[The exterior of the Shrine at Delphi (see note on 63): the priestess comes forward and speaks.]

[1-63. PROLOGUE. The priestess calls on all the gods connected with the shrine, then goes in, and returns terrified, describing the sight within, a blood-stained murderer on the central stone, and the dreadful Furies sleeping round.]

πρεσβεύω. I honour most; the superlative sense practically contained in the word accounts for gen. θεῶν. πρεσβεύω is rather a favourite word of Aeschylus. So line 21 Παλλὰς πρεσβεύεται, has chief honour, Cho. 488 πρῶτον τόνδε πρεσβεύσω τάφον, as here, Ag. 1300 ὁ δ᾽ ὕστατος τοῦ χρόνου πρεσβεύεται, is first in respect of time, Cho. 631 κακῶν πρεσβεύεται, is first of horrors.

πρωτόμαντιν. The Earth was naturally regarded as most ancient of gods: and prophetic, perhaps because the ancient shrines of prophecy were so often caverns or mysterious chasms (e. g. Delphic chasm, the Sibyl's cave, the cave of Trophonios, etc.). Pausanias tells us (10.5.5) that the Delphians affirmed their oracle to have originally belonged to the Earth. And Prom. 209 we have Γαῖα and θέμις prophesying to Prometheus.

ἐκ δὲ τῆς, after her; τῆς common Epic use of art. for demonst. frequent in Aesch., ἐκ τοῦ, ἐν δὲ τῷ, ἢ τοῖσιν ἢ τοῖς, etc.

The dramatic particle δή probably here merely anticipates ὡς λόγος τις.

μητρός, mother of Themis; not the general meaning Mother Earth. It is a striking evidence of the fluctuating character of these genealogies that the poet elsewhere (Prom. 209) speaks of Earth and Themis as the same; one form of many names.

Note ἕζετο with acc. Cf. Ag. 183 σέλμα σεμνὸν ἡμένων, 664 ναῦν ἐφέζετο.

λάχει, lot; vivid poetic for in the third place, third in order.

θελούσης, οὐδὲ πρὸς βίαν τινός, with her good will, neither in despite of any. Aeschylus uses this stately emphasis because he is following (or inventing) a different story from what was apparently the received version: for Pindar says (quoted by Schol.) that Apollo by force occupied Pytho: and Eurip. (Iph. Τ. 1259) says, Apollo came and took away Themis daughter of Earth from the divine oracles. But this savage and doubtless older story was not suitable to the poet's purpose: the sanctity and dignity of the oracle (ideas which are required for the plot) are averse from such violence.

The Titans were according to the oldest story six sons and six daughters of Ouranos and Gaia: the author of the Theogony gives the list (Hes. Theog. 134), mentioning both Themis and Phoibe. According to same ancient source (Theog. 403) Phoibe (by Koios the Titan) was mother of Leto, hence grandmother of Phoibos; and so by custom gave the infant Phoibos both a birthday gift (7), and his name (8).

ἥ, she. Epic demonstrative use of ὅς, surviving in ἢ δ᾽ ὅς, ὃς δ᾽

ἔφη (said he).

δίδωσι, gives it, the oracle.

γενέθλιον δόσιν. There were two birth-festivals at Athens-the ἀμφιδρόμια, when the infant was carried round the hearth on the seventh (or fifth day), and the δεκάτη, tenth-day festival, when it was named and formally recognised by the father. On both occasions, especially the latter, presents were given.

παρώνυμον, made like to hers.

λίμνη, the circular or rather oval tarn in the north of the island, often referred to by ancient writers (Eur. Ion 167, Iph. Taur. 1104, Herod. 2. 170, etc.), and apparently connected with the birth of Apollo.

χοιράς, 's back,hog lit., i.e. ridge or rock, of Mount Kynthos.

The ship-frequented shores of Pallas are Attica, regarded as specially the land of Pallas Athene.

Delphi is called the shrine of Parnassus as being at the foot of that Mountain. ll. 13, 14. The Athenians are called, in Aeschylus' grand style, 'the sons of Hephaistos, hewers of the road, making tame the wild land.' There was a sacred way from Athens to Delphi, and Athenian tradition evidently affirmed that it had been made of old by Athenians for Apollo. The Schol. mentions an interesting ceremonial, plainly a survival, bearing on this tradition, that when Athens sent a mission to Delphi, the sacred ambassadors were preceded by men with axes. (The Boeotian Pindar, on the other hand, makes Apollo start from Tanagra in Boeotia, according to the Schol.).

παῖδες Ἡφαίστου, because Hephaistos was father of Erichthonios, mythical king of Athens. The title is peculiarly appropriate to the hewers of the way, as Hephaistos was the god who invented many of the tools and the arts of civilised life.

Making tame, i, e. evidently clearing and settling; not only (as Schol.) from robbers.'

Δελφός, the king and eponymous' hero of Delphians.

κτίζω, properly to build, a favourite word of Aeschylus, often used as a stately synonym for to make: e.g. Pers. 289 εὐνίδας ἔκτισσαν, Cho. 1060 ἐλεύθερόν σε κτίσει, Eum. 714 μηδ᾽ ἀκαρπώτους κτίσαι.

προφήτης, the spokesman, the interpreter of Zeus. So he says in a fragment (79) Ζεὺς ἐγκαθίει Λοξίᾳ θεσπίσματα. So Verg. A. 3. 251 Quae Phoebo pater omnipotens, mihi Phoebus Apollo Praedixit.

Παλλὰς προναία, Pallas of the precincts; the name of a temple of Athena near the great sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. It is mentioned by Herodotus in this form (προνηΐη) l. 92, and there exist two Delphic inscriptions containing it (ΠΡΟΝΑΙA): but it seems to have been afterwards corrupted into πρόνοια, the shape in which the name of Athena at Delphi appears in Demosthenes (780), Aeschines (Ctes. 69), and Pausanias (10.8.7). Some people suppose two Delphic Athenas, προναία and πρόνοια: but this, though possible, is hardly likely. The learned Alexandrine poet Callimachus (250 B.C.) has the old form (προναίην, quoted by Schol.).

Κωρυκίς. The Korykian cavern was a remarkable cave high up in Parnassus, seven miles from Delphi: the cavern contains two large chambers 100 and 200 feet long respectively: it was the refuge of the Delphians in the Persian invasion (Herod. 8. 36), and more than once when their country was invaded. It was sacred to Pan and the nymphs.

φίλορνις, loved of birds, using the shelter for roosting and building.

φἀναστροφή, abode, haunt. The verb ἀναστρέφεσθαι is common for to be engaged in, to live ; ἐν φανερῷ, ἐν ᾿Αργει, ἐν μέσῳ, ἐν ξυμμαχίᾳ, etc. (versari Latin).

Βρόμιος, a common title of Bacchus. Aeschylus in glorifying Delphi fixes there the scene of the great vengeance of Bacchus on Pentheus. [Pentheus, king of Thebes, forbade and tried to prevent the worship of Bacchus; but the god drove mad with Bacchic frenzy the women, including Agaue Pentheus' mother, and they tore the king in pieces.] Euripides in the Bacchae makes Kithairon (between Attica and Boeotia) the scene, and Schol. says that Aeschylus himself also follows this tradition in the lost play Ξαντρίαι.

οὗτε, Epic form of rel. common in Aeschylus. (ὅστε Pers. 297, αἵτε Eum. 1024, ἐξ οὗτε Pers. 762, ἅτε Cho. 615, etc.)

λαγὼ δίκην, like a hare, i. e. they tore him as dogs a hare. [Scholiast's int. crouching like a hare is frigid and absurd.] Notice absence of caesura; Ag. 943, Cho. 493.

Πλειστός, a small river south of Delphi: Apollonius (2.711) speaks of Korykian nymphs daughters of Pleistos.

Ποσειδώνος: there was an altar of Poseidon at Delphi. [There were various old traditions about Poseidon having once possessed Delphi and exchanged it for other places, which may be connected with his worship there.]

τέλειον, the fulfiller: so Ag. 973 Ζεῦ Ζεῦ τέλειε, τὰς ἐμὰς εὐχὰς τέλει.

Abridged, but quite intelligible, expression for 'May I find this time better response than I found in my former entrances to the shrine.'

τυχεῖν με, acc. inf. of prayer, common constr. with or without δός or δοῖεν (Cho. 307, O. C. 868, etc.). For acc. ἄριστα with τυχεῖν, cf. Ag. 1228.

πάρ', are here, for πάρεισιν, is commonly read here. But it is more natural to take παρά as a preposition; and it is quite easy to understand are come.

ἴτων, rare form for ἰόντων ος ἴτωσαν.

μαντεύεσθαι. is used both of prophesying and consulting the god, or getting a prophecy. Here both would suit, but the former is the sense in which Aeschylus uses the word elsewhere.

ὡς ἄν, according as, indef. relat. use. [She passes into the temple, and there is a pause : then she comes out horror-stricken and half fainting.]

δεινά. is nom. λέξαι and δρακεῖν epex. inf. after the adj. Things terrible to tell of, terrible to behold have sent me back, etc.

ὥς, Epic for ὥστε, common in Trag., esp. in Aeschylus (e.g. Ag. 358, 546, 575, 665, 1381).

σωκεῖν, to be strong.

ἀκταίνω, a unique word of which the meaning is disputed. The Schol. and old lexicons give (1) to uplift, or be uplifted. (2) to exult, prance (γαυριᾶν), leap violently (ἀτάκτως πηδᾶν). The sense however requires, not, 'I can't move violently, but rather I can hardly move at all: it is best therefore to take ἀκταίνω, to lift. βάσιν, my step: this is a correction in the best MS., all the texts reading στάσιν, (which is perhaps possible, and then to uplift my standing would mean to stand upright;) but βάσιν is easier and far more likely.

χερσίν, by aid of hands: holding on, to support her failing limbs. [Schol. actually says she comes out on all fours, τετραποδηδόν!!]

ἀντίπαιs, rather a strange compound, the preposition ἀντί governing (so to speak) the waῖς, and not some word outside as usual. Aeschylus is fond of these compounds : ἀντίκεντρον 136, 466, ἀντίφερνον Ag. 406, ἀντήνωρ ib. 443, ἀντίδουλος Cho. 135.

μὲν οὖν, corrective, as usual. Nay, she is as a child.

The inner sanctuary of Delphi (μυχός) contained the statue of Apollo: the ὀμφαλός, see next note: the altar with the eternal fire, fed only with fir-wood; and the roof all hung with garlands (πολυστεφή). In the centre was the chasm with the tripod where the priestess sate, and inhaled the intoxicating fumes of the smoke which came up from below.

ὀμφαλός, navel, was the name given to Delphi, as the centre of the earth, and particularly (as here) to a white stone in the μυχός of the temple¹. Strabo (9. 3.) tells us that an ὀμφαλός bound with fillets was shown in the temple; and Pausanias (10. 16. 3) reports that the Delphians said their ὀμφαλός, which was made of white stone, was the centre of the earth, and quoted from Pindar a passage which agreed with their account.In Pausanias' time it was in the front court; but in Aeschylus' day there is evidence it was in the μυχός (Müll. Eum. 27). The ὀμφαλός as a round or oval object is often found on coins or vases or sculptures relating to Delphi.

Το μέν answers δέ l. 46.

προστρόπαιον, lit. turning toward, hence suppliant. The supplication might be for vengeance (as Ag. 1587, Cho. 286), or more commonly for purification, as here. Hence the word contracts another meaning, guilty; see below ll. 234, 237.

Some take it here agreeing with ἄνδρα; but rhythm and order indicate that it goes with ἕδραν, a suppliant seat; so Soph. O. C. 1309, π. λιταί.

The olive-branch, with tufts of wool attached, was the regular sign of the suppliant : ἱκετῶν ἐριοστέπτοισι κλάδοισι Suppl. 23, κλάδοις κατάσκιον ὅμιλον ib. 354, ἱκτηρίοις κλάδοισιν ἐξεστεμμένοι Ο. Τ. 3.

σωφρόνως seems to mean duly, piously.

For so will I plainly tell, i. e. about the suppliant there was nothing strange : the horrible and mysterious part of the sight she goes on to describe.

λόχος, troop: for the number of the Eumenides see Introduction.

Γοργόνας. : Aeschylus, Prometheus 899, Three winged sisters with snakes for hair, loathed of men, whom no mortal shall see and live: and the Furies are compared to them, Cho. 1047, In dusky robes and twined with many snakes, like Gorgons.

If this line is right the substantive is understood: [Monsters] have I seen ere now in a picture, snatching the feast of Phineus, i.e. the Harpies.

The Harpyiae are in Homer simply the spirits of the storm who are said to have carried off those who disappear suddenly (e. g. Od. 1. 241). The story is told by later writers as follows: Phineus, king of Thrace, being falsely told that his sons were conspiring to corrupt their stepmother, put out their eyes. The gods in wrath blinded him, and sent loathsome monsters, the Harpies, to snatch away his banquet. The best known account is Vergil's, Aen. 3. 212.

[Herm. and others thinking the omission of the subst. too harsh, suppose a line lost; but it would be difficult to write one which would not separate δεῖπνον too much from Φινέως. Schol. plainly had our text.]

γε μήν, yet, adversative as usual: γε μέντοι, γε μὲν δή (and in Homer γε μέν), also used in the same way. So σπορᾶς γε μὴν ἐκ τῆσδε Ρ. V. 871, σὺν χρόνῳ γε μήν Ag. 1378.

οὐ πλατοῖσι, unapproachable: for the breath was deadly with blood and fire, and withered up what it touched (138). MSS. read πλαστοῖσι, feigned: but the other is far more forcible.

κόσμος, their garb.

i. e. I know not the race nor land whence this company are sprung.

μὴ μεταστένειν πόνον, without repenting of its toil, is an elaborate repetition and explanation of ἀνατί, unharmed. [The inf. is literally the object of ἐπεύχεται : boasts that having reared... it does not repent, i. e. boasts to rear without repenting].

The horror and pollution of these monsters is too fearful: she will leave it to Apollo himself, who as seer (τερασκόπος) will understand, as prophet-healer (ἰατρόμαντις) will cure, as καθάρσιος will purify.

[The priestess retires: the scene shifts and shews the interior of the shrine: Orestes with a bloody sword seated on the ὀμφαλός, Apollo and Hermes standing by: the chorus of Furies asleep all about on stone seats or the floor.]

διὰ τέλους, idiomatic expression for ever.

If MSS. καὶ πρόσω δέ is right, it means and even when far away, i. e. ' I will watch over you when near, and even when afar, and I will punish your foes.' This makes good sense and need not be altered, though καὶ πρόσω γε Blom. is possibly right.

ὕπνῳ πεσοῦσαι, prostrate in sleep [they lie] : πεσοῦσαι used rather loosely for the perfect, like θανόντes for τεθνηκότες. But the construction is rather harsh, with a strained tense and no verb: and not improbably πεσοῦσαι is corrupt for some verb. The best suggestion is Weil's πεδῶνται : (others πρέπουσι, πέλουσι : παρεῖνται Weckl.).

μίγνυται, consorts. γραῖαι, παλαιαὶ παῖδες, old, wrinkled maidens; a bold and contemptuous oxymoron to express loathing.

The least alteration of MSS. is to read βιβῶντ᾽ ἀν᾿ ἀεὶ τὴν π. χ., ever pacing the travelled earth. This involves the displacement of the preposition ἀνά by ἀεί, a very rare and harsh licence: H. P. quote Plato σὺν ἀεί τινι βίᾳ, but ἀεί τινι is far less harsh an interruption than ἀεί alone. [This we shall see if we try it in English, rule with always some violence, is less impossible than walk over always the earth.] A better example is Laws 797 D ἐν ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν οὐ τοῖς μὲν τοῖς δ᾽ οὐ.

The conjectures are very numerousἀνατεί Turn., ἀvíᾳ Fritzsche, ἐῶντα δ' ἀεί Weil, ἀνοίᾳ Wies., ἀν᾿ ἄστη Don., and others worse. but do not convince : ἀνάγκῃ Musgr. is perhaps the best: or to read περῶντα δ᾽ ἀεί with Weil and Weckl. I leave the ἀν' ἀεί, as it is perhaps barely possible.

The Homeric βιβῶντ' (used also by Pindar) is a better correction than βεβῶτ', as nearer the MSS. and more likely to have been corrupted.

Notice περιρρύτας, fem. form from compd. adj. So περικλυστά Pers. 596, εὐφιλητάν Theb. 108, δυσοιστά (?) Eum. 789, παναρκέτας (?) Cho. 69.

βουκολούμενος. (mid. as Schol. interprets), tending, i. e. brooding over; a bold metaphor characteristic of the poet.

ἄγκαθεν, in thy arms, from ἄγκη, the bent arm: like the Homeric ἀγκὰς ἑλεῖν or ἔχειν, to take in the arms: cf. Ag. 3.

θελκτηρίους, persuasive, to the judges of the Areiopagos.

Learn also to take heed, though to our ears it sounds too bold to be said to a god, is not so meant in the Greek, nor does Apollo so take it: it is simply forget me not, O god. Notice ἐπίστᾳ contracted for ἐπίστασαι; so we find δύνᾳ.

Thy strength is warrant thou wilt aid me; taking eὖ ποιεῖν together.

σε. φρέναs, the acc. of whole and part, common from Homer down: like Τρῶας τρόμος αἰνὸς ὑπήλυθε γυῖα ἕκαστον ; τὸν βάλε κνήμην; and μέθες με πρὸς θεῶν χεῖρα etc.

κάρτα δ᾽ ὧν ἐπώνυμος, true to thy name, give guidance : the title πομπαῖος meaning the guider.

Zeus reveres this sanctity of outlaws, which comes to men from the fortune of fair escort; a rather obscure expression, but explained by the context: Zeus reveres the claim which outlaws have (on the pity of men), a claim which springs from the (divine) power which guides them: i. e. ‘Orestes, though an outlaw, will find pity since thou wilt guide him. [Wecklein reads τὸ κηρύκων (for τόδ᾽ ἐκ.), of Hermes: certainly much simpler, though perhaps unnecessary.]

[Apollo retires; Hermes leads Orestes out ; the stage is empty. Then from below the ghost of Klytaimnestra rises.]

This sentence is written with an effective vehemence which is very dramatic: the broken and rough grammar being exactly imitative of strongly excited speech.

The drift is: 'I, thus dishonoured by you [the negligent Furies], among the dead below am constantly reproached for my deeds-wandering in disgrace and blamed by all-but for my sufferings no god takes heed.'

