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BOHN'S CLASSICAL LIEEAKI.

THE TKAGEDIES OF iESCHYLUS.

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T H E

TEAGEDIES

^SCHYLUS:

LITERALLY TRANSLATED.

CRITICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES, AND AN INTRODUCTION.

BY

THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY, B.A.,

01-' cmasT ciiuKLii, oxfoud.

LONDON: GEORGE BELL S:. SONS, YORK STKEET COVENT GARDEN.

188S.

PR

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LONDON :

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWKS AND SONS, LIMITED,

STAMFORD STREET AND CHAliING CROSS.

P R E F A 0 B.

The following translation has been imdertakcn with th view of presenting the classical student with a close and literal version of ^schylus, and of fiu-nishiug the general reader Avith a faithful copy of the Author's thoughts and words, although the graces of poetic expression must be sacrificed in a literal prose version.

Ihe Translator gi-atefully acknowledges the help he has derived from the labours of his predecessors, and trusts that he wiU generally be found to have preferred the best render- ing consistent with the ictter oi the text. His object has not beea to exhibit an elegant though loose paraphrase, but to render the version as close a verbal transcript of the original as could be done without absolute violation of good taste.

The best scholars of Germany and England have of late combined the duties of the philologer \\dth those of the translator', duties which ought never to have been separated. The present Translator has attempted the same ; but, as the limits of the work rendered condensation imperative, his aim has been rather to dii-ect the inquiring student to sources of information, than to enter at full length upon all the liillicultics of an author like ^Eschylus.

The notes, with a few acknowledged exceptions, are ori- ginal, and will, it is hoped, prove useful in giving the student some idea of the present condition of the text of JEschylus.

^ See Coningtou's Preface to liis translation of " The Agamemnon."

'iV PBEFACE.

If the Author shall seem on some occasions to have bceu severe in his condemnation of particular views, it is not from a disposition to underrate men far above him in repu- tation and attainments, but because their very superiority lends a dangerous sanction to clever, but unsafe, sopliistry.

The translation is accommodated to the text of Dindorf, except in such instances as this scholar's o^vn notes, or the obvious necessity of alteration, warranted a change. In all such instances, as in the translation of Sophocles lately published, the reader is duly forewarned.

In the " Supplices," the Translator has confined his notes to a mention of some necessary variations, and a few references to the able notes of Mr. Paley, as he was by no means dis- posed to venture on the thankless task of commenting on so corrupt a text, without long and careful re-examination of the criticism thereof. Should an opportunity of publishmg tlie original text of JEschylus oceu" hereafter, he still iiinks that much may be done, bv mijdsrate alteration, to render the hea\'y accumulation of mystical interpretations umie- cessary.

The introductory essay, like prefaces in general, may requu'e some apology. Matters of taste are an open question^ and if his lemarks shall be thought not wholly devoid of interest, the highest wish of the Author will be realized.

THEODORE A1a)IS BUCKLEY. Chsisx Chttkch, Oxfokd.

INTRODUCTION.

-iEscHYLTTSj son of Euiihorion, was bom at Eleusis, B.C. 625.. His early employment to watch the grapes in a vineyard is traditionally reported to have led to the developement of his tragic genius, and possibly to some less excusable propensities of his character, in which the god Baccnus was equally con- cenied. He fiist appeared as a tragedian in B.C. 499, with ChcerUus and Pratinas for his competitors. In B.C. 490, he distinguished himself at the battle of Marathon, in company with his brothers Cynegeu-us and Ameinias. In b.c. 484, he gained his first tragic victory, and in b.c. 480, he fought at Salamis : thus, as Schlegel' observes, " he flourished in the very freshness and vigour of Grecian freedom, and a proud sense of the glorious struggle by which it was won, seems to have animated him and his poetry." This warlike vein is con- spicuous in the " Persae" and " Seven against Thebes," while the " Agamemnon" is replete with pathetic illustrations of the toils, dangers, and sufferings, of a soldier's life.

His journeys into Sicily involve some intricate questions, but the received opinion seems to settle his first visit in B.C. 4G8, immediately after his defeat by Sophocles, and he pro- bably spent some time there, if the use of Sicilia» words in his later plays may be adduced as an argument. The othei journey was probably ten years after, b.c. 458, and, as Miillei thinks, was undertaken in consequence of the aristocratii notions so freely expressed in his " Eumenides," which wen \oo openly opposed to the interests of Pericles' party, thei. in tht

' Lect. vi. p. 80, ed. Boho.

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VI IKTRODUCTION.

ascendant, to render Athens a safe abode for our poet Other accounts state that a charge of impiety was the real cause of his second departure, and that he only escaped the fury of the populace, through the intei-vention of the Areojjagus. His death took place at Gela, b.c. 456, The story is, that an eagle having mistaken his bald head for a stone, dropped a tortoise upon it in order to break the shell, and that the blow proved fatal. There seems, however, little doubt but that our poet died in the ordinary course of nature, as his ad- vanced age would render probable.

The number of plays written by ^schylus is doubtful, but, as in the case of Sophocles, seven only have survived the ravages of time. Among these seven we are fortunate in possessing a complete trilogy, consisting of the " Agamem- non," "Choephorse," and "Eumenides." The remaining plays are the " Prometheus Bound," the " Seven Chiefs against Thebes," the " Persians," and the " Suppliants."

In criticising the plays of JEsi hylus, due regard must be had to the state in which ^schylus found the drama, and to the difference between his earlier and later works, as far as the existing specimens allow us to judge.

When we are told that ^schylus formed the dialogue of the Athenian stage, by adding a second actor, it is evident that the preceding dramas must have consisted of little else than a recitative and chorus alternately following each other. The single actor probably detailed some legend possessing a mythological or local interest, while the chorus relieved the monotony by songs and dances connected with the subject. If we consider the earliest specimens of our own di-ama, we shall find the dialogue heavy, and consisting of long para- graphs, whilst the more modern stage limits these lengthy speeches to narrative, argument, or soliloquy. But in the "Suppliants" of -^schylus, (which some scholars consider

INTRODUCTIOK. Vti

the most ancient specimen of the Greek drama that has descended to us in a complete form,) we shall find that the chorus are really the chief personages ia the piece, and, as ^schylus is considered to have limited the functions of the chorus, it follows that the single actor was rather subservient to can-ying on the story, than the hero of it. And this agrees with Aristotle's account, that ^schylus " introduced an actor of first parts'," evidently shewing that the histrionic abilities previously required in the actor were of an inferior order. Throughout the whole play of the " Sujipliants," the pathos rests entirely with the chorus, the speeches of Danaus and the king are quiet and didactic, and even the herald lacks the haughtiness with which such persons ar'^. elsewhere invested. Setting aside the chorus, the whole play exhibits a dead level of moral common places and mythical details. It might indeed be read and performed "with characters omitted." As far as the corrupt state of the choruses will allow us to judge, they were genial, brilliant, and gracoful, but the very natm-e of a chorus destroyed all individualisation. Their griefs, joys, and emotions, were common to all their number ; there were so many heroines, that there was no heroine.

There is another feature in the Supplices, which points to its extreme antiquity, and that is, its undramatic character. In the first chorus we are told as much as we know at the end of the play. Like the prologues prefixed to the (Comedies of Terence (unnecessary, as the plot is always the same), the opening chorus contains the whole argument of the piece. The Danaides have fled from Egypt to avoid the lawless love

' Twining has mistaken the sense of Poetics § IV., B., in translating Tov \6yov TrpaiTayiovirrrriv TrapiaKtvaae, "he made the dialogue the principal part of tragedy." Pacius translates " sermonem priniaruiu partium instituit." Hermann and Ritter both take it to mean the actor, and so Roborttilli,. in his learned commentary, p. 41, where the subjecjt is admirably illustrated. Dacier was more correct.

b 2

VMJ. INTRODTTCriOW.

of their kinsmen, they crave protection, are admonished to behave themselves ; they obtain protection, and, it is to be hoped, follow their father's advice. There is, in fact, some- thing half comic in the whole story, and the eifect coidd only have been heightened by a concluding play in the trilogy (if there was any^), in which their punishment should have been so before the eyes of the spectator, with real tubs and real water.

Vfter what has been said on the subject of the " Suppliants," 't.he reader wiU perhaps be surprised to find that Schlegel considers the " Persae," " both in point of choice of subject, and the manner of handling it, undoubtedly the most im- jjerfect of all the extant tragedies of this poet." yEschylus certainly laboured under the same disadvantages as Lucan and Silius ItaHcus, in having chosen a subject too near his own time to possess a mythical interest, and too much de- pending upon naiTative to be truly dramatic. But he suc- cessfully appealed to the feelings of the audience, who doubt- less listened to this panegyric upon Athens with as much ,!atisf;iction as an English audience applauded the braggart prologues " spoken upon occasion," during the last century. There is too gi'eat a desire in German critics to elevate the standard of Athenian refinement. The conclusion of the

' The subject of the trilogy is very uncertain, and Mliller and Welcker have probably told us njuch more on the subject than the Athenians themselves knew. If the cuBtom had been invariable, surely the dida- scalise would have told \!S something on the subject ! Notwithstanding tlie opinions of Schlegel, Lect. vi. and MHUer, Literature of Greece, XXIII. § 8, I do not believe that either the " Suppliants " or " Persians " formed any part of a trilogy, ^schylus is said to have written either 90 or 70 dramas. Neither of these numbers are divisible both by 4 and 3 without a remainder. If the plays were always acted three or four at a time, this would have been the case. Nor am I single in my opinion. See F. Vater, Comra. de ^sch. Persis, in Neue jahrbticher fQr PliUologie and Psedagogik, Juli, 1843.

IITTRODTJCTION. IX

" Persians " savours too much of ridicule, to excite any Ligh feelings of commiseration, and this play, Uke the " Seven against Thebes," ought to have ended soone .

But in the episodes ^schylus has shown great power. The prevailing notion throughout the play is of a deity favouring the Athenians, and overthrowing the haughty yoke of the Persians. The atheistic impiety of Xerxes is hinted at, and his too-late repentance is an instance of the fatalism found throughout the "Agamemnon," and pervading the -^schylean di-ama. The piety of the Greeks, on the contrary, is power- fully contrasted, and the deity is accordingly represented as " beginning the fight." This description of the sea-fight is wonderfully animated, and could be written only by an eye- witness of the victory of Salamis, while the description of the fate of the miserable remnants of the Persian anny, as de- tailed by the messenger, is in the highest degree graphic.

Nor was the evocation of Darius less pleasing to an Athe- nian mind. The ancient prophecies of Bacis and others, which, although they might refer to mythical events, were nevertheless greedily seized upon, and applied to the present moment, and the recognition of ancient local traditions by supernatural powers, was an agreeable sacrifice to the vanity of the Athenians. Every man would have exclaimed with

Hamlet:

Touching this vision Bert.

It is an honest ghost

Nay, ^schylus has excited a feeling of pity for the defeat of the Persians, by the amiable dignity ^^'ith which he has in- vested the character of their former lord. The quiet, sub- stantial steadiness of Darius is the most powerful satire upon the intemperance of their subsequent ruler that can be ima- gined, and the whole evocation i« invested with i mystical solemnity that makes tif forget its ideality.

X IXTRODrCTIOX

Many critics consider the " Persians " as the earliest of the extant plays of ^schylus. but for the reasons above stated, I am inclined to give the higher antiquity to the •' Suppliants."

If the "Seven against Thebes" was connected with the " Eleusinians," as MiiUer thinks, I scarcely believe that ^Ilschylus would have ended with an anticlimax, by intro- ducing the lamentations of Antigone and Ismena over their fallen brothers. "ViTien this critic says, " this concluding scene points as distinctly as the end of the Choephorse to the subject of a new piece, which was doubtless 'the Eleusinians*," '' he asserts too much. In the first place, it is clear from Plutarch (Thes. p. 14, A."), that the burial of the chieftains was effected by Theseus under a truce, not by violence. If. therefore, matters were amicably arranged, why should Antigone be " closely connected with this subject." The fact is, Miiller has told us a great deal that we do not know, but has over- looked the only point that Plutarch teUs us respecting the "Eleusinians," which, unfortunately contradicts his whole theory. We might as weU say that the threats of the Mycenian elders, at the end of the "Agamemnon," neces- sarily required the " Choephorae," to open with their revolt, as that, because Antigone threatens to bury her brother, -Sschylus was obliged to make her do so in another play, of which all our knowledge only proves the contrary. The theory of tetralogy has been carried much too far.

The " Seven against Thebes " is doubtless an early play, and is as undramatic as the " Persians." But the high tone of true Grecian chivalry which reigns throughout, the splendid individuality of the characters, despite their one common feature of physical valour, is equal to anything, even in .lEschylus. The description of each warrior is not only 8 physical and heroic, but an ethical pictiu-e The high-souled • Lit. of Greece, p. 324.

IXTRODUCTION. xi

Amphiaraus, whose destiny led him to that death his wisdom foresaw, whose fate impelled him to that society his sense shrunk from, is pathetically contrasted with the mad boldness of the other chieftains. — his religion with their impiety — his modesty with their idle yaunting — his wisdom vdth. their recklessness. And when Eteocles praises him, we almost forget that he too lies under the ban of fate. So good does Eteocles seem by his praise of the good.

In allusion to the question of a connexion between dramas, it may be worth while to obserye the different degrees of fatalism that influence the minds of the two brothers in this play, and in the " CEdipus at Colonus " of Sophocles. Poly- nices, in the latter play, is presented to us as the heart- broken fugitiye, the wandering yictim of a father's curse, softened by misfortune, and seeking to palliate the wrath of his destiny. But in the Eteocles of JEschylus, there is no compunction. He remembers the curse of his aged sire, and speaks eyen with affection of the man who had banned his lawless life by a paternal anathema. But he seeks not to ayert the doom. Stem, uncompromising, he will meet the man he must slay, by whom he must himself fall. Still, as Sophocles has softened the character of Polynices till he almost obtains our pity, so has ^schylus heightened that of Eteocles with sentiments of temperate prudence and xm- daunted courage, till he deserves it ; and in this respect both nave exemplified the precept of Aiistotle*.

i ihall now proceed to the consideration of the *' Prome- uieus,'' the sublLmest poem, and simplest tragedy of antiquity, i haye one motiye in doing so, in reference to that great triad of tragedies, the " Oresteia," and that is to show the similar aristocratic spirit that peryades the whole of the four play.<5.

Poetics, § XIII. 15, and in § XI. 5, he enumerates oi ly ry ^at'tpif Bavaroi amorg the things that excite pity.

Kll INTRODUCTION.

