ἢ δή] who, as all know, &c. So οὗ δὴ χολωθεὶς, Alcest. 5; see also Prom. 833.

θελούσης] The poet indirectly denies the truth of an old legend that Themis was forcibly ejected from the oracular seat by her sister Phoebe, the mother of Leto. Schol. Πίνδαρός φησι πρὸς βίαν κρατῆσαι Πυθοῦς τὸν ᾿Απόλλωνα· διὸ καὶ ταρταρῶσαι αὐτὸν ἐζήτει ἡ Γῆ. This note perhaps refers to the birthday present' from his grandmother Phoebe. The legend that Apollo dispossessed Themis is given at some length in Eur. Iph. T. 1260 seqq. It was in the mind of the poet in this play to deny the hostility of the gods against each other, and to represent them in their more beneficent aspect. It was a custom to bring presents, thence called ὀπτήρια, at the first sight of a newly-born child; see Eur. Ion 1127.

παρώνυμον] The name Phoebus came from Phoebe, either derived from it by the masculine termination, or with the interval of one, as παρ' ἡμέραν, ‘every other day.'

λιπὼν δὲ κ.τ.λ.] The sense is, 'So he, leaving the island of his birth, came first to the shore of Attica, from which he was conducted with great honour by a Sacred Way then first made from Athens to Delphi by the descendants of Erichthonius the son of Hephaestus. On the via sacra alluded to, see Wordsworth's Greece, p. 237, who describes the rugged and uneven nature of the soil, ἀνήμερον χθόνα. The Schol. records a ceremony kept up till later times, of pioneers carrying mattocks leading the annual procession of θεωροὶ to Delphi. ibid. χοιράδα] The low-lying reef, lit. 'hog's-back,' a term applied in disparagement to the barren island which the god exchanged for the wealthy Delphi (Schol.). See Pers. 423.

Either ἡμερώσαντες οι τιθέντες (θέντες) ἥμερον would be a more usual expression. The verb is technically applied to cutting roads through waste country. So Herod. 1. 126 ἐξημερῶσαι τόπον ἀκανθώδη. Eur. Herc. F. 20 έξημερῶσαι γαῖαν.

Δελφός] The eponym king or hero of the country came out to meet the god and give him an honourable reception. The Schol. cites a grammarian who wrote a commentary on Callimachus, to prove that Delphus was the son of Poseidon and Melaena, a daughter of the river Cephisus. -πρυμνήτης, see inf. 735, Theb. 2.

τόνδε] i.e. the present occupant. Similarly the gods are asked to receive the king on his return φαιδροῖσι τοισίδ᾽ ὄμμασι, Ag. 503, ‘now with bright and cheery look.'

προφήτης] the mouth-piece, or speaker for Zeus, Jovis interpres.

ἐν λόγοις] This may mean that Pallas holds a first rank in the legends of the place, or it may be that prayers to Apollo are contrasted with honourable mention of Pallas Pronaea (Herod. 1. 92, VIII. 37), who had a temple, or perhaps chapel, in front of the adytum. There was another title, sometimes confounded with this, Παλλάς Πρόvoia, the goddess of Providence, from her reputed wisdom, inf. 811.

These verses, which somewhat interrupt the narrative, and the last of which is metrically faulty, are perhaps the interpolation of an early hand. The Schol. observes that the scene of Pentheus' death was not Parnassus, but Cithaeron. It has been proposed (by Weil) to insert v. 20 after v. 26, which, supposing the above lines to be genuine, would be an improvement. It is remarkable that the Schol. briefly says καλοῦσα φροιμιάζομαι. Cf. Ag. 1325.

Ποσειδώνος] There would seem to have been a κοινοβωμία (Suppl. 218) at Delphi. There was a legend that the sea-god had resigned Pytho to Apollo in exchange for Taenarus, or, as Callimachus quoted by the Schol. says, for Calaurea, an island off Argolis.

ἴτων, for ἴτωσαν, a unique example of this form.-πάλῳ, viz. without favour or claim of precedence on national grounds. -ὡς ἂv, according as. Cf. Soph. Αj. 1369 ὡς ἂν ποιήσῃς, πανταχή χρηστός γ ἔσει.--After this verse there is a solemn pause.

ἀκταίνειν] Schol. κουφίζειν, Hesych. μετεωρίζειν, pedem levare. A similar form occurs Od. ΧΧΙΙΙ. 3 πόδες δ' ὑπερικταίνοντο. Plat. Legg. 11. p. 672 c καὶ ὅταν ἀκταινώσῃ ἑαυτὸ τάχιστα, ἀτάκτως αὖ πηδᾷ.

χερσίν] By the support of my hands against the wall. The Schol. (unless indeed he records a stage tradition) seems wrongly to explain ἔξεισι τετραποδηδόν.

ἀντίπαις] Rather she is as a child. Cf. Cho. 128 κἀγὼ μὲν ἀντίδουλος, ‘and I am no better than a slave.'

The recent act of murder is described, as the Schol. remarks, in this verse.

τῇδε γάρ] For in this respect (viz. the size of the tufts and the sober method of the arrangement, unlike that of some mad fanatic) I will give a clear account. Cf. Soph. El. 643 ἀλλ᾽ ὧδ᾽ ἄκουε, τῇδε γὰρ κἀγὼ φράσω. The Schol. says the interior of the shrine was seen by the spectators; but this does not seem certain. There is nothing in the narrative to suggest more than a description of what has scared the speaker. Indeed, the statement here is inconsistent with that at v. 64, where he says the interior of the shrine is now displayed by the eccyclema. car-

τύποις] The earliest sculptures were ugly Gorgonheads cut in shallow relief, and called τύποι perhaps from a resemblance to heads on coins. She proceeds to say that she has seen drawings or paintings of winged winged harpies rying off the dinner from Phineus; but these Furies were different, in that they had no wings. The Argonautic story was well known to both Aeschylus and Pindar. It is alluded to also in Cho. 620 seqq.

οὐ πλατοῖσι] not to be approached.

καὶ κόσμος] Their dress, too, was such as neither could be brought as an offering to the statues of the gods (like the peplus to Pallas) nor admitted into the abodes of men.

τὸ φύλον] the tribe or race to which they could be supposed to belong. Schol. οὐδέποτε τοιοῦτον γένος εἶδον.-οὐδὲ κ.τ.λ., ‘nor know I what land can aver that it rears this brood without harm to itself, and has not to repent afterwards of its pains.' -πόνον, Schol. τὸν (MS. τὸ) τῆς ἀνατροφῆς.

τοῖσιν ἄλλοις] i.e. and therefore much more so to himself. Schol. πόσῳ μᾶλλον τῶν ἰδίων ;

Apollo himself appears (apparently as an actor on the stage, though this is not certain). No! he exclaims, I will not desert you! I will watch over and guard you to the end, either at your side or from a distance, and I will show no gentleness to your enemies. We might conceive that Apollo appeared as in the air, by the μηχανὴ, and that this verse really means Even though far from you, as much as if I were close by you. Yet, as an interlocutor throughout the play, it would be difficult to suppose he always spoke from the μηχανή. - The use of καὶ δὲ is not common in tragedy, though very frequent in the later Attic prose. See Pers. 263, 548.-πέπων, mitis, opposed to ὠμός, stern.

This verse is corrupt, and the scholia give no help. Perhaps κόπῳ δ᾽ ὑπνώσσουσ᾽ αἱ κ. κ., in which case ἁλούσας, caught, will mean in my power, unable to stir, the capturers being themselves captured.

οὐ μίγνυται] The sense is purposely ambiguous between cohabit and associate. So Homer says of Calypso, Od. νι. 288 οὐδέ τις αὐτῇ μίσγεται οὔτε θεῶν οὔτε θνητῶν ἀνθρώπων.

κακῶν ἕκατι] Their very existence is due to the existence of evil; if there were no crimes there would be no Furies to punish them. This is inferred from the race being altogether hellish and excluded from heaven.

ὅμως] Though they are now asleep, you must continue your flight, for they will pursue you even through the spacious mainland, as well as over the sea and to island settlements.

βιβῶντ'] This is an epic and Pindaric form. (See Veitch, Gr. V. p. 132.) The Med. has βεβῶντ'. For the separation of avà Hermann compares Plat. Legg. VIII. p. 832 c σὺν ἀεί τινι βίᾳ. So also Eur. El. 1121 ὁρᾷς; ἀν᾿ αὐ σὺ ζωπυρεῖς νείκη νέα.

βουκολούμενος] Brooding over. Schol. περιέπων. Cf. Ag. 652 έβουκολοῦμεν φροντίσιν νέον πάθος. For προκάμνειν, to give in too soon, cf. Herc. F. 119 μὴ προκάμητε πόδα βαρύ τε κώλον. Thuc. 11. 39 περιγίγνεται ἡμῖν τοῖς μέλλουσιν ἀλγεινοῖς μὴ προκάμνειν.

ἵζου] sit as a suppliant at the ancient wooden image (distinguished as Πολιάς) in the Erechtheum. -ἄγκαθεν, Schol. ταῖς ἀγκάλαις. See Ag. 3.

ἔπεισα] The emphasis is on this word: You were persuaded to slay your mother, and therefore it was not altogether ἑκὼν φόνος.—κτανεῖν, as inf. 96 ἔκτανον, a somewhat rare form for the usual Attic ἀποκτεῖναι.

μέμνησο] This refers to the injunction just given μὴ πρόκαμνε κ.τ.λ. Cf. Agam. 803.

κάρτα ἐπώνυμος, as in Theb. 655, is true to your name, a brief phrase for κάρτα παρέχων πομπὴν ἧς ἐπώνυμος εἶ.

