The Tragedies of Euripides Part 38

27. I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken _the city of waters_, p???? t?? ??dat?? in the Septuagint version.

[25] Elmsley reads pa?te?, "_we all entreat thee_." So Dindorf.

[26] Elmsley reads ?? d??ase? with the note of interrogation after ????; "_or how wilt thou be able,_" etc.

[27] An allusion to that well-known saying in Plato, de Repub. 1. 3. ???a ?e??? pe??e?, d??' a?d????? as???a?. Ovid. de Arte Am. iii. 635.

Munera, crede mini, capiunt hominesque deosque.

[28] Vert.i.t Portus, _O infelix quantam calamitatem ignoras_. Mihi sensus videtur esse, _quantum a pristina fortuna excidisti_. ELMSLEY.

[29] Medea here makes use of the ambiguous word ?ata??, which may be understood by the Tutor in the sense of "bringing back to their country,"

but implies also the horrid purpose of destroying her children: t?de '?ata??' a?t? t?? pe?? e?? t?? ??d??, as the Scholiast explains it.

[30] It was the custom for mothers to bear lighted torches at their children's nuptials. See Iphig. Aul. l. 372.

[31] ??t?? de f?s?? ??? e?see? fa??eta? pa?e??a? t?? f????, ?a? de?es?a?

t??a?ta? ??s?a?, ???t?? ap?t?.--t?? de a?t?? e??se? s??apte?? t? ?

pa?e??a?. SCHOL.

[32] _But there_; that is, in the regions below.

[33] Ovid. Metamorph. vii. 20.

Video meliora proboque, Deteriora sequor.

[34] Elmsley reads

pa???? de ?e??? (?a? e? p???a??

?e????? a? ?s??) ???, ?.t.?.

"_But a small number of the race of women (you may perchance find one among many) not ungifted with the muse_."

[35] A similar expression is found in Iphig. Taur, v. 410. ?a??? ???a. A s.h.i.+p is frequently called ???a ?a?a.s.s??: so Virgil, aen. vi. Cla.s.sique immitt.i.t habenas.

[36] Elmsley is of opinion that _the instep_ and not _the neck_ is meant by te???.

[37] The ancients attributed all sudden terrors, and sudden sicknesses, such as epilepsies, for which no cause appeared, to Pan, or to some other Deity. The anger of the G.o.d they endeavored to avert by a hymn, which had the nature of a charm.

[38] Elmsley has a???ptet?, which is the old reading: this makes no difference in the construing or the construction, as, in the line before, he reads a? ?e????, where Porson has a?e????.

[39] The s.p.a.ce of time elapsed is meant to be marked by this circ.u.mstance.

MUSGRAVE. PORSON. Thus we find in ? of the Odyssey, l. 439, the time of day expressed by the rising of the judges; in ? of the Iliad, l. 86, by the dining of the woodman. When we recollect that the ancients had not the inventions that we have whereby to measure their time, we shall cease to consider the circ.u.mlocution as absurd or out of place.

[40] The same expression occurs in the Heraclidae, l. 168. The Scholiast explains it thus; t???e???ta, t?? p??s??? ?a?at?? ???ta: t???? de ?a???s? t??? ?e???ta?, pa??s?? p??s??? e?s? t?? ?a?at?? ?a? t?? taf??.

[41] a?t?f??ta?? may be taken as an adjective to agree with d????, or the construction may be a?? p?t???ta a?t?f??ta?? ep? d????, in the same manner as ????? epese ?? ep? ?efa???. ELMSLEY.

[42] ? e t? d?as?s?' had been "lest they do _me_ any injury." Elmsley conceives that ??? is the true reading, which might easily have been corrupted into ??.

[43] Here Medea appears above in a chariot drawn by dragons, bearing with her the bodies of her slaughtered sons. SCHOL. See Horace, Epod. 3.

Hoc delibutis ulta donis pellicem, Serpente fugit alite.

[44] ??e? may also be interpreted, with the Scholiast, in the sense of ??s?te?e?, "the grief delights me." The translation given in the text is proposed by Porson, and approved of by Elmsley.

[45] Elmsley has

e?e ?a? ???a?.

"_Stay yet for old age_." So also Dindorf.

HIPPOLYTUS.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

VENUS.

HIPPOLYTUS.

ATTENDANTS.

PHaeDRA.

NURSE.

THESEUS.

MESSENGER.

DIANA.

CHORUS OF TRZENIAN DAMES.

THE ARGUMENT.

Theseus was the son of Othra and Neptune, and king of the Athenians; and having married Hippolyta, one of the Amazons, he begat Hippolytus, who excelled in beauty and chast.i.ty. When his wife died, he married, for his second wife, Phaedra, a Cretan, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and Pasiphae. Theseus, in consequence of having slain Pallas, one of his kinsmen, goes into banishment, with his wife, to Trzene, where it happened that Hippolytus was being brought up by Pittheus: but Phaedra having seen the youth was desperately enamored, not that she was incontinent, but in order to fulfill the anger of Venus, who, having determined to destroy Hippolytus on account of his chast.i.ty, brought her plans to a conclusion.

She, concealing her disease, at length was compelled to declare it to her nurse, who had promised to relieve her, and who, though against her inclination, carried her words to the youth. Phaedra, having learned that he was exasperated, eluded the nurse, and hung herself. At which time Theseus having arrived, and wis.h.i.+ng to take her down that was strangled, found a letter attached to her, throughout which she accused Hippolytus of a design on her virtue. And he, believing what was written, ordered Hippolytus to go into banishment, and put up a prayer to Neptune, in compliance with which the G.o.d destroyed Hippolytus. But Diana declared to Theseus every thing that had happened, and blamed not Phaedra, but comforted him, bereaved of his child and wife, and promised to inst.i.tute honors in the place to Hippolytus.

The scene of the play is laid in Trzene. It was acted in the archons.h.i.+p of Ameinon, in the fourth year of the 87th Olympiad. Euripides first, Jophon second, Jon third. This Hippolytus is the second of that name, and is called S??F????S: but it appears to have been written the latest, for what was unseemly and deserved blame is corrected in this play. The play is ranked among the first.

HIPPOLYTUS.

VENUS.