The Titan majesty of mankind had been infringed by the new gods of Olympus, and Prometheus appeared as their protector, the assertor of their rights. Opposed to a new aristocracy, he was still the supreme power of the old one. In the true spirit of the old aristocracy he laboured for the benefit of his weaker dependants. The Olympian gods, like the jjarventis of Aristotle^, are everywhere represented as oppressing mankind, and each other. Moreover, Prometheu.'* represents the intellectual ascendancy of mankind over the creation, the power of moral progress in opposition to phy- sical strength and conventional resources. The imprudence of Jove is hereafter to destroy that power, in the haughtiness of which he had thought fit to spurn the god of wisdom fi^'om him. Much as I am disinclined to allegorical interpreters aud interpretations, much as I dislike the tediousness of an Eustathius or the barbarism of a Fulgentius, stiU the " Pro- metheus" of ^schylus cannot but seem a magnificent imper- sonation of mind struggling against circumstances, intellect against force, providence against fate. And the very fatalism of this play is pleasing. Unlike the gloomy demon that lurks over the ill-fated house of Mycenae, unlike the Fates that but exchange death for revenge, Prometheus is ever cheered by the triumphant prospect before him. As he foresaw his present troubles, so he even names the time of their termination. His very philanthropy, his inability to do further good, force fi:om him the groan of the hero, but, as the good man meets death, so does he meet pain — conscious that there is something yet to come.

The introduction of lo is perfctly agreeable to Aristotle's

idea of Episode, and enables us to learn the deeds of Pro.

metheus, and to test his powers of prescience. Moreover,

Prometheus and lo are both victims to the power of Zeus,

' Cf. Rhet. II. 9, 9.

INTRODUCTION. xiii

both await thoir relief from his downfall. The pathetic description of lo's fall, her exclusion from the home of her sorrowing sire, her phantom-stricken wanderings over earth and sea, are all depictured with a power that proves how JEschylus could touch the tenderest, as weU as the most lofty emotions of the human soul.

MiiUer has entered, with some abUity, into the question of the discrepancy between the character of Zeus as pourtrayed in this play, and in the later works of our poet. I grant that the tyrannical Zeus of this play is unlike the mild potentate, "who guides men in the ways of wisdom'," or the "great Zeus in heaven'," whose aid the fatherless may implore with confidence against their oppressors, but I do not see the necessity of reconciUng the inconsistency. If ^schylus could create a conception, he might also depart fi-om it. Zeus was as necessarily the tyrant in the Titan world, as he was the mild governor of things in the heroic ages. But MiiUer has rightly observed, that this discrepancy is partly reconciled by the fact that Prometheus everywhere appears in the light of an offender against the " powers that be," too proud to reve- rence Adrasteia. Like Antigone, he is relatively guilty, in offending against ruling authorities ; like her, he is abstract- edly right. The sin of both is the sin of time and place, not of principle.

Shelley, whose whole poetry is deeply imbued with the mysterious power of ^schylus, has imitated the imagery ol this play with a success proving that a man must be a poet to truly appreciate -(3^schylus. It is to be regretted that thi^ true genius, (like Knowles, so often disgraced by imitators,) never translated any productions of the Greek drama, with the single exception of the Satyric " Cyclops " of Euripides, He has invested his Prometheus with aU the placid grandeur Again. 176. * Soph. El. I7a.

XIV INTRODtrCTION.

of the deity, all the tenderness of the good man. To say that he imitates, in the modern sense, is to say nothing — to feel that the spirit of ^schylus has passed into the mind of Shelley, is the fairest praise that can be awarded. But the picturesque scenery of Shelley's painting is the marvellous feature of the play. The Indian Caucasus, with its ice-bound rocks, and gloomy prospect of the world spread beneath it ; the sea, "heaven's ever-changing shadow," and the giant, gi-otesquG glaciers, lost in the dim, chilled atmosphere, form a picture that the mind of jEschylus could conceive, but the hand of the Grecian painter could not imitate. But circum- stantial comparison will lead us too much away from the main subject. The legend of Prometheus lives in the poetry of J3schylus and Shelley. The power of one poet can scarcely be measured but by the equality of the other.

The mention of scenery suggests a question of much sesthetic interest, namely, how far the Athenian artist could realise the conceptions of the poet. In the " Prometheus " such an attem])t must have been a failure. Setting aside the question of the place of Prometheus' suffering, the poetry draws upon larger resources than the Athenian scene-painter could have possessed. The architectural delineations of the fronts of palaces and other buildings, which usually formed the scene of the drama, were easily executed, and in a country pos- sessing the finest models for imitation, were doubtless unsm-- passed for effect and correctness. But the occasional land- scape paintings on the periaktoi must have been rude, and even grotesque. The most finished frescoes we possess are totally devoid of any attempt to realise nature, the fragments of encaustic paintings are confined to the human form, and such objects as require no perspective ; and if we regard the paintings of the earliest Florentine artists, which sprung from the imitation of the latest Greek, improved by Cimabue,

INTEODtJCTION. XV

Giotto, and a few others, we shall find nothing to justify the supposition that the Greeks ever attained to any excellence in landscape painting. The knowledge of aerial perspective, apon which all the realization of the "Prometheus" would depend, is scarcely three centuries old, and if we consider how long our own stage wanted such scenic accessories, we cannot be surprised at the deficiency of the Greeks. The decorations of the Athenian stage were probably confined to costume and architectm-al embellishment. Moreover, the fact that the plays were always represented in the day-time must have robbed them of all the exquisite illusion pro- duced by the use and combinations of artificial lights. Such being the case, how gi-eat was the power of the poet, who could so successfully place nature before his hearers by words only!

The testimony of the didascalia shows that the " Agamem- non," " Choephorse," and " Eumenides," were performed at the same time, together with a satyric drama called the Pro- teus. We are, therefore, justified in considering them as forming a trilogy, although I doubt whether the "Oresteia'" is a fit name for the trilogy, when Orestes is only indirectly mentioned in the first and principal play. Nor is the con- nection between the three plays so exact as that which exists in the " King CEdipus," " Qildipus at Colonus," and " Anti- gone " of Sophocles, which we know did not form a trilogy.

' Mr. Burges, who is a clever, but too universal enemy of trilogy, has well remarked, in an article in " The Surplice," March 7 , 1846, that, from the words of Euripides (in Arist. Ran. 1122), npwTov ok fioi Tbv k% 'OpiffTtiai, Xlyt, he must have meant only a single play, as ^Eschylus could not otherwise know which of the three was meant. The substitution of tiv' for rbv would meet this objection ; but I am more disposed to consider, with Mr. Burges, that the title of Oresteia belonged to the Choephorse alone. I do not, however, approve of his attempt to get rid of the very name of tcilogy.

INTRODUCTION.

At all events, the thiee plays form the gr&ndest dramatic work of antiquity. It is true, we do not find the lights and shades of character pourtrayed with the delicate finish of Sophocles, nor is the character of Orestes invested with all the interest of which it might seem capable. But ^schylus, unlike the modern adaptors, who wiite a piece for two actors in as many days, never sacrificed the play to enhance the character. In a play like the " Prometheus," the hero was necessarily the leading character; but in the Agamemnc- nian history there were no less than foiir great chai-acters, — Agamemnon, Orestes, Clytaemnestra, and Cassandra. Nor are the minor parts of the Watchman, the Herald, and ^gisthus, devoid of strongly marked individuality, while Minerva, as MiiUer has remarked, may almost be considered as the leading character in the " Eumenides."

This attention to the minor characters is almost peculiar to ^schylus. In the extant dramas of Sophocles we every- where discover a greater amount of subordination to one leading, feature, than elaborate filling out of the details. Sophocles forms an abstraction, and not only embodies it in the character of the hero, but sacrifices all surrounding objects to the general conception. The leading character is the type of a moral or religious principle ; the subordinate ones are but the means of argument and illustration. In the -^schy- lean trilogy the play, and not the hero, is the chief object of the poet's attention. Each character is of weighty import, " each leads on the action, and each possesses marked and dis- tinct features that give vigour and freshness to every suc- ceeding scene. Moreover, JEschylus excites pity even for the unworthy, by not representing them utterly destitute of bet- ter qualities. The Clytaemnestra of Sophocles has not one redeeming trait, but ^schylus has found a partial excuse for his heroine in the fated misfortunes of the house of

TNTKODUCTION. XAli

Atreus ; nor has he placed her illicit friendship for iEgis- thus in so odious a light as Sophocles has done. But the finest point is in the conclusion of the play, when, suddenly stricken with a sad consciousness, Clytasmnestra restrains the mad rage of -^gisthus, and exclaims,

Enough of evil, — let no further stain imbrue our nands.

Unlike Lady Macbeth, she has no wish to sacrifice a Banquo to secure her victory. She is a proud, daring woman, but her talents are unequalled. To compare her with Lady Mac- beth is, in some respects, a mistake. Semiramis and Lucrecia Borgia are better parallels.

Nor must we less admire the picture of ancient manners which the " Agamemnon " presents to our view. Like Rowena, Iphigenia had probably graced her father's table in the capacity of Hebe. T}ie third cup to the Preserver was perhaps hallowed by the innocence of the cup-bearer. Like the petted daughter of some Saxon chieftain, she could smile away the remembrance of war and toil. Macaulay's exqui- site portrait of Virginia gives a delightful idea of the re- lation between father and daughter in the rough, old times. But the conjugal relations were different. The quiet, sensible replies of Agamemnon to his enquiring spouse remind us of Sir Halbert Glendinning's return, and, like Angelica in "Sir Harry Wildair," Clytsemnestra might well complain of the icy coldness of her spouse. It is the meeting of a king and queen, and that is all. Shakespere, on the contraiy, has softened the character of Macbeth by traits of the most affec- tionate attention to his demon spouse. But if we remember the company in which Agamemnon rotm'ncd, we shall scarcely be surprised.

Cassandra may possibly be regarded as a second thought of the poet So complete is the play without her, that we can

jjVili INTRODUCTION.

easily imagine that the fertility of the poet's iinagmati(,n carried him on, when the play might otherwise not have exceeded the rest in length. Be this as it may, the addition is magnificent. Power, terror, and pathos are alternately blended in this wonderful scene. The weird boldness of the language, the terrific personification of the ancient horrors of the Atrean house, the changes from sad, sensible conscious- ness to inspired madness, render this scene the most wonder- ful of any on the Greek stage. A Siddons alone could act Cassandra. The pedantic poem of Lycophron is a strange contrast, and the imitations by Seneca equal even his worst attempts. Virgil alone has approached equal sublimity in his description of the Cumsean Sibyl.

The time will I trust come, when the attempt to find an esoteric meaning in poetry will be set at its proper value. All the allegorizing absurdities of the Greeks themselves never equalled the amount of dull nonsense that has been talked and written concerning these plays. Can we believe that a poet, whose mind was wholly possessed with his subject, whose fiery, perturbed expressions almost struggled with each other to unfold the exuberance of the mind that sent them forth ; — can we suppose that he would stop short in his course in order to arrange an article or pronoun so as to convey a hidden political or religious axiom? Can we suppose the Athenians so unpractical as to trouble themselves to hunt for such axioms, still less, to apply them ? The most careful examination has convinced me that such allusions are always broad and distinct, as in the " Persse," not obscure and \m- intelligible, as the followers of Suvern generally seem to suppose.

Miiller, who is much more learned, has likewise shewn much greater taste in his examination of the " Eunienidcs." Although 1 cannot at all times agree with him, yet his know-

INTKODIICTIOH. XlX

ledge is unquestionable, and his power of drawing inferences tempered with good taste and judgment. The supposition that the excitement caused by Ephialtes was alluded to in this play has also occurred to Schlegel, and bears much more appearance of prob^Villity than the generality of such theories.

I cannot, however, agree with Miiller, that the action is almost at a stand-still in the " Choephorae." There is not, it must be admitted, such vehement progress as in the "Aga- memnon," but the discovery of Orestes by Electra, and the catastrophe of the play, are well tmited by a continued series of incidents, which, though trivial in themselves, lead oi gradually and natvu-ally to the consummation. The chier weakness of the play is in the character of Orestes. His di'eadful pm-pose might well cause some wavering in his determination. Sent from the paternal home at an early age he had not practically felt all his mother's cruelty, and some lurking remains of teniemess for her might remain. But the will of heaven pursues him. The terrors of disease, of cala- mity in every shape, the Nemesis of the dead, all threaten him, should he swerve from his purpose. Like Ctesiphon in " Ion," a father's murder calls upon him for revenge. I have already touched upon the conclusion of the play, where Orestes seems to express a degree of pity and compunction over the body of ^gisthus. I am aware that many will think the interpretation I have advocated rather too much for the text. The mention of praise is so slight, that it may seem scarcely enough to express the feelings I attribute to Orestes. But much might be done by the actor. Those who remember Macready's gesture and action in rco.ding the few woi'ds addressed to the slain Polonius, —

Tbou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! i took thee for thy betters; — take thy fortune I

XX INTBODUCXION.

will readily perceive what pathos miglit be thrown into the brief speech of Orestes.

To write upon the " Eumenides" after Miiller, would be almost a useless task. So completely has this great scholar illustrated the spirit and allusions of this play, that the best commentator can do little but praise, quote, and refer to the German critic. It is difficult to say who is the chief per- sonage in the play. The incident certainly turns upon Orestes, but there are so many different interests involved tlu-oughout the piece, that till the conclusion, when all parties are satisfied, we remain in suspense.

I shall best conclude these remarks by expressing a hope that my efforts to contribute to an acquaintance with ^schy- lus may not be deemed an entire failure. But I am painfully aware how much must be effected, how much got rid of, before we can congi-atulate ourselves on possessing ^scLylus io a Etate ovea approaching his original magnificence.

PROMETHEUS CHAINED.

Prometheus Laving;, by his attentior to the wants of men, provoking the anger of Jove, is bound down, in a cleft of a rock in a distant desert of Scythia. Here he not only relates the wanderings, but foretells the future lot of lo, and likewise alludes to the fall of Jove's dynasty. Disdaining to explain his meaning to Mercuryj he is swept into tii? abyss amidst terrific hurricane and earthquake.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Strength. Force. Vulcan. Prometheus.

Chorus of Nymphs, daughters

OF Ocean. lo, daughter or Inachus. Mercury.

Strength, Force, Vulcan, Prometheus. Strength. *We are come to a plain, the distant boundary

' Lucian, in his dialogue entitled " Prometheus," or " Caucasus," has eiven occasional imitations of passages in this play, not, however, sufficient to amount to a paraphrase, as Dr. Blomlield asserted. Be- gides, as Lucian lays the scene at .Caucasus, he would rather seem to have had the "Prometheus sohitus " in mind. (See Schutz, Argum.) But the ancients commonly made Caucasus the seat of the punishment of Prometheus, and, as ^schylus is not over particular in his geo- graphy, it is possible that he may be not altogether consistent with himself. Lucian makes no mention of Strength and Force, but brings in Mercury at the beginning of the dialogue. Moreover, INIercury is represented in an excellent humour, and rallies Prometheus good-na- turedly upon his tortures. Thus § 6, he says, tv tx^- Kara-n-TtiatTai ^i ycr] Kai 6 dtruQ aTroKepuiv to ifirap, mq irch'Ta txoig c'ipti riig KciXijg Kal tviirixavov w\at!TiKr]Q. In regard to the ])lace where Pro- metheus was bound, the scene doubtless represented a ravine between two precipices rent from each other, with a distant prosjiect of some of the places mentioned in the wanderings of lo. (See Schutz, ibid.) But as the whole mention of Scythia is an anachronism, the less said on this point the better. Compare, however, the following reniark.s of Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. iv. p. HO, "The legend of Prometheus, and the unbindiag

B

5 PROMETHEUS. 2—23

of the earth, to the Scythian track, to an untrodden' de- sert. Vulcan, it behoves thee that the mandates, which thy Sire imposed, be thy concern, — to bind this daring wretch* to the lofty-cragged rocks, in fetters of adamantine chains that cannot be broken. For he stole and gave to mortals thy honour, the brilliancy of fire [that aids] all arts*. Hence for such a trespass he must needs give retribution to the gods ; that he may be tanglit to submit to the sovereignty o^ Jupiter, and to cease from his philanthropic disposition.