This verse is corrupt. The Scholium is in some way confused, but the words ὁρῶν αὐτὸ ὁρμώμενον προσηκούσῃ τύχῃ suggest that he read τόδ' εἰσορῶν γέρας. Or from the gloss τὸ τῶν ἱκετῶν σέβισμα καὶ δέημα we might conjecture τόδ' ἱκτήρων οι ἱκτόρων γέρας. We can hardly defend σέβει σέβας, even if ἐκνόμων meant outlaws. Orestes here leaves the stage under the charge of Hermes, and Apollo retires, perhaps, into the adytum. After a brief pause the ghost of Clytemnestra rises through the trap-door called ἀναπίεσμα, and rouses the slumbering Furies to inform them that their captive has escaped. Schol. ἐφίσταται τὸ εἴδωλον Κλυταιμνήστρας καὶ μεμψάμενον ἀνεγείρει. Sleep on, ho! But we want not sleepers. While I am thus slighted by you, I am continually haunted among the other dead as a Murderess, and wander among the shades in disgrace. The syntax is equivalent to ἀεὶ ὀνειδίζομαι. The Schol. appears to have found ὧν μὲν ἔκτανον, for he explains, 'I am held in no regard by you for having killed my husband, but those who slew me are not slighted by you, but persecuted. The general sense must be, I am blamed for killing him, because you, the Furies, and the other infernal powers, are indifferent to my having been slain by my own son;' and thus attention is directed to my crime alone, and its punishment is thought to be just.

κείνων ὕπο] Schol. αἰτιῶμαι ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν τῶν περὶ ᾿Αγαμέμνονα, viz. the νεκροὶ or φθιτοὶ who attend him as a King in Hades.

The Med. has ὅρα δὲ and σέθεν. But the verb is in the plural throughout this speech, and the sense is much simpler, See this wound over my heart, from whose hand it proceeded. The Schol. here observes, It is a tragic device to make the ghost of Clytemnestra retain the wound where she was stabbed.

εὕδουσα γάρ] 'See it, I say, even in your sleep; for the mind in sleep can see brightly with its eyes; it is in the day that it is the lot of man not to have the power of foresight. This is one of the Pythagorean theories about dreams, to which the poet often alludes. Compare Xen. Cyr. VIII. 7, 21 ἡ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴ τότε δήπου (sc. ἐν ὕπνῳ) θειοτάτη φαίνεται, καὶ τότε τι τῶν μελλόντων προορᾷ. We have 'the mind's eye,' φρένα ὠμματωμένην, Cho. 839. For βροτῶν, which may well refer to a general proposition as the lot of mankind, the Schol. seems to have read φρενῶν.

κούφως] See Pers. 101, Ag. 350, 1347. He has escaped, she says, like a nimble stag from the very middle of the stake-net, thereby mocking you sorely. Schol. χλευάσας, ἐγγελάσας. Pollux, 11. 52, gives ἰλλώπτειν and κατιλλώπτειν as comic words. The words ἴλλειν and ἰλλὸς expressed rolling or leering with the eyes, as ἰλλὸς γεγένημαι προσδοκῶν, Αr. Thesm. 846. -τῆς ἐμῆς ψυχῆς. This is used ambiguously, since the speaker is a ψυχὴ or spirit; but the phrase commonly means a struggle or contest for life. – φρονήσατε, ‘be conscious, viz. of your duties and your mission. This imperative occurs Soph. Ant. 49 οἴμοι, φρόνησον, ὦ κασιγνήτη.

ὄναρ] See v. 126. I address you as a vision addresses one in a dream, i. e. not appealing to your bodily senses, but to your spiritual intelligence quickened by sleep. Lit. for it is in your slumber that I call upon you now, the waking-scene being yet to follow. And it seems that the ghost applied some vigorous measures to the snoring and insensible company.

μύζοιτ᾽ ἄν] See 94 and 180. The moaning noise, or a sound representing uneasy dreamers, is here indicated by the stage-notes (παρεπιγραφαί), μυγμός, ὠγμός, &c. In the next verse ἐμοὶ is Hermann's correction for ἐμοῖς. The sense is, There are gods (who protect their friends, Apollo and Pallas), but none who aid me, and therefore the murderer has escaped. Thus Ζεὺς ἀφίκτωρ is the patron of Suppliants in Suppl. 1.

Ας φεύζειν is to cry φεῦ, so ὤζειν is to cry Oh! Ar. Vesp. 1526 ὅπως ἰδόντες ἄνω σκέλος ὤζωσιν οἱ θεαταί. Aeschylus used τέκνοις ἐπώζειν, to wail over her children, in the Niobe, which Hesychius misinterprets of a hen sitting on her eggs. See inf. 337.

τεύχειν κακά (Cho. 717), to go on doing harm, virtually means to make matters worse, since now the culprit can exult in his escape.

δρακαίνης] The fell she-dragon is the leader of the chorus, who has been addressed in the two preceding couplets.-κηραίνειν, referred by Curtius, Gr. Et. 147, to a root κειρ, is perhaps different from κηραίνειν ‘to have at heart,' to care for. See Suppl. 976. Trach. 29 κείνου προκηραίνουσα. Schol. παρείλοντο. Hesych. ἐξεκήρανεν· ἐξέφθειρεν.

ἀντίκεντρα] See v. 38, 444. When reproaches are just, they act as goads to the wise and discreet. This is alluded to inf. 150.

σὺ δέ] This seems addressed to another of the three leading Furies, who are all mentioned in v. 135, do you wake her, even as I wake you. ibid. ἐπουρίζειν is properly to direct a favouring gale upon a ship. Schol. ἐφορμήσασα ιήσασα τῷ ᾿Ορέστῃ. (He (He took the demonstrative τῷ for the article, with the name understood; but cf. 2 and 7, and inf. 166.)

κατισχναίνουσα] Schol. ἐκλεπτύνουσα. So Prom. 388 καὶ μὴ σφυδῶντα θυμὸν ἰσχναίνῃ βίᾳ, a medical term. Cf. 257. –ἀτμῷ, Αg. 1282, ‘hot breath.' Gl. Med. πυρετῷ ἀναλίσκουσα, ὡς δοκεῖν ἀτμοὺς ἀνιέναι ἀπὸ γαστρὸς αὐτοῦ. But the breath meant must be that of the pursuers, who scorch and wither their victim as a hot wind blights tender leaves.

ἰδώμεθα] The plural follows a participle in the singular, as in Herc. F. 858 ἡλίῳ μαρτυρόμεσθα δρῶσ᾽ ἃ δρᾶν οὐ βούλομαι.-ματᾷ, Schol. μάταιον γίγνεται. See Prom. 57. Theb. 37.

πόπαξ] Our word pish! an exclamation of peevishness and dissatisfaction, as ποποῖ is pooh-pooh, Cho. 397, Αg. 1043. ὀτοτοῖ οι τοτοῖ (Pers. 562) is tut-tut. But ὦ πόποι (so accented) means ໖ θεοὶ, Pers. 727, Hesych. ὦ δαίμονες. The sentences following appear to be spoken by different choreutae in succession. So the Schol. seems to say, one wakes first, so that the chorus do not speak all at once. He adds, ἕκαστον κατ᾿ ἰδίαν προσενεκτέον, ‘each speech is to come on separately.'

καθιππάσω] you override, a military term. Schol. κατεπολέμησας. Cf. 701, 741.

ἔτυψεν] This epic form hardly occurs in the Attic, ἐπάταξεν being the usual equivalent. - μεσολαβεῖ, used passively, perhaps, grasped by the middle, so as to be firmly held.

πάρεστι] I feel it (the reproach, says another) 'like the cruel smart of a torturer's lash.'

This is said in satire and irony. This is what your younger gods do, assuming a power altogether beyond their right.' The dethronement of the Titanian powers and the cult of the beneficent Olympian deities (as before observed) is a main object of the play.

ἔχρανας] By giving an asylum to a murderer you have knowingly defiled your own temple.

φθίσας] By destroying our influence, as far as in you lay (Schol.). They here call themselves Μοῖραι, because it would seem still more presumptuous in Apollo to interfere with Fate.

καὶ τόν] See v. 132. While he gives pain to me, he will not succeed in delivering him.'

ἐξ ἐμοῦ] after me. The MS. has ἐκείνου, and the Schol. appears to have read ἐκ κείνου, since he explains καὶ οἱ ἐξ αὐτοῦ δίκας ἡμῖν δώσουσιν. The notion is that of a spiteful demon alighting on the head (Ag. 1146, 1444), and it seems to have been regarded as a bad omen if a foul bird left its mark on a statue or roof. See Suppl. 637, and the note. -πάσεται, Schol. λήψεται.

Apollo reappears, and orders the loathsome band to leave his shrine, under threat of an arrow from his unerring bow, with which he is seen armed. This is a very fine passage. Go, he says, where tortures and mutilations, impaling and other horrors are practised, as ἐν βαρβάροις. The arrow is called a glistening winged serpent, both from the ambiguous sense of lòs and from the feathering, πτέρωμα (Schol.).

χλοῦνις, virility. The Schol. seems rightly to refer this to the castration of boys. A wild boar was called χλούνης, probably from the large size of the testes. The word ἀκρωνία seems corrupt; the Schol. explains it by κακῶν ἄθροισις, which is evidently impossible. Pollux (II. 137) gives a medical term ἀκρωμία, for the muscle at the top of the shoulder; but this does not help us, unless we suppose a verse lost describing the cutting off of limbs, noses, ears, &c. The poet might have written ἠδ' ἀκρωμίας ποδῶν τε φόνια καὶ χερῶν σπαράγματα, λευσμοί τε, κ.τ.λ. (The comment of the Schol. ἡ ἀκμαία ἀποκοπὴ, ‘the cutting off of extremities,' may have referred to this.) Cf. Lysias, Andoc. 26 οἰόμενος τὰ ἀκρωτήρια ζῶν ἀποτμηθήσεσθαι.

τρίβεσθαι] Schol. προστρίβεσθαι. See Prom. 337.

πέμψαι] Doubtless we should read πρᾶξαι. 'What 1 did order was (not expressly 'to kill his mother, but) to exact punishment for his father. Anticipating the sense of the next verse, the Schol. here rightly adds, ὥστε δέξασθαι τὸν φονέα. See v. 84.

With δέκτωρ we may supply εἶναι.

προπομπούς] This is ironical. If you bade him to go to Delphi, do you blame us for conducting him thither?' Schol. recent. rὰς διωκτρίας.

