoke, the decision rested with Agamemnon. Cp. Aesch. 205—225, ending with ἔτλα δ’ οὖν | θυτὴρ γενέσθαι θυγατρός. Sophocles, like Aeschylus, ignores the legend used by Euripides, that Iphigeneia was not really slain at Aulis, but wafted by Artemis to the Tauric Chersonese.

Nauck requires τὴν αὐτὸς αὑτοῦ instead of τὴν σὴν ὅμαιμον, because Agamemnon's unique crime was the slaughter of his own child: as if the text did not convey this. Clytaemnestra means, ‘while mourning a father, you forget a sister.’

532 f. The regular mode of expression would be, οὐκ ἴσον λύπης καμὼν ἐμοί, ὁ σπείρας τῇ τικτούσῃ. But, having written ὅτ’ ἔσπειρε, the poet explains ἐμοί by repeating the comparison in a new form, ὥσπερ ἡ τίκτουσ’ ἐγώ. (For ὡς or ὥσπερ after ἴσος, cp. Lys. or. 19 § 36 ἡγοῦντο... τὰ ἐκεῖ...εἶναι ἴσα ὥσπερ τὰ ἐνθάδε .) Those who reject v. 533 omit to notice that, without it, the words οὐκ ἴσον καμὼν ἐμοί would be unintelligible. Cp. Aesch. 1417 ἔθυσεν αὑτοῦ παῖδα, φιλτάτην ἐμοὶ | ὠδῖν’.

This assertion of the mother's superior claim is a counterpart to the doctrine of Athena in Aesch. 658 f., οὐκ ἔστι μήτηρ ἡ κεκλημένου τέκνου | τοκεύς, τροφὸς δὲ κύματος νεοσπόρου. Cp. above, Aesch. Eum. 366 n.

τοῦ χάριν, τίνων : τοῦ (neut.) χάριν, ‘wherefore?’ (as in 1029, τί μ’ ἀπάγεσθε; τοῦ χάριν; ): τίνων (masc.) χάριν; ‘for the sake of what men?’ ‘Wherefore—to please whom—did he immolate her?’ This is the only construction of the words which fits Ἀργείων in 535. The twofold question also suits the vehemence of the speaker, who is seeking to drive the point home.

The alternative, which most editors have preferred, is to take τίνων as the participle. But there is an insuperable objection to this, which seems to have escaped notice. The words, τοῦ χάριν τίνων; could mean only, ‘paying a debt of gratitude for what?’ They could not mean, ‘paying a debt of gratitude to whom?’ The latter would be τῷ χάριν τίνων; See (e.g.) Aesch. 985 καὶ μὴν ὀφείλων ἂν τίνοιμ’ αὐτῷ χάριν: Aesch. 821 τούτων θεοῖσι χρὴ πολύμνηστον χάριν | τίνειν. Hence the question, τοῦ χάριν τίνων; could not possibly be answered by Ἀργείων. For, evidently, the latter word could not mean, (‘for a benefit conferred by) the Greeks.’ A scholiast in the Baroccian MS. (cr. n. on 545), who explains τοῦ χάριν τίνων by τίνος χάριν ἀποδιδούς, plainly meant, ‘showing gratitude for what?’—and his paraphrase was correct; only he overlooked the context.

ἀλλ’ οὐ μετῆν κ.τ.λ.: cp. 48 ἀλλ’ οὐδὲν αὐτῷ τῶν ἐμῶν μ’ εἴργειν μέτα (=μέτεστι).