Vulcan. Strength and Force, as far as you are concerned, the mandate of Jupiter has now* its consummation, and there is no fui-ther obstacle. But I have not the coui-age to bind perforce a kindred god to this weather-beaten ravine. Yet in every way it is necessary for me to take courage for this task ; for a dreadful thing it is to disregard' the directions of the Sire*. Lofty-scheming son of right-counselling Themis, un- willing shall I rivet thee unwilling in indissoluble shackles to this solitary rock, where nor voice nor form of any one of mortals shalt thou see'; but slowly scorched by the bright

the chains of the fire-bringing Titan on the Caucasus by Hercules in journeying eastward — the ascent of lo from the valley of the Hybrites — [See Griffith's note on v. 717, on ii/Spiirr^c: Trorajuof, ■which must be a proper name.] — towards the Caucasus ; and the myth of Phryxus and Helle, — all point to the same path on which Phoenician navigators had Earlier adventured."

* Dindorf, in his note, rightly approves the elegant reading a/3porov (= (tTvavQpujTrov) in lieu of the frigid ujiaTov. See Blomf. and Burges. As far as this play is concerned, the tract was not actually impassable, but it was so to mortals.

^ Xfwpyog = paSiovpyoQ, irat'ovpyog, KaKovpyog. Cf. Liddell and Linwood, s. v. The interj)rc(ation and derivation of the etym. magn.

6 Tuiv avQpwTTOiv TrKcioT-qc, is justly rejected by Dindorf, who remarks that .iEschylus paid no attention to the fable respecting Prometheus being tlie maker of mankind.

^ The epithet Travrkxvov, which might perhaps be rendered "art-full," is explained by v. 110 and 254.

* See Jelf, Gk. Gr. § 720, 2d.

* There seems little doubt that tijo}piaZ,iiv is the right reading. Its ironical force answers to Terence's " probe curasti."

^ I have spelt Sire in all places with a capital letter, as Jove is evi- dently meant. See my note on v. 4-9.

^ This is not a mere zeugma, but is derived from the supposition that sight was the chief of the senses, and in a manner included the rest. (Gf. Plato Tim. p. 533, C. D.) See the examples adduced by the commentators.

«3 — 50 PROMETHEUS. S

blaze of the si.n thou shalt lose the bloom of thy complexion; and to thee joyous shall night in spangled robe^ veil the light ; and the sun again disperse the hoar-£i-ost of the morn ; and evermore shall the pain of the present evU. waste thee ; for no one yet bom shall release thee. Such fruits hast thou reaped from thy friendly disposition to mankmd. For thou, a god, not crouching beneath the wrath of the gods, hast imparted to mortals honours beyond what was right. In requital whereof thou shalt keep sentinel on this cheerless rock, standing erect, sleepless, not bending a )mee*: and many laments and unavailing gi-oans shalt thou utter ; for the heart of Jupiter is hard to be entreated ; and every one I that has newly acquired power is stern.

St. Well, well ! Why art thou delapng and vainly commise- rating? Why loathest thou not the god that is most hate- ful to the gods, who has betrayed thy prerogative to mortals ?

Vtji. Relationship and intimacy are of great power.

St. I grant it — but how is it possible to disobey the Sire's word? Dreadest thou not this the rather?

Vui,. Aye truly thou art ever pitiless and full of boldness.

St. For to deplore this wretch is no cure [for him]. But concern not thou thyself vainly with matters that are of no advantage.

Vux. O much detested handicraft !

St. Wherefore loathest thou it ! for with the ills now pre- sent thy craft in good truth is not at all chargeable.

ViTL. For all that, I would that some other had obtained this.

St. Every thing has been achieved except for the gods to rule ; for no uie is free save Jupiter*.

Schrader on Mnsseus 5, and Be yes, Illustrations to Sept. c. Th. 98. Shakspeare has burlesqued this idea in his exquisite buffoonery, Mid- summer Night's Dream, act y. sc. 1.

Pyramus. 1 see a voice : now will I to the chink. To spy an I can hear mv Thisby's face.

1 Claudian de rapt. Pros. II.' 363. " Stellantes nox picta sinus." See on Soph. Trach. 94. , ., ,

- i. e. having no rest. Soph. OEd. Col. 19. KwXa ica/n^oi' rovS tir

d^iffTOV TTirpov.

3 The difficulties of this passage have been increased by no one of the commentators perceiving the evident opposition between Otol and Ziic. As in the formula w 7.tv Kai Gtoi, (cf. Plato Protag. p. 193, E.; Aristoph. Plut. I. with Bergler's note; Julian Cses. pp. 51, 59. 7^; Dionys. Hal.

B 2

4 PROMETHEUS. 51—76

Vcrii I know it — and I have nothing to say against it^

St. Wilt thou not then bestir thyself to east fetters about this wretch, that the Sire may not espy thee loitering?

VuL. Aye, and in truth you may see the manacles ready.

St. Take them, and with mighty force clench them with the mallet about his hands : rivet him close to the crags.

VuL. This work of ours is speeding to its consummation and loiters not.

St. Smite harder, tighten, slacken at no point, for he hath cimning to find outlets even from impracticable difficulties.

VuL. This arm at all events is fastened inextricably.

St. And now clasp this securely, that he may perceive himself to be a duller contriver than Jupiter.

VuL. Save this [sufferer], no one could with reason find fault with me-

St. Now by main force rivet the ruthless fang of an ada- mantine wedge right through his breast'^.

VuL. Alas! alas! Prometheus, I sigh over thy sufferings.

St. Again art thou hanging back, and sighest thou over the enemies of Jupiter? Look to it, that thou hast not at some time to mom-n for thyself.

Vui.. Thou beholdest a spectacle ill-sighted to the eye.

St. I behold this wretch receiving his deserts. But fling thou these girths round his sides.

VuL. I must needs do this ; urge me not very much.

St. Aye, but I will urge thee, and set thee on too. Move downwards, and strongly link his legs.

VvL. And in truth the task is done with no long toil.

St. With main force now smite the galling fetters, since stern indeed is the inspector of this work.

\. R. II. p. 80. 32—81, 20, ed. Sylb.) so, from the time of Homer downwards, we find Zevg constantly mentioned apart from tlie other gods fcf. II. I. 423. 494), and so also with his epithet 7rar»;p, as in v. 4, 17, 20, etc ^ (Eustath. on II. T. I., p. Ill, 30, on Ztiig dWnxov fitv aTrXwQ irarijo tXexOi].) There is evidently, therefore, the opposition e.xpressed in the text: " 'tis not for the other gods {i. e. T-oif dXXoig Otolg) to rule, but for Jove alone." This view was approved, but not confirmed, by Paley.

1 See Dind rf.

2 Paley well observes that there is no objection to this interpi«tation, for if Prometheus could endure the daily gnawing of his entrails by the vulture, tlie rivets wouldn't ))ut him to much trouble. Lucian, § G, is content with fastening his hands to the two sides of the chasm.

77—109 /»ROMETHE0S. 7

Vui;. Thy tongue sounds in accordance with thy form.

St. Yield thou to softness, but taunt not me with ruth, jcssness and harshness of temper.

YvL. Let us go; since he hath the shackles about his limbs.

St. There now be insolent; and after pillaging the prero- gatives of the gods, confer them on creatures of a day. In what will mortals be able to alleviate these agonies of thine? By no true title do the divinities call thee Prometheus; for thou thyself hast need of a Prometheus, by means of which you will slip out of this fate*.

\_Exeunt Strength and Force.

Prometheus. 0 divine aether, and ye swift-winged breezes, and ye fountains of rivei's, and countless dimpling' of the waves of the deep, and thou earth, mother of all — and to the all-seeing orb of the Sun I appeal; look upon me, what treatment I, a god, am enduring at the hand of the gods! Behold with what indignities mangled I shall have to wrestle through time of years innumerable. Such an ignominious bondage hath the new ruler of the immortals devised against me. Alas! alas! I sigh over the present suffering, and that which is coming on. How, where must a termination of these toils arise? And yet what is it I am saying? I know beforehand all futm'ity exactly, and no suffering will come upon me unlooked-for. But I needs must bear my doom as easily as may be, knowing as I do, that the might of Necessity cannot be resisted.

But yet it is not possible for me either to hold my peace, or not to hold my peace touching these my fortunes. For having bestowed boons upon mortals, I am enthralled unhappy in these hardships. And I am he that searched out the source of fire, by stealth borne-off enclosed in a

' '■"X'J? is retained by Dindorf, but r'ixvr)Q is defended by Griffithe »nd Paley. I think, with Barges, that it is a gloss upon IljOO/xijf^twf . 2 So Milton, P. L. iv. 165.

Cheer'd with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles. Lord Byron (opening of the Giaour) :

There mildly dimpling Ocean's cheek

Reflects the tints of many a peak,

Caught by the laughing tides that lave

Those Edens of the eastern wave.

4 PROMETHEUG. 110—145

I'eauel-rod', which has shewn itself a teacher of every art to mortals, and a great resource. Such then as this is the vengeance that I endure for my trespasses, being rivetted in fetters beneath the naked sky.

Hah! what sound, what ineflPable odom-' hath been wafted to me, emanating fi-om a god, or from mortal, or of some intermediate nature ? Has there come any one to the remote rock as a spectator of my sufferings, or with what intent*! Behold me an ill-fated god in durance, the foe of Jupiter, him that hath incurred the detestation of all the gods who frequent the court of Jupiter, by reason of my ex- cessive friendliness to mortals. Alas! alas! what can this hasty motion of birds be which J again hear hard by me ? The air too is whistling faintly Avith the whii-rings of pinions. Every thing that approaches is to me an object of Iread.

Chokus. Dread thou nothing ; for this is a friendly band that has come with the fleet rivaby of their pinions to this rock, after prevailing with difficulty on the mind of ou^" Uther. And the swiftly-wafting breezes escorted me: for the echo of the clang of steel pierced to the recess of our grots, and banished my demure-looking reserve ; and I sped without my sandals in my winged chariot.

Pk. Alas! alas! ye offspring of prolific Thetys, and daughters of Ocean your sire, who rolls around the whole earth in his unslumbering stream ; look upon me, see clasped in what bonds I shall keep an unenviable watch on the top- most crags of this ravine.

Ch. I see, Prometheus: and a fearful mist full of tears darts over mine eyes, as I looked on thy fiame withering

1 Literally " filling a rod," irXripwrog here being active. Cf. Agam. 361, dTrjg TtavaXioTov. Choeph. 296, 7raju00dpr(^ juopf/j. Pers. 105, TToXifiovQ irvpyodatKTovg. See also Blomfield, and Person on Hes. 1117, vdpOr]^ is "ferula" or "fennel-giant," the pith of which makes excel- lent fuel. Blomfield quotes Proclus on Hesiod, Op. 1, 52, " the vapOriK preserves flsme excellently, having a soft pith insiue, that nourishes, but cannot extinguish the flame." For a strange fable connected with this theft, see ^lian Hist. An. VI. 51.

2 On the preternatural scent supposed to attend the presence of a deity, •».f. Eur. Hippol. 1391, with Monk's note, Virg. Mu. I. 403, and La ^^erda. See also Boves's Illustrations.

» On f j) cf. Jelf, Gk. Gr. § 72:i, 2.

146—185 ■ PROMETHEUS. 7

on the rocks* in these galling adamantine fetters: for new pilots are the masters of Ol^Topus; and Jove, contrary to right, lords it with new laws, and things aforetime had in reverence he is obliterating.

Pr. Oh would that he had sent me beneath the earth, and below into the boundless Tartarus of Hades that re- ceives the dead, after savagely securing me in indissoluble bonds, so that no god at any time, nor any other being, had exulted in this my doom. "Whereas now, hapless one, I, the sport of the winds, siiffer pangs that gladden my i foes.

Ch. Who of the gods is so hard-hearted as that these things should be grateful to him? ^Vho is there tiiat sympa- thizes not with thy sufferings, Jove excepted? He indeed, in his Avrath, assuming an inflexible temper, is evermore oppressing the celestial race ! nor will he cease before that either he shall have sated his heart, or some one by some stratagem shall have seized upon his sovereignty that will be no easy prize.

Pr. In truth hereafter the president of the immortals' shall have need of me, albeit that I am ignominiously suffer- irfg in stubborn shackles, to discover to him the new plot by which he is to be despoiled of his sceptre and his honours. But neither shall he win me by the honey -tongued charms of persuasion; nor will I at any time, crouching beneath his stern threats, divulge this matter, before he shall have released me from my cruel bonds, and shall be willing to yield me retribution for this outrage.

Ch. Thou indeed both art bold, and yieldest nought to thy bitter calamities, but art over free in thy language. But piercing terror is woriying my soul ; for I fear for thy for- tunes. How, when will it be thy destiny to make the haven and see the end of these thy suftcrings? for the son of Saturn has manners that supplication cannot reach, and an inexorable heart.

1 Elmsley's reading, ireTpq r^^e, is preferred by Dindorf, and

seems more suitable to the passage. But if we read Tu'KrSt, it will come to the same thing, retaining TrtTpaig.

• Surely we should read this sentence interrogatively, as in y. 99. 7r»l iroTE tioxOiuv X()») Tipnara rwvS' tTTirtlXai ; although the editioiis do not ngiee as to that passage. So Burges.

« PROMEXnEUS. 186—224

Pii. I know that Jupiter is harsh, and keeps justice to himself: but for all that he shall hereafter be softened in purpose, when he shall be crushed in this way; and, after calming his unyielding temper with eagerness will he hereafter come into league and friendship with me that will eagerly [welcome him.]

Ch. Unfold and speak out to us the whole story, from what accusation has Jupiter seized thee, and is thus disgrace- fully and bitterly tormenting thee. Inform us, if thou be in no respect hurt by the recital.

