The Tragedies of Euripides Part 89

For what credit is there in contending with the potent G.o.ds? Let them depart to thy land with the image of the G.o.ddess, and let them prosperously enshrine the effigy. But I will also send these women to blest Greece, as thy mandate bids. And I will stop the spear which I raised against the strangers, and the oars of the s.h.i.+ps, as this seems fit to thee, O G.o.ddess.

MIN. I commend your words, for fate commands both thee and the G.o.ds [themselves.] Go, ye breezes, conduct the vessel of Agamemnon's son to Athens. And I will journey with you, to guard the hallowed image of my sister.

CHOR. Go ye, happy because of your preserved fortune. But, O Athenian Pallas, hallowed among both immortals and mortals, we will do even as thou biddest. For I have received a very delightful and unhoped-for voice in my hearing. O thou all hallowed Victory, mayest thou possess my life, and cease not to crown it.[191]

NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS

[1] This verse and part of the following are set down among the "oil cruet"

verses by Aristophanes, Ran. 1232. Aristotle, Poet. -- xvii. gives a sketch of the plot of the whole play, by way of ill.u.s.trating the general form of tragedy. Hyginus, who constantly has Euripides in view, also gives a brief a.n.a.lysis of the plot, fab. cxx. For a description of the quadrigae of Pelops, see Philostratus Imagg. i. 19. It must be observed, that Antoninus Liberalis, -- 27, makes Iphigenia only the supposit.i.tious daughter of Agamemnon, but really the daughter of Theseus and Helen. See Meurs. on Lycophron, p. 145.

[2] I must confess that I can not find what should have so much displeased the critics in this word. Iphigenia, in using such an epithet, evidently refers to her own intended sacrifice, which had rendered the recesses of Aulis a place of no small fame.

[3] But Lenting prefers ??a????, with the approbation of the Cambridge editor.

[4] See Reiske apud Dindorf. Compare my note on aesch. Ag. 188, p. 101, ed.

Bohn. So also Callimachus, Hymn. iii. e????? ap?????, ??te ??? ?ated?sa?

a?ta?.

[5] Sinon made the same complaint. Cf. Virg. aen. ii. 90.

[6] Cf. aesch. Ag. 235.

[7] This whole pa.s.sage has been imitated by Ovid, de Ponto, iii. 2, 60.

"Sceptra tenente illo, liquidas fecisse per auras, Nescio quam dic.u.n.t Iphigenian iter. Quam levibus ventis sub nube per aera vectam Creditur his Phbe deposuisse locis." Cf. Lycophron, p. 16, vs. 3 sqq. Nonnus xiii. p.

332, 14 sqq.

[8] Observe the double construction of a?a.s.se?. Orest. 1690. ?a?ta??

ede??sa ?a?a.s.s??.

[9] The Cambridge editor would expunge this line, which certainly seems languid and awkward. Boissonade on Aristaenet. Ep. xiii. p. 421, would simply read ta d' a??a ?. t. ?. f???e??: ??? ?a?. He also retains ??e?e?a?, referring to Gaisford on Hephaest. p. 216.

[10] The Cambridge editor would throw out vs. 41.

[11] The Cambridge editor refers to Med. 56, Androm. 91, Soph. El. 425. Add Plaut. Merc. i. 1, 3. "Non ego idem facio, ut alios in comdiis vidi facere amatores, qui aut nocti, aut die, Aut Soli, aut Lunae miserias narrant suas." Theognetus apud Athen. xv. p. 671. Casaub. pef???s?f??a? ??? ?a?

???a??? ?a???. Cf. Davis, on Cicero, Tusc. Q. iii. 26, and Lomeier de l.u.s.trat. -- x.x.xvii.

[12] T?????? is properly the uppermost part of the walls of any building (Pollux, vii. 27) surrounding the roof, ste??? is the roof itself.

[13] Cf. Meurs. ad Lycophron, p. 148.

[14] I read e?' e?s? with Hermann and the Cambridge editor.

[15] This line is condemned by the Cambridge editor. Burges has transposed it.

[16] But d?ad??a??, the correction of the Cambridge editor, seems preferable.

[17] An interpolation universally condemned.

[18] See Barnes, and Wetstein on Acts xix. 35.

[19] On the wanderings of Orestes see my note on aesch. Eum. 238 sqq. p.

187, ed. Bohn.

[20] See the note of the Cambridge editor, with whom we must read e?s?s?es?a.

[21] ??? ??de? ?se? ad interiora templi spectat. HERM.

[22] We must read ?e?sa t?????f?? ??p??, with Blomfield and the Cambridge editor. See Philander on Vitruv. ii. p. 35, and Pollux, vii. 27.

[23] The sense is ??t??, a??a? e????te?, e? te?at?? (sc. a meta) ??st?s?e?. ED. CAMB.

[24] The Cambridge editor appositely compares a fragment of our author's Cresphontes, iii. 2, a?s???? te ???e?? ? ?e?e?? ?ea??a?.

[25] On the whole of this chorus, which is corrupt in several places, the notes of the Cambridge editor should be consulted.

[26] This last lumbering line must be corrupt.

[27] Compare the similar scene in Soph. El. 86 sqq.

[28] Cf. Elect. 90. ???t?? de t?sde p??? taf?? ???? pat???. Hecub. 76.

aesch. Pers. 179. Aristoph. Ran. 1331.

[29] Compare my note on aesch. Pers. 610 sqq.

[30] See on aesch. Choeph. 6.

[31] Markland's emendation has been unanimously adopted by the later editors.

[32] Schema Colophonium. The Cambridge editor compares vs. 244. ???e?

s??pt?????. Phn. 17. T?a?s?? a?a?. Heracl. 361. ???e? t??a????.

[33] I have marked lacunae, as some mythological particulars have evidently been lost.

[34] An imperfect allusion to the Thyestean banquet. Cf. Seneca Thyest.

774. "O Phbe patiens, fugeris retro licet, medioque ruptum merseris clo diem, sero occidisti--" vs. 787 sqq.

[35] Cf. aesch. Ag. 1501 sqq. Seneca, Ag. 57 sqq.

[36] i.e. the demon allotted to me at my birth (cf. notes on aesch. 1341, p.

135, ed. Bohn). Statius, Theb. i. 60, makes dipus invoke Tisiphone under the same character.--"Si me de matre cadentem Fovisti gremio."

[37] See the note of the Cambridge editor.

[38] e?sa? is active.