ἀλλ’ ἀντ’ ἀδελφοῦ δῆτα . Here the first supposition is introduced by πότερον, and the second by ἀλλὰ δῆτα, as in 460—466. ἀλλά was regularly used in thus putting the imagined arguments of an adversary,—the figure called ὑποφορά in Greek rhetoric, and in Latin subiectio, because subicimus id quod oportet dici (Cornificius, 4. 23. 33). Xen. 5. 8. 4 πότερον ᾔτουν τί σε καί, ἐπεί μοι οὐκ ἐδίδους, ἔπαιον; ἀλλ’ ἀπῄτουν; ἀλλὰ περὶ παιδικῶν μαχόμενος; ἀλλὰ μεθύων ἐπαρῴνησα; In this verse, ἀλλὰ introduces both the supposed argument and the reply, since κτανὼν =εἰ ἔκτανεν (as=‘granting that he slew’). Cp. Andoc. or, 1. § 148 τίνα γὰρ καὶ ἀναβιβάσομαι δεήσομενον ὑπὲρ ἐμαυτοῦ; τὸν πατέρα; ἀλλὰ τέθνηκεν. ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἀδελφούς; ἀλλ’ οὐκ εἰσίν. ἀλλὰ τοὺς παῖδας; ἀλλ’ οὔπω γεγένηνται .

ἀντὶ ἀδελφοῦ here=‘in his stead,’ i.e. ‘to save him from slaying his child’: not, ‘for his sake.’ Nor is it short for ἀντὶ [τῶν τοῦ] ἀδελφοῦ.

τἄμ’ : for the neut. referring to persons, cp. 972: 1195 n. In 48 τῶν ἐμ<*>ν, and in 1448 τῶν γε σῶν, may be masc., like 832 τοὺς ἐμοὺς ἄγω.

παῖδες … διπλοῖ . The schol. observes that, according to Homer, Helen bore to Menelaüs only a daughter Hermionè ( 4. 14,—indicated, though not named, in 3. 175); but that Hesiod mentioned also a son (fr. 131): ἣ τέκεθ’ Ἑρμιόνην δουρικλειτῷ Μενελάῳ, | ὁπλότατον δ’ ἔτεκεν Νικόστρατον, ὄζον Ἄρηος. Sophocles follows Hesiod, since Menelaüs could not have been expected to sacrifice an only child.

540 f. Nauck would prefer a single verse in place of these two, viz. οὓς Ἰφιγενείας εἰκὸς ἦν θνῄσκειν πάρος.

ἢ here introduces a third supposition (cp. 530), and in 544 a fourth.

ἢ τῶν ἐμῶν Ἅιδης : the absence of caesura gives a harsh emphasis to the words; cp. 530.

δαίσασθαι , sc. αὐτὰ (fr. 731 ὠμόβρως ἐδαίσατο | τὸν Ἀστάκειον παῖδα): epexegetic inf.: cp. 1277: Eur. 1399 φιλίου χρῄζω στόματος | παίδων ὁ τάλας προσπτύξασθαι (sc. αὐτό, cp. Eur. 1671): Plat. 52B οὐδ’ ἐπιθυμία σε ἄλλης πόλεως οὐδ’ ἄλλων νόμων ἔλαβεν εἰδέναι.—The destroying gods, such as Ares ( 5. 289) and Thanatos ( Eur. 844), were supposed to rejoice, like the dead ( Hom. 11. 96, Eur. 536), in draughts of blood.

The conj. λῄσασθαι (‘to make his prey’) is correct in form ( Eur. 866 ἐλῄσατο), but weaker than the vulgate.

πανώλει expresses intense hatred, as in 1357Odysseus is τῷ πανώλει παιδὶ τῷ Λαερτίου.

παρεῖτο , lit., ‘had been neglected,’—allowed to pass out of his thoughts. This plpf. (identical in form with the 2nd aor.) is somewhat rare: cp. however Thuc. 4. 103 καθεῖτο (followed by καθειστήκει): 117 C ἀφεῖτο (preceded by ἐκεχειρούργητο).

The sense does not absolutely require us to take Μενέλεω δ’ as=τῶν δὲ Μενέλεω (παίδων); but that is clearly what is meant.

ἀβούλου , inconsiderate, — not taking proper thought for his children; cp. 139 τίς ὧδε | τέκνοισι Ζῆν’ ἄβουλον εἶδεν;

κακοῦ γνώμην , perverse,— in choosing to sacrifice his own offspring, rather than another's. There is a bitter irony in this mode of characterising what she regards as unnatural cruelty.

δοκῶ μέν : 61 n.

εἰ καὶ , though (as is the case): cp. 408 εἰ καὶ τυραννεῖς, and appendix on 305.