Thus the antithesis to ὧν μὲν ἔκτανον is really παθοῦσα δ᾽ (100) and αἰσχρῶς δ᾽ ἀλῶμαι answers οὐκ ἐκλείπεται. Note the double break of construction: (1) the intrusion of οὐκ ἐκλείπεται with a new subject between ἐγώ and ἀλῶμαι : (2) the entire anacoluthon παθοῦσα δ᾽ without verb followed by οὐδεὶς μηνίεται. For the latter compare Ag. 1008 ὅκνος βαλὼν ... οὐκ ἔδυ δόμος, Cho. 521 πάντα ἐκχέας . . . μάτην ὁ μόχθος, and Eur. Cycl. 331, Hipp. 24, Iph. Taur. 947, etc. See 478.

πρός, common poetic use for ὑπό of agent: Cho. 133, 346, etc. So ἐκ, παρά, and ἀπό are poetically used. So below l. 102.

The MSS. read ὅρα δὲ πληγὰς τάσδε καρδίᾳ σέθεν, ‘behold these wounds with thy heart, the use of καρδίᾳ being at first sight supported by what follows for the mind sees in sleep.' But Aeschylus always uses καρδία (as we do heart) of emotion not of intelligence : grief, anxiety, care, fear, wrath, courage, favour, desire-never of perception. So I take Canter's καρδίας ὅθεν adopted by Dind. Pal. Herm. Paley is further no doubt right in reading ὁρᾶτε: the plural is wanted: the asyndeton improves the sense, being more passionate: and the singular clearly arose from σέθεν.

Behold these wounds in my heart, from whence they came; a fierce reminder of their duty to hunt Orestes, and a far finer sense than the MSS. reading.

ὄμμασιν λαμπρύνεται, stately Aeschylean for is clearsighted.

μοῖρ᾽ ἀπρόσκοπος βροτῶν, 'tis the lot of mortals to be blind. Others take it the lot of men cannot be foretold: but the sense of the other is better, the antithesis is more pointed, (seeing in sleep, blind in the day,) and ἀπρόσκοπος is more naturally active. [The Schol. says ἡ τῆς φρενὸς μοῖρα, whence H. and others read φρενῶν for βροτῶν : but the Schol. is only (rather stupidly) explaining μοῖρα in connection with the φρήν of the last line: it proves nothing about the reading: φρήν and φρενῶν would be very flat repetition.]

Wineless libations, sober cheer: poetic amplification. The Ερινύες had no wine in their offerings: νήφων ἀοίνοις Ο. C. 100, μηδὲ προσφέρειν μέθυ ib. 481. So again l. 860 ἀοίνοις θυμώμασι.

ὥραν, the acc. is best explained as a kind of loose apposition to νυκτίσεμνα δείπνα: the apposition really being to the part of the expression which contains the notion of night. The Erinyes alone had midnight sacrifices.

καὶ ταῦτα, usually with participle: here loosely but naturally with principal verb. The fact is, the ὤρουσεν is grammatically needless ('he is gone like a fawn, and that too from the very midst of the snare'), but is redundantly added, picking up and further emphasizing οἴχεται.

ἐγκατιλλώψας, a strange word, which occurs again Aesch. Sisyph. (Frag. 211) meaning mock. We find also κατιλλώπτω, ἐνιλλώπτω: the derivation seems to be ἴλλω, twist, ὀπ-, face:' hence to leer, to sneer, and so to scoff.

τῆς ἐμῆς περὶ ψυχῆς, for dear life; a proverbial expression as in English (rather strange in the mouth of a ghost), meaning that the issue is of the last importance to her.

ὄναρ, might be nom., I, a dream, like Ag. 82 ὄναρ ἡμερόφαντον ἀλαίνει (so Schütz, Wakef. H. Pal.). But it is rather more naturally taken acc. in a dream, as l. 131. II [The Furies begin to groan and mutter and move uneasily in their sleep.]

The MSS. read φίλοις γάρ εἰσιν οὐκ ἐμοῖς προσίκτορες, which makes no sense, since it could only be translated for there are protectors for friends who are not mine, an obscure and impossible expression for my enemies have gods to help them. Herm.'s correction οὐκ ἐμοί is neat and simple: my friends have helpers: I have none: and P. D. adopt it.

But it is not really satisfactory : φίλοις without article or possessive is very harsh, and even the use of the word at all is unnatural (not at all like line 108): and προσίκτωρ, though supported by Ζεὺς ἀφίκτωρ (Supp. 1), is suspicious.

I prefer on the whole Weil's φίλοι γάρ εἰσιν, οὐκ ἐμοῖς προσεικότες for he has friends, not like to mine, an effective taunt simply expressed.

Notice the ironic elaborate plainness of this line, as of an angry person who cannot make herself understood.

If we keep the MSS. πέπρακται, we can only construe (with Paley) this line What hast thou accomplished save to work me harm? i. e. 'you are appointed to avenge me, and by negligence you have only done harm, in letting Orestes escape.'

The Schol. however paraphrases τί μέλλεις τὸ σὸν ἔργον ἀνύειν (why delay to do your duty?), clearly understanding the text what business is yours save to do harm (to Orestes)? Herm. followed by Weil tries to get this sense out of πέπρακται, quid tibi agitur: but the tense makes it impossible. If we accept the meaning of the Schol. we must read with Bentley [Stanl. Butl. Hart.] πέπρωται or with Wakef. τέτακται. I have taken πέπρωται. The scornful summons What is your business but mischief?' is more characteristic of Klytaimnestra and more effective than a complaint.

κύριοι ξυνωμόται, fit conspirators: a bold and characteristic image. κύριος means rightful: sleep and weariness naturally act together. For the figure cp. Ag. 650 ξυνώμοσαν γάρ, ὄντες ἔχθιστοι τὸ πρὶν Πῦρ καὶ θάλασσα.

[Mutterings redoubled and louder] Seize him, seize him ... give heed! The muttering and restless movements and slow awakening with fierce cries are finely dramatic: Aeschylus is unmatched in producing these effects of suspense and terror. Müller ingeniously suggests that it should be read φράζου, followed by λαβέ seven times repeated, as φράζου, mark him, more naturally comes first: the iambic metrical system is preserved: and the leader would then say φράζου, and each of the seven pairs λαβέ. We have however (see p. 23) preferred the view that the chorus was 12, not 15.]

The dreams of animals are noticed by Theocr. (21.44), Lucret. (4. 989), and Aristotle (Hist. An. 4. 10).

μηδ᾽ ἀγνοήσῃς πῆμα, forget not my wrong.

ἀντίκεντρα, like spurs; see l. 38.

τῷ, on him. Epic use of article as demonstr. frequent in Aeschylus: see ll. 174, 340, 462, 484.

Notice the powerful and imaginative phrasing, waft a bloody breath, shrivel with vapour, wither with pursuit. [The ghost of Klytaimnestra disappears below ; the Chorus gradually awake, the leader rousing the others.]

Let us see if this prelude is vain, rather obscure, but φροίμιον τύδε most naturally refers to the song they are going to sing, a song of lament at the escape, and chiding and reproach to Apollo.

ἰδέσθαι, the middle, is an Epic use, common in Tragg. Note the loose but natural grammar κἀπολακτίσασ᾽ (sing.), ἰδώμεθ᾽ (plur.). So exactly Aristoph. Aves 203, ἐμβὰς ἐς τὴν λόχμην καλοῦμεν. ...

This line is out of agreement; and generally the character of the first stanzas is that the lines are very disjointed: the true explanation being no doubt that the song is alternately taken up by one and another of the Furies, to give the dramatic effect of their excitement and anger. So the Schol. says κομματικῶς ἕκαστον κατ᾿ ἰδίαν προφερετέον· each bit must be delivered separately by a single voice. It is not worth while to attempt (as Herm. does) to distribute the parts exactly, as there is no evidence.

ὁ θήρ, our prey.

νέος γραίας, simply young and old. This complaint that Apollo as one of the younger race has overridden the Furies who are elder goddesses constantly recurs through the play, 163, 731, 778, 838, 845; see Introduction. καθιππάζομαι, a bold picturesque word for trample down, so 731, 779.

τοκεῦσιν, generalising plural, to his mother, as the sense requires.

τῶνδε, your acts, insulting the old goddesses, and protecting the impious suppliant.

μεσολαβεῖ, another tersely vivid word: the goad grasped by the middle to give the blow force.

'Tis come, I feel it, the sore, sore chill of the cruel scourger's blow. δάμιος μαστίκτωρ is the public scourger: a bold image for Klytaimnestra's taunts.

The MSS. read- κρατοῦντες τὸ πᾶν δίκας πλέον· φονολιβή θρόνον περὶ πόδα, περὶ κάρα[MSS. φονολειβῆ, clearly an error] πάρεστι γᾶς ὀμφαλόν κ.τ.λ. This stopping must be wrong, as the construction is very clumsy with θρόνον in apposition to ὀμφαλόν, and the strophe which is very parallel in sound and structure makes it practically certain that the stop is at κάρα. We then have two alternatives : (1) Το keep θρόνον, changing stop from πλέον to κάρα : Ruling utterly beyond the right A throne dripping blood From feet to head: We may see the Earth's navel, etc. [φονολιβή θρόνον is a regular dochmiac, and may rightly correspond to μεσολαβεῖ κέντρῳ, where the long κεν- is an irrational syllable. So for example O. Τ. 1315 δύσοῦρῖστὸν ōv corresponds to 1323 τυφλὸν κῆδεῦῶν.

Even if syllabic correspondence were required, we might easily correct to θρᾶνον Ahrens, θᾶκον Rauchenstein: but there is no need].

(2) To read with Herm. and others after Wakefield θρόμβον, and suppose the second and third lines interjectory, by another speaker: κρατοῦντες intransitive: Ruling utterly beyond the right:- A blood-dripping clot Around his feet, about his head- We may see, etc. The two lines would then be a vivid and bold picture of angry horror at the foul stain on the god's shrine: such are the doings of the young gods as the ancient Furies dramatically exclaim. On the whole I prefer (1) which keeps the MS. reading, certainly also read (though misunderstood) by the Schol. who says, τὸν θρόνον οὗ Ορέστης καθῆτο πάρεστιν ὁρᾶν φονολειβῆ. It was not the seat of Orestes but the seat of Apollo.

ἀρόμενον, that has taken upon it ; βλοσυρὸν ἄγος αἱμάτων, a fell pollution of blood. For ὀμφαλόν see line 40.

μάντις ὤν, i. e. though a seer, and thus the last who should have allowed pollution.

αὐτόσσυτος, αὐτόκλητος, at thine own bidding, at thine own summons: the repetition of similar words is noticeable all through this chorus; a rhetorical turn due to the strength of their wrath and passion. So περὶ πόδα, περὶ κάρα - βαρὺ περίβαρυ - δαΐου δαμίου, etc.

And crushing the ancient Fates. The Schol. followed by Pal. and others, understands this of themselves, the Furies being identified for the moment with the Fates. So Eurip. Elect. 1252 says of Orestes- δειναὶ δὲ Κῆρές σ' αἱ κυνώπιδες θεαὶ τροχηλατήσουσ᾽ ἐμμανῆ πλανώμενον. But it is very difficult to believe that Aeschylus who makes the Furies call upon the Fates (961) as our own sisters, righteous goddesses, and speak of them as apart from themselves (724), should here put one for the other. It is better to consider (with Dind. Linw. Weil) that the allusion is here, as more fully explained below (724), to Apollo having allowed the Fates to be robbed by the rescue of Alkestis from death. This explains the κάμοί γε next line, To us too the Furies, as well as to the Fates; and also l. 175 He if he fly beneath the earth shall never be set free, as Alkestis was set free by Herakles who wrestled with death and recovered her.

It remains however an unusually obscure allusion, and hence one cannot feel confident.

τόν, Orestes: for Epic form cp. 137, 357.

MSS. read μιάστορ᾽ ἐκείνου πάσεται : corrupt, neither metre nor sense. The Schol. say, Being defiled he shall receive on his head another avenger, and his descendants shall pay us the penalty. The words italicised clearly point to some correction like ἐγγενῆ or ἐν γένει (Hart.) or ἐκ γένους (Weil). I have taken the former, 'being guilty of blood he shall find, smiting his head, another avenger of his kindred: i. e. the blood feud shall be continued: Klytaimnestra smote Agamemnon: Orestes smote Klytaimnestra; another shall strike him and the feud be carried on.

μιάστωρ, properly one who pollutes, used for an avenger Soph. El. 603 (of Orestes), Eur. Med. 1371.

[Enter from the inner shrine Apollo, who sternly addresses the Furies.]

A winged glancing snake, a bold and splendid image for an arrow.

The black foam sucked from men, is explained in the next line.

καρανιστῆρες ὀφθαλμώρυχοι δίκαι, dooms that shear off the head and tear out the eyes. The horror is intensified both by the extraordinary weight and force of the lines, and by the abstract: the Furies are banished to a land of ghastly things. For the masc. form καρανιστήρ with fem. word δίκη compare σωτήρ τύχη Ag. 664, λαμπὰς πορευτής ib. 287, θέλκτωρ πειθώ Suppl. 1040, παραγιγνόμεναι πράκτορες below 319, βρωτῆρας αἰχμάς 803.

A corrupt and difficult line: MSS. read- ... σπέρματός τ᾽ ἀποφθοραὶ παίδων κακοῦται χλοῦνις ἠδ᾽ ἀκρωνία. The explanation turns on the meaning of χλοῦνις. (1) One of the Schol. understands it to mean castration: and this is supported by Aristotle (Hist. An. 6. 28), who says distinctly τῶν δὲ ἀρρένων καὶ ἀγρίων οἱ τομίαι μείζους γίγνονται καὶ χαλεπώτεροι, ὥσπερ καὶ Ὅμηρος ἐποίησεν (11. 9. 539), Τρέψεν ἔπι χλούνην σῦν ἄγριον : which proves that Arist. took χλούνης=τομίας: ΕEustathius (772), who quotes the authority of Aeschylus, Aelian, and Aristotle for this int.: and Aeschylus himself, who (Frag. 62) has χλούνης apparently meaning eunuch; but (2) others reply that Homer cannot have meant a σûς τομίας but the opposite : and hence χλοῦνις = virility. These retain κακοῦται and read ἀποφθορᾷ, translating 'and by the destruction of the seed the virility of boys is ruined.' So Dind. Pal. Weil.

In favour of (1) is the very strong evidence of Aristotle, backed by Schol. and Eustathius, and further the run of the lines, which consists of a heap of abstract nouns which would be very harshly broken by a finished sentence. We must therefore assume κακοῦται corrupt: though no satisfactory emendation has been suggested. We may add that those who support (2) assume that Aeschylus must have used the word in the Homeric sense: but it is quite possible that he may have misused an old word, and made the same mistake as Aristotle: and the evidence of Frag. 62 confirms this.

μύζουσιν οἰκτισμὸν πολύν, make sore and piteous moaning, a terribly graphic expression for the slow torture of impalement.

ἑορτῆς. depends on στέργηθρα: what manner of feast it is ye love, loathed of the gods [lit. what... loving, ye are loathed ...].

ὑφηγεῖται, lit. leads to it: i. e. shews it.

πλησίοισι, close at hand, seems rather a feeble word and is perhaps corrupt: though none of the suggestions (πλουσίοισι Pauw., πανθύτοισι Mein., Πυθίοισι Mart., and many others worse) are convincing: Πυθίοισι perhaps the best.

τρίβεσθαι μύσος, rub off their foul pollution, a forcible and contemptuous phrase.

Observe the fine sudden figure, after his manner: Begone, ye flock without a shepherd: no god loves such a herd.

MSS. read εἰς τὸ πᾶν, the copyists having fallen into the common Aeschylean phrase, here very flat and inappropriate: Canter's εἷς τὸ πᾶν makes it at once forcible and right.

τοσοῦτο, i. e. as to explain.

Note the idiomatic use of ὥστε instead of simple acc. and infin. So Thuc. 1. 119 δεηθέντες ὥστε ψηφίσασθαι, 5. 17 ψηφισαμένων ὥστε καταλύεσθαι, Eur. Hipp. 1327 ἤθελ᾽ ὥστε γίγνεσθαι, Soph. Phil. 656 ἆρ᾽ ἔστιν ὥστε . . . λαβεῖν.

πρᾶξαι, to exact, plainly the right word here: MSS. read πέμψαι, ‘to send, which is explained as meaning to Agamemnon: but that would surely require τῷ πατρί. τί μήν; lit. what then? i. e. why not? So, e. g. Plat. Theaet. 145 ἢ οὐχ ἅπερ οἱ ἐπιστήμονες ταῦτα καὶ σοφοί ; (answer) τί μήν;

To welcome blood new-shed is a bold and vivid phrase for received the murderer red-handed.

Certainly to be written a question.

κόμπασον γέρας καλόν, ironical: go boast thy glorious office!

ἥτις νοσφίσῃ, a woman who slays: the subjunctive indefinite, because, as frequently, the special case is (rhetorically) put in general terms. The absence of av is Epic usage, common in Trag. and found even in Attic prose, οὗ βραχεῖς ἀρκῶσι Thuc. 4. 17, οἵτινες νομίσωσι 4. 18, ᾧ μὴ ᾖ Plat. Phaedr. 247 B.

αὐθέντης φόνος, the murder of a kinsman; the most fearful pollution according to the Greek view: so much so that a sharp distinction was drawn (as here) between the murder of a husband (not an ὅμαιμος) and the murder of a mother.

I take the best suggestion, εἰργάσω (Wordsw.), out of many¹ for the corrupt MSS. reading ᾐρκέσω. It must be some word with simple meaning, like thou hast made despised and dishonoured (lit. of no value), to suit both ἄτιμα and παρ᾽ οὐδέν.

The Marriage of Zeus and Hera was the ἱερὸς γάμος, the sacred or ideal marriage: and "Hpa was called Τελεία, the Accomplisher, as marriage was a τέλος or accomplished rite.

For marriage ordained by Fate for man and woman is stronger than an Oath, and guarded by Justice. These fine lines containing an ideal of marriage as an indissoluble bond under the highest sanctions seem in advance of ordinary Greek thought and feeling on the subject; but we must remember that Aeschylus belongs to the older school, and one of the charges against the younger poets was that they lowered the ideal of marriage: and further that the immense care of the Athenian 1 ἧκέ σοι Η., ἤρκεσεν Musgr. Weil., ἡρμόσω Merk., ᾐδέσω Well., Hart. ἀρκέσει Bothe; these are the better ones. B law for legitimacy, and the excessive seclusion of women, point in the same direction. [Weck. reads κτείνουσι συλλέκτρους: ingenious.]