Pr. Painful indeed are these things for me to tell, and painful too for me to hold my peace, and in every way grievous. As soon as the divinities began discord, and a feud was stirred up among them with one another, — one party* wishing to eject Saturn from his throne, in order forsooth that Jupiter might be king, and others expediting the reverse, that Jupiter might at no time ride over the gods: — then I, when I gave the best advice, was not able to prevail vipon the Titans, children of Uranus and Terra; but they, contemning in their stout spirits wi y schemes, fancied that without any trouble, and by dmt of main force, they were to win the sovereignty. But it was not once only that my mother Themis, and Terra, a single person with many titles, had forewarned me of the way in which the futui'e woidd be accomplished ; how it was destined, that, not by main force, nor by the strong hand, but by craft the victors should prevail. When, however, I explained such points in discourse, they deigned not to pay me any re- gard at aU. Of the plans which then presented themselves to me, the best appeared, that I should take my mother and promptly side with Jupiter, who was right willing [to receive us]. And 'tis by means of my counsels that the murky abyss of Tartarus overwhelms the antique Saturn, allies and all. After thus being assisted by me, the tyratit of the gods hath recompensed me with this foul recom- pense. For somehow this malady attaches to tyranny, not

' Nominativus Pendens. Soph. Antig. 259, \6yoi S' iv aWi'iAoimv l^i(i66ovi' KciKoi, (pvXa^ iX'eyywr (pvXciKa, where see Wunder, and Elrasley on Eur. Heracl. 40. But it is probably only the (tx»;|/« Ka9' o\ov kcu ftspoe, on which see Jelf, Gk. Gr. § 478, and the same thing takes place with the accusative, as in Antig, 21, sq. 501. Sec Erfurdt on 21.

22r» — 200 PROMETHEUS. 9

to put confidence in its friends. But for your inquiries upon what charge is it that he outrages me, this I will make clear. As soon as he had established himself on his father's throne, he assigns forthwith to the different divinities each his honours, and he was marshalling in order his empire: but of woe-begone mortals he made no account, but wished, after having annihilated the entire race, to plant another new one. And these schemes no one opposed except myself. But I dared : I ransomed mortals from being utterly destroyed, and going down to Hades. 'Tis for this, in truth, that I am bent by sufferings such as these, agonising to endure, and piteous to look upon. I that had compassion for mortals, have myself been deemed unworthy to obtain this, but mer- cilessly am thus coerced to order, a spectacle inglorious to Jupiter.

Ch. Iron-hearted and formed of rock too, Prometheus, is he, who condoles not with thy toils : for I could have wished never to have beheld them, and now, when I behold them, I am pained in my heart.

Pk. Aye, in very deed I am a piteous object for friends to behold.

Ch. And didst thou chance to advance even beyond this ?

Pr. Yes ! I prevented mortals from foreseeing their doom.

Ch. By finding what remedy for this malady?

Pr. I caused blind hopes to dwell within them.

Ch. In this thou gavest a mighty benefit to mortals.

Pr. Over and above these boons, however, I imparted fire to them.

Ch. And do the creatures of a day now possess bright fire?

Pr. Yes — from which they will moreover learn thoroughly many arts.

Ch. Is it indeed on charges such as these that .Jupiter is both visiting thee with indignities, and in no wise grants thee a respite from thy pains? And is no period to thy toils set before thee?

Pr. None other assuredly, but when it may please him.

Ch. And how shall it be his good pleasure ? What hope is there ? Seest thou not that thou didst err ? but how thou

10 S^KOMETHEUS. '^bl— 30C

didst err, I cannot relate with pleasure, and it would be a pain to you. But let us leave these points, and search thou for some escape from thine agony.

Pr. 'Tis easy, for any one that hath his foot unen- tangled by sufferings, both to exhort and to admonish him that is in evil plight. But I knew aU these things willingly, willingly I erred, I will not gainsay it : and in doing service to mortals I brought upon myself sufferings. Yet not at all did I imagine, that, in svich a pimishment as this, I was to wither away upon lofty rocks, meeting with this desolate soHtaiy crag. And yet wail ye not over my present sor- rows, but after alighting on the ground, list ye to the fortune that is coming on, that ye may learn the whole throughout. Yield to me, yield ye, take ye a share in the woes of him that is ri'^w suffering. Hence in the same way doth cala- mity roaming to and fro settle down on different indi- viduals.

Ch. Upon those who are nothing loath hast thou urged this, Prometheus : and now having with light step quitted my rapidly-wafted chariot-seat, and the pure aether, highway of the feathered race, I will draw near to this rugged ground : and I long to hear the whole tale of thy sufferings. Enter Ocean.

I am arrived at the end of a long jomiiey*, having passed over j^it] to thee, Prometheus, guiding this winged steed of aiine, swift of pinion, by my will, without a bit ; and, rest assured, I soitow with thy misfortunes. For both the tie of kindi'ed thus constrains me, and, relationship apart, there is no one on whom I would bestow a larger share ("of my regard] than to thyself. And thou shalt know that dicse words are sincere, and that it is not in me vainly to do lip-service : for come, signify to me in wiiat it is necessaiy for me to assist thee ; for at no time shalt thou say that thou hast a staimcher friend tlian Oceanus.

Pr. Hah! what means this? and hast thou too come to be a witness of my pangs ? How hast thou ventured, after quitting both the stream that bears thy name, and the rock-

' See Linwood's Lexicon, s. v. a/i£ij3w, whose construing I have fol

301—335 PROMETHEUS. 11

roofed self-^vrougllt' gi'ots, to come into the ii on-toeuiiug land ? Is it that you may contemplate my misfortiuies. and as sympathising with my woes that thou hast come ? Behold a spectacle, me here the friend of Jupiter, that helped to establish his sovereignty, with what pains I am bent by him.

Oc. I see, Prometheus, and to thee, subtle as thou art, I wish to give the best counsel. Know thyseK, and assume to thyself new manners ; for among the gods too there is a new monarch. But if thou wilt vitter words thus harsh and whet- ted, Jupiter mayhap, though seated far aloft, will hear thee, 80 that the present bitterness of sufferings will seem to thee to be child's play. But, O hapless one, dismiss the passion which Ihou feelest, and search for a deliverance from these sufferings of thine. Old-fashioued maxims these, it may be I appear to thee to utter; yet such become the wages of the tongue that talks too proudly. But not even yet art thou humble, nor submittest to ills ; and in addition to those thai already beset thee, thou art willing to bring others upon thee. Yet not, if at least thou takest me for thy instructor, wUt thou stretch out thy leg against the pricks ; as thou seest that a harsh monarch, and one that is not subject to control, is lording it. And now I for my part will go, and will essay, if I be able, to disenthral thee ft-om these thy pangs. But be thou still, nor be over impetuous in thy language. What ! knowest thou not exactly, extremely intelligent as thou art, 'Jiat punishment is inflicted on a froward tongue ?

Pk. I give thee joy, because that thou hast escaped censure, after taking part in and ventm-ing along with me in all things. And now leave him alone, and let it not concern thee. For in no wise wilt thou persuade him .• for he is not open to persuasion. And look thou well tv it that thou take not harm !-,hyself by the journey.

Oc. Thou ai-t far better calculatfeQ by nature to instruct

' Cf. Virg. a^n. 1. 167, "Intus aquae dulces, vivoque sedilia saxo." •' The rudest habitation, ye might think That it had sprung from earth self-raised, or grown Out of the li\-ing rock." Wordsworth's Excursion, Book vi. Compare a most picturesque description of Diana's cave, in .\pul. Met. II. p. 116; Elm. Teleniachus, Book 1.; Uudiae, ch. viii.; Lane's Arabian ^sights', vol. iii. p. 385.

12 PROMETHEUS. 336— 3G5

thy neighbours than thyself: I draw my conchision from fact, and not from word. But think not for a moment to divert me from the attempt. For I am confident, yea, I am confident, that Jupiter will grant me this boon, so as to release thee from these pangs of thine.

Pr. In part I commend thee, and will b) no means at any time cease to do so. For in zeal to serve me thou lacke?: nothing. But trouble thyself not ; for in vain, without being of any service to me*, wilt thou labour, it' in any respect thou art willing to labour. But hold thou thy peace, and keep thy- self out of harm's way ; for I, though I be in misfortune, would not on this account be willing that suiFerings should befal as many as possible. No, indeed, since also the disasters of my brother Atlas gall my heart, who is stationed in the western regions, sustaining on his shoulders the pillar of heaven and of earth, a burthen not of easy grasp. I commiserated too when I beheld the earthborn inmate of the Cilician caverns, a tremendous prodigy, the hundred-headed impetuous Typhon, overpowered by force, who withstood all the gods, hissing slaughter from his hungry jaws ; and from his eyes there flashed a hideous glare, as though he would perforce over- throw the sovereignty of Jove. But the sleepless shaft of Jupiter came upon him, the descending thunderbolt breathing forth flame, which scared him out of his presumptuous brava- does ; for having been smitten to his very soul he was crum- bled to a cinder, and thunder-blasted in his prowess. And now, a helpless and paralyzed form, is he lying hard by a narrow frith, pressed down beneath the roots of ^tna*. And,

' Although Dindorf has left QKEAN02 before the lines beginning with oil SrJTa, yet, as he in his notes, p. 54, approves of the opinion of Elmsley (to which the majority of critics assent), I have continued them to Pro- metheus. Dindorf (after Burges) remarks that the particles ov SiJTa deceived the copyists, who thought that they pointed to the commence, ment of a new speaker's address. He quotes Soph. (Ed. C. 433; Eur. Alcest. 555; Heracl. 507, sqq., where it is used as a continuation of a previous argument, as in the present passage.

2 It has been remarked that yEschylus had Pindar in mind, see Pyth. I. 31 , and VIII. 20. On this fate of Enceladus cf. Philostrat. de V. Apoll. V. 6; Apollodorus I.; Hygin. Fab. 152; and for poetical descriptions, Cornel. Severus ^Etna, 70, " Gurgite Trinacrio morientem Jupiter ^tna Obriiit Enceladum, vasti qui pondere montis yEstuat, et patulis exspirat (au.'.ibus igiies." Virg. JEa. III. 578; Valer. Flacc. II. 24; Ovid. Met.

S06— 385 PROMETHEUS. 13

seated on the topmost peaks, Vulcan forges the molten masses, whence there shall one day burst forth floods de- vouring with fell jaws the level fields of fruitful Sicily : with rage such as this shall Typhon boil over in hot artillery of a never-glutted fire-breathing storm; albeit he hath been re- duced to ashes by the thunderbolt of Jupiter. But thou art no novice, nor needest thou me for thine instructor. Save thyself as best thou knowest how ; but I will exhaust my present fate until such time as the spirit of Jupiter shaD abate its wrath.

Oc. Knowest thou not this then, Prometheus, that words are the Dhysicians of a distempered feeling* ?

Pr. True, if one seasonably soften down the heart, and do not with rude violence reduce a swelling spirit.

Oc. Aye, but in foresight along with boldness* what mischief is there that thou seest to be inherent ? inform me.

Pe,. Superfluous trouble and trifling folly.

Oc. Sufier me to sicken in this said sickness, since 'tis o the highest advantage for one that is wise not to seem to be wise.

V. Fab. V. 6; Claudian, de raptu Pros. 1. 155; Orph. Arg. 1256. Sfrabo, I. p. 42, makes Hesiod acquainted with these eruptions. (See Goettling on Theog. 821.) But Prometheus here utters a prophecy concerning an eruption that really took place during the life of ^schylus, 01. 75, 2, B.C. 479. Cf. Thucydides III. 116; Cluver, Sicil. Antig. p. 104, and Dindorf s clear and learned note. There can be little doubt but Ence- ladus and Typhon are only difTexent names for the same monster. Burges has well remarked the resemblance between the Egyptian Typho and the Grecian, and considers them both as " two outward forms of one internal idea, representing the destructive principle of matter opposed to the creative." I shall refer the reader to Plutarch's entertaining treatise on Isis and Osiris : but to quote authorities from Herodotus down to the Apologetic Fathers, would be endless.

' I think, notwithstanding the arguments of Dindorf, that opyrjc voaovfTi]Q means " a mind distempered," and that Xoyoi mean " argu- ments, reasonings." Boyes, who always shows a. poetical appreciation of his author, aptly quotes Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. 2, c. 8, st. 26. " Words well dispost, Have secrete powre t' appease inflamed rage." And Samson Agonistes :

"Apt words have power to swage The tumours of a troubled mind." The reading of Plutarch, ■•pvxnc appears to be a mere gloss.

^ Intellige audaciam prudenlid conjunclam. Biouifield.

14 PROMETHEUS 336—421

Pr. (Not so, for) this trespass will seem to be mine.

Oc. Thy language is plainly sending mc back to my home.

Pr. Lest thy lamentation over me bring thee into ill-will.

Oc. What with him who hath lately seated himself on the throne that ruleth over aU ?

Pr. Beware of him lest at any time his heart be moved to wrath.

Oc. Thy disaster, Prometheus, is my monitor.

Pr. Away ! withdra-v thee, keep thy present determi- nation.

Oc. On me, hastening to start, hast thou urged this in- junction ; for my winged quadruped flaps with his pinions the smooth track of aether ; and blithely would he recline his limbs in his stalls at home. \_]^xit Ocean.

Ch. I bewail thee for thy lost fate, Prometheus. A flood of trickling tears from my yielding eyes has bedewed my cheek with its himiid gushings : for Jupiter_commandingjthis_ thine unenviable doom by laws of his o^\ni, displays his spear appearing superior o'er the gods of old^ And now the whole land echoes with wailing — they wail thy stately and time-graced honours, and those of thy brethren ; and all they of mortal race that occupy a dwelling iieighboui'ing on hallowed Asia- mourn with thy deeply-deploi'able suf- ferings : the virgins that dwell in the land of Colchis too, fear- less of the fight, and the Sc}'thiau horde who possess the most remote region of earth around lake Majotis: and the warlike flower of Arabia', who occupy a fortress on the craggy

* alxjxa is rendered " indoles" by Paley (see on Ag. 467.) Linwood by "authority," which is much nearer the truth, as the spear was anciently used for the sceptre. Mr. Burges opportunely suggests Pindar's iyx^Q ^dKOTo%>, which he gives to Jupiter, Nem. vi. 90.

2 Asia is here personified.

2 All commentators, from the scholiast downwards, are naturally sur- prised at this mention of Arabia, when Prometheus is occupied in de- scribing the countries bordering on the Euxine. Burges conjectures 'AlSdpiog, which he supports with considerable learning. But although the name 'AftdpiStc (mentioned by Suidas) might well be given to those wlio dwelt in unknown parts of the earth, from the legendary travels of Abaris with his arrow, yet the epithet dpnov dvOog seems to point to some really existing nation, while 'Ai^dpitQ would rather seem proverbial. Till then we are more certain, ./Eschylus must still stand chargeable with geographical inconsistency.

422 — 452 PROMETHEUS. 15

heights in the neighbom-hood of Caucasus, a warrior-host, clamouring amid sharply-barbed spears.

One other god only indeed have I heretofore beheld in miseries, the Titan Atlas, subdued by the galling cf ada- mantine^ bonds, who evermore in his back is groaning beneath* the excessive mighty mass of the pole of heaven. And the billow of the deep roars as it falls in cadence, the depth moans, and the murky vault of Hades rumbles beneath the earth, and the fountains of the pure streaming rivers wail tor his piteous pains.