εἰ φωνὴν λάβοι : cp. Aesch. 37(οἶκος) εἰ φθογγὴν λάβοι. In the the departed spirits are conceived unable to recognise or to accost the living, until they have tasted the offerings of blood (11. 153).—Similarly Oedipus imagines how Laïus would testify, if he could return to life ( 998).

τοῖς πεπραγμένοις , causal dat.; cp. Thuc. 3. 98 τοῖς πεπραγμένοις φοβούμενος τοὺς Ἀθηναίους: Soph. 1127 n.

γνώμην δικαίαν σχοῦσα κ.τ.λ.: first attain to a just view of the matter, and then, but not sooner, blame thy neighbours. Schol.: οἷον λογισμῷ χρησαμένη δικαίῳ τότε [=εἶτα] τοὺς πέλας ψ<*>γε ἡμᾶς. The usual sense of the aor. ἔσχον (‘came to have,’ ‘acquired’) is a reason for taking the words thus, rather than as referring to the subject of δοκῶ, ‘though I have held a just view’; in the latter case, we should have expected ἔχουσα. The aor. part. of the simple ἔχω is not frequent ( 4. 70 and Thuc. 5. 2 σχών: Antiphon or. 5 § 67 σχόντες: Her. 4. 203 σχοῦσι).

ἐρεῖς μὲν οὐχὶ κ.τ.λ. The antithesis implied by μὲν is given by vv. 554 f.: ‘I have not, indeed, provoked this discussion; still, I should like to speak.’ For ἐρεῖς preceding the negative, cp. 223 ἄναξ, ἐρῶ μὲν οὐχ κ.τ.λ. For the constr., ἐρεῖς … μ’ ὡς , cp. 520.

ἄρξασά τι λυπηρὸν : cp. fr. 339 ἄρξασι Φρυξὶ τὴν κατ’ Ἀργείων ὕβριν. This constr., rare for ἄρχω, is regular for ὑπάρχω, as Dem. or. 19 § 280 εὐεργεσίας ἃς ὑπῆρξαν εἰς ἡμᾶς.

τάδ’ ἐξήκους’ , alluding to the reproaches in vv. 518, 529, etc. Cp. 378 δηχθεὶς πρὸς ἁξήκουσεν, ‘stung by the abuse.’

τοῦ τεθνηκότος θ’ ὕπερ . She will speak justly in the cause of both. The pathos of Iphigeneia's death is not diminished, but enhanced, if Agamemnon acted against his own will.—Hermann, reading τοῦ τεθνηκότος γ’ , took γε to imply that she would not defend herself. But the double τε suits the promise of impartiality.

καὶ μὴν , lit., ‘and verily,’— expressing assent to the request: cp. 221 n.

λόγους ἐξῆρχές με =προσεφώνεις με: cp. 123 ff. τάκεις...οἰμωγὰν...Ἀγαμέμνονα: 1120 τέκνα...μηκύνω λόγον (speak at length to my children). ἐξάρχω was said esp. of beginning a musical strain ( Eur. 148 ff. μολπὰν...οἵαν... ἐξῆρχον θεούς). Here it perhaps suggests the same idea, with a tinge of irony: ‘if you always began in such a key,’—viz., of filial deference.

Clytaemnestra has argued that she was justified in slaying Agamemnon, because he had slain Iphigeneia. The topics of Electra's reply are as follows.

(1) 558—562. The wife who slew her husband would be a criminal, even if the motive had been just retribution; but the real motive was her love for Aegisthus. (2) 563—576. Agamemnon was not a free agent in slaying Iphigeneia; the act was forced upon him by Artemis. (3) 577—583. Suppose, however, that he was a free agent, and wished to please his brother; still she was not justified in taking his life. (4) 584—594. And in any case her plea does not excuse her for living with the man who helped to slay her husband.—The speech then closes in a strain of reproach and defiance (595 —609).

καὶ δὴ λέγω σοι : the same formula as in 892 and 245,—καὶ δὴ expressing prompt compliance. Cp. also 1436, Ant. 1464.The sense of πατέρα is relative to the speaker, and not (as would be more natural) to the subject of φὴς : see on 1125 τῆς πατροφόντου μητρός. —For the doubled ἄν, cp. 333 f.