γέρας καλόν] Some office or duty that is honourable, and worth the boasting of.

τί γάρ;] What! Would you chase the slayer of a woman who has killed her own husband? That would not be, replies the chorus, the murder of a blood relation (and therefore the offence is not so heinous as to justify retribution by the hand of a son). The Schol. understood this rightly, the murder of Agamemnon was not of the same degree of guilt.' Both epithets, ὅμαιμος and αὐθέντης, combine to distinguish the murder of one's own kin, husband and wife being viewed as aliens in blood, though bound by other ties, πιστώματα, which, Apollo tells the Furies, they are setting at naught by thus acquitting a wife from the higher degree of criminality.

Κύπρις δὲ κ.τ.λ.] Three of the greater gods, who preside over marriage, are spurned and slighted by your view. - εἰργάσω J. Wordsworth, for ἠρκέσω.

ὅρκου μείζων] Marriage, says Apollo, is not a mere engagement; it has a religious and sacramental character, and is guarded and presided over by Justice.

τὸ μὴ κ.τ.λ.] So that it comes to this, that you do not regard with anger the slaying of the one by the hand of the other. For γενέσθαι with an infinitive, contingere ut &c., cf. Eur. Phoen. 754 καί μοι γένοιτ᾽ ἀδελφὸν ἀντήρη λαβεῖν.

τὰ μὲν γὰρ κ.τ.λ.] ‘For in the one case (matricide) I see that you are greatly indignant, but in the other (the killing of a husband), openly acting with more gentleness.' The general argument is, You ought to pursue neither parties, or both. The Schol. explains ἡσυχαιτέραν by δολιωτέραν, and it is to be feared that there is something wrong here.

τῶνδε] The case, he says, is so full of difficulty that the Goddess of Wisdom shall herself decide it.

προστροπαίου] The sense is, that the protection of a suppliant is so solemn an obligation both on earth and in heaven, that a ban attaches to the intentional and deliberate neglect of him.

An interval of some time is supposed to have elapsed, during which Orestes, in obedience to Apollo's injunction at v. 79, has come to seek the protection of Pallas in the Erechtheum on the Athenian acropolis.

προστρόπαιον] Schol. ἀκάθαρτον.

The MSS. have ἀμβλὺν and προστετριμμένον, but the syntax seems to demand the nominative, ἀλλ᾽ ἀμβλὺς ἤδη πρόσειμι (adsum). The metaphor in blunted and rubbed against other abodes of men is taken from a sharp edge worn down and made dull against a wall. The sense is, that he has already undergone purification at the hands of many persons in the course of his long travels. It seems from the scholiast that there was an ancient reading προστε τραμμένον, and perhaps also a variant προστετριμμένον τ' ayos, which he explains by ἄλλοις προστριψάμενον τὸ μύσος.

χέρσον καὶ θάλασσαν] Cf. 77, ὑπέρ τε πόντον καὶ περιρρύτας πόλεις.

αὐτοῦ] here. Eur. Herc. F. 1397 αὐτοῦ γενοίμην πέτρος ἀμνήμων κακῶν. In Ag. 433 1568 it means there.

Even here the Furies rush in, unwearied by the long pursuit. This is a very fine passage, and the versification is splendid. The voiceless informer' is of course the smell of blood.

ἀνδροκμῆσι] fatiguing. See Cho. 875. Suppl. 661, inf. 916. From the Scholium μεγαλοκμῆσιν Heimsoeth ingeniously restores ἀρθροκμῆσιν· μελοκμῆσιν, limb-tiring. Both of these however are strange compounds.

καταπτακών] Schol. καταπτήξας πρὸς τῷ ἀγάλματι. See Veitch, Gr. Verbs, p. 566, in πτήσσω.

ἀτίτας] Schol. ἀτιμώρητος. In Ag. 72 it seems to mean taking no part in the vengeance.

The Schol. seems to have read χρεῶν for χερῶν, and to have construed ὑπόδικος χρεῶν (ὢν) θέλει γενέσθαι πλεχθεὶς περὶ κ.τ.λ., which however is clearly wrong. We must understand that Orestes is willing, under the protection of the goddess, and while clasping her statue, to place himself ἐν χερῶν δίκῃ, in the hands of his persecutors, and to submit himself to justice.

αἷμα κ.τ.λ.] Blood once shed can never be taken up again from the earth and restored to the veins from which it flowed. Compare Ag. 987-9. Inf. 617.

ἀλλ᾽ ἀντιδοῦναι κ.τ.λ.] No! you have shed lifeblood, and life-blood you must give to me in return to suck from your veins. The notion attaching to these demons was very like that which people had of witches but a few generations ago, viz. that leanness and pining, blight and sickness were caused by them. See inf. 900, sup. 133.

οὐκ εὐσεβῶν for ἀσεβῶν is Hermann's correction to restore the dochmiac verse. Impiety to gods or parents, sacrilege or revealing mysteries, violating an oath or betraying a suppliant, were the high misdemeanours with the Greeks, who show little consciousness of the sin of sensual excesses.

δελτογράφῳ] This notion of recording sins in a book or tablet is curious. We have the same in a fragment of Euripides, Melanipp. 488, where the poet says that the whole heaven would not be space enough for Zeus to write down the sins of man.

Orestes addresses the spectators perhaps rather than the chorus. He says he has had a lesson in suffering, and his acquaintance with many forms and rites of expiation (sup. 230) has taught him when to speak and when to be silent; but on this occasion, although murderers as a rule can neither speak nor be spoken to, he has been ordered by Apollo himself to plead his own cause, and to assert his innocence.

ἀβλαβεῖ] 'It would be long to tell how many I have visited since the first commission of the crime, and the first purification at Delphi, none of whom have received any harm from converse with me.' Schol. ἐβλάπτοντο γὰρ οἱ μυσαροῖς ξυντυγχάνοντες.

καὶ νῦν] ‘And accordingly now, viz. as I have the full right and even the command to speak. See on Agam. 1 8.

πιστόν] This is one of the many allusions in tragedy to treaties either made or contemplated between Athens and Argos. It is again alluded to in v. 733. Schol. ὡς τότε συμμαχούντων ᾿Αργείων ᾿Αθηναίοις.

Τρίτωνος] The name of the goddess, Tritogenia, the real or mystical meaning of which we do not know, was referred to a lake and river Triton in Libya. See Herod. Iv. 180, Pind. Pyth. 1v. 36.

ὀρθὸν κ.τ.λ.] The description refers to ancient statues of the goddess in a standing or sitting posture. - φίλοις, in allusion perhaps to the aid afforded by Athens to the EUM. Libyan king Inaros. See Thuc. 1. 104, 109. The Schol. remarks that the address well suits Orestes who himself requires a staunch protectress.

ὅπως γένοιτο] The optative follows ἔλθοι by the common law of Attic attraction.

οὔτοι κ.τ.λ.] 'No! not Apollo nor yet Athene's might can protect you from perishing (going to the bad') in utter neglect, without knowing the feeling of joy in your mind,a bloodless victim of us deities, a shadow of your former self.' There is a pause after this, and as Orestes makes no reply, the second Fury says, What! not a word in reply? Do you spurn converse, you who are fed and consecrated as my victim? The third adds, A victim too who shall be devoured alive, &c. Then the whole body of the chorus chant the spell, or binding hymn, which is to entrance the victim and place him wholly in their power. The fourteen introductory anapaestics form the parode.

τραφείς] There is an allusion to the human victims called φαρμακοὶ οι δημόσιοι, who were sacrificed by the Athenians at the feast of Thargelia. See Photius in v. φαρμακός.

ἄψωμεν] This clearly shows that dancing movements accompanied the music and singing. -ἐπεὶ κ.τ.λ., since we have resolved to show what we can do in doleful music, lit. to make a display of a hateful (joyless) strain. An Ionic form is used in place of the Attic δέδοκται (see Veitch, Gr. V. p. 199).-στυγερὰν, Schol. ὡς ἐπὶ νεκρῷ.

στάσις] 'our company, Ag. 1086, Cho. 106. —ἐπινωμᾷ, allots, distributes, the various fortunes that prevail among man. The Schol. explains ἐπισκοπεῖ.

Ας προνέμειν is to hold out, for all to see, 8ο ἐπικρύπτειν is to muffle a blood-stained hand within a garment in order to conceal the crime.

ἄγνισμα κύριον] ‘Our own proper (or lawful) victim for expiating a mother's murder.'

τεθυμένῳ] Schol. μέλλοντι θύεσθαι. The sense is, Apollo tries to rescue him, but we have the victim bound on our altar, and this weird strain, depriving him of his senses-enchanting or fascinating him-prevents his escape.

διανταία] All-pervading destiny has allotted to us this office to hold for all time, that whenever mortal men are implicated in murders of relations without due cause, these we should pursue till (the fugitive) reaches the world below; and even when dead he is not by any means free.' See sup. 167. Properly, a person would be said ξυμπίπτειν φόνῳ, τύχῃ, &c. but here, by a slight inversion, φόνος ξυμπίπτει τινι. The passage appears sound, and gives a good sense.

ὅταν κ.τ.λ.] i.e. whenever a relation is slain in a family feud. Schol. τιθασός· οἰκεῖος, φίλος.

The MS. reading κρατερὸν ὄνθ᾽ ὁμοίως μαυροῦμεν ὑφ' αἵματος νέου is corrupt, as the metre of v. 350 shows. Hermann's reading μαυροῦμεν νέον αἷμα gives a good sense, by our pursuit of him, ho! strong as he is, we make weak his young blood. Hesych. μαῦρον· ἀσθενές. The meaning may be, we take the colour out of the fresh blood-stain. See sup. 270. The interjection & represents the hunter's cry (our tally-ho!), and is the ὠγμὸς οἱ ν. 121.

This passage is very obscure, yet the metre does not indicate corruption. The Scholium is perplexing, εὔχομαι τοῖς θεοῖς τελέσαι μου τὸ βούλημα. If this is based on a reading τέλειον, the commentator understood the sense thus, and it is for the gods at my request to fulfil my wish. But nothing can be made of this. There is a further difficulty in ἀφελεῖν, which should rather be ἀφελέσθαι. Then a finite verb in the plural should follow σπευδόμεναι, for which the singular καταφέρω seems substituted in v.