Pr. Do not, I pray you. suppose that I am holding my peace from pride or self-will : but by reflection am I gnawed to the heart, seeing myself thus ignominously entreated^. And yet who but myself defined completely the preroga- tives for these same new gods ? But on these matters I say nothing, for I should speak to you already acquainted with these things. But for the misfortunes that existed among mortals, hear how I made them, that aforetime lived as infants, rational and- possessed of intellect*. And I will tell you, having no complaint against mankind, as detailing the kindness of the boons which I bestowed upon them : — they who at first seeing saw in vain, hearing they heard not. But, like to the forms of dreams, for a long time they used to huddle together all things at random, and nought knev,-' they about brick-built" and sun-ward liouses, nor caj'pentry: but they dwelt in the excavated eaith like

* I have followed Burges and Dindorf, although the latter retains iaiiavToSiToiQ in his te.\t.

^ Why Dindorf should have adopted Hermann's frigid vTroanya^d, is ■iiot easily seen. The reader will however find Griffith's foot-note well deserving of inspection.

^ On ■n-povrrsXov^avov, see Dindorf.

■* Among the mytbographi discovered by Mail, and subsequently edited bv Bode, the reader will find some allegorical exjjlanations of ihese be- nefits given by Prometheus. See Myth, primus I. 1, and tertius 3, 10, 9. They are, however, little else than compilations from the commentary of Servius on Virgil, and the silly, but amusing, mythology of Fulgentius. On the endowment of speech and reason to men by Prometheus, ''f. Themist. Or. xxvi. p. 323, C. D. and xxvii. p. 338, C. ed. Hard.; and for general illustrations, the notes of Wasse on Sallust, Cat. sub init.

^ Brick-building is first ascribed to Euryalus and Hyperbius, two brothers at Athens, by Pliny, H. N. vii. 56, quoted by Stanley. After aves, hu^^s of beams, filled in with turf- clods, were probably the firtl

IG PROMETHEUS 453—483

tinj^ emmets in the sunless depths of ca^erns. And they had no sure sign eithei" of winter, or of flowery spring, or of fruitful summer: but they used to do every thing without judgment, until indeed I showed to them the risings of the stars and their settings^, hard to be discerned.

And verily I discover for them Numbers, the surpassing all iuventions', the combinations too of letters, and Memory, effective mother-nurse of all arts. I also first bound with yokes beasts submissive to the collars ; and in order that with their bodies they might become to mortals substitutes for their severest toils, I brought steeds under cars obedient to the rein', a glory to pompous luxury. And none other than I invented the canvas-winged chariots of mariners that roam over the ocean. After discovering for mortals such inventions, wretch that I am, I myself have no device whereby 1 ma}' escape from my present misery.

Ch. Thou hast suffered unseemly ills, baulked in thy dis- cretion thou art erring ; and like a bad physician, having fallen into a distemper thou art faint-hearted, and, in re- ference to thyself, thou canst not discover by what manner of medicines thou mayest be cured.

Pr. Wlaen thou hearest the rest of my tale, thou wilt wonder still more what arts and resources I contrived. For the gieatest — if that any one fell into a distemper, there was no reiaedy, neither in the way of diet, nor of liniment, nor of potion, but for lack of medicines they used to jiine away to skeletons, before that I pointed out to them the composition* of mild remedies, wherewith they ward off all their maladies.

dwellings of men. See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 217, ed. Bohn. This whole passage has been imitated by Moschion ajjud Stob. Eel. Phys. I. 11, whilst the early reformation of men has ever been a favourite theme for poets. Cf. Eurip. Suppl. 200 sqq. ; Manilius I. 41, sqq.; and Bronkhus. on Tibull. I. 3, 35.

'■ Cf. Apul. de Deo Socr. § IT. ed. meae, " quos probe callet, qui signorum ortus et oljitus comprehendit," Catullus (in a poem imitated from Callimachus) carra. G7, 1. " Omnia qui magni dispesit lumina mundi, Qui stellarum ortus comperit atque obitus." See on Again. 7,

" On the followmg discoveries consult the learned and entertaining notes of Stanley.

** I'lyayov (jiKipnovQ, i. e. ware (pi\t]viovg tlvai.

* See the (.laborate notes of Blomheld and Burges, from whence all the other commentators have derived their information. Kpauit,' is what Scribonius Largus calls " compositio.'' Cf. Rliodii Lexicon Soiboa.

484-511 PROMETHEUS'. 17

Many modes too of the divining art did 1 classify, and was the fii'st that discriminated among dreams those vvhicli are destined to be a true vision; obscure vocal omens^ too I made known to them ; tokens also incidental on the road, and the flight of birds of crooked talons I clearly defined, both those that are in their natm-e auspicious, and the ill-omened, and what the kind of life that each leads, and what are their feuds and endearments* and intercom'se one with another : the smoothness too of the entrails, and what hue they must have to be acceptable to the gods, the various happy for- mations of the gaU and liver, and the limbs enveloped in fat: and having roasted the long chine I pointed out to mortals the way into an abstruse art ; and I brought to light the fiery sym- bols^ that were aforetime wrapt in darkness. Such indeed were these boons ; and the gains to mankind that were hidden under ground, brass, iron, silver, and gold, — who could assert that he had discovered before me ? No one, I well know, who does not mean to idly babble. And in one brief sentence learn the whole at once — All arts among the human race are from Prometheus.

Ch. Do not now serve the human race beyond what is profitable, nor disregard thyself in thy distress : since I have good hopes that thou shalt yet be liberated fi-om these shackles, and be not one whit less powerful than Jove.

Pr. Not at all in this way is Fate, that brings events to their consummation ordained to accomplish these things : but

p. 364 — 5 ; Serenus Sammonicus " synthesis." The former writer ob- serves in his preface, p. 2, " est enim heec pars (compositio, sciHoit) me- dicinee ut maxime necessaria, ita certe antiquissima, et ob hoc priniura celebrata atque illustrata. Siquidem varum est, antiques herbis ac radi- cibus earum corporis vitia curasse.

1 Apul. de Deo Socr. § 20, ed. mese. " ut videmus plerisque dsu venire, qui nimia ominum superstitione, non suopte corde, sed alterius verbo, reguntur: et per angiporta reptantes, consilia ex alienis vocibus colligunt." Such was the voice that appeared to Socrates. See Plato Theog. p. 11. A. Xenoph. Apol. 12; Proclus in Alcib. Prim. 13, p. 41, Creuz. See also Stanley's note.

2 On these auguiial terms see Abresch.

3 Although the Vatican mythologist above quoted observes of Prome- ttoeus, "deprehendit prseterea rationem fulminum, et hominibus indi-

cavit " I should nevertheless follow Stanley nnd Blonifield, in under-

standing these words to apply to the omens derived from the flame and tmoke ascending from the sacrifices.

C

18 PROMETHEUS. .S12--S58

after having been bent by countless sufferings and calamities, thus am I to escape from my shackles. And art is far less powerful than necessity.

Ch. '\^^lo then is the pilot of necessity?

Pk. The triform Fates and the remembering Furies.

Ch. Is Jupiter then less powerful than these?

Pr. Most certainly he cannot at any rate escape his doom^

Ch. Why, what is doomed for Jupiter but to reign for evermore ?

Pk. This thou mayest not yet learn, and do not press it.

Ch. 'Tis surely some solemn mystery that thou veilest.

Pr. Make mention of some other matter ; it is by no means seasonable to proclaim this ; but it must be shrouded in deepest concealment : for it is by keeping this secret that I am to escape from my ignominious shackles and miseries.

Ch. Never may Jupiter, who directs all things, set his might in opposition to my purpose , nor may I be backwai'd in attending upon the gods at their hallowed banquets, at which oxen are sacrificed, beside the restless stream of my sii-e Ocean ; and may I not trespass in my words ; but may this feeling abide by me and never melt away. Sweet it is to pass through a long life in confident hopes, making the spirits swell with bright merriment; but I shudder as I behold thee harrowed by agonies incalculable .... For not standing in awe of Jupiter, thou, Prometheus, in thy self-will honoiu'est mortals to excess. Come, my friend, own how boonless was the boon ; say where is any aid ? What relief can come from the creatures of a day ? Sawest thou not the powerless weakness, nought better than a di-eam, in which the blind race of men is entangled ? Never shall at any time the schemes of mortals evade the harmonious system of Jupiter. This I learned by witnessing thy destructive fate, Prometheus. And far different is this strain that now flits towards me from that hymenajal chant which I raised around the baths and thy couch with the consent^ of nuptials, when, after having

' Cf. Herodot. I. 91, quoted by Blomfield: t7jv TrtTrpw/iEVTiv poip7iv acvvara tan a7ro0i»y£«(v Kai ry 6t<f, On this Pythagorean notion of .^schylus see Stanley.

^ Or, "in pleasure at the nuptials." See Liowood. Burges : "fir the on«'-ness of marriage."

559— 5?0 PROMETHEHS. 19

won Hesione vriih thy love-tokens, thou dulst conduct her oui" sister to be thy bride, the sharer of thy bed. Enter lo* "What land is this? what race? whom shall I say I here behold storm-tossed in rocky fetters? Of what trespass is the retribution destroying thee? Declare to me into what part of earth I forlorn have roamed. Ah me ! alas ! alas ! again the hornet' stings me miserable: O earth avcrt' the goblin of earth-born Argus*: I am terrified at the sight of the neatherd of thousand eyes, for he is journeying on,

' No clue is given as to the form in which lo was represented on the stage. In v. 848^ the promise tvravOa Si) (re Zevg TiOijcnv tfi(ppova does not imply any bodily change, but that lo laboured under a mental delusion. Still the mythologists are against us, who agree in making her transformation complete. Perhaps she was represented with horns, like the Egyptian figures of Isis, but in other respects as a virgin, which is somewhat confirmed by v. 592, kXveiq ipOkypia tciq jSovKspw TraoOkvov;

2 " gad-fly " or " brize." See the commentators.

3 On the discrepancies of reading, see Dind. With the whole passage compare Nonnus, Dionys. III. p. 62, 2.

ravpofpvTjg ore iropriQ u^uijionkvoio Trpocrunov

tig dyeXiiv dypavXoQ iXavvtro ffvvvofiog 'Iw.

Kal ^a/iaX>;c dypvTTVov iQ{]Karo [iovnoXov "Hpri

TTOiKiXov dirXavkiaai KiKaafikvov "Apyov OTrionaig,

7ji]vbQ oTrnrtVTiipa fSooKoaipojv vaivaiutv'

Zrjvdg dQi]i]Toio kuI ig voj-ibv TjfU Kovp-q,

6(p9aXi.iovg rpofikovaa TroXvyXjp'oio vo[xfjog.

yvioiiopti) Ci fivdJTTi xnpaaaofisvT] S^tag 'Iw

'lovirjg [aXoe] o7^/ia Kcirkypafs (poirdSi X'jXj/.

ijXOt Kal ilg" AiyvTTTOv — This writer, who constantly has the Athenian dramatists in view,^ pursues the narrative of lo's wanderings with an evident reference to iEschylus. See other illustrations from the poets in Stanley's notes.

* The ghost of Argus was doubtless whimsically represented, but pro- bably without the waste of flour tliat is peculiar to modern stiige spectres. Perhaps, as Burges describes, " a mute in a dress resemblmg a peacock's tail expanded, and with a Pan's pipe slung to his side, which ever and anon he seems to sound; and with a goad in his hand, mounted at one end with a representation of a hornet or gad-fly." Rut this phantom, like Macbeth's dagger, is supposed to be in the mind only. With a similar idea Apuleius, Apol. p. 315, ed. Elm. invokes upon yEmilianus

in the following mild terms : "At semper obvias spe^-ies mortuorum,

quidquid umbrarum est usquam, quidquid lemurum, quidquid manium, quidquid iarvarum oculis tuis oggerat: omnia noctium occursacula. omnia bustorum formidamina, omnia «epulchrorum terriculanienia, a Quibus tamen aevo emerito baud loiige abes."

c 2

20 CKOMETHEUS. 570— Gl 4

keeping a cunning glance, whom not even after death does earth conceal: but issuing forth from among the de- parted he chases me misei-able, and he makes me to wan- der famished along the shingled strand, while the sound- ing wax-compacted pipe drones on a sleepy strain. Oh! oh! ye powers! Oh! powers! whither do my far-roaming wanderings convey me? In what, in what, 0 son of Sa- turn, hast thou, having foimd me transgressing, shackled me in these pangs? Ah! ah! and art thus wearing out a timorous wretch phrensied with sting-driven fear. Burn me with fii'e, or bury me in earth, or give me for food to the monsters of the deep, and grudge me not these prayers, O king! Amply have my much-traversed wanderings harassed me; nor can I discover how I may avoid pain. Hearest thou the address of the ox-horned maiden ?

Pk.. How can I fail to hear the damsel that is phrenzy- driven by the hornet, the daughter of Inachus, who warms the heart of Jupiter with love, and now, abhorred of Juno, is driven perforce coui'ses of exceeding length ?

lo. From whence utterest thou the name of my father? Tell me, the Avoe-begone, who thou art, who, I say, O hap- less one, that hast thus correctly accosted me miserable, and hast named the heaven-inflicted disorder which wastes me, fretting with its maddening stings? Ah! ah! violently driven by the famishing tortures of my boundings have I come a victim to the wrathful counsels of Juno. And ol the ill-fated who are there, ah me! that endure woes such as mine ? But do thou clearly define to me what remains for me to suffer, what salve' : what remedy there is for my malady, discover to me, if at all thou lino west: speak, tell it to the wi'etched roaming damsel.

Pr. I will tell thee cleai-ly everything which thou desirest to learn, not interweaving riddles, but in plain language, a* it is right to open the mouth to friends. Thou seest him that bestowed fire on mortals, Prometheus.

lo. O thou that didst dawn a common benefit upon mor, Vvls, wi-etched Prometheus, as penance for what offence art feou thus suffering?

' I have followed Dindorf's elegant emendation. See his note, and Blomf. on Ag. 1.

615 — 643 PIIOMETHEUS. 21

Pr. I have just ceased lamenting my own pangs.

lo. Wilt thou not then accord to me this boon?

Pr. Say what it is that thou art asking, for thou mightest learn e\'ery thing from me.

lo. Say who it was that bound thee fast iix this cleft?

Pr. The decree of Jupiter, but the hand of Vulcan.

lo. And for what offences art thou paying the penalty?

Pr. Thus much alone is all that I can clearly explain to thee.

lo. At least, in addition to this, discover v/hat time shall be to me woe-worn the limit of mj' wanderings,

Pr. Not to learn this is better for thee than to learn it.

lo. Yet conceal not from me what I am to endure.

Pr. Nay, I grudge thee not this gift.

lo. Why then delayest thou to utter the whole?

Pr. 'Tis not reluctance, but I am loth to shock thy feelings.

lo. Do not be more anxious on my accoimt than is agree- able to me'.

Pr. Since thou art eager, I must needs tell thee : attend thou.

Ch. Not yet, however; but grant me also a share of the pleasure. Let us first learn the malady of this maiden, from her own tale of her destructive* fortunes ; but, for the sequel of her afflictions let her be informed by thee.