MSS. read τὸ μὴ γενέσθαι, which must be wrong. The neatest emendation is Meineke's (adopted by Hart. Weil. Dind.) τίνεσθαι, to punish, which I have taken. The word is usually employed of the injured man punishing the wrong-doer, and means properly to get payment (middle): but it is not a great stretch to use it of the Furies who are personally interested in the penalty, and may be said to get payment. Of the other numerous corrections only Wakefield's μέλεσθαι need be mentioned. ἐποπτεύειν, look down on them: the proper word for a god's visitation or guidance : καί σ᾽ ἐποπτεύων θεός Cho. 1063, θεοὺς ἄνωθεν γῆς ἐποπτεύειν ἄχη Ag. 1579, πατρῷ᾽ ἐποπτεύων κράτη Cho. 1, etc.

ἐνθυμουμένην, taking to heart.

πράσσουσαν ἡσυχαιτέραν, ' more remiss in act, the adj. by a common poetic variation for adv. with verb. Somewhat similarly in prose σχολαῖος, χρόνιος, ἄσμενος, etc., are used adverbially.

δίκας ἐποπτεύσει, shall watch the pleadings, i. e. direct the trial.' δίκαι plural is usually pleas of right, not vengeance. So δίκας κλύοντες Ag. 813, hearing the cause : κραίνετε δίκας Cho. 462, ὑστάτας δίκας Suppl. 230, the last trial.

δ᾽ οὖν, well then, impatient and contemptuous. So Prom. 935 ὁ δ᾽ οὖν ποιείτω. τίθου(put or make for yourself, middle), get. πλέω must be read for MSS. πλέον. In Ag. 1299 we have the opposite blunder of the copyist, χρόνῳ πλέω for χρόνον πλέω: mistakes constantly arising from terminations being erroneously assimilated.

The Chorus understand Apollo to threaten, and they proudly defend their privileges.

ὥστε, 202.

No need to alter πάρ into παρά (Porson): both the rhythm and the Epic use are like Aeschylus.

δίκας μέτειμι τόνδε, i.e. I will sue for justice on him; δίκας being a rather strange sort of internal acc., the δίκαι or pleadings shewing the nature of the pursuit; see line 224. The phrase implies. that the Eumenides are going to submit to a trial: δίκην μέτειμι τόνδε would mean simply I will visit vengeance on his head. μέτειμι and μετελθεῖν are used with three kinds of accusatives, the trial or vengeance, the crime, and the criminal. Here we have trial and criminal: μετῆλθόν σ᾽ αἷμα Eur. Or. 423 (crime and criminal): so ἁρπαγὰς μετήλθετ᾽ Ἰλίου πόλιν Eur. Cycl. 280: Ag. 1666 (criminal only), Cho. 996 (crime only). *

εἰ προδῶ, Epic use of eἰ with subj. So εἰ κρανθῇ πρᾶγμα Suppl. 91, μηδ᾽ εἰ στράτευμα πλεῖον ᾖ Pers. 791, εἰ μὴ τοῖον τύχῃ Supp. 400. [Apollo retires : and the Chorus leave the stage. Then the scene is changed to Athens: the temple of Athena Polias on the Acropolis: Orestes enters and kneels as a suppliant before the statue of Athena in the front.] This change of scene, being from one temple to another, would only require the alteration of the side scenes or περίακτοι. These were prismatic or three-sided scenes which were turned round to exhibit different surroundings: rather a primitive device. The altar and temple would remain; only the statues would have to be changed (242). [235-243. SCENE II, Part 1. Orestes prays for protection.]

προστρόπαιον, guilty here: see note on l. 41. ἀφοίβαντον, uncleansed, from φοῖβος, bright (of course here with reference to the god). (Theocr. uses φοιβάω, to cleanse, later writers φοιβάζω : and φοιβαίνω is found in lexicographers.)

Orestes by a bold figure is said to be blunted and worn away, when what the poet really means is that the guilt is blunted and worn. In English we must say so. πρός, the light ending, where the sentence is broken in the most closely bound phrase, is rare in Aeschylus, though common enough in Sophocles : e.g. ἢ κατεῖχε τὸν | νέκυν: ἐὰν δέ τοι | ληφθῇ : τὸ γὰρ | πρᾶγμ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἔδρασα: εἰ δὲ ταῦτα μὴ | φανεῖτε: παίσαντές τε καὶ | πληγέντες : all from Antigone. But there is no reason to suspect it.

The sentence begins very abruptly without connecting particle, so that many suspect corruption, and some (Prien. Pal.) attempt to cure it by reading l. 238 ἀλλ᾿ ἀμβλὺς ἤδη, προστετριμμένος τε and destroying stop at βροτῶν. Others make other alterations. But the antithesis οὐ προστροπαῖον . . . ἀλλ᾽ ἀμβλύς is very harsh: and the sentence inordinately long. The abruptness of ὅμοια χέρσον κ.τ.λ. does not seem impossible in the worn-out wanderer passionately seeking sanctuary. We have it again l. 242.

[Orestes sinks down clasping the base of the statue. Enter the Chorus hunting the trail.]

The voiceless informer is of course the blood, which mysteriously continues to drop wherever he goes. The Scholiast, not a highly poetical person, remarks on the tragic improbability of blood yet dropping from the sword of a man who had come from Argos to Delphi and from Delphi to Athens.

φυσιᾷ σπλάγχνον, my heart gasps, loaded and emphatic diction. ἀνδροκμῆσιν has nothing to do with Orestes (as H. Mors.): it is simply, as Schol. understands it, right wearisome.

ἀπτέροις. : the Eumenides were not winged, l. 51.

προσγελᾷ, delights : the bold figure not Aeschylean specially, but belonging to the Greek idiom : so σὲ τὰ φυτὰ προσγελάσεται Ar. Pax 600. It is exactly the Lat. adrideo.

ἀτίτας, unpunished: lit. unpaying (act.) as Aeschylus always uses τίνω of the culprit who pays penalty. [The word seems used in pass. sense Ag, 72.]

[There is no antistrophe to guide us here, and there are several minor variations of the MSS.: the metre, however, seems mainly dochmiac, and I have taken Hermann's emendations, which are the simplest: see crit. notes.]

πλεχθείς, twined, a strong word, describing Orestes' despairing clasp of the image.

The difficulty here is removed if we see that the emphasis (as so often in Greek) is on the participles. The Chorus just catch sight of him and cry: But he again with sure defence, And clasping the image of the immortal goddess, Would fain take his trial for the deeds of his hands... i. e. 'Here he is! see, clasping the statue, and hoping to be tried under the goddess' protection; but it may not be, etc.' The trial is the necessary way to safety, and the Furies try to prevent it.

[Schol. has a strange note, ἀνθ᾽ ὧν ἡμῖν χρεωστεί προσφὸξ θέλει γενέσθαι τῆς θεοῦ, for what he owes to us he wishes to become suppliant of the goddess, which looks as if he read χρεῶν, to answer for his debts, and so Scaliger reads (followed by H. Linw. Hart. Weil. Wakef.). But χερῶν is a finer expression, and we may take the Medicean MS. against an inference from an obscure and prosaic note.]

This is best taken as two sentences (with M.), the idea being repeated, as commonly in all poetry, in two forms. The sense and language are then very fine : It may not be a mother's blood upon the earth None can restore: alas! The drops once shed upon the ground are lost! The sentiment may be called the keynote of the three dramas; it is true of Iphigeneia τὸ δ᾽ ἐπὶ γᾶν πεσὸν ἅπαξ θανάσιμον ... μέλαν αἷμα τίς ἂν πάλιν ἀγκαλέσαιτ᾽ ἐπαείδων; (Ag. 1019), and is the real basis of all the forebodings in the midst of the king's triumphal return: it is true of Agamemnon, τί γὰρ λύτρον πεσόντος αἵματος πέδοι; (Cho. 48), and νόμος ...φονίας σταγόνας χυμένας ἐς γᾶν ἄλλο προσαιτεῖν αἷμα (ib. 400), and there it is the ground of the confident hope of vengeance; and it is true here of Orestes. See again below l. 647.

Notice Epic syncope δυσαγκόμιστον for δυσανάκομ- : the poetic use χαμαί for χαμαὶ ὄν, and Epic passive form χύμενος, cf. Cho. 401.

ῥοφεῖν, epexegetic for us to drink.

Generally read μελέων : better μελῶν, as an iambus is wanted for metre.

I take the best correction, the nearest to the MSS. and the best sense, ἀντιποίν᾽ ὡς τίνῃς ματροφόνου δύας, that thou may'st pay the full penalty for thy murdered mother's woe: the adj. ματροφόνου used with poetic elasticity, which is particularly noticeable in these compound adjectives.

τιν᾿. ἀσεβῶν is perhaps incomplete, as coming between two dochmiacs it probably should be one itself. The neatest suggestion for completing it is Hermann's τιν᾿ οὐκ εὐσεβῶν. But in the uncertainty of the metre I have left the reading as the MSS. have it, especially as τιν' ἀσεβῶν is a resolved cretic, and we have cretics introduced l. 262, and l. 266.

For Hades under the earth is a mighty controller of men, and watches all with his recording heart. This conception of the Justice and Moral supremacy of the powers below is very fine, and noticeable as being rather unusual. The Powers below are often spoken of as terrible, and unforgetting, and so forth; but here the tone is higher. See Introduction.

καὶ λέγειν, i. e. and I know where it is right to speak. The double construction of ἐπίσταμαι is perhaps a little harsh, but there is no reason to suspect it.

The Schol. tells us that an ἐναγής (or person under a curse) might not go near anyone or look at or speak to him till purified. So Aeschylus himself below l. 448. But the purification is complete l. 445; and he has been ordered by the god l. 279; and therefore he may speak l. 287.

In the fine figurative style of Aeschylus the blood-stain slumbers and withers.

i. e. it would be long to tell from the beginning. ἐξ ἀρχῆς is by a slight stretch of usage, used closely with λόγος, equivalent to τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς λέγειν.

ἀβλαβεῖ, harmless; proving that he was purified.

I agree with Musgr. Herm. Hart. Dind. Weil. etc., that this line is spurious. It is clearly a proverbial line about the destructiveness of time; and even if we alter καθαιρεῖ τo καθαίρει with Stanl. Pal. etc. Aeschylus could not have said (l. 283) that Orestes was cleansed by sacrifice, and then abruptly (l. 286), Time cleanses all.

αὐτόν, myself: the me is not wanted after emphatic ἐμοί

The reference to the treaty formed 459 B. C. (the year before the play) between Athens and Argos against Sparta is obvious. See Introduction.

Τρίτων was in the stories of Athena a Libyan lake from which she was supposed to have sprung; afterwards identified with the large salt lake in the south of Tunis.

The story very likely arose out of the obscure Homeric epithet for Athena, Τριτογένεια, which perhaps meant born of the water, and anyhow was not clearly understood by the later Greeks.

Whether with upright step or covered foot: whether standing as in the ordinary statues or covering her feet, i.e. sitting. Pal. quotes Strabo (13. 1) as saying In many of the ancient images of Athena she is represented as sitting.

This seems the best interpretation of an obscure passage.

Weil suggests the allusion is to the Athenian war in Egypt, in support of the Libyan chieftain Inaros, who had rebelled against Persia; a large Athenian fleet was sent out in 460, two years before this play. This explains φίλοις ἀρήγουσ᾽.

The Phlegraean plain is the narrow promontory of Pallene in Chalkidike, north east of Greece. The story was that the gods here fought the giants; a story as old as Pindar (Nem. 1. 100), in which fight we gather that the warrior goddess Athena marshalled the hosts.

The name Phlegraean plain was afterwards given to the volcanic coast of Campania, which some strangely have supposed to be meant here.

γένοιτο, regular sequence after ἔλθοι. In English we say May she come, and therefore naturally have the primary sequence, that she may prove.

ὅπου φρενῶν, where in the heart it lies.

A bloodless victim she calls Orestes, consistently with the threat (ll. 264, 267), I will drain thee dry and carry thee below.

δαιμόνων is the powers below, i, e. both the Furies who will drink his blood and Hades (l. 274) who ordains and directs the vengeance.

σκιάν, a shadow, not a ghost, for he was to be carried off below yet living (l. 267): but all the vigour sucked out of him with his blood. [Schol. reads σκιά with MSS., and takes it voc. Unlikely.]

Orestes maintains a patient and scornful silence: which rouses the Chorus to still greater fury. There would be a dramatic pause before this line; then the furious threat l. 305. There is no need to divide the speech between different speakers, as Hartung, Paley, and others, following M. G.

ὕμνον δέσμιον σέθεν, the song that binds thee, the choric song acting as an infernal spell to make Orestes their prey: and perhaps accompanied by mysterious binding gestures.

δεδόκηκεν, 'tis our resolve, poetic form for regular δέδοκται.

λάχη might be the office of the Furies, as Cho. 360: but with ἐπινωμᾷ it makes better sense to refer it to ἀνθρώπους. How our troop assigns the lots of men.

στάσις, as Choeph. 114, 458.

I take Hermann's original correction προνέμοντα, that puts forth for all to see: opposed to the action of the guilty man who hides (l. 317) his bloody hands.

I take Hermann's corr. εὐθυδίκαιοι (justified by ὀρθοδίκαιοι l. 994) and H. L. Ahrens' οἰόμεθ'.

πράκτορες, avengers, from πράσσειν in the special sense to exact a debt. So τὸν πατρὸς φόνον πράξαντα l. 624, χερὶ πράκτορι Ag. 111. For the masc. form πράκτωρ with fem. substantive cf. line 186.

τελέως, unfailingly: it goes with παραγιγ. πρακ. and expresses the persistent and complete vengeance.

ἀλαοῖσι καὶ δεδορκόσιν, the sightless and the seeing, i. e. the dead and the living. So δερκομένοισι καὶ δυσομμάτοις l. 388.

ματρῷον ἅγνισμα κύριον φόνου, rightful atonement for a mother's blood ματρῷον poetically transferred from φόνου to ἄγνισμα, as the thought comes naturally in that order expiation for a mother for her blood. ...

In the refrain note the effect of the accumulated adjectives and nouns describing the charm : Over the victim this is our song- A frenzy, a maddening distraction, - A chant of the Furies Untuned to the lyre, a spell to chain the soul, blighting the life of man. αὐονά is also found (Simon. Iamb. vii. 20) in the sense of cry, [from root αϝ, shout] and it may be so taken here by joining it with ἀφόρμικτος, a cry unmusical to men: but the other sense from αὐαίνω, to wither or waste, is more forcible, and so the Schol. Med. takes it: ὁ ξηραίνων τοὺς βροτούς.

διανταία, piercing, deadly, a favourite word of Aeschylus, usually of wounding: δ. πεπλαγμένους [πλαγάν] Theb. 894, δ. βέλει Cho. 184, and again δ. οὐτῷ ib. 640.

This is far more Aeschylean and forcible than the common rendering all pervading (Lin. Pal. Hart. Mors. etc., following Schol.).

Taking the old corrections of the corrupt text, which are much the simplest and best, we get a good sense: To those mortals who light upon sinful deeds of blood, To cling to them, until He [the guilty man] pass beneath the earth: And [even] in death he is not over-free.

ξυμπέσωσιν is suspected by some edd.: why, they ask, should Furies pursue those whom murder falls in with, i. e. who are accidentally guilty of murder?

But the fact is that all through these lines there is an intentional use of mild terms, giving (as so often) the effect of the deadliest irony, and suggesting the grim exultant ferocity of the Furies. Thus, besides ξυμπέσωσι, befall, for a deliberate murder, we have μάταιοι (lit. vain, foolish,) for wicked: ὁμαρτεῖν (lit. to attend on), for the relentless pursuit of the Furies: οὐκ ἄγαν ἐλεύθερος meaning he is never quit of us.

Note the Epic usages: (1) τοῖσιν for relative, so, e. g. Ag. 526, 642, Cho. 604, Eum. 918, Theb. 519, etc.: (2) ξυμπέσωσιν, indef. subj. with no ἄν attached to the relative,-both common survivals in tragedy : and (3) ὄφρα ἄν for until.

λάχη. here, as l. 334, office.

ἐκράνθη, assigned: so Suppl. 943 ψῆφος κέκρανται, fixed, settled.

ἀθανάτων δ᾽ ἀπέχειν χέρας, but from the immortals to keep away. The ἀθανάτων δέ is opposed to the θνατῶν of the previous stanza l. 336. Their office is to pursue the guilty man, but they have nothing to do with gods.

This line does not correspond to the antistrophic line, Ζεὺς γὰρ αἱματοσταγὲς ἀξιόμισον ἔθνος τόδε λέσχας, but both make good sense, and there is no specially suspicious word in either. Under these circumstances it is quite easy to make them correspond in numerous different ways, by changing one, or the other, or both. But the best correction is to read ἀνέορτον for ἄμοιρον here, and in the antistrophe to read δ' αἱμοσταγές for γὰρ αἱματοσταγές. In pure white robes I have no festal part.

The Eumenides as nether and evil powers had no lot nor part in the festivals of gods where white robes were worn: they were μελανεί- μονες, black-robed, l. 376, μέλαιναι, l. 52, φαιοχίτωνες, dusky in garb, Cho. 1048, as became daughters of Night.

Whenever the Wargod is tamed and slays a friend, an imaginative phrase, obscure from its very boldness: he means when Strife in the house sheds a kinsman's blood.

διόμεναι, Epic word, pursuing. Homer has it always transitive: here it seems best to take it intrans. with prep. pursuing after him. [It might be tmesis for ἐπιδιόμεναι : but ὦ makes this less likely. Perhaps E. A. Ahrens' ὧδ' ἱέμεναι, which is certainly very ingenious, is the true reading.]

τόν, Epic demonst. use. [Others read ἐπιτόνως: but Schol. had our reading, for he remarks on the position of ὦ.]

ll. 358-359 are read in the MSS. : κρατερὸν ὄνθ᾽ ὁμοίως μαυροῦμεν ὑφ᾽ [or ἐφ᾽] αἵματος νέου, and in the antistrophe : σφαλερὰ τανυδρόμοις κῶλα δύσφορον ἄταν. The best emendation seems to be Weil's: κρατερὸν ὄνθ᾽ ὅμως ἀμαυρ- οῦμεν αἵματος νέου, and in the antistrophe: σφαλερὰ τανυδρόμοις ὅμως κῶλα, δύσφορον μάταν.

The meaning of the passage before us will then be: After him pursuing, Mighty though he be, we waste him away For the new deed of blood.

The genitive will then be a genitive of the cause (like θράσους τοῦδ᾽ οὐκ ἀλύξεις Soph. Εl. 627, for this daring thou shalt not escape) or perhaps the more special gen. of the charge (like ἁλῶναι κλοπῆς, διώκειν φόνου, etc.).