It is easy however to read σπευδομένα. Between τάσδε and τᾶσδε there is a further doubt; a gloss in the Med. explains the latter of Clytemnestra. We may perhaps (comparing inf. 808) translate, 'and in my eagerness to remove another (i.e. Apollo) from this care, -for the gods can only prevent prayers to me from being fulfilled, but they must not come to a dispute with me, since Zeus disowns, as unworthy of converse, this blood-dripping and accursed race, -in doing this, I say (γὰρ οὖν), I bring down from far above the heavy-falling force of my foot, my nimble limbs which trip up in the end even runners in a long course, a calamity hard for them to bear. That is, that Apollo may not rescue him, I now pursue him. The Schol. seems here right, τοῖς τανυδρόμοις αὐτῶν ἐπάγουσα τὰ σφαλερά μου κῶλα, οἷον, καὶ οἱ ταχυδρόμοι οὐ δύνανταί με ἐκφυγεῖν. For the notion of a demon leaping down see on 4--2 v. 169. As to ἀτέλειαν, ‘non-fulfilment,' the doctrine is held in view, that the gods do not directly thwart or interfere with each other's designs: see Eur. Hipp. 1330.

οὐκ οἶδεν] The proud man is for long unconscious that we have him in our grasp. Like the physical pining by blood-draining (v. 257), so the moral and social descent of the family is gradual and unperceived; a gloom comes over the house, and evil things are said of it: it is under a cloud, as we express it.

Schol. αὐτὸ τὸ μύσος κνέφας εἴρηκεν. Id. κακὴ δὲ φήμη περὶ τοῦ οἴκου αὐτοῦ λέγεται. Perhaps he read δνοφερὰ ἀχλὺς, by which this sentence more nearly fits the syntax of the preceding. Cf. Eur. Phoen. 125 οὗτος Μυκηναῖος μὲν αὐδᾶται γένος. Hesych. αὐδᾶται: λέγεται. But αὐδᾶται may be the middle voice, or ἀχλὺν may stand in apposition to the sentence. Pers. 666 Στυγία γάρ τις ἐπ᾿ ἀχλὺς πεπόταται.

μένει γάρ] 'For 'tis an abiding law. If we compare Ag. 1540 μίμνει δὲ, μίμνοντος ἐν χρόνῳ Διὸς, παθεῖν τὸν ἔρξαντα, θέσμιον γὰρ, we shall conclude that the poet means to say that the fate he has described is inevitable. It is called a θεσμός, inf. 369. And the Furies go on to declare that they have means to work out their will, never forget and never forgive either in this world or the next. Cf. Prom. 524 Μοῖραι τρίμορφοι μνήμονές τ᾿ ᾿Ερινύες. Αjax 1390 μνήμων τ᾽᾽ Ερινὺς καὶ τελεσφόρος Δίκη.

λάμπᾳ] Inf. 994 and in Eur. Suppl. 993 the word seems the same as λαμπάς, but the Schol. explains, our duties are kept apart from those of the gods through the sunless gloom in which we exercise them (τῷ προσόντι αὐτοῖς σκότει). Photius, λάμπη· παχὺς ἀφρὸς ἐπιπολῆς τοῦ οἴνου. Perhaps the Schol. took a sunless torch to mean the absence of sunlight. There was a word λάπη, which Hesychius (in λάπτης) explains βόρβορος, and Wieseler proposed to restore it here. ibid. δυσοδοπαίπαλα] Schol. δυσπαράβατα καὶ τραχέα ζῶσι καὶ τοῖς θνήσκουσιν. In place of λάχη we seem to want some word meaning ὁδοὺς, 'pursuing them over rough and difficult ways. By a harsh figure, the duties (λάχη) of the pursuers are themselves called rough and rugged for the pursued.

πρόσωθεν] Athena, invoked by Orestes at v. 287 to hasten to his aid, now appears on the μηχανή in an aerial car, as it seems from v. 383. She has arrived, she says, from the Troad, where she was taking first possession (in the name of her Athenian people) of Sigeum, the right to which was then, the Schol. tells us, being contested by the Mitylenians. Hesych. καταφθατουμένη· καταντωμένη· κυρίως δὲ τὸ ἐκ προκαταλήψεως. With φθατέω and ἔφθην compare στατέω and ἔστην. The compound does not elsewhere occur.

πώλοις] Schol. ἐπὶ ὀχήματος ἔρχεται. It is impossible to say with certainty how the appearance of the goddess was contrived. She may seem to flutter her aegis, which is nothing but the bright cloud enveloping the dawngoddess. In this case κώλοις should be read, with Wakefield and Hermann, meaning that the aegis was moved by the arms like bats' wings.

πᾶσι] ‘To all here present, both to you, the chorus, and to this suppliant at my sacred statue.'

ὑμᾶς δὲ κ.τ.λ.] But as for you, who resemble neither gods nor mortal women, well, one must not speak ill of others without having a reason for finding fault: it is not just or right. We get a fair sense by reading ἄμομφον for ἄμορφον, and supposing a break or aposiopesis. To speak of another as uncomely is unjust,' may be thought to refer to the Greek's instinctive admiration for τὸ καλόν. The Scholium here is very obscure, and probably corrupt.

αἰανῆ] ‘eternal.' The Schol. explains σκοτεινά, which seems a confusion with αἰανῆς. See Soph. Aj. 672 νυκτὸς αἰανῆς (al. αἰανὴς) κύκλος. In Pers. 638 δύσθροα αἰανῆ βάγματα seems to mean doleful cries of alaî, and so in ν. 922, ἵετ' αἰανῆ πάνδυρτον δύσθροον αὐδάν. See also inf. 902. Hesych. αἰανόν· χαλεπὸν, αἰνόν. Inf. 542, εἰς τὸν αἰανῆ χρόνον, and 642.

Αραί] The imprecation of vengeance is the origin of this name. Cf. Od. 11. 132 ἐπεὶ μήτηρ στυγερὰς ἀρήσετ᾽ Ἐρινῦς.

ποῦ τὸ for τοῦτο is Tyrwhitt's necessary correction on account of the next verse, which means, in reply, where the absence of all joy is the law of the place. Schol. ἐν τῷ "Αιδῃ. Cf. Ag. 1013, ἔχεις παρ᾿ ἡμῶν οἱάπερ νομίζεται, you have from us just what is customary, and nothing more.

ἐπιρροιζεῖς] Schol. ἐπιβοᾷς, ἐπιβάλλεις. See sup. 382, Eur. Herc. Fur. 860, from which it appears that, like θωΰσσειν, it is a hunter's term.

ἄλλης κ.τ.λ.] Was there not some strong constraint (from a god) whose anger he had to fear? The Schol. perhaps read ἀλλ ἐξ ἀνάγκης, ἤ τινος τρέων κότον; Was it from constraint, or from fear of somebody?

ἥμισυς λόγος] The proceedings are those of an Athenian law-court. The defendant has to put in his declaratory oath, ἀντωμοσία, but he refuses to plead. He will neither take an oath himself nor tender one to us, the two oaths, called διωμοσία, being a necessary preliminary proceeding. Pollux, VIII. 55 προωμοσία μὲν ὅρκος ὃν ὁ κατήγορος προομνύει, ἢ μὴν ἀληθῆ κατηγορεῖν, ἀντωμοσία δὲ ὅρκος ὃν ὁ κατηγορούμενος ἀντομνύει, ἢ μὴν μὴ ἀδικεῖν, διωμοσία δὲ ὁ παρ' ἑκατέρου ὅρκος.

The Med. has ἀξίαν τ' ἐπαξίων, but the Schol. explains ἀξίων οὖσαν γονέων, and it is likely that ἀπ᾿ ἀξίων should be read.

ἐν μέρει] Athena at once commences her office, and asks the defendant what he has to say about himself, and in answer to the charge. She adds, that he would not now be a suppliant at her statue unless he had confidence in the justice of his cause.

Ιξίονος] Schol. δν τρόπον κἀκεῖνος προσεκάθητο τῷ ναῷ τοῦ Διὸς καθαρισθησόμενος· πρῶτος γὰρ Ιξίων φόνον ποιήσας ἐκαθαρίσθη ὑπὸ Διός. The name itself was fancifully derived from ἱκέσθαι. The myth of Ixion, says Sir G. W. Cox (Aryan Mythology, 11. p. 36), exhibits the sun as bound to the four-spoked wheel which is whirled round everlastingly in the sky. The story of Tantalus, he observes, who was punished for aspiring to heaven, is precisely similar in its origin. For ἐν τρόποις, ‘after the manner of,' cf. Ag. 891 γυναικὸς ἐν τρόποις.

Construe τὰ ὕστατα τῶν σῶν ἐπῶν. By the term προσίκτωρ, Orestes understood a guilty suppliant (Schol. ἐναγής), and he replies, I am indeed your suppliant, but no longer a guilty one. - For the MS. reading οὐδ᾽ ἔχει and ἐφεζομένη the most probable correction is Wieseler's, οὐδ᾽ ἔχων —ἐφεζόμην, ‘nor do I sit at your statue with defilement on my hand.

As a proof that he is not now, i.e. since his purification, polluted and unfit to take sanctuary, Orestes appeals to Athena's words τούτοις ἀμείβου, κ.τ.λ., and pleads that the very fact of holding converse with him is a legal recognition of his right.

πρὸς ἄλλοις οἴκοις] See v. 230.-καὶ βοτοῖσι, κ.τ.λ., both by (the blood of) victims and by running water.

φροντίδα] Schol. τὴν τοῦ μύσους.

γένος δέ] See v. 415.

ἱστορεῖς] i.e. γιγνώσκεις.

ἐξεμαρτύρει] See Agam. 1167 Cho. 967, 998, where the blood-stained garment was exhibited in illustration of the murder. Pollux (VIII. 36) defines ἐκμαρτυρία, ῾Ὅταν τις παρὰ τοῦ ἰδόντος ἀκούσας λέγῃ.