Pr. It is thy part, lo, to minister to the gratification of these now before thee, both for all other reasons, and that they are the sisters of thy father. Since to weep and lament over misfortunes, when one is sure to win a tear from the listeners, is well worth the while.

lo. I know not how I should disobey you; and in a plain tale ye shall learn every thing that ye de sire : and yet I am pained even to speak of the tempest that hath been sent upon me from heaven, and the utter marring of my per-

' After the remarks of Dindorf and Paley, it seems that the above must be the sense, whether we read wv with Hermann, or take ug for fi iog with the above mentioned editor.

2 Paley remarks that rac TroX. Tvxag is used in the same manner as in Pers. 453, (pOapsvTsg = "shipwrecked," (see his note,) or "wander- ing." He renders the present passage. " the adventures of hei long wanderings."

22 PROMETHEUS 644-681

son, whence it suddenly came upon me, a \ATetched crea- ture ! For nightly visions thronging to my maiden chamber, woidd entice me with smooth words: "0 damsel, greatly fortunate, why dost thou live long time in maidenhood, when it is in thy power to achieve a match the very noblest ? for Jupiter is fii-ed by thy charms with the shaft of passion, and longs with thee to share in love. But do not, my child, spurn away from thee the couch of Jupiter ; but go forth to Lerna's fertile mead, to the folds and ox-stalls of thy father, that the eye of Jove may have respite from its long- ing." By dreams such as these was I imhappy beset every night, until at length I made bold to tell my sire of the dreams that haunted me by night. And he despatched both to Pytho and to Dodona* many a messenger to consult the oracles, that he might learn what it behoved him to do or say, so as to perform what was weU-pleasing to the divinities. And they came bringing a report back of ora- cles ambiguously worded, indistinct, and obscurely deli- vered. But at last a clear response came to Inachus, plainly charging and directing him to thrust me forth both from my home and my country, to stray an outcast to earth's remotest limits; and that, if he would not, a fiery-visaged thunder- bolt would come from Jupiter, and utterly blot out his whole race. Overcome by oracles of Loxias such as these, ixn- wilUng did he expel and exclude me unwilling from his dwel- ling : but the bit of Jupiter* perforce constrained him to do this And straightway my person and my mind were distorted, and hoi-ned, as ye see, stung by the keenly-biting fly, I rushed with maniac boundings to the sweet stream of Cerch- neia, and the fountain' of Lema: — and the earth-born neat- heard Argus of untempered fierceness, kept dogging me, peering after my footsteps with thick-set eyes. Him, how- ever, an unlooked-for sudden fate bereaved of life ; but I

' With the earlier circumstances of this narrative compare the beautiful story of Psyche in Apuleius, Met. IV. p. 157, sqq. Elm.

"^ Cf. Ag, 217, tTTil S' dvayKOQ 'icv XeTra^rov.

3 K(ti]vi}v is the elegant conjecture of Canter, approved by Dindorf. In addition to the remarks of the commentators, the tradition preserved by Pausanias II. 15, greatly confirms this emendation. He remarks, Otpojif ?i aiia nijiiaiv ictti to. pf.vfiara, 7r\>)>' "•iv h' Akpvi]. It wa» probably somewhat proverbial.

681 — 717 PROMETHEtrs. :ii

homet-striken am driven by the scourge divine from land to land. Thou hearest what has taken place, and f thou art able to say what pangs there remain for me, declare them ; and do not, compassionating me, warm me with false tales, for I pronoimce fabricated statements to be a most foui malady.

Ch. Ah! ah! forbear! Alas! Never never did I expect that a tale [so] strange would come to my ears, or that sufferings thus horrible to witness and horrible to endure, outrages, terrors with their two-edged goad, would chill mv spirit. Alas ! alas ! 0 Fate I Fate ! I shudder as I behold the condition of lo.

Pr. Prematurely, however, art thou sighing, and art full of terror. Hold, until thou shalt also have heard the residue.

Ch. Say on; inform me fully: to the sick indeed it is sweet to get a clear knowledge beforehand of the sequel of theii" sorrows.

Pr. Your former desire at any rate ye gained from me easily ; for first of all ye desired to be informed by her recital of the affliction' that attaches to herself. Now give ear to the rest, what sort of sufferings it is the fate of this young damsel before you to imdergo at the hand of Juno: thou too, seed of Inachus, lay to heart my words, that thou mayest be fully informed of the termination of thy jom-ney. In the first place, after turning thyself fi-om this spot towards the rising of the sim, traverse unploughed fields; and thou wilt reach the wandering Scythians who, raised from off the ground, inhabit wicker dwellings on well-wheeled cars, equipped with distant- shooting bows ; to whom thou must not draw near, but pass on out of theii land, bringing thy feet to approach the rugged roaring shores. And on thy left hand dwell the Chalybes, workers of iron, of whom thou must needs beware, for they are barbarous, and not accesi- ble to strangers. And thou wilt come to the river Hybristes%

^ I shall not attempt to enter into the much-disputed geography of lo's wanderings. So much has been said, and to so little purpose, on this perplexing subject, that to write additional notes would be only to furnish more reasons for doubting.

^ Probably the Kurban. Schutz well observes that the words cv ^(v^iiivv^ov could not be applied to an epithet of the poet's own crea- tion. Such, too, was Humboldt's idea. See my first note on this pla"

24 PAOMETHEUS. 717—756

not falsely so called, which, do not thou cross, for it is not easy to ford, until thou shalt have come to Caucasus itself, loftiest of mountains, where from its very brow the river spouts forth its might. And surmounting its peaks that neighbour on the stars, thou must go into a south, ward track, where thou wilt come to the man-detesting host of Amazons, who hereafter shall make a settlement, The- miscyra, on the banks of Thermodon, where lies the rug- ged Salmydessian sea-gorge, a host by mariners hated, a step-dame to ships; and they Avill conduct thee on thy way, and that right willingly. Thou shalt come too to the Cimmerian ithsmus, hard by the very portals of a lake, with narrow passage, which thou undauntedly must leave, and cross the Maeotic frith; and there shall exist for ever- more among mortals a famous legend concerning thy passage, and after thy name it shall be called the Bosphorus ; and after having quitted European gi-ound, thou shalt come to the Asiatic continent. Does not then the sovereign of the gods seem to you to be violent alike towards all things: for he a god lusting to enjoy the charms of this mortal fair one, hath cast upon her these wanderings. And a bitter wooer, maiden, hast thou found for thy hand; for think that the words which thou hast now heard are not even for a prelude. ^ lo. Woe is me! ah! ah!

Pr. Thou too in thy turn* art crying out and moaning : what M-ilt thou do then, when thou learnest the residue of thy ills?

Ch. What! hast thou aught of suffering left to tell to ner?

Pr. Aye, a tempestuous sea of baleful calamities.

lo. What gain then is it for me to live ? but why did 1 not quickly fling myself from this rough precipice, that dash ing on the plain I had rid myself of all my pangs? for better is it once to die, than all one's days to suffer ill.

Pk. Verily thou wouldst hardly bear the agonies of me to whom it is not doomed to die. For this would be an escape from sufferings. But now there is no limit set to my hard, ships, until Jove shall have been deposed from his tyranny.

^e Scbutz and Griffiths.

75" — 773 PROMETHEUS. 25

lo. What! is it possible that Jupiter should ever fall from his power?

Pk. Glad wouldst thou be, I ween, to witness this event.

lo. And how not so, I, who through Jupiter am sufferino- ill?

Pk. Well then thou mayest assure thyself of these things that they are so.

Id. By whom is he to be despoUed of his sceptre of ty- ranny.

Pk. Himself, by his own senseless counsels.

lo. In what manner? Specify it, if there be no harm.

Pr. He will make such a match as he shall one day rue'.

lo. Celestial or mortal? If it may be spoken, tell me.

Pk. But why ask its natm-e? for it is not a matter that I can communicate to you.

lo. Is it by a consort that ho is t/> bo ejected from his throne ?

Pr. Yes, surely, ono that shall give bh th to a son mightier than the fathei-*.

lo. And has he no refuge from this misfortune?

Pr. Not he, indeed, before at any rate 1 after being libe- rated from my shackles

lo. Who then is he that shall hberate thee in despite of Jupiter ?

Pk. It is ordained that it shall be one of thine own des- cendants.

lo. How sayest thou? Shall child of mine releasb thee ^om thy ills r

' Wrapped in mysttry as the liberation of Prometheus is in this drama, it may be amusing to ccmpare tlie following extracts from tlie Short Chronicle prefixed to Sir I. Newton's Chronology.

" 968. B.C. Sesak, having carried on his victories to Mount Caucasus, .'eaves his nephew Prometheus there, to guard the pass, etc.

" 937. The Argonautic expedition. Prometheus leaves Mount Cau- casus, being set at liberty by Hercules," etc. — Old Trauslator. ^ Stanley compares Pindar, Isth. vii. 33.

— — ^ TrtTTpwfiivoi' fjv <p'(p- -repov yai'ov [oi] dvaKTa iruTpoQ TtKtiv. And Apoll. Rhod. iv. 201. Also the words of Thetis herself in Nonnua, Kanys. xxxiii. 356.

2itvQ fie varrip tSitoKe Kal iiGeXcv kg yafiov (Xkuv, (I firj fiiv TToOiovra ykputv av'tKCTTTi Ylpofufitvg, Qtairi^iiiv Miooviwvoi; dptiova TralSa (pvrivaai.

26 PROMETHEUS. 774—800

?K. Yes, the third of thy lineage in addition to ten other generations*.

lo. This prophecy of thine is no longer easy for me to form a guess npon.

Pr. Nor seek thou to know over well thine own pangs.

lo. Do not after proffering me a benefit withhold it from me.

Pr. I will freely grant thee one of two disclosures.

lo. Explain to me first of what sort they are, and allow mt my choice.

Pr. I allow it thee ; for choose whether I shall clearly tell to thee the residue of thy troubles, or who it is that is to be my deliverer.

Ch. Of these twain do thou vouchsafe to bestow the one boon on this damsel, and the other on me, and disdain thou not my request. To her tell the rest of her wanderings, and to me him that is to deliver thee ; lor this I long [to hear].

Pr. Seeing that ye are eagerly bent upon it, I will not oppose your wishes, so as not to utter every thing as much as ye desire. To thee in the first place, lo, will I describe thy mazy wanderings, which do thou engrave on the recording tablets of thy mind.

WLen thou shalt have crossed the stream that is the boun- dary of the Continents, to the ruddy realms of mom where

walks the smi' having passed over the

roaring swell of the sea, until thou shalt reach the Gorgonian plains of Cisthene, where dwell the Phorcides, three swan- like aged damsels, that possess one eye in common, that have but a single tooth, on whom ne'er doth the sun glance with his rays, nor the nightly moon. And hard by are three winged sisters of these, the snake-tressed Gor- gons, abhorred of mortals, whom none of human race can . look upon and retain the breath of life*. Such is this cau-

' "Thrse were: 1. Epaphus; 2. Lybia ; 3. Belus ; 4. Danaus ; 5. Hypermnt'Stra ; 6. Abas; 7. Proetus ; 8. Acrisius ; 9. Danae ; 10. Per- seus; 11. Electryon. 12. Alcmena; 13. Hercules." Blomfield.

2 For two ways of supplying the lacuna in this description of lo's tra. vels, see Dindorf and Paley.

3 Being tuvned into stone. Such was the punishment of the fire-wor- shippers in the story of the first Lady of Baghdad. See Arabian Nights, Vol. I., ]). 198. The mythico-geographical allusions in the following lines have been so fully and so learnedly illustrated, that 1 shdl conteal myself \vith referring to the commentators.

801—813 tROMETHEUS. 27

tion* which I mention to thee. Now lend an ear to another hideous spectacle; for be on thy guard against the keen- fanged hounds of Jupiter that never ho^k, the gryphons, and the cavalry host of one-eyed Arimasp'ans, who dwell on the banks of the gold-gushing fount, the stream of Pluto: go not thou nigh to these. And thou wilt reach a far-distant land, a dark tribe, who dwell close upon the fountains of the sun, where is the river -^thiops. Along the banks of this wend thy way, ;mtil thou shalt have reached the cataract where from the Bybline mountains the Nile pours forth his hallowed, grateful stream. This will gi;ide thee to the trian- giUar land of the Nile ; where at length, lo, it is ordained for thee and thy childi-en after thee to found the distant colony. And if aught of this is obsciurely uttered, and hard to be un- derstood, question me anew, and learn it thoroughly and clearly : as for leisure, I have more than I desire.

Ch. If indeed thou hast aught to tell of her baleful wan- derings, that still remains or hath been omitted, say on ; but if thou hast told the vrhole, gi\-e to us in our tm-n the favour which we ask, and you, perchance, remember.

Pr. She hath heard the fidl term of her journeying. And that she may know that she hath not been listening to me in vain, I will relate what hardships she endured before she came hither, giving her this as a sure proof of my statements. The very great multitude indeed of words I shall omit, and I will pro- ceed to the termination itself of thine aberrations. For aftei that thou hadst come to the ]\Iolossian plains, and about the lofty ridge of Dodona, where is the oi-acular seat of Thespro- tian Jove, and a portent passing belief, the speaking oaks, by which thou wast clearly and without any ambiguity saluted illustrious spouse of Jove that art to be ; if aught of this hath any charms for thee'. Thence madly rushing along the sea- side track, thou didst dart away to the vast bay of Rhea, from which thou art tempest-driven in retrograde courses : and in time to come, know well that the gulf of the deep shall be called lO-nian, a memorial of thy passage to all mortals. These hast thou as tokens of my intelligence, how that it per- ceives somewhat beyond what appears.

* See Linwood's Lexicon and Griffiths' note.

' There is still much doubt about the elision irrtcyB', d. Others lead the passage interrogatively. See Griffiths and Dindorf.

28 PROMETHEUS. 8(4—865

The rest I shall tell both to you and to her in common, after reaching the very identical track of my former narrative. There is on the land's utmost verge a city Canopus, hard by the Nile's very mouth and alluvial dyke ; on this spot Jupiter at length makes thee sane by merely soothing and touching thee with his unalarraing hand. And named after the piogeni- ture of Jupiter* thou shalt give birth to swarthy Epaphus, who shall reap the harvest of all the land which the wide- streaming Nile waters. But fifth in descent from him a gene- ration of fifty virgins shall again come to Argos, not of their own accord, fleeing from incestuous wedlock with their cousins ; and these with fluttering hearts, like falcons left not far be- hind by doves, shall come pursuing marriage such as should not be pursued, but heaven shall be jealous over their persons''*; and Pelasgia shall receive them after being crushed by a deed of night-fenced daring, wrought by woman's hand; for each bride shall bereave her respective husband of life, having dyed in their throats' a sword of twin sharp edge. Would that in guise like this Venus might visit my foes ! But tenderness shall soften one* of the maidens, so that she shall not slay the

* This pun upon the name of Epaphus is preserved by Moschus II. 50.

if S' 7/1' ZttJC) i.Tra<pMfiivoQ I'jp^ia x^'-P'- ^^^'V ■KoprioQ '\vaxir)q, ti)v iTTTcnrup^) Trupa, NeiXy Ik /3oo£ ivKipaoiQ iraKiv fitTaiitijit yvvaiKa. and Nonnus, III. p. 62, 20

tvG' "ETTa^ov Sil TiKrev aKrjpaa'uov on koXttwi' 'IvaxiriQ da^aXijc f.Tra<pr]Garo OtioQ dKoirt]Q Xtpalv tpojfiavftaffL — 2 There is much difficulty in this passage. Dindorf understands EKtivwv (^gypti filiorum), and so Paley, referring to liis notes on Ag. 938, Suppl. 437. Mr. Jelf, Gk. Gr. § C96, Obs. 3, appears to take the same view. There does not, tlierefore, seem any need of alteration. On the other interpretation sometimes given to <p96vov 'i^ti ui>n.idTwv see Linwood, v. <p96voQ.