For a fuller discussion see Appendix.

Again an obscure passage. MSS. read : σπευδόμεναι δ᾽ ἀφελεῖν τινὰ τάσδε μερίμνας θεῶν δ᾽ ἀτέλειαν ἐμαῖσι λιταῖς ἐπικραίνειν μηδ᾽ ἐς ἄγκρισιν ἐλθεῖν· Ζεὺς γὰρ αἱματοσταγὲς ἀξιόμισον ἔθνος τόδε λέσχας ἃς ἀπηξιώσατο. And then should follow what has got displaced in the MSS.: μάλα γὰρ οὖν ἁλομένα, κ.τ.λ.

Where the general drift seems to be: [I pursue the guilty] and am eager to relieve another (the gods) of this charge, and set the gods free, and prevent the crime from coming to trial-for Zeus has banished the guilty from his sight, etc.

This seems to make a fair sense, and it is best with most editors to suppose the nom. pendens σπευδόμεναι to be taken up again by μάλα γὰρ οὖν, so that the sentence is only grammatically completed when we reach καταφέρω.

[This anacoluthon is rather harsh: Wecklein and Kirchhoff take Döderlein's suggestion σπεύδομεν αΐδ', we here are eager. But the phrase is then abrupt and unnatural.]

The points that remain are:

(1) 362 ἐμαῖσι λιταῖς, which, if right, must be referred to the prayer of the Eumenides to Apollo not to interfere. But the passage is too general to refer specially to Orestes, though he is of course in their minds. So that perhaps ἐμαῖς μελέταις is better, and by my labour to set the gods free (lit. to bring about the freedom or immunity of the gods, i. e. freedom from the duty of punishing the criminal).

(2) 363 μηδ' εἰς ἄγκρισιν ἐλθεῖν: i. e. to take the guilty into my own hands and prevent the matter from being tried by the gods;the very thing they feared was going to be done with Orestes. ἄγκρισις or ἀνάκρισις is the technical term for the preliminary investigation by a magistrate.

(3) Bloody hateful race, i.e. as Schol. explains, the race of murderers: the whole passage from l. 348 being a general description of the office of the Furies and their relation to the gods. [H. P. and others refer ἔθνοs to Furies: but they would hardly call themselves ἀξιώμισον.]

The whole passage may then be translated as follows: And eager to lighten another of this charge, And by our care to set free the gods, And that [it] come not to trial: For with this bloody hateful troop Zeus deigns not to commune.

μάλα with ἁλομένα : For mightily indeed leaping from on high I bring down the weighty power of my foot- Limbs which trip even the swiftest runner, - A toil intolerable. The emendation adopted [ὅμως inserted and μάταν, see above l. 359] is almost necessary to give the right sense, even though they fly swiftly.

ὑπ᾿ αἰθέρι, beneath the sky, i.e. when they are living on earth.

κατὰ γᾶν, on earth, is the MS. reading: but as Hermann said, the sense below the earth, κατὰ γᾶs, is required in antithesis to ὑπ᾿ αἰθέρι. The same mistake occurs again ll. 838, 871. ll. 375, 376. Bold and imaginative expressions : Before our black-robed assault, And the vengeful measures of our foot; i.e. [their human glories come to naught] when we the Furies attack them and weave these magic dances which make them our captive (as we are doing to Orestes).

After this line in the MSS. comes μάλα γὰρ οὖν . . . μάταν (ll. 367-371). It is possible that the words are repeated as a refrain both here and after l. 380.

And though he falls, he knows not this in his witless ruin : λυμή is the destruction which attacks his mind, and blinds him to the threatening evil; τόδε is best taken (not of the fall as many edd., which would be simply πίπτων οὐκ οἶδεν, but) of the presence and power of the Furies.

κνέφας. is in apposition to μύσος, and is predicative: we should say, So dark a cloud of pollution hovereth over him.

ἐπί, Epic adverbial use (tmesis) of the preposition, going with the verb.

Again a highly imaginative and picturesque phrase which needs no alteration: And the voice of many a groan Proclaims against the house a mist of gloom. The groans of the past victims are heard as it were making a horror of gloom about the house of wickedness.

μένει γάρ, for the law abides: so μίμνει Ag. 1563. But it is obscure and abrupt: and possibly corrupted.

The verb ἐσμέν is easily understood: Crafty are we, and unfailing to accomplish.

Speeding to do our office dishonoured, and unregarded, Far apart from gods Where no sunlight shines,-pathless and rugged alike For the sightless and the seeing; i.e. our pursuit which brings misery on living and dead alike: according to the oft-repeated idea that even in death the victim escapes not from the Furies: ὑπό τε γᾶν φυγὼν οὔ ποτ᾽ ἐλευθεροῦται l. 175, θανὼν δ᾽ οὐκ ἄγαν ἐλεύθερος l. 346. The sentence has no verb, and διόμεναι is rather a strange word (though the English to pursue a task or charge exactly illustrates it): hence Heath ingeniously suggested διέπο- μεν. But διόμεναι was read by Schol. and the MS. may stand.

ἀνηλίῳ λάμπᾳ, lit. in sunless light, an oxymoron, meaning in a light which is no light, where no sunlight shines. [Others translate λάμπᾳ, filth, mould; for there is a very late word λάμπη, 'scum; and Dind. adopts Wieseler's conj. λάπᾳ in the same sense. But the strain of meaning is very harsh, and the word in the last degree unlikely.]

δυσοδοπαίπαλα is suspicious, as the metaphor is rather harsh (though perhaps continued from διόμεναι): the metre does not correspond with the antistrophe (καίπερ ὑπὸ χθόνα); and the double compound with δυσis unusual, indeed unique.

There are many suggestions to cure the metrical fault, δυσποροπ., δυσποδοπ., δυσμολοπ., δυσβατοπ., etc. But it is best to leave it.

Compare ἀλαοῖσι καὶ δεδορκόσιν l. 322.

δοθέντα τέλεον, adj. used proleptically, granted for sure accomplishment.

Two syllables are wanting to make the metre correspond: and they are usually supplied among the iambics of l. 394, with adoption of Hermann's κύρω for κῠρῶ; but possibly l. 394 is all right, and the loss is in l. 395.

[Enter Athena from above in the air.]

γῆν καταφθατουμένη. Some further alter γῆν into γῆς, and translate hastening from; but the land of Scamander would be a strange expression, and a much fuller and better sense is gained by translating καταφθατουμένη, occupying, hasting to claim the land. (So Hesych. who has καταφθατουμένη, κατακτωμένη.)

The Schol. tells us there was a reference here to a dispute between Athens and Mitylene for Sigeum in the Troad, settled in favour of M. by single combat. According to Herodotus (5.95) the dispute was an old one: the struggle began about 606, and was settled by mediation of Periander, who gave Sigeum to Athens. But evidently the dispute went on: for Herodotus tells us in the same chapter that Peisistratos (presumably about 550 B.C.) conquered Sigeum. It is quite in Aeschylus' manner to refer to this event in a bold and imaginative way, by making the land given to Athena as choice offering of the spoil by the chiefs of Achaioi. There was a temple of Athena on the promontory.

αὐτόπρεμνον, bold metaphor, root and branch, i. e. utterly, land and all therein.

ἐξαίρετον. : it was a custom, from Homer's time, to take out of the spoil a special gift for kings (or, as here, gods). So Homer frequently γέρας ἔξελον υἱὲς Ἀχαιῶν. So Thucydides tells us at the destruction of Mitylene (3. 30) the Athenians made 3000 holdings of the land, and 300 of these τοῖς θεοῖς ἱεροὺς ἐξεῖλον.

Flapping the fold of my aegis in wingless flight, a splendid and picturesque line: the goddess needing no wing to fly, the aegis serves her as a wing, and is accompanied with the ῥοῖβδος or whirring noise of wings.

The αἰγίς was the wonderful shield of Zeus gleaming and fringed, that Hephaistos made (and therefore metal), Iliad 15. 307: it was tasselled, crowned about with Terror, and Strife, and Might, and fearful Fray is therein, and the dread monster's Gorgon head, Iliad 5. 738. Athena wears it also, as well as Zeus, in Homer. The word probably meant storm or rushing originally (αἰγ- ἀϊσσω) : but later it was conceived as a goatskin (αἴγ), and so here has a κόλπος or fold.

Yoking to this car my lusty steeds: if we understand this (with Schol.) literally, as though she came in the air on a car drawn by steeds, the phrase ἄτρυτον πόδα, and the previous line, seem to lose their point. Wakef. (followed by H. Hart. Schöm. and others) read κώλοις, legs, a most clumsy emendation, and quite inappropriate to ἐπιζεύξασ᾽ ὄχον. You can't talk of yoking a car on your legs. It is better to take it metaphorically: the ὄχος is the aegis, the πῶλοι are the winds. So exactly Aristophanes calls Athena αἰγίδος ἠνιόχος Clouds 602.

ὑμᾶς θ᾽, the construction is irregular but natural: she means, and you [I call] like to no race begotten, etc. (or perhaps even a stronger verb of abuse is meant to finish the sentence): but she checks herself l. 413.

The MSS. reading ἄμορφον (retained by Dind. Weck. and read by Schol.) is translated, For neighbours to revile a hideous monster is far from justice, which is rather crude and inappropriate; and ὄντα, idiomatic with the subject, is hardly grammar when it constitutes the object. Robortelli's ἄμομφον makes excellent sense: but for one who is not aggrieved (lit. who has no wrong to complain of) to revile others is unjust. (This is confirmed by l. 678, where Ven. reads again ἄμορφος for ἄμομφος.)

ἀποστατεῖ θέμις, Right holds aloof, stately phrase for ,it is wrong,.

It is doubtful whether to read αἰανῆ (from αἰανής) or αἰανῆς (from αἰανός). M. G. and Schol. read here αἰανῆ (agreeing with τέκνα) and αἰανής is the ordinary form used elsewhere by Aeschylus, αἰανῆ χρόνον l. 572, αἰανὴς νόσος ll. 479, 941. On the other hand, Hesychius (Alexandrine grammarian and lexicographer, 4th century, A.D.) quotes a form αἰανός, usually read in Soph. El. 506 ἔμολες αἰανή. In Soph. Aias 672 there is the same doubt as here, whether to read νυκτὸς αἰανῆς κύκλος, or αἰανής. But both there and here it is rather more natural to have adj. agreeing with νυκτός: and here particularly: accordingly I take αἰανῆς, the reading of Fl. Fa. Ven.

As to the meaning: the word certainly sometimes means eternal (αἰανῆ χρόνον l. 572, αἰανῶς μένοι l. 672): but it also is used in the sense of grievous, terrible, (αἰανὴς κόρος, αἰανὲς κέντρον Pind., αἰανὲς δεῖπνον Archil.). Either sense will suit here: perhaps eternal is the most impressive,

ἐν οἴκοις γῆς ὕπαι, not for τοῖς γῆς ὕπαι, but in our home, beneath the earth, both phrases going with verb κεκλήμεθα.

ἐπωνύμους, not in its usual sense called after; but simply the names men call you by.

γε μὲν δή, adversative as usual. My office, however, thou shalt learn. So Ag. 661, 887, 1213.

I might learn, if one would show a plain tale; a touch of ironic scorn for the dark hints of the Chorus.

μηδαμοῦ:. the μή generalises as usual: Some place where joy is all unknown: the Chorus mean in Hades: but the indefinite or generic way of putting it is quite idiomatic and more imaginative and impressive. μηδαμοῦ νομίζεται, lit. is held of no account.

ἐπιρροιζεῖν, to clamour after, of noisy and terrifying pursuit ; To such a flight do ye hound him on?

ἠξιώσατο, took on him, rarely med. Cp. Ag. 370 θεοὺς ἀξιοῦσθαι.

i. e. Did he not do it, fearing the wrath of some other power? Apollo is meant; only instead of naming him, she uses the vaguer word ἀνάγκη.

There is no need to alter the line: the Schol. quotes and explains it thus.

ὡς often used for ὥστε in poetry: Epic usage.

There are two suitors here, and we have heard but half the pleas, i.e. we must wait till we have heard both sides. The reading of Μ. ἥμισυς λόγου is regular Attic use (as well as λόγος): τῇ ἡμισέᾳ τῆς γῆς Thuc., ὁ ἥμισυς τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ Plat.

(The correction θέλοι for θέλει is almost necessary, as otherwise it would seem as if the proposal had been made to Orestes.) The reference in this line, he would take no oath, nor challenge us to swear, is to the custom of the ἀνάκρισις or preliminary investigation of causes at Athens, before a magistrate: at this all the evidence was produced; and the first thing was for the injured party to swear (προωμοσία) he had suffered, the defendant to swear (ἀνθωμοσία) he was innocent.

These oaths, say the Chorus, are impossible here: Orestes will not deny his guilt: he will neither ask us to swear (δοῦναι) nor swear when we ask him (δέξασθαι). The whole of this passage is intended to correspond in a general way to the ἀνάκρισις: after hearing the preliminary statement of either party, Athena refers the whole case to the formal judgment of the Areiopagos.

The name of Just, not Justice, is thy desire, δίκαια being easily supplied with πρᾶξαι. She means: just forms, rather than justice.

σοφῶν, subtlety.

I say that injustice must not prevail by oaths, i.e. the issue must not be settled by oaths, but by the real justice of the case. Practically, Athena admits that Orestes cannot swear his innocence, but pleads that in this exceptional case it must not go against him for that: the true issue (εὐθυδικία) must be tried; see next note.

εὐθεῖαν δίκην, poet. for εὐθυδικία, the regular legal term for the real issue opposed to some side question.

ἐπὶ . . . τρέποιτ', entrust, more frequently in the compound ἐπιτρέπω. The separate form (tmesis) is found in poetry, e. g. Ant. 1107 μηδ᾽ ἐπ᾿ ἄλλοισιν τρέπε.

τέλος, the final settlement, the decision.' Somewhat similar is Ag. 934 ἐξεῖπον τέλος.

κἀπ᾿ ἀξίων (Arnald's correction, adopted by Paley, must be right), a worthy child of worthy sire, i.e. a great goddess, and daughter of Zeus. So Schol. ἀξίων οὖσαν γονέων. [Other corrections numerous, but all less simple and natural.]

Ixion killed Deioneus, his mother's father, by treachery at a banquet by preparing a pit into which he fell. Pindar says (Pyth. 2. 31) that he was the first of men to shed kindred blood. When all shunned him for the guilt, Zeus took pity on him and purified him. Of course a connection was felt between the name Ιξίων and ἱκ-, the root of the words of supplication: possibly even the origin of the story is to be sought there.

τούτοις πᾶσιν, neut. to all this, i. e. the accusation of the Eumenides.

MSS. read ἔχει μύσος, and ἐφεζομένη, which has neither sense nor metre. ἐφημένου and ἐφημένη have been suggested; but no tolerable construction has been made of the line.

I follow Weil. Kirch. Weckl. in adopting Wieseler's far better emendation ἔχων... ἐφεζόμην: the corruption of ἐφεζόμην entailed that of the other.

Nor with pollution on my hand did I fall suppliant before thy image.

Till by the hand of the purifier of murder the blood of the slain suckling besprinkle him.

The form of purification was with water and the blood of a pig, which was commonly used at Athens in such καθάρσεις: e.g. in purifying the space where the public meetings were held: [ἐντὸς τοῦ καθάρματος Ar. Ach. 44.]

οἴκοισι. is governed by πρός: the other datives are instrumental.

πόρος, stream, is frequent in Aeschylus.

ἐκποδῶν λέγω, I speak away the misgiving: rather bold use of the words, but unmistakeable.

The order is Τροίαν Ἰλίου πόλιν ἄπολιν ἔθηκας. The Schol. remarks on the skill of Orestes in conciliating Athena by reminding her of the former bond between her and Agamemnon.

ποικίλοις, crafty.

That bare witness to the murder in the bath: for Klytaimnestra had cast the robe about Agamemnon like a net (ἄγρευμα) in the bath and stabbed him and Orestes (Choeph. 980) had held up the bloody robe before the Chorus as a proof and reminder of her deed.

The terrible penalties threatened if the avenger neglected his duty are given in a fine passage, Choeph. 271-296. ἀντίκεντρα, like a spur, see ll. 38, 136.

πράξας πανταχή, idiomatic use for howsoe'er I fare. So Antig. 634 πανταχῆ δρῶντες φίλοι, howsoe'er we act, we are dear. ἐν σοί commonly in thy power' with the verb to be : ἐν τῷ δαίμονι Ο. Τ. 1443, ἐν σοὶ ἐσμέν ib. 314, ἐν θεῷ τὸ τέλος ἦν Dem. 292. Here it has rather a different shade of meaning, at thy hands, under thy rule.

The matter is too hard, if any mortal thinks to judge it; this, the translation of the MSS. reading, εἴ τις, makes very good sense: μεῖζον is used for μεῖζον ἢ ὥστε δικάζειν, which is easily supplied. The Schol. also takes it so, apparently. It must be referred, not to a mortal, -not even to a god: but to a divinely appointed solemn court of judges. [Others read ἤ τις, harder (than any mortal thinks) to judge: which is rather flat sense. The Schol. plainly read eἴ, not ἤ. The confusion of ei and ἤ is very common in the MSS. of Aeschylus.]

ὀξυμηνίτους is used in a slightly predicative sense, to decide with swift vengeance the issues of murder: it is the decision which brings the vengeance.

ἄλλως τε καὶ σύ, especially since thou, the causal conjunction being omitted by a looseness due to Aeschylus' bold brevity. Literally it is Both on other grounds (this is so) and (chiefly as) thou hast come. κατηρτυκώς, a hard word. καταρτίω is to fit, train, finish, and this perf. is used intransitively, in a kind of technical sense, of animals, mature, complete (so Schol. and Hesych. say), hence it is here metaphorical, of the suppliant; with all due rites performed. [In a similar metaphor Euripides (Frag. 39) uses the phrase κατηρτυκὼς πόνων, which has been misunderstood from not observing the context. Had I been new to trouble I should have resisted, like a colt newly bridled: but now I am spent (ἀμβλύς) and well trained in toils,' i.e. broken in, the phrase continuing the metaphor of the colt.]

ἀβλαβής, harmless, as l. 285.

MSS. read ὅμως δ': but the adversative nevertheless seems out of place, and there is no sense in saying You are now pure, nevertheless I receive you: moreover the strongly emphatic σὺ μέν requires a personal antithesis. Accordingly I follow Hartung in reading ἐγὼ δέ.