ἀντίκεντρα] See v. 131. The goading griefs, here alluded to, are enumerated in Cho. 280 seqq.

πράξας γὰρ κ.τ.λ.] For however I may have fared in your tribunal, I shall be content. Schol. τὰ κατὰ τὴν σὴν κρίσιν ἀποβαίνοντα, ὁποῖα ἂν ᾖ, ἐπαινέσω.

The plural δίκας seems to show that the sense is general, 'to decide in trials for murder where passions are so quickly roused. She perhaps means, that the calm and deliberate judgment of a council such as she is about to initiate, the Areopagus, is necessary in such cases.

Perhaps ἄλλως τε κεί, κ.τ.λ., ‘especially as you, subdued and tamed by time and suffering, have claimed a protection which I cannot refuse, while these pursuers are not lightly to be dismissed, because if offended they may bring a blight on the country.' Thus σὺ μὲν and αὗται δὲ are opposed, and 453 must be regarded as parenthetic (and though a murderer, yet, as I have no right to object to you as a suppliant, I admit you to my citadel): cf. Eur. Bacch. 770 δέχου πόλει τῇδ'. -For ἐμοῖς the Med. has ὅμως, corrected by Pauw. Weil proposed κατηρτυκὼς νόμῳ, ‘legally set right.' The participle is said to refer to a young colt which has cast its first teeth (perhaps, completed its second set,) and so tamed, broken in. Cf. Eur. Frag. Æol. 39, νῦν δ᾽ ἀμβλύς εἰμι καὶ κατηρτυκὼς πόνῳ.

εὐπέμπελον seems here to represent εὔπεμπτον. Cf. Αg. 1161 κῶμος ἐν δόμοις μένει δύσπεμπτος ἔξω ξυγγόνων ᾿Ερινύων, and inf. 459. The Schol. understood (an office) not by any means pacific.' In Il. xνι. 748 δυσπέμφελος occurs, but it is a very obscure word both in origin and meaning.

μὴ τυχοῦσαι] ‘If they fail to get the victory in the cause.' A nominativus pendens, since τὴν χώραν βλάψουσι should have followed.

αἰανής] See on v. 394.

ἀμφότερα] Both alternatives, for them to stay or for me to send them off, are full of harm and difficulty to me. The Schol. seems to have found ἀμηνίτως οι ἀμηνί· τους. The passage is in some way corrupt; but it is very difficult to suggest a correction.

ὑμεῖς] Do you, the Furies, call on the evidences and the proofs. The Schol. took this to mean, Do you swear the judges when they arrive, ὑμεῖς δὲ ὅρκους αὐτοὺς αἰτήσατε.

τὰ βέλτατα] See on Pers. 1. The aristocratic constitution of the Areopagus is here alluded to.-ἥξω, ‘I will return.' Pallas leaves the stage to bring back with her the members of her newly-founded court. Meanwhile the chorus sing an ode on the necessity of some control on human passions through the influence of Fear.

φράσειν] that they will deliver no unjust verdict. The MS. has περῶντας-φρεσὶν, but the Schol. gives ὅρκον διδόντας.

νῦν καταστροφαί] 'Now we shall have to take up with new laws, if the cause and the wrong of this matricide is to prevail. Cf. Pers. 783 ποῖ καταστρέφεις λόγου τελευτήν; Suppl. 436 ἄνευ δὲ λύπης οὐδαμοῦ καταστροφή. By θεσμία the laws of filial duty are meant, Suppl. 688. We might also render καταστροφαὶ, ‘the subversion of old laws so that new ones come in their place,' as μεθαρμόσαι τρόπους νέους, Prom. 317. But the context rather points to the sense, the end of all this will be that we shall have new laws.

ξυναρμόσει] 'Will reconcile them to viewing matricide with indifference. Cf. Plat. Resp. 111. p. 391 ult. μὴ ἡμῖν πολλὴν εὐχέρειαν ἐντίκτωσι τοῖς νέοις πονηρίας.

προσμένει] await, are in reserve for, parents in times yet to come. - ἔτυμα, real, genuine, not merely told in story.

οὔτε γάρ] The γάρ preceding is the same as ἐπεὶ, since no anger for these deeds will attach to them from us, the weird sisters who watch the actions of men, I shall let every kind of death take its own course, i.e. I shall not interfere to prevent or to punish it. Schol. οὐ τιμωρήσω τοῖς ἀδικουμένοις, ἀλλὰ συγχωρήσω ἀλλήλοις ἀναιρεῖν.

The meaning here is exceedingly obscure; the MS. reading ὑπόδοσίν τε is explained by the Schol. διαδοχὴν, and it is likely that he read ὑποδοχήν. As for λῆξιν, it may be either from λήγω or fronı λαγχάνω. We may translate, 'and one shall hear from another, while he is predicting the misfortunes of others, that he is himself getting a share of and harbouring in his own home the like trials; and the unhappy man speaks in vain of remedies that are no longer to be relied on.' Schol. παθὼν δέ τις μάτην ἑαυτὸν παραμυθεῖται τῇ εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐλπίδι. He appears to have read τλάμων δέ τις μάταν, but the metre of v. 475 requires the omission of an iambus,

ταῦτα] ‘in such strains,' λέγων οι θρηνῶν. See on Pers. 161.

ἔσθ᾽ ὅπου] ‘There are cases in which the dread of retribution should remain enthroned in the heart, keeping a salutary watch even over men's minds (as well as over their actions).' For δεῖ μένειν the Med. has δειμαίνει, but the Schol. οὐ πανταχὴ τὸ δεινὸν ἀπεῖναι φρενῶν δεῖ. The necessity of some moral control is here strongly inculcated; for without having anything to dread neither city nor private citizen would continue to respect justice.

ὑπὸ στένει] through suffering. This doctrine is enlarged upon in Ag. 170 seqq.

μηδέν] Supply δεινὸν from v. 491. In the next verse the metre of v. 489 suggests καρδίας ἂν ἀνατρέφων, ‘if he cherishes no fear in the gaiety of his heart, but thinks all will be well however he may act. - ὁμοίως, as he would do were he in constant fear of punishment.

ἀνάρχετον = ἄναρκτον (the MS. reading, corrected by Wieseler) may be compared with ἀπεύχετον = ἄπευκτον, Cho. 614. Hesych. ἄναρκτον· ἀνυπότακτον, οὗ οὐδεὶς ἦρξε. «The poet here advises the via media in politics, wishing perhaps to warn the party of Pericles to be moderate in their reforms.

ἄλλ᾿ ἄλλᾳ] 'But other things (viz. whatever is in extreme) he regards differently, or with disfavour. The more ordinary meaning of the phrase, like alia aliter, is here inapplicable.

ξύμμετρον] concise, Schol. σύντομον. He sums up in a brief maxim the doctrine given at length in Ag. 732 seqq. This is a warning not to overthrow time-honoured institutions, like the court of the Areopagus.

ἐς τὸ πᾶν] Generally, and beyond the application to a particular instance. For the altar of Justice,' see Ag. 375.

κύριον τέλος] Το every man a proper and fitting end is in reserve, viz. punishment or reward according to his deserts.

αἰδόμενος] This may stand alone as the predicate, for αἰδήμων, ‘let him show respect by honouring parents and guest,' or we may construe let him honour parents and show a due regard to hospitality, lit. 'to the guesthonouring management of his house. Compare δωμάτων ἐπιστροφὰς in Theb. 645.

ἐκών] The doctrine of voluntary justice, i.e. acting from a sense of right and not merely through fear of punishment, a very advanced principle of morality, was enunciated by Simonides quoted by Plato, Protag. p. 345 D. See also Resp. 11. p. 360 c οὐδεὶς ἑκὼν δίκαιος ἀλλ᾽ ἀναγκαζόμενος. Such a man, says the poet, will not be unblessed; wholly ruined he never can be, though he may meet with some reverses in life. We should read with real interest such expressions of faith in the reward of virtue; the doctrine is alike profound and sublime. He goes on to say that the sinner who recklessly confuses right with wrong will suffer a shipwreck in the end, and the gods will not bear him in his distress.

καθήσειν] He will take down his sail when it is too late, and when the yard-arm is being broken by the gale.

δυσπαλεῖ] aegre luctatur, he struggles hard in the middle of the whirling waves. Herod. VIII. 21 εἶχε πλοῖον κατῆρες ἑτοῖμον, εἰ παλήσειε ὁ ναυτικὸς στρατός. ós. The adjective δυσπαλὴς occurs in Ap. Rhod. Iv. 52.

θερμῷ] rash. Theb. 599 ναύταισι θερμοῖς καὶ πανουργίᾳ τινί. The Schol. explains it ἐπὶ τῷ ἀδίκως πάσχοντι, but perhaps he wrote ἐπὶ τῷ ἀδίκῳ ταῦτα πάσχοντι. – τὸν οὔποτ᾽ αὐχοῦντα, who was too sure it would never come to this. Cf. οὔποτ ηὔχουν-μολεῖσθαι, Prom. 708, οὐ γάρ ποτ' ηὔχουν, Ag. 489.

λαπαδνόν] ‘brought low,᾿ ἀλαπαδνόν. This is Musgrave's conjecture for λέπαδνον, which the Schol. explains ὑπεζευγμένον καὶ χαλινωθέντα. -ἄκραν, not skimming the crest of the wave, but swamped. Eur. frag. Archel. 229, οὐ γὰρ ὑπερθεῖν κύματος ἄκραν δυνάμεσθ.

ἔρματι] a sunken reef. See Ag. 977 καὶ πότμος εὐθυπορῶν ἀνδρὸς ἔπαισεν ἄφαντον ἕρμα.

The goddess returns, accompanied by twelve venerable citizens. The loud tones of a trumpet are heard, proclaiming silence and attention to her words, and to the rules that are to be followed in her court for all time, by which expression the poet deprecates any present interference with a divinely-established institution. αἰεί.