^ (jrpayatffi is rightly rendered " in jugulo" by Blomfield, after Ruhnk. Ep. Crit. I. p. 71. To the examples quoted add Apu'.. Met. I. p. 108, "per jugulum sinistrum capulotenus gladium totum ei demergit," and p. 110, "jugulo ejus vulnus dehiscit in patorem." The expression vvkti- ippovp)]Tt^ 6pd(TEi is well illustrated by the words of Nonnus, 1. c. p. 64, 17, Kat Kpvfpiotg ^i(pet<y(n aiSrjpoipopioT tTri XsKTpwv apaiva yvfxvov dprja Karivvaat QifKiQ ivvw,

* See Nonnus, 1. c. Ovid. Ep. xiv. 51, sqq.

" Sed timor, et pietas crudelibus obstitit ausis: Castaque mandatum dext'-a refugit opus."

866—904 PROMETHFU8. 2lr-

partner of her couch, but shall be blunt in her resolve ; and of the two alternatives she shall choose the former, to be called a coward rather than a mui-deress. She in Ara;os shall give birth to a race of kings. There needs a long discom-se to detail these things distinctly ; but from this seed be sm-e shall spring a daimtless wan-ior reno^vned in archery, who shall set me free from these toils. Such predictions did my aged mother the Titaness Themis rehearse to me; but how and when — to tell this requires a long detail, and thou in knowing it all wouldst be in nought a gainer.

lo. Eleleu! Eleleu! Once more the spasm* and madden- ing phrenzies inflame me — and the sting of the hornet, \vi-ought by no Are,* envenoms me ; and with panic my heart throbs violently against my breast. My eyes too are rolling in a mazy whirl, and I am carried out of my course by the raging blast of madness, having no controid of tongue, but my troubled words dash idly against the sm-ges of loathsome cala- mitj. Exit lo.

Ch. Wise was the man, aye, ■ndse indeed, who first weighed well this maxim, rmd with his tongue published it abroad, that to match in one'y own degree is best by fai'* ; "and that one who lives by labour should woo the hand neither of any that have waxed wanton in opulence, nor of such as pride themselves

on nobility of birth. Never, O Destinies*, never

may ye behold me approaching as a partner the couch of Juj)iter : nor may I be* brought to the arms of any bride- groom from among the sons of hea^'en : for I am in di'ead when I behold the maiden lo, contented with no mortal lover, greatly maiTcd by wearisome wanderings at the hand of Juno. For myself, indeed — inasmuch as wedlock on one's own level is free from apprehension — I feel no alann*. And oh ! never may the love of the mightier gods cast on me a glance that none can elude. This at least is a war without a conflict,

' On <y(paKi\oQ see Ruhnk. Tim. p. 123, and Blomfield.

^ See Paley. a is never intensive.

' On this admonition, generally attributed to Pittacus, see Griffiths, and for a modern illustration in tiie miseries of Sir John Anvil (or Enville), Knt., the Spectator, No. 299.

* Paley vpould supply Trurviai to complete the metre.

* I have followed Griffiths.

^ Dindorf would throw out a^ofioQ, Paley 6v SkSia, remarking that Ae sense appears to require ort.

30 PROMExnEUS. 905—935

accomplishing things impossible': nor know I what might become of me, for I see not how I could evade the counsel of Jove.

Pk. Yet truly shall Jove, albeit he is self-willed in his temper, be lowly, in such* wedlock is he prepared to wed. as shall hurl him out of his sovereignty and off his throne a forgotten thing; and the curse of his father Saturn shall then at length find entire consummation, which he imprecated when he was deposed from his ancient throne. From disasters such as these there is no one of the gods beside myself that can clearly disclose to him a way of escape. I know this, and by what means. Wherefore let him rest on in his presumption, putting confidence in his thunders aloft, brandishing in his hand a fu-e-breathing bolt. For not one jot shall these suffice to save him from falling dishonoured in a downfall be- yond endurance ; such an antagonist is he now with his owm hands preparing against himself, a portent that shall baffle all resistance; who shall invent a flame more potent than the lightning, and a mighty din that shall surpass the thunder ; and shall shiver the ocean trident, that earth-con\'T.xlsing pest, the spear of Neptune. And when he hath stumbled upon this mischief, he shall be taught how great is the difference between sovereignty and slavery.

Ch. Thou forsooth art boding against Jupiter the things thou wishest.

Pk. Things that shall come to pass, and that I desire to boot.

Ch. And are we to expect that any one will get the mas- tery of Jove?

Pr. Aye, and pangs too yet harder to bear than these "[of mine] shall he sustain.

Ch. And how is it that thou art not dismayed blurt- ing out words such as these ?

Pk. ^Vhy at what should I be terrified to whom it is flot destined to die.

Ch. Yet perchance he will provide for thee affliction more grievous than even this.

Pr. Let him do it then, all is foreseen by me.

' t. e. possessing resources even among impossibilities. Cf. Antig 360. iiTTopoQ iir' ovStv tpxirai, and for the construction, Jelf, Gk. Gr I jei, 2. obs.

" 1 think Elncsley has settled the question in favour of rSiov for otov.

936—966 PROMETHEUS. HJ

Ch. They that do homage to Adrasteia are wise.

Pr. Do homage, make thy prayer, cringe to each niler of the day. 1 care for Jove less than nothing ; let Lim do, let him lord it for this brief span, e'en as he list, for not long shall he rule over the gods. But no more, for I descry Jove's courier close at hand, the menial of the new monarch : beyond all [doubt] he has come to announce to us some news.

Enter Mekcury.

Thee, the contriver, thee full of gall and bitterness, who sinned against the gods by bestowing their honours on creatures of a day, the thief of fire, I address. Tlie Sii-e commands thee to divulge of what nuptials it is that thou art vaunting, by means of which he is to be put down from his power. And these things, moreover, without any land of mystery, but each exactly as it is, do thou tell out ; and en- tail not upon me, Prometheus, a double journey ; and thou perceivest that by such conduct Jove is not softened.

Pr. High sounding, i'faith, and full of haughtiness is thy speech, as beseems a lackey of the gods. Young in years, ye are young in power* ; and ye fancy forsooth that ye dwell in a citadel impregnable against sorrow. Have I not known two monarchs* dethroned from it ? And the third that now is ruler I shall also see expelled most foully and most quickly. - oitf'Y^ I *o tl 5e in aught to be dismayed at, and to crouch ,^r-~^--"ith the r >w gods? Widely, aye altogether, do I come short [of sucl feelings]. But do thou hie thee back the way by which thou amest : for not one tittle shalt thou learn of the matter on which thou questionest me.

Mer. Yet truly 'twas by such self-will even before now that thou didst bring thyself to such a calamitous moo'ing.

Pr. Be well assured that I would not barter my

* " In iEschylus we seem to read the vebement language of an old ser- vant of exploded Titanism: with him Jupiter and the Olynipians are but a new dynasty, fresh and exulting, insolent and capricious, thi; victory just gained and yet but imperfectly secured over the mysterious and venerable beings who had preceded, TIME, HEAVEN, OCEAN, EARTH and her gig^antic progeny: Jupiter is still but half th ■/larch of the world; his future fall is not obscurely j)redicted, and even while he reigns, a gloomy irresistible destiny controls his power." Quart, Rev. zxviii. 416.

* Uranus and Saturn. Cf. Agam. 167 sqq.

. 3a PROMETHEUS. 9fi"--998

wretched plight for thy drudgery; for better do I deem it to be a lackey to this rock, than to be born the confidential courier of father Jove. Thus is it meet to repay insult in kind.

Mer. Thou seemest to revel in thy present state.

Pk. Kevel ! Would that I might see my foes thus revel- ling, and among these I reckon thee.

Meb. "What dost thou impute to me also any blame for thy mischances?

Pk. In plain truth, I detest all the gods, as many of them as, after having received benefits at my hands, are iniquitously visiting me with evils.

Mer. I hear thee raving with no slight disorder.

Pk. Disordered I would be, if disorder it be to loathe one's foes.

Mer. Thou wouldst be beyond endurance, wert thou in prosperity.

Pk. Woe's me !

Mer. This word of thine Jove knows not.

Pro. Aye, but Time as he grows old teaches all things.

Mer. And yet verily thou knowest not yet how to be discreet.

Pro. No i'faith, or I should not have held parley with thee, meniiil as thou art.

Mer. Thou seemest disposed to teU naught of the things which the sire desires.

Pr. In sooth, being under obligation as I am to him, I . bound to return his favour.

Mi;r. Thou floutest me, forsooth as if I were a boy.

Pe. ^Vhy, art thou not a boy, and yet sillier than one, if thou lookest to obtain any information from me ? There is no outrage nor artifice by which Jupiter shall bring me to utter this, before my torturing shackles shall have been loos- ened. Wherefore let his glowing lightning be hurled, and with the white feathered shower of snow, and thunderings beneath the earth let him confound and embroil the universe; for naught of these things shall bend me so much as even to say by w^-r. n it is doomed that he shall be put down fc-om his sovei ' T^etv.

Mx.? ^'Cohsider now whether this determination seems availing. '

Pr. Long since has this been considered and resolved.

999— 1030 I'UOMETHEUS. 88

Mek. Resolve, O vain one, resolve at length in considera- tion of thy present sufferings to come to thy right senses.

Pr. Thou troublest me with thine admonitions as vainly as [thou mightest] a billow*. Never let it enter your thoughts that I, affrighted by the piu-pose of Jupiter, shaU become womanish, and shall importune the object whom I greatly Voathe, with effeminate upliftings of my i^ands, to release me from these shackles : I want much of that.

Mer. With all that I have said I seem to be speaking to no purpose : for not one whit art thou melted or softened in thy heart by entreaties, but art champing the bit like a colt fresh yoked, and struggling against the reins. But on the strength of an impotent scheme art thou thus violent; for obstinacy in one not soundly wise, itself by itself availeth less than nothing. And mark, if thou art not persuaded by my words, what a tempest and three-fold surge of ills, from which there is no escape, will come upon thee. For in the first place the Sire vnll shiver this craggy cleft with thunder and the blaze of his bolt, and will overwhelm thy body, and a clasping arm of rock shall bear thee up. And after thou shalt have passed through to its close a long space of time, thou shalt come back into the light! and a winged hound of Jupiter, a blood-thirsting eogle, shall ravenously mangle thy huge lacerated frame, stealing \ipon thee an un- bidden guest, and [tarrying] all the livelong day, and shalt banquet his fill on the "black viands* of thy liver. To such labours look thou for no termination, until some god shall appear as a substitute in thy pangs, and shall be willing to go both to gloomy Hades, and to the mvirky depths around Tartarus. WTiere'fore advise thee, since this is no fictitious vaunt, but uttered in great earnestness; for the di-viiie

' Milton, Samson Agon.

Dalilah. " I see thou art implacable, more deaf To prayers than winds or seas." Merchant of Venice, act iv. so. 1.

" You may as well go stand upon the beach And bid the main flood bate his usual height." Sec '^chradcr on Musseus, ;i20.

* bee Linwood's Lexicon. Cf. Nonnus, Dionys. II. p. 45, 22. Stfffia (pvyojv SoX6fA.r]Tig b^iapTricuf Tlponifiiv^, i'/naTog j/j(3(Jovroc dchiifia Sairi'iJovrja oiipav'jji Opaavv opvtv tx^v 7ro/i;r^a KiXtvOcv,

D

34 PROMETHEUS. 1031 — 1079

mouth knows not how to utter falsehood, but will brino; every word to pass. But do thou look around and reflect, and never for a moment deem pertinacity better than discretion.

Ch. To us indeed Mercury seems to pi'opose no imsea- sonable covmsel ; for he bids thee to abandon thy recklessness, and seek out .wise consideration. Be persuaded; for to a wise man 'tis disgraceful to err.

Pr. To me already well aware of it hath this fellow urged his message ; but for a foe to suffer horribly at the hands of foes is no indignity. Wherefore let the doubly-pointed wreath of his fire be hurled at me, and aether be torn piece- meal by thunder, and spasm of savage blasts ; and let the wind rock earth from her base, roots and all, and with stormy surge mingle in rough tide the billow of the deep and the paths of the stars ; and fling my body into black Tartarus, with a whirl, in the stern eddies of necessity. Yet by no possible means shall he visit me with death.

Mer. Resolutions and expressions, in truth, such as these of thine, one may heax" from maniacs. For in what point doth his fate fall short of insanity' .^ What doth it abate from ravings ? But do ye then at any rate, that sympathise with him in his sufferings, withdraw hence speedily somewhither from this spot, lest the harsh bellowing of the thunder smile you with idiotcy.

Ch. Utter and advise me to something else, in which too thou mayest prevail upon me ; for in this, be sure, thou hast intruded a proposal not to be borne. How is it that thou urgest me to practise baseness ? Along with him here I am willing to endm^e what is destined, for I have learned to abhor traitors ; and there is no evil, which I hold in gix'ater abomination.

Mer. Well then, bear in mind the things of which I fore- warn you : and do not, when ye have been caught in the snares of Ate, throw the blame on fortune, nor ever at any time say that Jove cast you into mifoieseen calamity : nu indeed, but, ye your ownselves : for well aware, and not on a sudden, nor in ignorance, will ye be entangled by your senselessness in an impervious net of Ate.

Exit Mercury.

Pr. And verily in deed and no longer in word doth the earth * I have adopted Dindorfs emendation. See his note.

lOSO— 1093 PROMETHEUS. 35

heave, and the roariug echo of thunder rolls bellowing by us ; and deep blazing wreaths of lightning are glaring, and hur- ricanes whirl the dust; and blasts of all the winds are leaping forth, shewing one against the other a strife of conflict gusts ; and the firmament is embroiled with the deep^ Such is this onslaught that is clearly coming upon me from Jove, a cause for terror. O dread majesty of my mother Earth, 0 aether that diffusest thy common light, thou beholdest the wrongs I suffer.

' How the cosmoramic effects here described were represented on the stage, it is difficult to say, but such descriptions are by no means rare in the poets. Compare Musseus, 314, sqq. Lucan, I. 75 sqq. and a mul- titude in the notes of La Cerda on Virgil, Mn. I. 107, and Barthius on Claudiaa. Gigant. 31, sqq. Noanus. Dionys. I. p. 12.