εἴτ’ οὖν … εἴτε : cp. 199 n. We supply ἔκτεινας: cp. Aesch. 468 σὺ δ’, εἰ δικαίως εἴτε μή, κρῖνον δίκην, where ἔκτεινα is understood from v. 463.

λέξω : the fut. here implies the sense of a task from which the speaker will not shrink; ‘I have to tell thee’;—as elsewhere the fut. bespeaks indulgence for a request: 1446 προστρέψομαι: 825 αἰτήσομαι. The conjecture δείξω seems unnecessary.

ὡς οὐ δίκῃ γ’ : γε, emphasising δίκῃ, is suitable here, since δικαίως (560) expressed the first of two alternatives. For the omission of the object to ἔκτεινας, cp. 801(ἔμπρησον), n.— ἔσπασεν , a stronger word than εἵλκυσε: cp. 791(of Erôs) σὺ καὶ δικαίων ἀδίκους φρένας παρασπᾷς ἐπὶ λώβᾳ.— πειθὼ : cp. 3. 264(Aegisthus) πόλλ’ Ἀγαμεμνονέην ἄλοχον θέλγεσκ’ ἐπέεσσιν.

κυναγὸν : the Doric form, as in λοχαγός, ὁδαγός, etc. ( 715 n.): but κυνηγετεῖν ( 5), κυνηγία, κυνηγέτης.

ποινὰς , acc. in appos. with the sentence; cp. 129 n., 563 τίνος ἀμπλακίας ποινὰς ὀλέκει; Eur. 6 καί με θητεύειν πατὴρ | θνητῷ παρ’ ἀνδρὶ τῶνδ’ ἄποιν’ ἠνάγκασεν.

τὰ πολλὰ πνεύματ’ ἔσχ’ , ‘she stayed those frequent winds,’ which ordinarily blow from the coast of Greece,—causing a calm of unusual length. For τὰ πολλὰ , cp. 931: 87 τὰ πόλλ’ ἐκεῖν’ ὅτ’ ἐξέχρη κακά: Aesch. 1456 μία τὰς πολλάς, τὰς πάνυ πολλὰς | ψυχὰς ὀλέσασ’. For ἔσχε as=‘stopped,’ cp. 888 βουθυτοῦντά μ’...ἔσχετ’.

Acc. to Aesch. ( Aesch. 149 f., Aesch. Ag. 192), the Greeks were detained by adverse winds, blowing from the N.E. : and this seems to have been the account given in the (c. 776 B.C.), Proclus p. 455: ἐπέσχεν αὐτοὺς τοῦ πλοῦ χειμῶνας ἐπιπέμπουσα. But other authorities speak of a calm. Thus 9 ff. οὔκουν φθόγγος γ’ οὔτ’ ὀρνίθων | οὔτε θαλάσσης· σιγαὶ δ’ ἀνέμων | τόνδε κατ’ Εὔριπον ἔχουσιν. Schol. Eur. 647 ἐπειράθη τῆς θεοῦ ὀργιζομένης καὶ κατεχούσης τοὺς ἀνέμους. Tzetzes on Lycophron 183 χολωθεῖσα δ’ ἐπὶ τούτῳ ἡ θεὸς τοὺς ἀνέμους κατέσχεν. Ovid ( 13. 183) combines both versions: exspectata diu, nulla aut contraria classi | Flamina sunt.

It has been objected that vessels provided with oars need not have been detained by a calm. But the ships of the Greek fleet were not light craft. Each carried from 50 to 120 armed men, besides σκεύη πολεμικά: and the warriors were also the rowers (cp. Thuc. 1. 10). It is intelligible, then, that they should await the aid of wind before attempting the passage of the Aegaean. We must remember, too, the strong and shifting currents in the Euripus (στονόεντα πορθμόν, Soph. 1145: παλιρρόχθοις ἐν Αὐλίδος τόποις, Aesch. 191).