αἱροῦμαι πόλει, I take thee, welcome thee in my city.

μοῖραν οὐκ εὐπέμπελον, lit. an office hard to banish, i. e. such is their office, they are hard to banish: the rights which the appointment of the gods has given them makes it hard for me to deal harshly with them.

χώρᾳ, put first to emphasise what is affected, is in sense dependent on ἄφερτος αἰανὴς νόσος.

The construction μὴ τυχοῦσαι ... ἰὸς πεσὼν νόσος is the not uncommon anacoluthon called nominativus pendens: compare Ag. 1008 ὄκνος βαλὼν οὐκ ἔδυ δόμος, Theb. 681 θάνατος ὧδ᾽ αὐτοκτόνος οὐκ ἔστι γῆρας τοῦδε, Cho. 520 πάντα γάρ τις ἐκχέας ... μάτην ὁ μόχθος. So Cho. 791, Soph. O. C. 1150.

φρονημάτων, wrath.

ἀμφότερα . . . ἐμοί to let them stay, to drive them forth, both are a peril and a perplexity to me. The change of subject with the inf. (that they should stay, that I should drive) is much less harsh in Greek: the inf. expresses the simple verbal idea, and the subject need not be consciously supplied.

δεῦρ᾽ ἐπέσκηψεν, has fallen to me, i. e. to arrange. ll. 483-484. The general sense of these lines is plain: but the MS. reading requires to be altered, and the original text must remain C uncertain: I have taken Casaubon's ὁρκίους αἱρουμένη as the least alteration on the whole: I shall choose judges of murder bound by oaths, and appoint them as an ordinance for ever. τόν then agrees with θεσμόν, an ordinance that which [shall be] for all time. But Wecklein's φανῶ δικ. ὁρκίων αἰδουμένους θεσμόν, is ingenious.]

ἀρωγὰ ὁρκώματα, apposition to μαρτύρια: Summon evidence and proof, sworn testimony in aid of justice. The Scholiast says ὅρκους αὐτοὺς αἰτήσατε, misunderstanding apparently ὁρκώματα to refer to the judges' oath, whereas it is best to refer it to the oath of witnesses. There is no need to insert θ' before ὁρκώματα, as H. Weil.

τὰ βέλτατα, abstract collective for τοὺς βελτίστους. So τάδε μὲν Περσῶν Pers. 1, τὰ πρῶτα τῆς μοχθηρίας Ar. Ran. 421.

διαιρεῖν. is epexegetic or consec. inf., that they should decide, the subject being carried on in sense from τὰ βέλτατα, becoming (naturally) masc. in the participle, next line.

The MSS. ὅρκον περῶντας μηδὲν ἔκδικον φρεσίν is obviously corrupt: and I take the easiest correction which gives any natural sense, πορόντας (Herm.) and φράσειν (Markland)- Swearing an oath to utter naught unjust. πορόντας will then be poetic equivalent for the ordinary διδόντας (or rather δόντας) by which the Schol. interprets it.

Both errors are of the kind due to the text being dictated and misheard.

[The line is misplaced by V. Fl. after l. 484, and omitted by Fa., and hence some have thought it spurious. But its very corruption is in favour of its genuineness.]

[Athena retires into the temple.]

Now shall come changes to new laws; rather an unusual use of the gen., though possible: we have (Thucyd. 6. 18) μεταβολὴ ἀπραγμοσύνης, change to timid policy, in a very similar use. [The best alteration is νόμων θεσμίων τ' (L. Schmidt): but it is not so forcible as the text, and not necessary.]

δίκα τε καὶ βλάβα, the cause and the wrong: the strong contradiction in terms (oxymoron), which comes out in the Greek more than in the English, is intentional and effective: Orestes' δίκα was ἄδικος and βλαβερά in the eyes of the Eumenides.

Hereafter this deed shall set all men's hand to license, is the meaning: literally it is, shall join all mortals to readiness (of sin). The commentators aptly quote Plat. Rep. 391 Ε πολλὴν εὐχέρειαν πονηρίας.

παιδότρωτα πάθεα, woful wounds dealt by a child, woes from the murderous hands of children.

And, for not even from the Furies that watch mankind Shall wrath for these deeds Come upon any man-I will let loose all murder upon them; reading οὐδέ for οὔτε, with most edd., and τιν' for τις with Weil, μαινάδων is subjective gen., τῶνδε ἐργμάτων objective, both after κότος. The γάρ gives the reason for ἐφήσω; which is common enough when ἀλλά precedes, but unusual (as here) with no such connection.

And one man shall ask of another As he tells of his neighbours' woes, That trouble may cease and be diminished : And the hapless man gives comfort in vain, Speaking of cures that profit not. There is a grandeur and impressiveness of gloomy prophecy which almost remind one of the Hebrew prophets or poets of the Old Testament.

In this fine stanza the Erinyes speak as the Powers of Justice which the gods have overthrown: The afflicted shall call upon us, but we will not hear is what, in effect, they say.

Somewhere should fear abide enthroned, watching the heart of man; tis well to be chastened with suffering.

The doctrine that suffering brings wisdom is a favourite Aeschylean maxim, τὸν πάθει μάθος θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν Ag. 177.

The MSS. read : τίς δὲ μηδὲν ἐν φάει καρδίαν ἀνατρέφων ἢ πόλις, κ.τ.λ. The general sense is plain : who, if he have nought to fear will any longer be just? But the text as it stands is corrupt, and as it is easy to rewrite the two lines to give the right sense, there are a vast number of suggestions, none convincing ;—

(1) Some (Pal. Well. others) retain the first line and read καρδίας: who, if he cherish no [fear] in the gaiety of his heart..., but it is hardly credible that the principal idea, fear should be understood from the last stanza: and therefore-

(2) The best emendation (without too much alteration) is the old one of Auratus (Herm. Weckl. Schütz. D.)- τίς δὲ μηδὲν ἐν δέει καρδίαν ἀνατρέφων, κ.τ.λ. who, if he do not train his heart in fear, etc.... There is a further question whether we should keep l. 522 κᾶρδῖ- | ᾶν ӑ- | νᾱτρε- | φῶν or make the correspondence with l. 512 exact, by inserting ἄν; κᾱρδῐ- | ᾱν ᾰν | ἄνᾰτρě- | φῶν. It is perhaps better to insert the av : though the thrice repeated syllable -av- is a little rough.

ἢ ... τε is irregular : whether city or man we must say in English.

ἀνάρχετον. (read for metre's sake), like ἀπεύχετον Cho. 625.

παντὶ μέσῳ, ever to the mean god gives success: a common Greek maxim: so Ag. 378 ἔστω δ᾽ ἀπήμαντον ὥστ᾽ ἀπαρκεῖν, ib. 466 τὸ δ᾽ ὑπερκόπως εὖ κλύειν βαρὺ κρίνω δ᾽ ἄφθονον ὄλβον, etc., the idea being that excess was dangerous: so Eur. Fr. 80 τὰ μείζω τῶν μέσων τίκτει νόσους.

ἐφορεύει, directs.

ξύμμετρον. seems best taken as timely, fitting: a rather fanciful way of saying wise. [Others take it in accord with this, i.e. with the doctrine of moderation: which is a possible meaning and may be defended: only the main point of all this chorus is the need of repressing crime and licence, and the doctrine of moderation is rather a digression.]

This notion, that crime leads to new crime, is familiar from the Agamemnon: τὸ δυσσεβές γὰρ ἔργον μετὰ μὲν πλείονα τίκτει l. 759, ὕβρις παλαιὰ νεάζουσαν ὕβριν τίκτει l. 763.

I take H.'s correction πάμφιλος for πᾶσι φίλος and Hartung's δόμων for δωμάτων l. 547 : the alternative (to read πᾶσιν, and change the order of δωμάτων ἐπιστροφάς) really alters the text as much, and produces a less likely metre.

ἐς τὸ πᾶν, for whate'er befall; i. e. as the first and greatest rule of life.

κύριον μένει τέλος, the appointed end abideth: only an impressive way of saying that good and evil alike shall meet their deserts.

ξενοτίμους δόμων ἐπιστροφάς, κ.τ.λ., literally, [let him revere] guest-honouring visits of the house: a characteristically elaborated expression for hospitable welcome.

οὐκ ἄνολβος ἔσται, understatement such as is natural and common in Greek, shall not fail to prosper. ll. 553-554. If the reading is right, the acc. τὰ πολλὰ παντόφυρτ᾽ is governed by the verbal idea in παραιβάταν: The man who dares to resist and commits all manner of transgressions, swerving from Right: such accusatives after verbals are rather in the manner of Aeschylus : θυμοβόρου φρένα Ag. 103, πολλὰ συνίστορα ib. 1090, ἄπορα πόριμος Prom. 904, χοὰς προπομπός Cho. 23, ἀπότροπον ἄγος ib. 155. (So Schol.) Of the corrections proposed Pauw's is the best ... παντόφυρτ᾽ ἄγοντ᾽ ἄνευ (reading παρβάταν for καὶ παραιβάταν), bringing much confusion : but though the grammar is smoother, the sense is weaker.

βιαίως, perforce, i. e. the storm shall compel him. καθήσειν, shall lower sail, i. e. shall be made humble and submissive; so ὑφέσθαι is used Ar. Ran. 1220 ὑφέσθαι μοι δοκεῖ, Soph. Εl. 335 πλεῖν ὑφειμένῃ δοκεῖ. [It is far better to make καθήσειν absolute, and make λαῖφος governed by λάβῃ, than with H. to write καθήσειν λαῖφος, ὅταν λάβῃ, κ.τ.λ. The metaphor is then more gradually and naturally introduced: the rhythm is more effective: and also the Schol. clearly takes καθήσειν by itself, for he explains it ταπεινωθήσεται. Such curtailments are common in technical expressions, e. g. in English, luff, put about, lower away.]

πόνος, trouble, a word suggestive from its mildness: he means the hurricane.

δυσπαλεῖ, taken by some as a verb (Pal. Verrall): but the adj. δυσπαλής is used by Pindar, while the verb is unknown. The sense is equally good, if we take it adj., and the run of the sentence more easy.

θερμῷ, headstrong, rash, as often in Greek.

τὸν οὔποτ᾽ αὐχοῦντ᾽, who boasted he ne'er [should suffer], boasted it ne'er should be, the negative used just as in οὔ φημι, οὐκ ἂν ᾤετο, οὐκ ἀξιῶ, etc. So οὔποτ᾽ ἐλπίσαντες, Agam. 1044.

Wrecking his happiness on the reef of justice: the fine metaphor is kept up to the end.

The difficulty is to fill up the gap in the MS. line here, ἥ τ᾽ οὖν διάτορος Τυρσηνική. Scholefield conjectured οὖν to be a corruption (from contraction) of οὐρανοῦ, and Paley suggested the reading εἶθ᾽ ἡ διάτορος οὐρανοῦ. [Better Weckl. εἰς οὐρανὸν δὲ δ. τ.] But as there is a gap in 3 MSS. after διάτορος, it is better to take a suggestion of Emper's διάτορος αἰθέρος, or Ahrens' διάτορος ἀέρος, supposing the gen. lost owing to its similarity to the termination of διάτορος. The Tyrrhenian trumpet, because the Tyrrhenians or Etruscans were from very early times celebrated as workers in bronze: in poetry the adj. seems specially given to the trumpet: thus Eur. Phoen. 1377 Τυρσηνικῆς σάλπιγγος ἠχή, Soph. Αi. 17 κώδωνος ὡς Τυρσηνικῆς, Verg. Aen. 8. 506 Tyrrhenusque tubae. . clangor.' The anachronism (noticed by the Scholiast) is of a kind common enough.

ἀρήγει, it helps, i. e. 'tis good.

The MSS. read τόνδ' or τῶνδ': the pronoun must be plural, for it must mean the Areopagitae (as Schol. explains it): to take it singular for Orestes makes no real sense with the rest of the line. The gen. is the difficulty, and perhaps points to a lost line as H. Weil. think: but on the whole it is best to read τούσδ' and to suppose τῶνδ' a blunder possibly due to καταγνωσθῇ, which in another sense (to decide against) often takes gen.

ὧν ἔχεις αὐτὸς κράτει, rule thou thine own domain, like the proverbial τὴν σαυτοῦ πάτει, i. e. mind your own business.

MSS. end the line δόμων, which with δόμων next line is intolerable. I take νόμῳ, correction of Erf. and Burgess, and approved by H.

σύνδικος is an advocate. Apollo says he will be Orestes' advocate, as he is responsible for the murder.

κυροῦν, usually to confirm, here in the rather unusual sense of to settle, as below again l. 639.

This is already one of the three wrestling-falls, alluding to the custom of deciding the wrestling combat by three falls: when a man was defeated thrice, he was beaten. So διὰ τριῶν ἀπόλλυμαι Eur. Or. 434, and the word τριακτήρ Ag. 171 for a conqueror, lit. one who throws thrice.

γε μέντοι, as usual, adversative, however.

No need to alter λέγω (Μ. P. A.) into λέξω. The vivid present is natural enough.

πρὸς τοῦ, by whom, common variation in poetry for ὑπό. So we find ἐκ, ἀπό, παρά, with gen. of agent. See 100.

The γε, as usual, assenting and adding a further point: ay, and till now I do not complain of my lot: i. e. not literally that he had not suffered, but that Apollo had helped him.

πέπεισθι, exceptional reduplicated aorist imperative with intransitive meaning: trust now in the dead. The form somewhat resembles the Epic κέκλυθι, τέτλαθι, and κέκραχθι (Ach. 335); but has the heavier stem-form.

The Chorus speak of course with bitter irony.

Schol. takes προσβολάς as the meeting of two pollutions, but there is no need to take it as different from its ordinary meaning, a putting or rubbing or striking of one thing against another: the pollutions strike her, not each other. So it is used, Ag. 391, of rubbing metal against a touchstone: Cho. 283 of attacks of Furies- Ay, for a double stain fell on her.

The δέ-clause contains the real predicate as often; the μὲν-clause points the antithesis: Therefore while thou livest [unpurged] she is free by her death.

An extreme instance of the sharp distinction felt (l. 212) by the Greeks between murdering a blood-relation and an outsider. The wife not being a blood-relation was, according to the doctrine of the Eumenides here put forward, not liable to their pursuit for slaying her husband. The doctrine however fluctuates: in Cho. 923-4 Klyt. tries to deter Orestes by the threat that her Furies (ἐγκότους κύνας) will pursue him if he slays her, but he replies τὰς τοῦ πατρὸς δὲ πῶς φύγω παρεὶς τάδε; and in Sophokles, Elektra 112, the daughter prays the dread divine Erinyes to avenge her father's murder; and the Chorus (490) prophesy that with the tramp of many feet, and the might of many hands, the brazen῏footed Erinyes shall come.

The bearing of this question is explained below l. 660, when Apollo lays down the principle that the real parent is the father.

ὥσπερ ἐστίν, i. e. as done it is.

θεσμόν, ordinance, means here (as in l. 484) the court of Areiopagos; and so the Scholiast explains it. It is therefore in apposition to ὑμᾶς.

μή. generic, with the indef. opt. κελεύσαι: nothing which Zeus bade not, nothing save what Zeus bade.

πιφαύσκω, I bid : nearly all the words of speaking can be so used, λέγω, εἶπον, etc. The displacement of the δέ is common.

ὔμμε, Aeolic form of ὑμᾶς found several times in Homer. So ἄμμι (ἡμῖν) Theb. 156, ὔμμε Antig. 846, both however in lyric passages.

[There is no need of alterations, as Hartung thinks.]

i.e. follow Zeus' will [even if you think it unjust]: for no oath [such as you swore, l. 489, to do justice] is stronger than Zeus.

πράξαντα, prop. exacting, a favourite word of Aeschylus, often for avenging: ἀτίμωσιν πρασσομένα, avenging the dishonour, Ag. 705, χερὶ πράκτορι ib. 111. See Eum. 319.

Here and l. 657 Apollo acts in the character of the ἐξηγητής or expounder of the law, usually consulted about ancient or sacred customs. See Introd. p. 16.

Schol. tells us that Epicharmos (comic poet 540-450, who knew Aeschylus and lived with him some time at the court of Hiero) criticised him for his fondness for this word τιμαλφεῖν.

ὥστε, Epic, common in Trag. for ὡς.

A passage of well-known difficulty. The MSS. reading (with slight corrections, see critical notes) is substantially the following: ἀπὸ στρατείας γάρ νιν ἠμποληκότα τὰ πλεῖστ᾽ ἄμεινον εὔφροσιν δεδεγμένη δροίτῃ περῶντι λουτρὰ κἀπὶ τέρματι φᾶρος παρεσκήνωσεν, ἐν δ᾽ ἀτέρμονι κόπτει πεδήσασ᾽ ἄνδρα δαιδάλῳ πέπλῳ· which it is possible to translate, as follows: For him from the wars (returning) having dealt In most things prosperously, she welcomed with kindly words, And over the bath, as he stepped from the water, and on the edge, She threw a cloak for covering, and entangling her lord In a broidered robe inextricable, she smote him... This makes good sense, and is in substance no doubt what the poet meant. But several things are at least suspicious: ἠμποληκότα τὰ πλεῖστ᾽ ἄμειvov is a harsh phrase, even if we justify the rather flat τὰ πλεῖστα and the comparative ἄμειvov by supposing an intentional understatement: εὔφροσιν without substantive is very harsh, and is hardly supported by the Homeric κερτομίοισιν and μειλιχίοισιν which are special idioms: δροίτῃ governed by παρεσκήνωσε, and λουτρά separate from it, is clumsy: κἀπὶ τέρματι is not smooth, and is suspiciously like ἀτέρμονι in the line below: finally most of the MSS. and Schol. read περεσκήνωσεν, for περιεσ-, unexampled in Attic. Corruption is almost certain: but as sense can be made, and no suggestions are really satisfactory¹, it is best to leave it.

ταύτην, Klytaimnestra.

προτιμᾷ, most regards: i. e. counts it of more importance, as a more heinous sin, to slay him.

ὑμᾶς, the judges, as the Scholiast says.

ἂν λύσειεν, quite general, fetters may be loosed: not Zeus only, but anyone, may loose them.

For this sentiment, the keynote of the three plays, see l. 261. 1 Hartung, Wakefield, Burgess rewrite the passage: Paley reads ἅμ' αἴνοις for ἄμεινον, harsh in itself, and leaving ἠμποληκότα untranslateable; Bothe and Butler ἢ φράσαι for εὔφροσιν, ingenious, but rather too strong: H. Schütz, Linwood, Rauchenstein suppose a lacuna. Wellauer says procul dubio corrupta. Weckl. also leaves a lacuna. It strikes a modern reader as a grotesque defence of Zeus for his unfilial act, to say Fetters can be undone.