αἰανῆ] See on v. 394. Schol. διηνεκή, παρὰ τὸ

καὶ τόνδε] And the defendant too, that the cause may be rightly decided. There is difficulty in the verse, since the Schol. read τῶνδ', which he explains τῶν ᾿Αρεοπαγιτῶν, and καταγνῶναι δίκην, for δικάζειν, is unusual without a genitive of the person condemned, καταγνῶναι θάνατόν τινος, &c. Generally, οὗτος is used for the defendant.'

ἄναξ ῎Απολλον] Schol. παραφανέντος ᾿Απόλλωνος ταῦτα φησιν. ‘It is not for you to interfere here,' is the purport of the address.

καὶ ξυνδικήσων] ‘and to be his advocate in person,' -for, he adds, 'I am responsible for the murder of this man's mother,' i. e. Orestes lays it on me as having persuaded him to it, sup. 84.

The Med. has κύρωσον. We might read κυρῶσαι, οι ὅπως τ᾽ ἐπίστᾳ. But ὁ κυρώσων seems at least as likely, for Apollo may inquire who intends to act as εἰσαγωγεὺς in the trial, i.e. to approve and sanction the opening of the case. When the goddess godd replies εἰσάγω δὲ τὴν δίκην, bidding the Furies to speak first because the prosecutor should open the case, she virtually takes on herself the office in question.

πρῶτον] The first question is one of fact; the second, of the mode, the third, of the motive (author or ad. viser). These are the τρία παλαίσματα, the three crucial questions which must be satisfactorily answered, three throws constituting a defeat in wrestling.--κατέκτονας, a rare form of transitive perfect; this passage is noticed as unique in tragedy by Veitch, Gr. V. p. 395. There were four forms of transitive aorist, ἔκτεινα, ἔκτανον, ἔκταν, and ἔκανον, the last of which may be referred to καίνω (Cho. 872).

ὅπως] The Schol. takes this to mean, ‘how it was that you killed her,' i.e. why, and he thinks that Orestes misunderstands the question (πλανᾶται), which is accordingly repeated at v. 563.

ἐξηγεῖτο] Do you mean to say that the prophetgod himself declared to you (as the interpreter of the divine will) that you should kill your mother?

τάχα] Schol. ἴσως. This is a rare sense without ἂv, and perhaps the meaning is you will soon tell a different tale.

νεκροῖσι] This is said in contempt, i nunc, fide mortuis; Agamemnon, as a king in Hades, being a δαίμων of power to aid.-πέπεισθι, an epic reduplicated form like κέκλυθι, κέκραχθι, Ar. Ach. 335. Veitch, Greek Verbs, p. 518, thinks πέπισθι οι πέποισθι would be more analogical.

προσβολάς] The addition of one crime to another, the union of two, viz. the killing of a husband and the wrong done to me by the killing of my father. Schol. ἐμὲ κἀκεῖνον ἠδίκησεν. He thinks there is irony in the reply; make the judges understand that, for I do not; μὴ ἡμάς δίδασκε, ἀλλὰ τοὺς δικαστάς.

The MSS. have τοιγὰρ and φόνῳ, but the Schol. read τί γάρ; and the dative (the correction of Schutz) seems required by the sense. Well! you are alive (and can be pursued); she is free from pursuit by her death.- Then you should have pursued her while yet alive, and before I slew her.- We did not do that, because she had killed a husband, who is not a blood relation. See v. 202. Schol. ἀπαρνῇ. proceedings do you

ἤδη] At this point of the bear witness for me, and declare for me whether I killed her with justice on my side.' The fact, he adds, being admitted, the question of right alone remains. - δικαίως, supply πεπράχθαι from δρᾶσαι.

ὁ μὴ κελεύσαι] quod non jussisset. Schol. οὐκ ἄνευ Διὸς οὖν τὸ γενόμενον.

πατρός] As Zeus was the real adviser of the deed, I tell you not to thwart or gainsay his counsel.

Again there is irony in the rejoinder of the chorus. 'Let us understand you clearly. According to you, who delivered the oracle, it was Zeus who was the real author of it; you were but his mouth-piece. So then Zeus tells sons to avenge their fathers and not to care about their mothers at all. Apollo is rather in a fix, and replies that Clytemnestra's crime was greatly aggravated by killing a king and a warrior with every circumstance of treachery and ignominy.

ὥστ᾽᾽ Αμαζόνος] ‘As if he had been slain in war by some Amazon.' Amazons in the Homer of Aeschylus, now preserved in the epics of Q. Smyrnaeus Bk. 1. The genitive is used as in Ag. 1353 ἄπειρον ἀμφίβληστρον ὥσπερ ἰχθύων. Ashishe been in war

ἠμποληκότα] ‘When he had returned from the expedition with the greatest success, lit. after having made the greatest profits (or, more profits than losses) in the trade of war. For the metaphor cf. Theb. 540, ἐλθὼν δ ἔοικεν οὐ καπηλεύσειν μάχην.— ἅμ' αἴνοις, ‘with praises.' The editor's correction of ἄμείνον' (so MS. Med.), which is unintelligible. Cf. Ag. 890 ἀλλ' ἐναισίμως αἰνεῖν, παρ᾿ ἄλλων χρὴ τόδ' ἔρχεσθαι γέρας.

It is better to construe δεδεγμένη δροίτῃ, after receiving him with (or in) a bath. See on ν. 453. –περῶντι, as he was passing out of the bath and just at the end of it. In this case δροίτη must mean the bath-room. But ἐπὶ τέρματι may mean that she threw the garment, like a tentcover, completely over the bath to the very end of it, so as to leave him no escape. - The reading of the Med. and the Schol. is περεσκήνωσεν, as if περισκηνοῦν were meant, to inclose as in a tent. But we should thus expect φάρει, with a mantle.' It is likely that the poet had in mind some well-known painting of the event.

ὅσπερ] Perhaps ᾧ προστέτακται, since ὅσπερ is not the same as os.

ταῦτα τούτοις] Viz. τὸ προτιμᾶν τῷ δῆσαι Κρ. 'They do not wish to find fault with Zeus, but to refute Apollo. Schol.

ὑμᾶς] s] You, the judges, I call upon to listen to the answer given. It amounts to this, that one may be liberated from bonds, but not restored to life. The subject to λύσειεν is perhaps μηχανή, but ὁ δήσας might easily be supplied.

ἐπῳδάς] The medical remedies of charms or incantations are meant, as θρηνεῖν ἐπῳδὰς, Ajax 582. Agam. 988 αἷμα-τίς ἂν ἀγκαλέσαιτ᾽ ἐπαείδων; -τὰ δ' ἄλλα, everything else he can effect, he 'turns everything else upside down and completely alters it, and that without trouble; but he cannot alter the law of fate. Cf. Suppl. 93 πᾶν ἅπονον δαιμόνιον.

πῶς γὰρ κ.τ.λ.] Schol. σκόπει πῶς δικαιοῖς ᾿Ορέστην φεύγειν. They warn Apollo not to advocate the cause of a man who, even if acquitted, will be excluded from all civil and religious rights. As φυγεῖν, not φεύγειν, means to be acquitted, we must understand in his being a defendant, i.e. in the present cause. Cf. Ajax 1346 σὺ ταῦτ᾽, ᾿Ὀδυσσεῦ, τοῦδ᾽ ὑπερδικεῖς ἐμοί;

ὡς ὀρθῶς ἐρῶ] He now speaks with authority as ἐξηγητὴς, interpreter of a great natural law.

τοκεύς] She is not the real parent of that which is called her child, as if she were the author of its being; the male alone begets, the female does but rear the embryo to maturity.-κύματος, Schol. κυήματος. Id. θρώσκων, ὁ σπερμαίνων. Hesych. θρώσκων· κνώδαλα ἐκπορίζων. καὶ σπερματίζων, γεννῶν. Αἰσχύλος᾿ Αμυμώνῃ.

μὴ βλάψη] A metaphor from the blighting or blasting of plants; cf. inf. 869, 898.

Perhaps οὐ δὴ, not, of course. For the explanation of the legend, which is simply the rising of the dawn from the forehead of the sky, see Cox, Aryan Mythology, 1. p. 228 and 441.

ὡς ἐπίσταμαι] Schol. ὅσον δύναμαι. He refers perhaps to his influence at Delphi in favour of Athens.

αἰανῶς] for all time. See on 394. In the next line construe τῶνδε τοὺς ἐπισπόρους, in the political sense, the descendants of the citizens here present. Schol. ἀπογόνους.

ἀπὸ γνώμης] according to their convictions. Schol. ὃ δοκιμάζεται.

After this verse Hermann inserts 674-6. The poet, perhaps, preferred to make a more direct antithesis between πρώτας δίκας and καὶ τὸ λοιπόν. ὅρκον] Cf. v. 467. Athena gives the same warning, inf. 680.

πάγον δὲ κ.τ.λ.] ' And as regards this hill of Ares, once the camping-ground of the Amazons when they marched against Theseus, -in this, I say, a court shall be established which will ever keep the citizens in awe of committing wrong.' There are many examples of an accusative standing first without any regular government; see, for instance, Ag. 1023, Cho. 826.

πόλιν νεόπτολιν] Schol. τὸν ᾿Αρειον πάγον. The poet perhaps refers to traditions of the Persian invasion. Herod. VIII. 52 οἱ δὲ Πέρσαι ἱζόμενοι ἐπὶ τὸν καταντίον τῆς ἀκροπόλιος ὄχθον, τὸν ᾿Αθηναῖοι καλέουσι ᾿Αρήϊον πάγον, ἐπολιόρκεον τρόπον τοιόνδε.

ἐν δὲ τῷ] in hoc, inquam, &c.

ἐπικαινούντων] ‘If the citizens themselves do not make innovations in the laws.' This, and what follows, is sage political advice tendered by the goddess of wisdom herself to the reforming party of Ephialtes and Pericles. The τὸ μέσον between anarchy and tyranny was commended sup. 500.