We cannot well render:—(1)‘He suffered those tedious winds,’—supplying ὁ πατήρ from v. 558. Nor: (2) ‘She directed those tedious winds at Aulis,’—a version which would at least require ἐπ’ Αὐλίδι. Cp. 1119 ἔχε | δύσποτμον ἀρὰν ἐπ’ ἄλλοις.

The conjecture πλοῖα for πολλὰ (cr. n.) would be an attractive remedy, if the idea of a calm were not admissible. It may be noticed, however, that the word πλοῖον, admitted by Aesch. as a synonym for ναῦς ( Aesch. 625), occurs in Soph. only once (fr. 127), and is not extant in

Αὐλίδι . Aulis was so named from the channel (αὐλός), as other towns were named from αὐλών ‘a valley.’ It stood on the Boeotian coast, in the territory of Tanagra, about three miles s. of the point where, at Chalcis in Euboea, the Euripus is narrowest. The site was a rocky peninsula (hence Αὐλίδα πετρήεσσαν, 2. 496), having on the south of it a large basin, known as the βαθὺς λιμήν (Strabo 3. p. 403). Pausanias saw at Aulis an ancient temple of Artemis, with two statues of the goddess (9. 19. 6).

ἢ )γὼ φράσω , a self-correction, as in 352 ἢ μάθ’ ἐξ ἐμοῦ. It is not θέμις for a mortal to cross-question a goddess face to face.—For the simple gen. κείνης , cp. 668: 370 μαθεῖν ἐμοῦ.

ὡς ἐγὼ κλύω : implying the possibility of other accounts. Aeschylus does not define the offence which had angered Artemis ( 132). According to Euripides, Agamemnon had rashly vowed that he would sacrifice to her the fairest creature that the year should bring forth ( 20).

θεᾶς … κατ’ ἄλσος , a sacred precinct near the temple of Artemis at Aulis, mentioned in Eur. 1544, Ἀρτέμιδος ἄλσος λείμακάς τ’ ἀνθεσφόρους, and called πολύθυτον, ib. 185. At many places on the eastern coasts of Greece Artemis was worshipped, esp. as λιμενοσκόπος (see on Soph. 637).

παίζων , ‘amusing himself,’ ‘taking his pleasure.’ The allusion is to the pursuit of game, though παίζω had no definitely technical sense like that of our word ‘sport.’ We find the verb associated with hunting in 6. 104 ff. (Artemis) τερπομένη κάπροισι καὶ ὠκείῃς ἐλάφοισι· | τῇ δέ θ’ ἅμα νύμφαι, κοῦραι Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο, | ἀγρονόμοι παίζουσι. Dindorf quotes Plut. 23 πολλάκις δὲ παίζων καὶ ἀλώπεκας ἐθήρευε καὶ ὄρνιθας. Tzetzes, in telling the story, says, ἐξελθὼν ἐπὶ κυνηγέσιον (on Lycophr. 183).

ποδοῖν : i.e., by the sound of his feet; not by their touch.

ἔλαφον , ‘a stag.’ The word can also mean ‘a hind,’ as in fr. 86 κεροῦσσα...ἔλαφος.

στικτὸν ( 184)= βαλιόν: Eur. 111 στικτῶν...νεβρίδων: Kaibel 1082. 4 στικτὴν ἔλαφον .

κεράστην : cp. the Homeric ἔλαφον κεραόν ( 3. 24, etc.).

οὗ κατὰ σφαγὰς , concerning the slaughter of it: cp. Her. 1. 31 τὰ κατὰ τὸν Τέλλον...εἴπας: id. 2. 3 κατὰ μὲν δὴ τὴν τροφὴν τῶν παιδίων τοσαῦτα ἔλεγον. Others understand (less well, I think), ‘on the occasion of the slaughter’ (‘beim Erlegen desselben,’ G. Wolff; and so Nauck).