ἐπῳδάς. So Ag. 1019, The black blood once fallen on the earth who can call back with charms?

All else he turns about, setting them high or low as he will.

Beware how thou pleadest for him, that he be acquitted; the τὸ φεύγειν being a kind of consecutive infinitive, giving the desired result of the pleading.

τὸ μητρὸς αἱμ' ὅμαιμον, his mothers kindred blood,' the attribute μητρὸς ὅμαιμον being divided, as often.

The Phratriai or clans were originally sub-divisions of the four old Ionic Tribes into which Athenians were grouped. There were twelve phratries, and they were based on a real or supposed kinship. The annual clan festival was the Apatouria (festival of those who had the same father, ἀ- πατήρ). And the purification with water (χέρνιψ) was the common preliminary to these, as to all rites in temples or household gatherings: the bloodguilty being naturally excluded from all.

The Med. reads κεκλημένου, while Ven. Flor. Farn. read κεκλημένη. Both make sense: (1) κεκλημένου: the mother of the so-called child is not the parent. (2) κεκλημένη: the so-called mother is not the parent of the child. But it is obvious that τέκνου and τοκεύς are opposed, the sense required being ' it is called her τέκνον, but she is not the τοκ-εύς really :' and therefore it is best to take (1), the Medicean reading κεκλημένου.

κῦμα, from kv-, which has the ideas of bulging, swelling, containing, hence κῦμα is the young in the womb, more commonly κύημα. So Cho. 121.

ὁ θρώσκων, he who begets, the male. The strange doctrine is that the father who begets is the real parent (τίκτει), the mother a stranger, ξένη, who only cherishes the child for another.

οἷσι μὴ βλάψῃ θεός, save what the god blights, i.e. except the god blight it, the plural relative after ἔpvos being a natural laxity of grammar.

[The indef. subj. without av is an Epic use, common in Tragedy. Note also ἔσωσεν gnomic aor.]

οὐδ.' has troubled editors: H. Butl. (Dind. Weil, etc.) suppose a line fallen out: Schütz reads οὐκ. I do not see that alteration is necessary if a slight pause is made at πάρεστι : Close at hand There is a witness, daughter of Olympian Zeus, - And not nursed in the darkness of the womb, But such a sprout,' etc.

[No sense can be got by taking οὐδέ, not even, as Pal. following Wellauer.] The and couples the explanatory clause, as te in Ag. 1526.

τἄλλα. θ' answers to καὶ τόνδ' ἔπεμψα. τἄλλα is expanded into τὸ σὸν πόλισμα καὶ στρατόν.

That their posterity should cherish this faithful bond:' the emphasis of this wish for permanence is really a political allusion. Not long before the date of the play (which is generally put at 458 B.C.) the Argives had become allied with Athens. The picture of Orestes the Argive, fleeing for refuge to Athens, had therefore a significance from a political point of view, which is of course only lightly touched, but is not lost sight of. See below l. 765, and Introduction.

ἀπὸ γνώμης, from his judgment (gen. of the source), i.e. according to his judgment. Somewhat similar are τλήμων οὖσ᾽ ἀπ᾿ εὐτόλμου φρενός Ag. 1302, ἀπὸ γλώσσης, by word of mouth, ἀπ᾿ ὄψεως, at sight.

The sense is improved by marking this line as interrogative. Athena first asks the Furies whether they are willing to have the voting, and then the other side, Apollo and Orestes. Both express satisfaction, and then she gives her final address and orders them to vote. κελεύω will then be subj. delib. Shall I now order? etc. It is a formal request to both sides to know if there is anything more to be said: no doubt a copy of the usual proceeding on the part of the presiding judge at an Areopagite trial.

τιθεῖσ', ordering. Athena addresses Apollo and Orestes, but Apollo replies to the judges.

Athena having formally to address the court, takes this opportunity of solemnly instituting the Areiopagos for ever. [Kirch. Weckl. etc. transfer this speech to 573: but the close of the speech shows that it comes just before the voting.]

The names Aigeus, Theseus, Amazons, are brought in to emphasize the antiquity and glory of this Athenian institution.

᾿Αμαζόνων ἕδραν. One of the exploits of Theseus was an attack on the warrior women, called Amazons, when he carried off their queen Antiope. In revenge the Amazons invaded Attica, and were not defeated till they had reached the centre of Athens itself. The grammar is broken, and the provisional accusative πάγον δ᾽ ῎Αρειον τόνδ' in the course of the long sentence is forgotten; there is nothing to govern it. So O. T. 449. But it may be that ῎Αρειον is a gloss, which has ousted the verb: so Weil reads ἑδοῦνται, Weckl. ἑδεῖται.

κατὰ φθόνον, in hate, spite, slightly strained use.

πόλιν νεόπτολιν τήνδ' ἀντεπύργωσαν, raised this new city rampart against the old: i. e. fortified the Areiopagos against the Akropolis.

τῷ, it, Epic use of article as pronoun, common in Aeschylus.

φόβος τε ξυγγενής, and fear his kinsman. Aeschylus is fond of such sudden personifications. So Ag. 494 he still more quaintly calls dust the neighbour brother of clay, κάσις πηλοῦ ξύνουρος.

σχήσει, shall restrain them.

I take the simplest alteration, ἐπικαινούντων for ᾿πικαινόντων of MSS., and leave the stop at νόμους.

[Others (H. D. Hart.) run on the sense to ἐπιρροαῖσι, to avoid leaving l. 694 unconnected; but the rhythm is easier if we end at l. 693 after the long passage: κακ. ἐπ. goes better with what follows than with ἐπικαινούντων: and as to the want of connexion, we have a similar instance in Ag. 322 ὄξος τ᾽ ἄλειφά τ᾽ ἐγχέας ταὐτῷ κύτει . . ., Eur. Or. 232 μεταβολὴ πάντων γλυκύ In all three cases, a proverb is quoted in support of what goes before.]

Same sentiment l. 526.

περιστέλλουσι, lit. wrapping round, i.e. protecting, maintaining. Aeschylus protests against the despot (who was no longer formidable) and anarchy: i. e. he recommends oligarchy under the usual pretext of moderation.

The same sentiment as the Furies had expressed before, l. 516, that Fear is necessary to the moral order of men and states, is here adopted by Athena.

Such majesty if ye justly revere ye shall find, etc.: by τοιόνδε σέβας she means the reverend court of Areiopagos.

Neither among the Scythians, nor the lands of Pelops, a stately expression for neither in Greece (the Peloponnesus standing for Greece) nor in the distant barbarous countries. So (H. quotes) Soph. O. C. 695 neither in Asian land, nor the Dorian isle of Pelops.

κερδῶν ἄθικτον, incorruptible. The gen. belongs to a special (though common) class of usages with negative adjectives, e. g. ἄλυπος ἄτης Soph. Εl. 990, ἀψόφητος κωκυμάτων Αi. 321, ἄσκευος ἀσπίδων Ε1. 36; a combination of gen. of reference and gen. of separation.

ὀξύθυμος, quick to wrath: a tribunal that delays not to punish. The fine expression that follows, a wakeful guardian of the land on behalf of them that sleep, has been misunderstood [by Schol. and others]: it is simply an imaginative description of an ever-vigilant tribunal, always watchful even when those it defends slumber.

φρούρημα, guardian: for this verbal suffix used actively compare γυναικὸς ὢν δούλευμα Ant. 756.

[During the following dialogue the seated judges in turn arise slowly and solemnly, and take their pebbles and drop them into the two urns (τευχέων l. 742).]

βαρεῖαν τήνδ' ὁμιλίαν χθονός, these dread visitants of the land. χθονός somewhat loosely but naturally after ὁμιλίαν. The Chorus' language is mild: but the threat is none the less effective.

ἀκαρπώτους. The notion is often found in the ancient poets that the will of destiny or the gods could be thwarted by man's perverseness: thus in Homer people act or suffer ὑπὲρ μόρον : and in Vergil the fates of one side conflict with the fates of the other.

Thou hast respect to deeds of blood-not thine office, meaning that he protects the murderer, and so interferes with the functions of other deities, viz. themselves.

No longer from a pure oracle shalt thou prophesy. We must read νέμων for the awkward μένων of MSS. with H. D. Hart. Kirch. Weck., etc.; νέμων will then govern μαντεία. The word ἁγνά is much more applicable to μαντεῖα in the sense of shrine than in the sense of prediction.

For Ἰξίονος see note on l. 441. The argument is, Did not Zeus succeed in purifying a murderer who was a suppliant once before, viz. Ixion? προστροπαῖς, in the supplication.' Dat. of occasion, used by poets, e. g. νόστοις, ‘at his return, Soph. Εl. 194: τόκοισιν, in child bearing, Ο. Τ. 172 : λόγοις τοιούτοις, at such talk, Antig. 691. It is obviously closely allied to dat. of time, of respect, and of cause.

μὴ τυχούσα, of course conditional: if I do not...

ὁμιλήσω, will haunt, will visit.

Pheres was father of Admetos: and the reference is to the famous and beautiful story of Alkestis, in Euripides' version as follows:-Apollo having served in the house of Admetos, by order of Zeus, and being well treated, repaid his debt by begging off Admetos' life from the Fates, on condition of his finding a substitute. After trying all his friends he found none but Alkestis, his wife, ready to die for him. See l. 172, note.

ἔπεισας. Euripides says (Alk. 12) that Apollo cheated (δολώσας) the Fates; and (l. 728) Aeschylus tells us it was by making them drunk. The crude barbarism of the tale points to its great age.

σέβοντ', pious. Euripides (Alk. 10) calls Admetos similarly ὅσιος ἀνήρ.

τύχοι. The common use is to employ the opt. in past general conditions, the subjunctive where the verb, as here (έστι understood with δίκαιον), is primary. But it is a special idiom to employ the optative in maxims and other statements of a universal character, where the verb is to apply to all time: or to put it otherwise where the idea of time is absent. Thus Soph. O. T. 315 ἄνδρα δ᾽ ὠφελεῖν ἀφ᾽ ὧν ἔχοι τε καὶ δύναιτο κάλλιστος πόνων, ib. 979 εἰκῆ κράτιστον ζῇν ὅπως δύναιτό τις. So Ant. 666, Trach. 93, Ai. 521, 1344. So Thuc. 1. 120 σωφρόνων ἐστιν εἰ μὴ ἀδικοῖντο ἡσυχάζειν.

διανομάς, ordinances: the MSS. have δαίμονas, but the Scholiast on Alkestis 12 quotes the line with διανομάς; and this certain emendation was thence made by Cobet. δαίμονας was suggested by θεάς in the next line.

σύ. τοι is scornfully repeated. οὐκ ἔχουσα τῆς δίκης τέλος, failing to win thy cause is the general sense. τέλος literally means the decision, as in l. 243; and having the decision' means winning it.

ἐμεῖ. is future.

καθιππάζει, characteristic vigorous figure, override, i. e. overbear.

ἀμφίβουλος οὖσα, doubtful, undecided.

λοισθίαν κρῖναι δίκην, to give the last judgment, i. e. vote; δίκη in a slight but natural strain of meaning.

[Here Athena holds up a white pebble.]

εἰμὶ τοῦ πατρός, extended use of the gen. of possessor: I am for the father, on the father's side, which would ordinarily be πρὸς τοῦ πατρός. 6

Thus Orestes wins, even if the votes,' etc. The regular rule of the Athenian dicasteries: it is part of the poet's purpose to represent the court and all its customs as of ancient and divine institution.

[The question has been much discussed whether Athena's vote is counted among the ballots, or is the casting vote; some even maintaining that she does not vote at all.

At first sight it would appear that Athena votes (l. 735), that the votes are counted (l. 742), and that with Athena's the votes are equal.

But this would make the court an odd number: the majority in the judges against Orestes; and Athena interfering to turn a majority into a minority:-all of which are very unlikely, and spoil the impressive symbolism of the vote of the goddess. This, as Müller (Eum. Append.) has pointed out, is as follows: The human justice is divided about the cause: the guilt of Orestes, the guilt of Klyt. balance: it is the goddess who gives the casting vote. Thus the rule that equal votes acquit is finely and imaginatively explained: when the earthly ψῆφοι are equal there is an unseen and divine vote for mercy.

This could easily and simply be brought out in the action: the other judges get up and drop their pebbles in, Athena holds hers in her hand until the counting.]

πάλους, lots, only an imaginative word for the pebbles: so much turned on the decision.

[Here two judges rise and turn out the votes.]

The cries of suspense on either side are significantly addressed to Apollo, God of Light (φοῖβος), and Night, mother of the Furies.

ἀγχόνης τέρματ', death by the noose, the most miserable death; the form of tragic suicide adopted by women when all is lost, e.g. Iokaste (O. T. 1264), Antigone (Ant. 1221), Phaidra (Hipp. 777). Helena however (Eur. Hel. 300) says: ''Tis best to die: but how to die nobly? Hanging in mid-air is unseemly-tis held shameful even among slaves. ἀγχόνη is consequently proverbial for the last and worst suffering : κρεῖσσον ἀγχόνης Ο. Τ. 1374, ἀγχόνης πέλας Heracl. 246, ταῦτα δῆτ᾽ οὐκ ἀγχόνη; Ach. 125. ἀγχόνης is gen. of description or equivalence, like the Homeric τέλος θανάτοιο.

γάρ. explains their cry l. 745: For 'tis ours to be lost, or yet more honoured.

πεμπάζω, from πέμπε (old form of πέντε), means to count on the five fingers.

διαιρέσει, the parting of the votes. This word shews that the voting was (as Schol. says) by black and white pebbles, which was the commonest method at Athens. In this system there were two κάδισκοι or urns, one called κύριος or the decisive one, the other ἄκυρος: each voter had a black and a white pebble; his vote was counted, according as the pebble he dropped into the κύριος was white or black, for acquittal or condemnation. The second or inoperative urn was to get rid of the other pebble, that there might be no clue to the way he had voted. Another method was by an urn of acquittal, and an urn of condemnation: but this would require only counting, no διαίρεσις.

If a vote fail, great sorrow comes: the cast of one pebble saves the house; a picturesque and rather loaded way of saying one vote either way makes the difference between ruin and salvation. The picturesque word βαλοῦσα, as though the saving pebble touched or struck the house is quite in Aeschylus' vein of sudden and bold metaphor. ὤρθωσεν, gnomic aor. [Others following Schol. take the last line 'overthrows and uplifts the house, but the expression is very harsh for this].

[As she speaks, she adds her white pebble to the votes of acquittal.]

The man is an Argive again.

ἕκατι, by grace of, the older Epic use of the word, always with God's name, by will or aid of, like Διὸς ἕκητι. So Cho. 214, 436. τοῦ πάντα κραίνοντος is of course Zeus Soter.

ὁρῶν. seems rather weak: Weckl. reads παρείς.

ἅπαντα πλειστήρη χρόνον, a stately expression, all the fulness of time.'

The oath that no Argive king shall ever bring an army against Athens of course refers to the recent treaty, see note l. 673.

κεκασμένον, Epic word, arrayed.

Being then in the grave, the τότε referring to any future time when the friendly Argives should become foes, and lead the arrayed spears against Athens.

vῦν is part of the attribute: τἀμὰ νῦν ὁρκώματα, my present oaths: the attribute may be always so divided. See note on l. 653. Notice the Epic syncope of παρά in παρβαίνουσι.

πράξομεν, we will so deal; ὡς μεταμέλῃ, that they may repent: the παρβαίνουσι depending on the general sense. But the expression is harsh, and perhaps corrupt.

Giving them marches of despair and ways of evil augury; this fine line a fuller explanation of ἀμηχάνοισι δυσπραξίαις.

ὀρθουμένων. might refer to the oaths, if they are kept,' as the Schol. seems to mean [γεννωμένων, which is prob. corrupt for γενομένων], but is probably vaguer, if all be well. The change to dat. τιμῶσιν is a little loose in structure: but not so unnatural here where the subject is changed.

The whole passage ll. 767-774 is suspected by Dind., but the diction is mostly very Aeschylean, such lines as 768 and 770 particularly: the only noticeable things being the obscurity of πράξομεν and the somewhat superfluous αὐτοῖσιν, αὐτοῖσι. But there is certainly no ground for rejecting the passage.

πολισσοῦχος. (like πολιοῦχος) is regularly used of gods, Theb. 69, 185, Ag. 338, but in this play it is used three times (ll. 775, 883, 1010), of men, citizens.

ἄφυκτον. with πολέμιοις, a struggle wherefrom thy foes ne'er shall escape.

[Orestes and Apollo go out: the Areopagites remain seated, Athena in the midst.]

Wanting in V. Fl. Va. It is clear that it is not this refrain but the second repetition (ll. 808-822) that V. Fl. Fa. copied, as they follow M. G. in reading erroneously ἀντιπαθῆ l. 812, and ἐπεσσυμένος l. 816, whereas M. G. have the correct forms in the first refrain.

εἵλεσθέ, i. e. you have stolen him, Orestes my prey.

ἐν γᾷ τᾷδε, upon this land : it seems from l. 800 as if it was meant to be taken here with βαρύκοτος, falling on this land with grievous wrath. The ἐv is the Epic use with verbs of motion like ἐνὶ στήθεσσιν ὀρούσας: cf. πίτνων ἐν δώμασι Cho. 36, φέρουσ᾽ ἐν ἡμῖν Ag. 1450, and again below ἐν χώρᾳ βαλεῖ l. 787.

ἀντιπενθῆ, woe for woe. So the gloss in the Med. rightly explains, ὁμοῖα δρῶντα οἷς πέπονθα.

The participle μεθεῖσα has no verb: the verb, as happens occasionally in these long broken sentences, is deferred and finally appears in a different form l. 789.

A leafless childless blight-ah! justice!-speeding o'er the land shall scatter on the ground the deadly plague-spots.

MSS. read: στενάζω; τί ῥέξω; γένωμαι· δύσοιστα πολίταις ἔπαθον. Perhaps the best emendation is γελῶμαι, I am mocked, a natural exclamation, as Antig. 838 οἴμοι γελῶμαι. [This is adopted by H. D. Hart, etc.]

δύσοιστα πολίταις ἔπαθον, Grievous to the city shall be my wrongs, i. e. the city shall pay for my ill-treatment. This is the Scholiast's explanation, and perhaps the best.

ἀληθῶς, truly: i. e. there was no fraud or evil intent, but the honest decision.

ἀλλὰ ... γάρ, elliptical as usual, the ellipse easily supplied but (you lost) for there was witness, etc.