τὸν ὅρκον] Cf. 650. The singular, ψῆφον not ψήφους, indicates that each judge had one vote, which was dropped in the urn of acquittal or condemnation (τευχέων, v. 712; cf. Agam. 789). — εἴρηται λόγος, ‘that is all I have to say,' the pleading being now concluded.

τοὺς ἐμούς τε κ.τ.λ.] ‘Which are not only mine, as the giver (προφήτης, ν. 19), but my sire's, as the author of them.'

οὐ λαχών] Apollo, as the pure god, the god of joy and justice, had no right to interfere in cases of murder; if he did so, he could not remain at Delphi and continue to give oracles untainted by human crime. The notion of continuance is conveyed by μένων, for which Hermann and others read νέμων.

προστροπαῖς] In the supplication of (i.e. in the pardon of the suppliant) Ixion, the first applicant for purification from murder. Schol. καθάρας τὸν πρωτομυσή Ιξίονα.

λέγεις] You talk (i.e. argue); but I tell you that I, if I fail to get justice, will come again to haunt this land in anger. Sup. 455 καὶ μὴ τυχοῦσαι πράγματος νικηφόρου. Eur. Phoen. 490 ἃ μὴ κυρήσας τῆς δίκης πειράσομαι δρᾶν. Schol. ἐπ᾿ ἀπειλὰς τρέπονται, ἀφεῖσαι τὴν δικαιολογίαν.

δίκαιον] Supply ἦν. 'Was it not right to do a favour to a worshipper, especially when he stood in need of aid at the time? The optative is used, as sup. 588, because the event is regarded from a subjective point of view -supposing he wanted it.

σύ τοι κ.τ.λ.] You know that you made away with the ancient awards (of the Fates) and deceived by wine those venerable deities. Some legend is alluded to, mentioned by the Schol. on Alcest, 33 Μοίρας δολίῳ σφήλαντα τέχνῃ. Eur. ibid.

σύ τοι] Cf. 725. This replies to the taunt in the preceding distich. You, no doubt, when you have failed in the suit, will at once spit your venom, but it shall not harm your enemies.' The Schol. understood by τὸν lòv their anger, τὴν ὀργὴν, but the material venom is meant by which blights and rust (inf. 898) were supposed to be caused in trees and plants. plants.

καθιππάζει] Since you try to ride over me, I wait to hear the decision, as not having made up my mind (till the result is known) to be angry with the city.

λοισθίαν] quod reliquum est. What only now remains in the suit is for me to give my decision. So βλαβέντα λοισθίων δρόμων, Ag. 119, stopped from the rest of its course, or from running any more. The reason given is sophistical; I shall vote for Orestes because he preferred his father to his mother, and I myself am wholly my father's, as no mother bore me.' As yet, the goddess has only voted for Orestes. She does not yet know the result; it was left to the jury to decide on the guilt or the innocence. She only says, that in the event of their equal votes, her casting vote has been given in his favour.

τευχέων] The plural conclusively shows that there were two urns, all the votes being of one kind, and deriving their effect from the vessel in which they were deposited. Hence τῷ δ' ἐναντίῳ κύτει, Αg. 789. See Ar. Vesp. 987. The Schol. says the number of the Areopagites was 31, but the number of couplets spoken while the voting was going on (681-703) indicate ten or twelve, as in Agam. 1319 seqq. -The next four verses are said, in tones of suspense and anxiety, while the votes are being reckoned.

Schol. νῦν μοι ζωὴ ἢ θανάτου τέλος-ἢ τὰς πρώην ἔχειν τιμάς, h. e. easdem quas prius habebam. Here νέμειν is to administer.

ἴσον γάρ] See v. 711.

Orestes, in an ecstasy of joy at his narrow escape, breaks out into expressions of gratitude to the goddess, which the poet has turned into a political purpose, viz. to cement the alliance made between Athens and Sparta in the same year as the acting of the play, в.с. 459.

᾿Αργεῖος] viz. ἐστὶ, ‘this man is once more a citizen of Argos.'

For τρίτος σωτήρ see Suppl. 26, Ag. 237, 1358.πατρῷον, opposed to μητρός. 'Seeing that they were taking my mother's part, he took my father's.'

πρυμνήτην] Schol. ἄρχοντα, κυβερνήτην. sup. 16. See

νῦν] in opposition to τότε, means my present oath. The dative depends on πράξομεν, and is what is called dativus incommodi; 'we will contrive, for those who would transgress the compact I now make, by perplexing mishaps, and by causing disappointments in their expeditions and bad omens in their marches, that they shall repent them of their pains.' Orestes, as a δαίμων in Hades, threatens disasters to any Argive host which shall hereafter invade Athens. The Schol. wrongly explains πράξομεν by τιμωρησόμεθα. Perhaps he found τὸν - παρβαίνοντα in his text.

ὀρθουμένων] sc. τῶν ὁρκωμάτων, ‘if they are rightly kept.' For the genitive absolute in combination with a dative, see Suppl. 437 καὶ χρήμασιν μὲν, ἐκ δόμων πορθουμένων, γένοιτ᾽ ἂν ἄλλα. -For αὐτοῖσιν-ἐσμεν we should perhaps read ἀστοῖς ἂν εἶμεν.

ἄφυκτον] The metaphor is from wrestling, when an adversary cannot extricate himself from the grip. The Scholium should be read ἄφυκτον· [διὰ] τὴν ἐμὴν ἐπικουρίαν.

μεθεῖσα] Instead of saying μεθήσω, she intended to say βλάβην οἴσω at v. 757, but the language is abrupt through excitement, what shall I do to them?' &c. Any patch of blight is called λιχὴν (our word lichen), and it was thought to be caused by blood-drops from the Erinyes. Hesych. κηλίδες· μολυσμοί.

γένωμαι δυσοίστα] ‘Should I become intolerant to the citizens for what I have suffered?' The old reading was ἔπαθον, and the Schol. explained τί γένωμαι ; ὑπὸ τῶν πολιτῶν ἔπαθον, and ἔπαθον πολίταις δύσοιστα ὄντα. There are many examples of verbal adjectives in the feminine form.

οὐκ ἀτιμίᾳ] This is an answer to the complaint ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἄτιμος, v. 750. It is repeated in 788, οὐκ ἔστ' ἄτιμοι.

ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ κ.τ.λ.] The sense is, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς ᾿Απόλλων ἀπέλυσεν Ορέστην αἰτίας. As the προφήτης of Ζεὺς (sup. 19) Apollo gave his testimony on supreme authority. - ὁ πείσας for ὁ θήσας is restored from v. 84, καὶ γὰρ κτανεῖν σ᾽ ἔπεισα κ.τ.λ.

ὡς ἔχειν] here = ἵνα ἔχοι—the testimony was given that Orestes might be unharmed by the consequences of his crime. But it might also express the fact, ὥστε οὐκ ἔχει.

δαιμόνων is corrupt. Perhaps (from v. 752) καρδίας, οι λαιμάτων (Αr. Αν. 1562), or even δαίμονες, ‘as hostile powers.' - αἰχμάς, influences; the word seems used in reference to ἀφεῖσαι, from the throwing of darts.

ἐνδίκου] made just by your residence among the citizens, and by the awe you inspire. The ancient rite of pouring oil (as the Hindus still pour ghee) on stones and altars is alluded to in λιπαροθρόνοις.

τί δεῖ λέγειν] The meaning is, but I need not invoke the aid of Zeus in forcing you to yield, since I would rather appeal to you as the goddess of wisdom and eloquence.'

ὡς σεμνότιμος] Schol. λείπει ἐσομένη.

πρὸ παίδων] for children, a rather rare use of the preposition, as inf. 858, πρὸ παντὸς χρόνου, ‘for all time. Schol. ὡς προτέλεια θυόντων ᾿Αθήνῃσι ταῖς Ερινύσι.

ἐμὲ κ.τ.λ.] The chorus are still dissatisfied, and dwell on the grievance of the old powers being superseded by the new. To think that I should suffer this, I the goddess of the ancient thought, and should dwell in the land like a guilty thing without the power of punishing the insult! Schol. ἀνεκδίκητον, τιμωρεῖσθαι μὴ δυναμένην.

Perhaps, to complete the dochmiac, τις ὀδύνα πλευράς ;

δηναιᾶν] ancient, L. Dindorf for δαμαίων, which the Schol. explains by τῶν δημοσίων τιμῶν.-παρ οὐδὲν, supply θέμενοι, as in Ag. 221 παρ' οὐδὲν ἔθεντο. For αἴρειν ἀπὸ cf. v. 340.

καὶ τῷ μέν] Schol. διὰ τὸν χρόνον. ‘And in that indeed you are much wiser than I, though even to me (viz. as the goddess of wisdom) Zeus has granted not to be without telligence.' The Med. has καὶ τοι μὲν σύ.

The Schol., remarking λείπει ὁ καὶ, seems to have found ὑμεῖς without δέ. EUM.

ὅσων] The MS. has ὅσην.

ἐμμανεῖς] Perhaps ἐμμανής, incited by rage not proceeding from wine (i.e. since νηφάλια μειλίγματα alone were offered to them, sup. 107), but from vexation at the defeat.-βλάβας, Schol. τὰς ἀναλισκούσας τὰ νέα. Cf. Pers. 667 νεολαία γὰρ ἤδη κατὰ πᾶσ᾽ ὄλωλε.

ἐξελοῦσ'] is corrupt, and perhaps we should read ἐκζέουσ' with Musgrave, 'making their hearts to boil with rage like that of fighting-cocks. This well suits the scholium ἀναπτερώσασα. See Theb. 706.

οὐ μόλις παρών] “Let war be far from us, but let it come without stint (to him) in whom there shall be a strong love of glory' (not to us, who prefer peace). She adds, she will not speak of fighting-cocks, because the omen is a bad one. K. O. Müller thinks the poet meant to commend foreign conquest as an antidote to civil discord. In the former case, θυραῖος is a predicate, let war be far from you. Others understood by foreign war a war with Persia.