ἐκκομπάσας ἔπος τι τυγχάνει , ‘he chanced to utter a certain (irreverent) boast,’ βαλών , ‘after hitting’ (with an arrow, or perh. with a javelin). ἔπος τι is euphemistic: cp. Hyginus 98 superbiusque in Dianam locutus est. The vaunt would naturally follow, not precede, the hit. And so we read elsewhere. Schol. Eur. 647 καυχησάμενος δὲ ἐπὶ τῇ ἐπιτυχίᾳ, καὶ εἰπὼν ὡς οὐδ’ ἂν αὐτὴ ἡ Ἄρτεμις οὕτως ἔβαλεν, ἐπειράθη τῆς θεοῦ ὀργιζομένης κ.τ.λ. Proclus p. 455 Ἀγαμέμνων ἐπὶ θήρᾳ βαλὼν ἔλαφον ὑπερβάλλειν ἔφησε καὶ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν. Tzetzes on Lycophr. 183 τρώσας ἔλαφον μέγα καυχήσας ἐφθέγξατο οὕτως· Οὐδὲ ἡ Ἄρτξμις (sc. οὕτως ἂν ἔβαλεν).

This is the reason against taking τυγχάνει with βαλών, as=‘he shoots and hits’; cp. 15. 581 θηρητὴρ ἐτύχησε βαλών: Her. 3. 35 εἰ...τοῦ παιδὸς...βαλὼν τύχοιμι. The vaunt must then precede the hit.

Others take βαλὼν with ἔπος : ‘he chanced to let fall some boastful word.’ But this is objectionable on two grounds. (1) ἐκβάλλειν ἔπος is a very frequent phrase; 18. 324: 4. 503: Pind. 2. 81: Aesch. 1663, Aesch. 47: Her. 6. 69, etc. But βάλλειν ἔπος does not seem to occur: even in Ar. 595 καὶ βαλεῖς τι μαλθακόν, κἀκβαλεῖς is a v.l., and probably right; cp. 1289 σκωμμάτιον...ἐκβαλῶ. (2) ἐκκομπάσας, combined with βαλών in this sense, would be awkwardly redundant.

Monk, with Musgrave, took σφαγὰς as=iugulum, understanding, ‘he uttered a vaunt, and hit the stag with his missile in the throat.’ ( 1. 77.)

ἐκ τοῦδε , idcirco.

μηνίσασα , of divine wrath, as in 965, 274: and so μῆνις, 656, Ai. 757.But human resentment is denoted by the verb in 1274, 1177; and by the noun in 699, 1328.

Λητῴα κόρη : cp. 267 τῷ Λαβδακείῳ παιδί (n.).

ὡς : the will of the goddess was interpreted by Calchas. Nothing would be gained by reading ἕως (monosyll.).— ἀντίσταθμον ,=ἀντίρροπον, ‘in compensation for.’

ἐκθύσειε . The midd. ἐκθύεσθαι is to expiate (ἄγος), or to propitiate (θεόν). But the act. ἐκθύειν is merely a strengthened θύειν, ‘to make a sacrifice of,’ implying some cruelty or violence: Eur. 371 ἐφεστίους ἱκτῆρας ἐκθύεις δόμων.

ὧδ’ ἦν , instead of <*>δ’ εἶχε or τοιαῦτα ἦν. When an adv. is joined with εἶναι, the verb is more often impers., as in εὖ γὰρ ἔσται ( Eur. 89).

τὰ … θύματ’ : for the poet. pl., cp. 627 τὰ τῆς ξένης... | προσδέγματ’.

λύσις , ‘release’ from the detention at Aulis.

πρὸς οἶκον . The weather, which stopped the voyage to Troy, would also hinder some of the islanders from going home; but most of the allies from the mainland could have reached their respective ports with less difficulty; and we can only suppose that Calchas threatened them with the wrath of Artemis. In Aesch. 212Agamemnon speaks as if a return home were possible, though disgraceful. In Eur. 94 ff. he is on the point of dismissing the army, when Menelaüs interferes.

πολλὰ goes with both participles. Nauck objects that it must mean ‘often,’ and conjectures λιασθείς. But see 11. 556 f., ὡς Αἴας τότ’ ἀπὸ Τρώων τετιημένος ἦτορ | ἤϊε, πόλλ’ ἀέκων. 254 ὦ πόλλ’ ἐγὼ μοχθηρός.