ὡς, regular poetic use for ὥστε.

The MSS. show signs of a confusion of order, and I take Weil's correction as the most natural restoration.

Athena soothes them, and persuades them not to execute the threats, ll. 780-782.

δαιμόνων σταλάγματα, if right, must mean immortal venom: the word δαιμόνων emphasising the supernatural and terrible power of the blighting drops. The word has been much emended, the best suggestion being Wakefield's πλευμόνων or λαιμάτων : for, as Hartung says, the expressions in this speech are largely determined by the Chorus, and the corresponding phrase is (l. 784) καρδίας σταλαγμόν.

Corroding stings, devastating the seed; a fine characteristic line. It is best thus to make the gen. dependent on ἀνημέρους : the latter word meaning wild, waste, and here, by a common stretch of usage, applied not to the αἰχμάς but to their effects. For the masc. form βρωτήρας with fem. αἰχμάς compare τύχη σωτήρ Ag. 664, Ο. Τ. 80: see note on l. 186.

ὑπίσχομαι, promise, for the common form ὑπισχνοῦμαι, somewhat as οἴχομαι οἰχνέω, λήθω λανθάνω, φεύγω φυγγάνω, πεύθομαι πυνθάνομαι. [Heath, followed by Herm. Schöm., read ἐνδίκους : but the MSS. gen. is finer: Athens, as the Athenians were fond of boasting, was the righteous land: so O. C. 1006 εἴ τις γῆ θεοὺς ἐπίσταται τιμαῖς σεβίζειν, ἥδε τοῦθ᾽ ὑπερφέρει. So again below ll. 869, 920.

κευθμῶνας, cavern, grot. There is a chasm or hole in the rock, with a dark spring of water, on the N. E. side of the Areiopagos. This is no doubt the place constantly referred to as the κευθμών or θάλαμοι (l. 1004) of the Eumenides: and explains the phrases κατὰ γᾶς σύμεναι (l. 1007), τοὺς ἔνερθε καὶ κατὰ χθονὸς τόπους (l. 1023), γᾶς ὑπὸ κεύθεσι (l. 1036). The clearest reference is Eurip. Elektr. 1270, where he speaks of the Eum., defeated in this trial of Orestes, as entering a chasm of the earth close by the hill itself: δειναὶ μὲν οὖν θεαὶ τῷδ᾽ ἄχει πεπληγμέναι πάγον παρ᾿ αὐτὸν χάσμα δύσονται χθονός.

λιπαροθρόνοισι, with shining seats [not with oil as Müller, etc., for the regular libations to the Eumenides were honey and water, fully detailed in Soph. O. C. 470-481], but merely bright or splendid marble seats for the great goddesses.

δύσκηλον, lit. hard to charm: i.e. past cure, as Schol. δυσθεράπευτον.

The Chorus had called on justice: Athena replies I too have trust in Zeus: though her appeal is rather to threat of force.

MSS. give εὐπειθής here and Ag. 274, Cho. 259, etc. The form seems the regular one, and there is no need to alter to εὐπιθής.

The MS. reading will hardly stand. I adopt (with Weckl.) Burges' correction: Utter not words which bring the land this fruit, that in all things she fare ill.

The black billows bitter violence; a splendidly imaginative phrase for the fury of the Eumenides.

The προτέλεια or marriage offerings made by the bride's family were offered to various gods, Hera, Artemis, the Fates, and here the Furies, no doubt to propitiate: and we gather that similar offerings were made at birth of children. πρό, is for.

παλαιόφρονα, of ancient wisdom, Aeschylean compound, applied Suppl. 593 to Zeus. κατά τε γᾶς is the best emendation. The indignity which the Furies complain of is being banished to this κευθμών, to dwell beneath the earth.

In the MSS. φεῦ comes before μύσος, which breaks the dochmiac foot and is impossible, though the Scholiast seems to have read it there.

It does not much matter whether we put it before the line, or after, or suppress it. I follow Weil in reading it before.

δâ. is Doric form of γῆ. So Ag. 1072 ὀτοτοῖ πόποι δᾶ.

I adopt (with Franz, Lin. P. Weil, Weck.) L. Dindorf's brilliant conjecture τιμᾶν δαναιᾶν, ancient honours, for the meaningless δαμαίων of MSS. The gods unconquerable wiles have reft me from my ancient honours as of no account.'

ἀπό is separated from the verb αἴρω and draws near to the substantive, as in Epic: one of the forms of the so-called Tmesis. In prose it would be ἀπῆραν. The verb simply means carry off, take away.

συμφέρω, here used in the rather unusual sense of endure, not resent: the English idiom (which in meaning exactly suits this place), I will bear with thy wrath, is only superficially similar. Somewhat like this use is πάντα συμφέρουσ᾽ Ἰάσονι Eur. Med. 13, συμφέρειν τοῖς κρείσσοσι (comply) Soph. El. 1465, οὐδέποτ᾽ εὐφραν- θήσεται ἀνὴρ ἐὰν μὴ τῇ γυναικὶ συμφέρῃ (agree) Ar. Lys. 166: the metaphor being [Verrall, Eur. Med. 1. c.] probably of a yoke-fellow pulling with, and not against, one.

I take Wieseler's excellent emendation καὶ τῷ μὲν εἶ συ, i. e. and by that (old age) you are far wiser, age and wisdom being naturally united. So the Scholiast explains the line διὰ τὸν χρόνον, i. e. wiser by lapse of time.

ἐλθοῦσαι., conditional, if you go.'

δόμοις Ερεχθέως, the Erechtheum or great temple of Erechtheus (famous mythical hero-king of Athens), stood on the Akropolis.

ὅσων, such honour as. Pauw's and Paley's emendation of ὅσην MSS., a reading which will not construe, and is due probably to an attempt to alter the awkward collocation of genitives. The gen. ὅσων is attracted to the case governed by τεύξει. l. 86ο. ἀοίνοις ἐμμανεῖς θυμώμασιν, raging with fury not of wine, but implanted by the Eumenides. This highly Aeschylean phrase does not agree with νέων, as in sense it should but with characteristic boldness is transferred to θηγάνας αἱματηράς, the whetstones of bloodshed, as he calls the frenzy of the Furies, by another bold and imaginative figure. ἀοίνοις is specially appropriate to the Furies, as they were goddesses who tasted no wine, l. 107.

ἐξελοῦσα, which has been immensely emended, is no doubt right: the idea is simply as though taking out the heart from fighting cocks and planting it in the citizens , establish civil war, etc. (the cock being the pugnacious bird who will fight with his own kin, and so an emblem of civil strife): only the rapidity of Aeschylus's style makes him compress the two last clauses into one.

For the domestic broils of the cock see line 866: and Pindar, Ol. 12. 20 ἐνδομάχας ἀλέκτωρ.

οὐ. μόλις παρών (lit. coming not stintedly), no scanty store: i. e. for foreign warfare, let us have plenty of it : but not civil dissension. So οὐ μόλις ἀπώλεσας Ag. 1082.

The sense is of home birds' battle I will have nought. οὐ λέγω, lit. I do not advise, or bid, is a μείωσις for I forbid. [The passage in Soph. El. 1466 which comm. quote is different.]

θεοφιλεστάτης, see l. 805.

πολισσούχοι, see note on l. 775.

The soothing and spell of my tongue is in apposition to the Majesty of Persuasion, Πειθοῦς σέβας. The whole sentence is in the imaginative grandiloquent style, and simply means if I can persuade you.

σὺ δ᾽ οὖν μένοις ἄν, dramatic [if I persuade you], well then, abide. [The dé in apodosis is originally Epic usage, common in the Poets: so Ag. 1061 εἰ δὲ μὴ δέχει λόγον, σὺ δ᾽ ἀντὶ φωνῆς, κ.τ.λ.]

γαμόρῳ:. Doric form for γεώμορος.

The change from lyrics to iambic dialogue on the part of the Chorus marks the progress of persuasion. They have left off mere lamentation and resentment, and begin to consider the offer. ἔχειν, I have, vivid use of present, for I am to have.

ἀπήμον' οἰζύος, gen. after neg. adj., a common use: a combination perhaps of gen. of reference with gen. of emptiness or separation. So ἄπαππον πυρός Ag. 311, ἀμήνιτον θεῶν ib. 649, ἄσκευον ἀσπίδων Soph. Εl. 36, ἀψύφητος κωκυμάτων Αί. 321, etc.

καὶ δὴ δέδεγμαι, lit. there now, I have received, dramatic particles used idiomatically when a case is put or supposed suppose I have accepted, say now, I consent: so καὶ δὴ οὔτις ἂν δέξαιτ᾽ Cho. 565, καὶ δὴ τεθνᾶσι Eur. Med. 386, καὶ δὴ παρεῖκεν Hel. 1059.

ὡς. for ὥστε, as often, see 36.

ξυμφοράς, the fortunes, used neutrally, without a bad meaning.

γάρ is yes, for, as often in dialogue. So l. 899.

It is open to me not to say, I have no need to say.

Weil ingeniously proposes κατᾶσον οὕς for κατὰ χθὸν᾽ οὖσ᾽, charm with a song those whose love thou shalt win, which leads up to the question in the next line. But the MSS. reading will stand; the gist of these lines being as follows (ll. 898-903): Cho. Will you promise it for ever? Ath. My word is enough. Cho. I think I will yield. Ath. Then you will be loved. Cho. [now appeased]‘What blessings do you bid me pray for?

To avoid the hiatus we could read (with Porson) τί μ᾽ οὖν; but MSS. all give τί οὖν ; here, and Pers. 787, Theb. 704, 208: τί εἶπας; Trach. 1203, τι Ἅιδου Ag. 1115, τί ἔστι; Pers. 693: and the licence with τί is quite intelligible.

ἐπίσκοπα, such as look to, hath regard to no dishonourable victory; a vivid word for befit. The word is similarly used Cho. 126 εὐχὰς πατρῴων δωμάτων ἐπισκόπους, Aias 976 ἄτης τῆσδ᾽ ἐπίσκοπον μέλος.

The νίκη is explained by ll. 864-866: he means victory over foes, not in civil broils: and the next line extends it to all sort of prosperity.

'Ay, and that from earth, and watery sea, and heaven [all be blest], and gentle gales with fair sunshine blowing may pass o'er the land.' The rapidity in this fine and poetic passage again rather obscures the grammar, though not the sense: the fact is, he was going to say '[and pray] that from earth, sea, sky, and winds [all may prosper]:' but the clause about the winds is specially developed, and the sentence ends differently from what was intended.

ἐπίρρυτον, abundantly, predicative adj.

But the impious be more ready to weed out; the metaphor of ἔκφορος, carrying away, is probably from gardening, as the next line explains.

ἀπένθητον, predicative.

σοὔστι, the regular crasis for σοὶ ἐστί. τῶν ἀρειφάτων . . . πόλιν, and in the glorious strife of war I shall not suffer but that my city shall be honoured among men as victorious.

The gen. ἀγώνων is gen. of respect, put provisionally at the beginning and depending ultimately on ἀστύνικον.

Note τιμᾶν, active according to Greek idiom: they say, I shall not allow but that [people] shall honour my city: we say, I shall not allow my city to be unhonoured.

Παλλάδος ξυνοικίαν, i. e. to dwell with Pallas.

῎Αρης. is specially mentioned, no doubt because of the Areiopagos, the scene of the latter half of the play.

There is a fine boldness about the expressions which Aeschylus uses for Athens, 'the fortress of the gods..., the glory of the Powers of Greece, the saviour of their altars;' an imaginative rendering of the favourite idea of the piety' of Athens ll. 805, 869.

This prayer closely follows Athena's suggestion ll. 906-908, 'that the bright sunshine make to blossom up from the earth the blessings of life in plenty.' ἐπισσύτους (lit. rushing on, used of the springs of tears, Ag. 887, and of the throes of vain sorrow, Ag. 1150) corresponds to ἐπίρρυτον l. 907.

ἐξαμβρῦσαι. (from ἐξαναβρύω used transitively) is Pauw's probable correction of the meaningless readings of MSS. It is adopted by H. Weil, Lin., Schütz. Well.

κατανασσαμένη, middle, housing in my city. ll. 932, 933. The MSS. read ὁ δὲ μὴ κύρσας βαρέων τούτων οὐκ οἶδεν ὅθεν πληγαὶ βιότου. Now τούτων here must refer to the Furies, as αὗται above and τάσδε below: and consequently βαρέων must be wrong, as (1) it is the wrong gender: (2) even if we suppose (with D.) a fem. form βαρεῶν, it clearly is the wrong sense. What Aeschylus means to say is, He who incurs the wrath of the Furies meets with unexpected calamity: the sins of his fathers bring him into their power.

We must take therefore some emendation like ἱλαρῶν (Weil.), χαροπῶν (Weck.), τῶνδ᾽ εὐμενέων (Hart.): of which I have preferred the former. βαρέων will perhaps have arisen from confusion of β- and ιλ-: or perhaps from a gloss. Another question arises about the metre. Hermann, followed by most edd. (Lachm. Franz. Pal. Hart. Merkel. Weil.), has assumed that Athena's anapaestic stanzas, which alternate with the lyrics, correspond. There are five such stanzas: the three middle ones (at ll. 949, 968, 988) are all the same length: and the first and the last would be exactly equal, if after βιύτου we read some words like προσέπαισαν (H.). The practice is not uniform: thus in the κομμός in the Choephoroi the anapaestic alternating stanzas do not correspond, though roughly about the same length: on the other hand in Agamemnon (11. 1448-1577) the anapaests do correspond.

It is on the whole more probable that the latter is the case here: and I have accordingly adopted H.'s προσέπαισαν.

The sense then is, He who finds them not propitious is stricken with calamities he knows not whence: and μὴ ἱλαρῶν κύρσας is really a euphemism for offended.

Note the effective antithesis between the silence of the ruin and the loud boasts of the unfortunate man.

χάριν, boon, blessing.

Corrupt. Some of the commentators (H, Schütz. D. Pal.) try to translate it as it stands: 'Let a blight killing the germs of plants [come not near] to prevent them passing their bounds,' i. e. to prevent them growing: surely an impossible interpretation: a plant does not pass its bounds by growing. The general sense is plain, No blight come near; and perhaps we might accept Wecklein's very ingenious λοπῶν for τύπων: ‘... killing the buds of plants that they pass not the bounds of their husks.' But the sentence is still awkward, with no verb. The other emendations proposed are not convincing.

MSS. read εὐθενοῦντ᾽ ἄγαν. Most edd. take Dobree's εὐθενοῦντα ya, but Meineke's suggestion Πᾶν is nearer to MSS. and rather more likely.

γόνος δ᾽ ἀεὶ πλουτόχθων, and ever may the earths rich produce .' The bold compound πλουτόχθων is very Aeschylean. The reference is not (as H. P.) to precious metals, of which Athena (whom the Chorus closely follows in their prayers) had made no mention, and to which γόνος would not be so suitable; but simply to the produce in the ordinary sense.

By δόσιν τίοι they clearly mean that out of their abundance they are to give thank-offerings to the bounteous gods.

ἑρμαίαν, for Hermes was the god of good luck (from Homer downwards, Ερμείας ἐφίλει καὶ κτῆσιν ὄπασσε Il. 14.491) : and a wind-fall or godsend was called ἕρμαιον.

ἐπικραίνει, brings to pass, vivid use of present, of a thing now promised.

διαπράσσουσιν., intrans. plain and full is their accomplishment.

βίον ἀμβλωπὸν παρέχουσαι, a life dimmed with tears, a beautifully vivid metaphor. δακρύων is gen. of respect after adj. ἀμβλωπόν.

ἀνδροκμής, lit. bringing weariness to men,' here a euphemism for deadly, is a favourite word of Aeschylus, being found with μόχθος (above l. 248), and πέλεκυς (Cho. 889), and λοιγός (Suppl. 680) in the same sense as here.

κύρια, the rightful power; the gods they appeal to being such powers as Ζεὺς τέλειος, Ἥρα, ᾿Αφροδίτη. See above l. 214.

μητροκασιγνῆται, sisters by one mother, because the Fates (like the Furies l. 322) were daughters of Night (Hes. Theog. 217 καὶ Μοίρας καὶ Κῆρας ἐγείνατο).

ὀρθονόμοι. [not ὀρθόνομοι from νόμος], the MSS. reading, from νέμω, assigning what is due.

ἐπιβριθής, lit. weighing down upon, falling heavily on: i. e. grievous.

ὁμιλίαις, visitations.

στέργω, I bless.

ἐπωπάω. is properly to look down on, watch, behold, descry: so Cho. 693, Eum. 275, but, like the commoner ἐποπτεύω, is used regularly of gods or supernatural powers, and gets the meaning to guard, guide, direct; see note on l. 220.

ἀγοραῖος, God of the gathering, was a name given to Zeus and other gods (Hermes, Ar. Eq. 297, Artemis and Athena, Paus. 3. 11. 9) as protectors of the city life of which the natural centre was the ἀγορά or gathering place (Agam. 90). But as the ἀγορά was also the place for speech (ἀγορεύω, κατηγορέω, etc.) the name here implies god of speech.

And our strife for blessings is victorious for ever.' 'We have before had an ἔρις κακή, a hostile strife: henceforward it will be an ἔρις ἀγαθῶν, a friendly rivalry to do good: and the victory, νίκη, shall be with both; we shall always succeed.'

ποινᾶς ἀντιφόνους ἄτας, the murderous woes of vengeance, the woes of murderous requital; a very Aeschylean phrase, and more natural on the whole than the Med. reading ποινάς, which would make ἄτας gen.: for in any case it is certainly right to take these three words together. [H. P. and others take δι᾽ ὀργὰν ποινᾶς, from desire of vengeance, weaker meaning and more strained usage.]

'And may they give joy for joy, with one heart of love, and to hate with one soul.' An imaginative way of saying, 'May they live in happiness that comes from harmony, having the same friends and foes.' The latter phrase is the well-known Greek formula in making alliances.

MSS. read φρονοῦσιν and εὑρίσκει, no sense. I have adopted the original suggestion of Hermann, accepted by D. Weil. φρονοῦσα and εὑρίσκεις. Dost thou then wisely find the path of good words? i. e. Are you then come to a better mind, blessing instead of cursing?'

The first two lines are addressed to the Furies: the two next are a reflection and then she turns to the citizens.

εὔφρονas, kindly, a reference to their name Εὐμενίδες.

Taking πάντως, the reading of Ven., for the flat πάντες, there is no need to alter further.