πρὸς νεωτέρας] Cf. v. 775. The goddesses must not think they are slighted by Athena and her citizens, or banished from the land, when they have an abode offered them in it with all honour. Stay, says Athena, if you will listen to my advice. But if you do not choose to stay, it would be unjust to cause mischief to this country, since the option rests with yourself (ἔξεστι γὰρ, ν. 850). Schol. εἰ δὲ μὴ πείθῃ, ἴσθι (1. ἴθι) μὴ βλάψασα πόλιν.

ἁγνόν] Perhaps ἁγνῆς, ‘if you have any respect for holy Persuasion, or for the eloquence of the Virgin- Goddess.

τίνα κ.τ.λ.] There is a pause for deliberation. The nature of the new abode, its privileges, and the guaranty for their endurance, are points of inquiry before the final acceptance.

καὶ δή] Suppose then I do accept it. Eur. Med. 386 καὶ δὴ τεθνᾶσι· τίς με δέξεται πόλις;

εὐθενεῖν] Scaliger for εὐ σθένειν. Cf. inf. 868, 904, Hesych. εὐθηνῶν· [καὶ] εὐδαιμονῶν, πλουτῶν.

σὺ τοῦτο πράξεις] ‘Will you secure for me the possession of so much power?- Yes, by directing aright the fortunes of those who worship you,' i.e. who act by the dictates of conscience.

πρὸ παντός] See on v. 799.

ἔξεστι μὴ λέγειν] ‘It is in my power not to say (unless I choose) what I do not intend to perform.' The sense is, I would not say it unless I meant it.

θέλξειν] It seems that you will bind me by the spell of your eloquence.' A word technically used of sorcery and magic art.

Hesych. ἐπίσκοπα· τυγχάνοντα τοῦ σκοποῦ. The meaning is obscure. Possibly Fossibly there is an hyperthesis of μὴ, which, with the conjectural reading νείκηs, gives good sense, sing not songs that have for their aim and purport mischievous contentions (the ballad-songs of rival factions), but the blessings of good seasons. But νίκη κακή occurs in Theb. 713, and a not dishonourable victory may have some political significance not known to us. There is some probability that one or more verses have been lost.

βοτῶν] Stanley for βροτῶν. See Suppl. 670 seqq.

σωτηρίαν] See v. 631.

ἐκφορωτέρα] The meaning seems to be, μᾶλλον ἔκφορος, - may you more than ever get rid of the impious. The metaphor, as it appears from what follows, is from removing rubbish from plantations. The superlative έπιφορώτατος occurs Cho. 798.

ἀπένθητον] spared from mourning. Cf. Agam. 868.

ἀγώνων] The term may include both contests at the great games (at which some Athenian had perhaps been lately successful), and the contests of war, in which Athens, under the patronage of the War-goddess, would prove to be ever superior. The first epithet seems to have an active sense, 'war-slaying, though the Homeric ἀρηίφατος means slain in war. ,

καὶ Ζεύς] the Almighty Zeus also (as well as his daughter Athena). The fortified area of the Acropolis is appropriately called φρούριον, the garrison of the gods, and the deities' darling abode. See Thuc. 11. 15, 5.

πρευμενώς] They are now well-wishers,' Εύμενίδες.

ἐξαμβράσαι, from ἐκβράσσω, οι ἐκβράζω, to cause to spring forth, is Prof. Scholefield's correction of ἐξαμβρόσαι. Such an aorist however has no early authority in its favour, and the true reading is very uncertain. See Veitch, Gr. Verbs, p. 142.

τάδ' ἐγὼ κ.τ.λ.] This is what I do in kindly regard to my citizens, by causing these powerful and hardlyappeased deities to take up their abode here.' She means, this is my part in the transaction, viz. successfully employing my eloquence, sup. 845.

βαρέων] Supply λαχέων from ἔλαχον. 'He who has not met with a hard lot in life (who has not gained wisdom by misfortune, Ag. 169) has yet to learn the great truth, that ancestral crime, as well as actual sins committed, are often the secret causes of woe. —προσέπαισαν is supplied on Hermann's conjecture.

τὸ μή] i. e. ὥστε μὴ, to prevent them from outgrowing the space allotted to each in planting. - αἰανὴς, either long-lasting,' or dismal. See on v. 394.

εὐθενοῦντα] See v. 855. For ἄγαν Dobree proposed ya, Meineke Πάν.

γόνος] A word is lost in the MSS., perhaps δ' ἀεὶ or δὲ γᾶς. The allusion may be, as in Pers. 236, to the silver-mines at Laurium, from which a tithe for luck may have been paid to the treasury of the goddess.

πόλεως φρούριον] Schol. ὦ ᾿Αρεοπαγῖται.

κύρι᾽ ἔχοντες] ye gods who have the power, viz. as presiding over marriage, "Ηρας τελείας καὶ Διὸς πιστώματα, sup. 205.-Μοῖραι, as daughters of Night, were sisters of the Furies by the mother's side. The MSS. give θεαὶ τῶν μοῖραι, corrected by Hermann.

ἐπωπᾷ] respicit, 'regards with favour. Cf. v. 845. —ἀλλὰ κ.τ.λ., 'however, it was Zeus the god of the agora (the patron of popular eloquence) who prevailed; and the contest between him and me, as to which benefits the citizens the more, prevails (over the evil caused by the Furies' anger), and shall prevail for all time.' By ἡμετέρα the united efforts of the Furies also, in their present mood, are perhaps meant.

κόνις] The Earth is meant, which on the pantheistic theology, exacted penalties for blood (ποινὰς) by causing retributive murders. Perhaps πόλεως is best taken in its natural order, eagerly to seize from the city, like a debt due but yet unpaid.

ἆρα κ.τ.λ.] Are they not becoming wise, and do they not find a good course for the expression of their wishes? We might somewhat improve the sense by reading ἀγαθὴν for ἀγαθῆς. The citizens are called on to attest the goodness of the goddesses in their benign wishes for blessings on the state. By φοβερὰ πρόσωπα the masks must be meant which made them look like Gorgons, sup. 49.

εὔφρονας εὔφρονες] with mutual goodwill.

πρέψετε seems here, as in Ag. 1299, to be transitive, you will make conspicuous, cause to be admired by all.

ἐν αἰσιμίαισι] In possession of the blessings of wealth.

ἴκταρ Διός] There appears to have been a statue of Ζεὺς Πολιεὺς on the southern summit of the Acropolis, overlooking the theatre.

σωφρονοῦντες] The notion seems to be, that now at length, when the cultus of the Erinyes, i.e. the law of Conscience, is established among the citizens, they will be wiser than before.

προτέραν στείχειν] Athena now announces her intention of heading a procession of citizens to escort the Furies with lighted torches to their shrine under the Areopagus. She repeats this at v. 976, as the procession begins to move. Compare Pers. ult. πέμψω τοί σε δυσθρόοις γόοις. There is probably an allusion to the citizens in holiday attire attending the Panathenaic πομπή.

For τιμᾶτε, which gives no sense, we should read προβάτε, advance. This is the technical term in starting a procession.

πρέπῃ] In order that the Erinyes, in their new character of Eumenides, may be known henceforth for causing circumstances favourable to the manly character of the citizens. The allusion is perhaps to v. 875.

The concluding hymn, sung by escorts who with the goddess head the procession, is very corrupt. In the first verse ἐν δόμῳ should perhaps be δόμους, go to your abodes; in the second, the dactylic metre suggests the omission of Νυκτός. Ιη ν. 990 περίσεπται τύχα τε (τύχαι τε Med.) is hard to correct; perhaps θυσίαισιν ὑπαὶ πυρίσεπτοι. In 996 εἰσόπιν and ἴτων is Linwood's conjecture for ἐς τὸ πᾶν οἴκων. Let libations made by torchlight (i.e. libationbearers) follow behind.

συγκατέβα] Zeus and Destiny have thus together entered the contest for the citizens of Pallas. Cf. Cho. 713 νῦν γὰρ ἀκμάζει Πειθὼ δολίαν ξυγκαταβῆναι.

ἐπὶ μολπαῖς] Raise a joyful shout after the strains. Probably the foregoing hymn was sung in parts, which are called μολπαί. So in Cho. 142 τοιαῖσδ᾽ ἐπ᾿ εὐχαῖς τάσδ' ἐπισπένδω χοάς. CAMBRIDGE PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. & SON, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. ## p. (#74) ################################################# ## p. (#75) ################################################# "We hold in high value these handy Cambridge Texts with Notes." SATURDAY REVIEW. "Professor Paley seems to us to possess in a marked degree some of the principal qualities of the ideal editor of a school book." ACADEMY. "All schools ought to furnish themselves with these accurate, useful and cheap editions." - EDUCATIONAL TIMES. THE CAMBRIDGE TEXTS WITH NOTES. Being select portions of the Greek and Latin Authors, edited by eminent scholars, with Introduction and Notes for School Use. The Texts are those of the "Bibliotheca Classica" and the "Grammar-School Classics." Price 1s. 6d. each, except the "Ion" [prise 2s.], and "Homer" [price 1s.]. AESCHYLUS. PROMETHEUS VINCTUS - SEPTEM CONTRA THEBAS - AGAMEMNON - PERSAE-EU- MENIDES. By F. A. PALEY, M.A., Classical Examiner to the University of London. EURIPIDES. ALCESTIS - MEDEA - HIPPOLYTUS - HECUBA BACCHAE-ION - ORESTES-PHOENIS- SAE-TROADES—HERCULES FURENS. By F. A. PALEY, M.A. SOPHOCLES. OEDIPUS TYRANNUS-OEDIPUS COLO- NEUS-ANTIGONE. By F. A. PALEY, M.A. HOMER. ILIAD, Book I. By F. A. PALEY, M.A. TERENCE. - ANDRIA - HAUTON TIMORUMENOS - PHORMIO- ADELPHOE. By Prof. WAGNER, CICERO'S DE AMICITIA - DE SENECTUTE - EPIS- TOLAE SELECTAE. By GEORGE LONG, M.A. OVID. Selections from the AMORES, TRISTIA, HERO- IDES, and METAMORPHOSES. By A. J. MACLEANE, M.A. Others in preparation. CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS, 4, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. ## p. (#76) #################################################