ἀντιβὰς : cp. Her. 6. 73(οὐκ) ἐδικαίευν ἔτι ἀντιβαίνειν. 4. 301

μόλις , aegre: Ant. 1105 μόλις μέν, καρδίας δ’ ἐξίσταμαι: Soph. 329.Aeschylus describes the struggle in the father's soul, until ἀνάγκας ἔδυ λέπαδνον ( 206—221).

εἰ δ’ οὖν , ‘but if it was with the wish,’ etc.,—referring to Clytaemnestra's words in 537 ff. Cp. Aesch. 1042 εἰ δ’ οὖν ἀνάγκη τῆσδ’ ἐπιρρέποι τύχης (‘but if the doom of slavery should befall’).

ἐρῶ γὰρ καὶ τὸ σόν , ‘for I will state thy plea (537 ff.) also’: cp. 479 δεῖ γὰρ καὶ τὸ πρὸς κείνου λέγειν. 1313 ὅρα μὴ τοὐμὸν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ σόν.

τούτου … οὕνεκ’ : for the large interval between the case and this prep., cp. 857 f.

νόμῳ , ‘rule,’ ‘principle’; 908, 616.

ὅρα ... μὴ … τιθῇς . The subjunctive here is supported by our best MS., L, which has τίθηις, while in 584 it has τίθης. In 584 τίθης is clearly right: ‘see that you are not making a false excuse’ (she is actually making it). Cp. Plat. 145C ὅρα μὴ παίζων ἔλεγεν: and other examples in n. on Soph. 30.

Here, either τίθης or τιθῇς would be suitable. (1) With τίθης:—‘See that, in making this rule, you are not making woe for yourself.’ This means that to make the rule (as she is doing) is at once (logically) to make the woe. (2) With τιθῇς: —‘See lest, in making this rule, you make woe for yourself’: i.e., the rule may have the woe as a consequence. The woe is a future contingency (583 εἰ δίκης γε τυγχάνοις), against which Electra warns her. On the whole, I now prefer τιθῇς. Cp. 1003 ὅρα κακῶς πράσσοντε μὴ μείζω κακὰ | κτησώμεθ’: fr. 82 ἀλλ’ ὅρα μὴ κρεῖσσον ᾖ.

τιθεῖσα … νόμον : cp. n. on 8: Eur. 57 πρὸς τῶν ἐχόντων, Φοῖβε, τὸν νόμον τίθης.

εἰ γὰρ κτενοῦμεν . Note two points of syntax here. (1) We have two protases, not co-ordinate: the first of them, εἰ κτενοῦμεν, states the primary condition, on which everything else depends. ‘If that is to be the rule, then (if you got your due) you would die.’ Cp. 782 f.: 1084 εἰ δ’ ἦμεν νέοι | δὶς καὶ γέροντες, εἴ τις ἐξημάρτανε, | διπλοῦ βίου λαχόντες ἐξωρθούμεθ’ ἄν. (2) The first protasis has the fut. indic.: the second protasis and the apodosis have the optat. with ἄν, not as a softened future, but in a potential sense. Cp. Thuc. 1. 142 φρούριον δ’ εἰ ποιήσονται, τῆς μὲν γῆς βλάπτοιεν ἄν τι μέρος. Eur. 730 εἰ γάρ τι λέξεις ᾦ χολώσεται στρατός, | οὔτ’ ἂν ταφείη παῖς ὅδ’, οὔτ’ οἴκτου τύχοι.

πρώτη : i.e., no one has more fully deserved the penalty.

εἰσόρα , instead of ὅρα: cp. 611, 997.

οὐκ οὖσαν ,=ψευδῆ, unreal, false: cp. Ar. 1052 ΕΥ. πότερον δ’ οὐκ ὄντα λόγον τοῦτον περὶ τῆς Φαίδρας ξυνέθηκα; ΑΙΣ. μὰ Δἴ, ἀλλ’ ὄντ’.

τίθης : see on 580 f.

εἰ … θέλεις , here merely a form of ironical courtesy: but in 343=‘if you choose.’