Guiding your land and city in all righteousness, ye shall be glorious. ὀρθοδίκαιον is predicative. The use of διάγειν is a little strange: but it is not a great extension of its ordinary usage with βιότον, αἰῶνα, etc. We may compare χρόνος διηγέ μ' Soph. Εl. 789, διῆγεν ὑμᾶς ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς κατὰ βίον Dem. 255. 11: and particularly πόλεις ἐν ὑμονοίᾳ διάγειν Isocr. 35 Β. [Paley takes πρέπω active: but it is very common and always intrans. in Aeschylus.]

αἰσιμίαισι, blessings, from αἴσιμος, right, meet, good, lit. that which is one's share or lot, from aloa (strong form from ἴσος).

Seated near to Zeus; fine and simple metaphor for the righteous people specially under divine protection. Hermann quotes Aesch. Niobe, frag. 146 οἱ θεῶν ἀγχίσποροι οἱ Ζηνὸς ἐγγύς of the halfdivine heroes: and Plat. Phileb. 16 C οἱ παλαιοί, κρείττονες ἡμῶν καὶ ἐγγυτέρω θεῶν οἰκοῦντες.

Wise at last, i. e. having made your peace with us. This is the simplest interpretation, and there is no ground for suspecting the reading. 6

ὑπό. of accompaniment, with, a special idiom either gen. or dat.: καταθάψομεν οὐχ ὑπὸ κλαυθμῶν Ag. 1554, κηρύκων ὕπο Suppl. 238, μαρτύρων ὕπο ib. 934, ὑπὸ πομπαῖς Pers. 58, and below l. 1034.

See note on l. 805.

κατέχειν, check : the genitives χώρας and πόλεως are best taken as possessives after the substantival neuter adjectives τὸ ἀτηρόν and τὸ κερδαλέον.

πολισσοῦχοι, see note on l. 775.

μετοίκοις, newcomers; the μέτοικοι at Athens being the resident aliens, the word is admirably fit for the Eumenides who were foes, but are newly settled at Athens as friendly powers. Κραναός: the word means rocky and was a favourite name of Athens, Κραναὰ πόλις or Κρανααί, from Pindar's time down (Ol. 7. 151): here it denotes a mythical king or founder, naturally derived from the common title.

βρέτας τοὐμόν, an earlier statue than the great Athena Parthenos of Pheidias; for the Parthenon was not completed till 438. Athena's attendants must be supposed to join this escort on the Areiopagos.

ὄμμα, idiomatic metaphor for delight, hope, comfort, somewhat as we say the flower, using a different metaphor. The eye is chosen as the most precious and beautiful : so ὄμμα γὰρ δύμων νομίζω δεσπότου παρουσίαν Pers. 169, σέβειν ὀμμάτων ὑπέρτερον 1 Theb. 530, ὀφθαλμὸς οἴκων Cho. 934, ὀφθαλμὸς Σικελίας Pind. Ol. 2 18, etc.

Theseus, mythical king of Athens; Theseidae, common poetic name for Athenian.

Athena had promised them (l. 856) honour from men (ἀνδρῶν) and women. Hence some (H. D. Weil.) have supposed a lacuna here; and others (Hart. Meinek.) alter παίδων into ἀνδρῶν. There is not enough ground for either. The people on the stage, whether men, or youths, or boys, evidently represent the whole city, as we see from ll. 1010, 1015. Others again think the propompoi are all women, and take παίδων as girls: but πολισσοῦχοι παῖδες cannot be female inhabitants only. As to the question of the name Εὐμενίδες, which is one of Hermann's arguments, see Introduction, p. 21.

The purple robe was no doubt to add to the magnificence and solemnity of the occasion.

εὐάνδροισι συμφοραῖς πρέπῃ, may shine forth with prosperous blessings, rather emphatic and unusual phraseology.

βᾶτε δόμῳ, pass into your home, Epic use of the dat. local after verb of motion, e. g. πεδίῳ πέσε (11. 5. 82), κυνέῃ βάλε (7.187).

παῖδες ἄπαιδες, the MSS. reading, could hardly mean childless children, which seems pointless: it might mean evil children, like vᾶes ἄναες: but the real objection to any such word as ἄπαιδες is that here the words in which the Chorus are addressed are specially reverent and honourable. It is best to reject it and then we get rid also of τύχᾳ τε, meaningless and unmetrical, at the end of l. 1037.

ὠγυγίοισιν, a strange word of obscure origin, meaning ancient.

εὐθύφρονες, righteously minded, something like the Homeric αἴσιμα εἰδώς, which is also used of persons well disposed. [Of the suggested alterations Hartung's εὔφρονες ἀστοῖς is the best: but there is no need to alter.]

Hermann's ξύν is wanted for sense as well as metre: else it would mean rejoicing in the torch, which is a much poorer meaning.

This line is thoroughly corrupt and it is hopeless to attempt to restore it with any confidence: I take Linwood's conjecture (adopted by H. P. and others), which is ingenious enough: Hermann translates, Let Peace follow with the light of the torch : or σπονδαί may be quite simply 'libations, the natural sign of reconciliation and joy.

συγκατέβα, has come down to aid, the metaphor being taken from the lists or the contest, as in Cho. 727. APPENDICES. I. LINES 358-9, and 369-70. In the MSS. we have 358-9 κρατερὸν ὄνθ᾽ ὁμοίως μαυροῦμεν ὕφ' (or ἐφ᾿) αἵματος νέου, and 369-70 σφαλερὰ τανυδρόμοις κῶλα δύσφορον ἄταν. As usual, where metrical correspondence so completely fails that even the metrical scheme is uncertain, there is a vast mass of suggestions, most of which are too far from the original either in metre or letters to have a chance of being acceptable, to say nothing of their intrinsic infelicity. The Schol. on 358 says διὰ τὸ νέον αἷμα. τοῦ νεωστὶ εἰργασμένου ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ. This goes far to prove that he read αἵματος νέου (whether with or without ὑπύ) and explained it by reason of the new deed of blood, i. e. Orestes' murder of his mother. On 369 the Schol. clearly has the MSS. reading, but he gives two interpretations, one making κῶλα apposition to ποδὸς ἀκμάν (as is no doubt right), and the other making the last two lines a new sentence. The two best suggestions are Weil's, which I have adopted in the text, and Paley's. 1. Paley reads 358 κρατερὸν ὄντα *περ ὅμως μαυροῦμεν *νέον αἷμα [from an old suggestion of Hermann's], and 369 σφαλερὰ * καὶ τανυδρόμοις κῶλα, δύσφορον ἄταν. Understanding the first passage thus: '[Pursuing after him] though he be mighty, we waste away the new blood stain,' i.e. we persecute him till in time the murder stain grows faint, as Orestes says (ἀμβλὺν ἤδη 238, and βρίζει γὰρ αἷμα καὶ μαραίνεται 280). This makes a fairly good sense, but is open to the following objections:- (1) That the MS. reading ὕφ᾽ αἵματος νέου and the Schol. are completely unaccounted for. One hardly sees how νέον αίμα could have got so corrupted. (2) That the Furies would certainly not say that they wore away the stain of blood, though Orestes might naturally use such a APPENDICES. plea. The very point of the Furies' exultation all through is that there is no expiation, even in Hades: though he fly under the earth he never is free 175: in death he is not over free 346: and their office is a rugged path for dead and living alike 387. 2. Weil's reading 358 κρατερὸν ὄνθ᾽ ὅμως ἀμαυρ- οῦμεν αἵματος νέου, 369 σφαλερὰ τανυδρόμοις * ὅμως κῶλα δύσφορον * μάταν, has these advantages on the other hand : (1) The gen. αἵματος is kept; and the Scholiast's note is accounted for: indeed, better accounted for than if the MSS. ὑπό were retained, as then there would be no need of a comment on so easy a phrase. (2) ὅμως in 362 is better than καί, as it would easily drop out after -όμοις of the word before. (3) μάταν is a very easy alteration, since the previous word δύσφορον ends in -v. (4) The trochaic metre is peculiarly characteristic of this scheme; see lines 331, 332, 333, 354, 366, 376, 380, 388, 396. Of the other suggestions perhaps the best is one of that usually reckless emendator Burges, who reads μαυροῦμεν νεόαιμον, 'we waste him away stained with new blood. This would account for the first Schol. But there is no trace of the word νεόαιμος. II. The relation of the Medicean Group of MSS. to the Venetian Group. THE question whether the three MSS. which are called above the Venetian group, i.e. Flo. Farn. Ven. (see Introduction, p. 26) have authority independent of the Medicean is obviously important for the purposes of text criticism. We will call the Medicean M, and the Venetian group FFV. It is clear that there are four cases of error which bear upon the argument:- (1) Where FFV have the same corruption as M. (2) Where FFV differ from M and both are wrong. (3) Where M is right and FFV wrong. (4) Where M is wrong and FFV right. It is also clear that if FFV have independent authority, i.e. if they do not spring either from M or a not remote ancestor of M, we should expect to find (4) relatively considerable. If (4) were found to con- APPENDICES. sist of a few trivial cases, and (1) were numerous and important, then the conclusion would be that FFV were not independent, but that the better readings were due to emendation. That the fact is so is tolerably clear from the following tables :- (1) M wrong, FFV wrong: error the same. 18. χρόνοις 27. πλείστους 59. πόνων 105. μοῖρα προσ. 137. οὐδ᾽ 142. εἰδώμεθ᾽ 176. δ᾽ ὧν 177. ἐκείνου 189. λευσμόν 200. εἰς... ὡς 213. ᾐρκέσω 220. γενέσθαι 316. ἀλιτρῶν 336. θανάτων... αὐτουργίαις 422. τοῦτο . σφαγῆς .. 429. θέλει 446. ἐφεζομένη 461. κρύψασα 472. φόνους . -του 473. ὅμως περῶντας κ.τ.λ. 481. δυσπήματ᾿ 483. ὁρκίων αἱρουμένους 489. 536. πᾶσι φίλος 550. ἐκ τῶνδ᾽ 557. δυσπα- λεῖται 576. δόμων 580. τοῦδε 684. δ᾽ ἑκάστων δαίμονας 733. ἀμφίβολος · 812. ἀντιπαθῆ 727. 816. ἐπεσσύμενος 838. κατὰ γᾶν 907. βροτῶν 954. κρύων 960. τῶν 964. μεγάκοινοι 967. πάντα 1007. ἀτήριον 1010. ἡμεῖς ΙΟΙΙ. μέτοικοι 1034. εὐθύφρονι. (2) M wrong, FFV wrong: errors different. Μ. FFV. 23. ἀναστροφά ἀναστροφαί 54. δία βίαν 186. οὐ καραινιστῆρες οὐκ ἄρ᾽ ἀνιστῆρες 312. οἵδ᾽ οἴμεθ᾽ εἶναι οἶδ᾽ οἶμαι θεῖναι 424. ἐπιρροιζεῖ ἐπιρροιζεῖν 450. νοθήλου βοτοῦ ὀθνείου βροτοῦ 552. περαιβάδαν 710. αἰδουμένοις παρβάδαν αἱρουμένοις 845. δαμαίων 871. τε γᾶν 877. δαμίαν 878. δόλω 908. εὐθενοῦντας 925. ἐξαμβρόσαι 934. ἀμπλακήματα δαμέαν γᾶν δαμέαν δόλον εὐστενοῦντα ἐξαμϋρόσαι ἁμαρτήματα 942. εὐθενοῦντ᾽ ἄγαν εὐθην. 1026. θησηΐδος θρησηΐδος. (3) M right, FFV wrong. FFV read: 58. ἥτι γαῖα 201. δῆτα τοῦτο 222. οὔτοι θυσαγκ. 286. γε διδάσκων στένω 100. παθοῦσά γ᾽ 170. σὸν οἶκον 232. ἄρ᾽ ἥξω 256. ἀτίμας 262. 329. μένος 396. τάξιν γ' 407. 426. ἤ τινος 431. πέλῃ 435. σέβομαι corrected to σέβοιμεν V σεβοίμεθ' FF. 458. ἔφθηθ᾽ 495. εὐχαρίᾳ 577- APPENDICES. ἐφεστίων 658. κεκλημένη 678. ὧν 688. την 717. σφήλεται 888. ἐπιρρέπειν 959. βιότου 846. δόλῳ 910. δὲ omit 971. ἐποπτᾷ (-ᾶς, -ᾶ). (4) M wrong: FFV right. 706. ἐγρήγορον 859. θηγάνων 881. καλοῦμαι 914. τρεπτῶν 919. νόμον M FFV M FFV 224. δ᾽ ἐπάλλας δὲ Παλλάς 683. αἰγέῳ Αἰγέως 268. τείνεις τίνῃς 950. ἐπικρανεῖ ἐπικραίνει 458. οὕτως οὗτος 981. ποινὰς ποινᾶς 673. τ᾿ ἄπιστα τὰ πιστά 988. ἄρα ἆρα. From the number and character of the errors in (1) and the very obvious and trifling corrections in (4) we should infer that FFV were not independent of M: while (2) and (3) would show that FFV were rather carelessly copied and unskilfully emended. The evidence is of the same character in the other plays: but the Eumenides alone is sufficient to make the conclusion highly probable. GENERAL AND GRAMMATICAL INDEX. ABSTRACT, of persons, 487, 711. Accumulation, 329. Adj. compound, fem., 77. for adv., 223. Aeolic form, 620. Allusion, political, 673, 765. Anachronism, 570. Article demonst., 2. Attribute divided, 653, 768. ἀγοραῖος, 973. ἀγχόνη, 746. αἰανός, αἰανής, 416. αἰγίς, 404. ἀκταίνω, 36. ἀλλὰ γάρ, 797. ἄλλως τε καί (ἐπεί omitted), 473. ἀντίκεντρα, 136, 466. ἀντίπαις, 38. αὐθέντης, 212. αὐονά, 332. Darbarous legends, 5, 724. Birth festivals, 7. Blood-relationship, in murder, 605. Caesura absent, 26. CASES AND PREPOSITIONS. Nominative :Pendens, 100, 360, 478, 783. Accusative :Whole and part, 88. Provisional, 685. With μετελθεῖν, 230. After ἕζομαι, 3. verbals, 553. Genitive:With neg. adj., 704, 893. Possessor, 738. Attracted, 857. Respect, provisional, 913. After καταστροφαί, 490. ἀνημέρους, 803. With πρός (for agent), 100, 593. ἀπὸ γνώμης, 674. ὑπό, of accompaniment, 1006. Dative:- ἐν σοί, 469. Occasion, 718. After ἄφικτος, 776. Crime leads to crime, 534. γαμόρῳ, Doric form, 890. γε μήν, 51. γε μὲν δή, 419. γε μέντοι, 591. Destiny thwarted by man, 714. δé-clause contains predicate, боз. δεδόκηκεν, 309. δ᾽ οὖν, 226. διάγω, 993. δίκαι, 224. Earth prophetic, 2. Ekkuklema, 63. GENERAL AND GRAMMATICAL INDEX. Ending, light, 238. Epic forms and usages :-Article as demonst., 2, 137, 174, 340, 357, 462, 484, 690. relat., 336. Dat. with verbs of motion, 1033. δέ of apodosis, 887. ἐv after verbs of motion, 781. Relat. demonst., 7. Subj. with εἰ, 234. relat., 211, 336, 661. Syncope, 262, 768. Tmesis, 378, 434, 845. ἄν omitted, 211. ·βιβῶντα, 76. ἕκατι, 759. κεκασμένος, 766. ὁρᾶσθαι, 142. ὅστε rel., 25. ὄφρα ἄν, 337· ὔμμε, 620. χύμενος, 263. ὡς for ὥστε, 36, 427, 799, 895. ὥστε for ὡς, 628. Eumenides not winged, 51, 250. Euphemism, 956. ἐγκατιλλώπτω, 113. ἐξαίρετος, 402. ἐπίστᾳ, 86. ἐπίσταμαι, double const., 277. ἐποπτεύω, 220, 224. ἕρμαιος, 947. Grotesque argument, 647, 660. Hiatus with τί, 902. Ironical plainness, 122. Justice of nether powers, 273- καὶ δή, suppose, 894. καὶ ταῦτα, with verb, 112. καρανιστήρ, 186. καρανιο κατηρτυκώς, 473. κτίζω, 17. Marriage, high ideal, 217. Masc. and fem. subst. together, 319, 186, 803. Meiosis, 866. Metaphors, 78, 127, 137, 160, 181, 196, 238, 245, 280, 404, 555, 803, 910, 998. -μα suffix active, 706. μὲν οὖν, 38. MOODS AND TENSES. Indicative:Vivid present, 592, 892, 950. Aor. gnomic, 750. Subjunctive :With ὡς ἄν, 33. εἰ, 234. ἥτις, 211. Optative :Indef., 618. with primary time, 726. Infinitive :And acc. of prayer, 30. Epexegetic, 34. Consec., 488. With πιφαύσκω, 620. After φέροντα, 831. Participle:Conditional, 719. Olive branch, in supplication, 43. Oxymoron, 491. ὀμφαλός, 40. ős demonst., 7. οὐ with αὐχεῖν, 561. Periaktoi, 234. Phratries, 656. Plural, generalising, 151. Plural verb, sing. nom., 142. Preposition displaced, 76. πολισσοῦχος, 775. πρεσβεύω, Ι. προστρόπαιος, 41, 234, 237. GENERAL AND GRAMMATICAL INDEX. προτέλεια, 835- προφήτης, 19. Voting, 749. Wine, not offered to Eum., 107, Rhetorical repetition, 170. 860. Sacred way to Delphi, 13. Subject changed, 480. Suffering brings wisdom, 516. συμφέρω, 848. σωκεῖν, 36. τέλος, 434. Wrestling, three falls, 589. ὑπίσχομαι, 804. χλοῦνις, 188. ὠγύγιος, 1036. ὥστε superfluous, 202, 228. E AIGEUS, 683. Amazon, 628. Arai, 417. Argos, 290. Bromios, 24. INDEX OF NAMES. Leto, 323. Libya, 292. Loxias, 19. Moirai, 172, 724. Delos, 9. Delphos, 16. Pallas Pronaia, 21. Pan, 943. Parnasus, 11. Peitho, 885. Erechtheus, 855. Pelops, 703. Pentheus, 26. Pheres, 723. Gaia, 2. Phineus, 50. Gorgones, 48. Phoibe, 7. Phoibos, 8. Pleistos, 27. Harpies, 50. Hephaistos, 13. Skamandros, 398. Here Teleia, 214. Skuthai, 703. Ixion, 441, 718. Klytaemnestra, 116. Korykis, 22. Kranaos, 101Ι. Kronos, 641. Tartarus, 72. Themis, 2. Theseus, 402. Titanis, 6. Triton, 293. Tyrsenikos, 567. THE END. 66