1—13

TFIE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.

The siege of the city of Thebes, and the description of the seven cham- pions of the Theban and Argive armies. The deaths of the brothers Polynices and Eteocles, the mournings over them, by their sisters Antigone and Ismene, and the public refusal of burial to the ashes of Polynices, against which Antigone boldly protests, conclude tL* play.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Eteocles. j Ismene.

A Messenger. J Antigone.

Chorus of Theban Virgins. | A Herald.

Scene. The Acropolis of Thebes. — Compare v. 227, ed. Blomf.

Time. Early in the morning ; the length of the action can scarcely be fixed with absolute certainty. It certainly did not exceed twelve hours.

The expedition of " the Seven " against Thebes is fixed by Sir I. Newton, B.C. 928. Cf. his Chronology, p. 27. Blair carries it as far back as B.C. 1225. Old Translator.

Eteocles. Citizens of Cadmus ! it is fitting that he should speak things seasonable, who lias the care of affairs on the poop of a state, managing the helm, not lulling his eyelids in slumber. For if we succeed, the gods are the cause ; but if, on the other hand, (which heaven forbid,) mischance should befall, Eteocles alone would be much bruited through the city by the townsmen in strains clamorous and in wailings, of which may Jove prove righty called the Averter to the city of the Cadmajans'. And now it behoves you — both him who still falls short of youth in its prime, and him who in point of age has passed his yovith. nurturing the ample vigour of his frame and each tliat is in his prime*, as is best fitting —

^ Or, "of which may Jove the Averter be what his name imports." See Paley and Linwood's Lex.

- This interpretation is now fully established. See Paley. Thus Caesar, B. G. I. 29, "qui arma ferre possent: et item separatius pueri, senes;" II. 28. Eteocles wishes even the dxptHoi to assist in the comuioa de^^nce.

14 — 47 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 37

to succour the city, and the altars of your country's gods. 80 that their honours may never be obliterated; your childra* too, and your motherland, most beloved nurse; forshe, takuu fully on herself the whole trouble of your rearing, nmtured you when infants crawling on her kindly soil, for her trusty shield- bearing citizens, that ye might be [trusty]' for this service And, for the present indeed, up to this day, the deity incline* in oiu" favour; since tons now all this time beleaguered the war for the most part, by divine allotment, turns out well. But now, as saith the seer, the feeder* of birds, revolving in ear and thoughts, without the use of fire, the oracular birds with unerring art, — he, lord of such divining powers, declares that the main Achaean assault is this night proclaimed', and [that the Acha;ansl attempt the city.

But haste ye all^ both to the battlements and the gates of the tower- works; On! in full panoply throng the breast- works, and take yom- stations on the platforms of the towers, and, making stand at the outlets of the gates, be of good heart, nor be over-dismayed at the rabble of the aliens ; God will give a happy issue. Moreover, I have also despatched scouts and observei-s of the army, who will not, I feel assm-ed, loiter on their way ; and when I have had intelligence from these, I shall, in no point, be surprised by stratagem.

Messenger. Most gallant Eteocles ! sovereign of the Cadmgeans, I have come bearing a clear accoimt of the mat- ters yonder, from the army ; and I myself am eye-witness of the facts. For seven chieftains, impetuous leaders of battalions, cutting a bull's throat* over an ii-on-rimmed shield^, and touch- ing with their hands the gore of the bull, by oath have called to witness® Mars, Enyo and Terror, that delights in blood- shed, that either having wi-ought the demolition of our city they will make havoc of the town of the Cadma^ans, or having

1 iriaroi is to be supplied with yevoKrOt.

2 Althoug-h /3or?)p may be compared with the Roman pullarius, yet the phrase is here probably only equivalent to StcTroniQ jiavTivfiaTwv soon after.

3 Paley prefers " nocturno concilio agitari," comparing Rhes. 88, raQ aciQ TrpoQ tvvae (pi'iXaKiQ tXdoi'TiQ ^o/Sy vvKrt^yopovcn. On the authority of Griffiths, I have supplied tov£ 'Axaiovc before f.TrijSovXkvtiv,

* See my note on Prom. 863.

* See commentators.

« Cf. Jelf, Gk. Gr. § 5GG, 2.

38 THE SEVHX 48 — 74

fallen will steep this land of ours in gore. Memorials too of ♦hemselves, to their parents at home, were they with their \iands hanging in festoons' at the car of Adrastus, dropping a tear, but no sound of complaint passed their lips'. For their iron-hearted spirit glowing with valour was panting, as of lions that glare battle. And the report of these my tidings is not retarded by sluggishness. But I left them in the very act ol casting lots, that so each of them, obtaining his post by lot, might lead on his battalion to our gates. — Where- lore do thou with all speed marshal at the outlets of the gates the bravest men, the chosen of om- city ; for already the host of Argives hard at hand armed cap-a-pie is in motion, is speeding onward, and white foam is staining the plain with :ts drippings from the lungs of their chargers. Do thou then, like the" clever helmsman of a vessel, fence^ our city before the breath of Mars burst like a hurricane upon it, for the main- land billow of their host is roaring. — And for these measures do thou seize the very earliest opportunity; for the sequel I will keep my eye a faithful watch by day, and thou, knowing from the clearness of my detail the movements of those with- out. shalt be unscathed. Exit Messenger.

Et. O Jupiter ! and earth ! and ye tutelary deities ! and thou Curse, the mighty Erinnys of my sire ! do not, I pray, uproot with utter destruction from its very base, a prey to foe- men, our city, which utters the language of Greece, and our native dwellings*. Grant that they may never hold the free

1 See Linwood, s. v. ar't^iiv. Paley compares v. 267, Aa<j)vpa ^q.wv Sovpiirrfx^' ayvolg So^otg 'ZTSxpio Trpo vaaiv. Adrastus alone had been promised a sate return home.

2 Cf. Eum. 51,5, o'lKTov o'lKTiaaiTo, would utter cries of pity. Suppl. 59, oIktov oiKTpbv a'ioji', hearing one mournful piteous cry. The old translations rendered it, " no regret was expressed on their countenance."

3 Perhaps we might render <ppa^ai, dam, in order to keep up the metaphor of the ship. Cf. Horn. Od. V. 346, (p^a'ii Ss fiiv piniaai ^lafXTTtpic. oiavivyci. The closing the ports of a vessel to keep out the water will beat convey the meaning to modern readers.

•* This seems the true meaning of iftcTiovg, indigenous in Greece, as Blomfield interprets, quoting Hesych. iipkaTioQ, avroxOiov, troi/coc, 11. B. 125, etc. An Athenian audience, with their political jealousy of Asiatic influence, and pride of indigenous origin, would have appreciated this prayer as heartily as the one below, v, 158, ttoXu' SopiTrorov /i») ■n-poCuO' "ETEf)o0(bi'(;j (JTpart^, which their minds would connect with more powerful associations than the mere provincial differences of Boeotia

7i— 96 AGAINST THEBES. Of.

land and city of Cadmus in a yoke of slavery; but be ye our strength, — nay, I trust that I am urging om- common interests, for a state that is in prosperity honom's the divinities'.

Exit Eteocles. Chortts''. I wail over our fearful, mighty woes ! the army 18 let loose, having quitted its camp, a mighty mounted host is streaming hitherward in advance' the dust appear- ing high in the air convinces me, a voiceless, clear, true messenger; the noise of the clatter of their hoofs upon the plain*, reaching even to our couches, approaches my ears, is wafted on, and is rumbling like a resistless torrent lashing the mountain-side. Alas ! alas ! Oh gods and goddesses, avert the rising horror ; the white-bucklered* well-appointed host is rushing on with a shout on the other side our walls, speed- ing its way to the city. Who tljen will rescue us, who then of gods and goddesses will ai& us ? Shall I then pros- trate myself before the statues of the divinities? Oh ye blessed beings, seated on your glorious thi'ones, 'tis high time

and Argos. How great a stress was laid upon the ridicule of foreign dialect, may be seen from the reception of Pseudartabas in the Achar- nians.

1 Cf. Arist. Rhet. II. 17, 6. The same sentiment, though expressed the contrary way, occurs in Eur. Troad. 26, 'Eprifiia yap iroXiv orav \dj3y (ca/cr), NotrsT to. twv Oewv ovSe rifiacjOai diXei.

2 The chorus survey the surrounding plains from a high part of the Acropolis of Thebes, as Antigone from the top of the palace in the Phoenissae of Euripides, v. 103, sqq.

^ TrpoSpo^oc = so as to be foremost. Cf. Soph. Antig. 108, ^vyuca vpoSpofiov 6^VTf.p(jj Kivrtrraaa y^oKivi^.

* This passage is undoubtedly corrupt, but Dindorf's conjecture t'Xt 5' IfiaQ (ppktmQ UoQ' '6it\wv ktvtvoq izoTixpunrTtTai, did TriSov /3ofi voTCLTai, l3pifiH £)' — , although ingenious, ditters too much from the ductus literarum, to be considered safe. Paley, from the interpretation of the Medicean MS. and the reading of Robortelli, tAlAtjuvac, has con- jectured AIA ?i yoQ ifxaQ viS'i oTrXoKTvizov, which peems preferable. Perhaps we might read iiri St yaq TridioTrXoKTVTTOv ojiriv XP'7"''' /^^""' ^y tmesis, for tTrixpiffTTtTai. iEschylus uses the compound, tyxptTrrta- Qai, Suppl. 790, and nothing is more common than such a tmesis. I doubt whether irtSioTrXoKTinrov is not one of yEschylus' own "high- crested" compounds. Mr. Burges has kindly suggested a parallel passage of an anonymous author, quoted by Suidas, s. v. vTrnparroixiviig: 'imrwy Xpi/jitTiZovrwv, TtiQ yrjg roTf Troniv avTiJv vTrapur-o^Lrri^, oitXuiv cvyKpovofiiviov.

' Cf. Soph. Antig. 106.

40 THE SEVEN 97 — U6

for us to cling to your statues — why do we deeply sighing delay? Hear ye, or hear ye not, the clash of bucklers? When, if not now, shall we set about the orison of the peplus' and chaplets ? I perceive a din, a crash of no single spear. What wilt thou do ? wilt thou, O Mars, ancient guar- dian of our soil, abandon thine own land ? God of the golden helm, look upon, look upon the city which once thou didst hold well-beloved. Tutelary gods of our countiy, behoW, behold this train of virgins suppliant to escape from slavery', for around our city a sm-ge of men with waving crests is rip- pling, stirred by the blasts of Mars. EuL_0_Jpve. sire all- perfectX avert thoroughly fi-om us capture by the foemen ; for Argives are encircling the fortress of Cadmus ; and I feel t. dread of martial arms, and the bits which are fastened through the jaws of their horses are knelling slaughter. And seven leaders of the host, conspicuous in their spear- proof harness, are taking their stand at our seventh gate*, assigned their posts by lot. Do thou too, O Jove-born power that delightest in battle, Pallas, become a saviom- to our city; and thou, _ equestrian monarch, sovereign of the main, with thy fish- smiting trident, O Neptune, grant a deliverance, a deliverance from our ter- rors. Do thou too, O Mars, alas ! alas ! guard the city which is named after Cadmus, and manifestly shew thy care ; — ^and thou, Venus, the original mother of our race, avert [these ills] — for from thy blood are we sprung; calling on thee with heaven-ward orisons do we approach thee. — And thou Ly- c^an king — be thou fierce as a wolt* to the hostile army,

1 Cf. Virg. JEn. I. 479:—

" Interea ad templum non sequse Palladis ibant Crinibus Iliades passis, peplumque ferebant

Suppliciter tristes"

Statius, Theb. x. 50 : —

" et ad patrias fusse Pelopeides aras

Sceptriferae Junonis opem, reditumque suorum Exposcunt, pictasque fores, et f'rigida vultu Saxa terunt, parvosque decent piocumbere natos. ****** Peplum etiam dono, cujus mirabile textum," etc.

2 Here there is a gap in the metre. See Dindorf.

3 " pro vitanda servitute." Paley.

* Not " at the seven gates," as Valck,?na«r has clearly shewn. 5 The paronomasia can only be kept up by rendering, " do thou, king of wolves, fall with wolf-like fierceness." etc. MuUer, Dorians, vol. I

U6— 191 AGAINST THKBES, 41

[niovedj by the voice of our sighs'. Thou too, virgin-daughter of Latona, deftly adorn thyself with thy bow, 0 beloved Diana. Ah! ah! ah! I hear the rumbling of cars around the city, O i-evered Juno, the naves of the hea'V'y-laden axles creak, the air is maddened with the wizzing of javelins — • what is our city undergoing ? What will become of it ? To what point is the deity conductmg the issue* ? ah ! ah ! A shower of stones too from their slingers is coming over our battlements. O beloved Apollo ! there is the clash of brass- rimmed shields at the gates, and the just issue in battle must be decided by arms according to the disposal of Jove*. And thouOnca*, immortal queen, that dwellest in front of our city, rescue thy seven-gated seat. O gods, all-potent to save, O ye gods and goddesses, perfect guardians of the towers of this laud, abandon not our war- wasted city to an army of aliens. Listen to these virgins, listen to our all-just prayers, as is most right, to the orisons of virgins which are offered with out-stretched hands. O beloved divinities, hovering around our city as its deliverers, show how ye love it; give heed to our public rituals, and when ye give heed to them succour us, and be ye tridy mindful, I beseech ye, of the rites of our city which abound in sacrifices.

He-enter Eteocles. Intolerable creatures ! is this, I ask you, best and salutary for our city, and an encouragement to this beleaguered force, for you to fall before the statues of our tutelary gods, to shi'iek, to yell — O ye abominations of the wise. Neither in woes nor in welcome prosperity may I be associated witli v/oman-kind; for when woman prevails, her audacity is more than one can live with; and when she is aifrighted, she is a still greater mischief to her home and city. Even now, having brought upon your countrymen this pell-mell flight, ye ha^e,

p. 325, considers that Avkuoq is connected with XvKt] light, not with \vKOQ, a wolf.

1 I follow Paley's emendation, avraiQ.

* See a judicious note of Paley's.

^ I have borrowed Griffiths' translation. It soems impossible thnt ayvbv t'iXoq could ever be a personal appeal, while av ri evidently showj that the address to Pallas Onca was unconnected with the preceding line. As there is probably a lacuna after AioOiv, it is impossible to arrive 4 •ny certain meanini^.

* See Stanley. "Oyta is a Phcenician word, and epithet of Minerra.

42 THE SEVEN 192 — £25

by your outcries, spread dastard cowardice, and ye are serv-ing, as best ye may, the interests of those without, but we within our walls are suffering capture at our own hands ; — such blessings will you have if you live along with women. Wherefore if any one give not ear to my authority, be it man or woman, or other between [these names'.] the %tal pebble shall decide against him, and by no means shall he escape the doom of stoning at the hand of the populace. For what pass- eth without is a man's concern, let not woman offer advice — but remaining within do thou occasion no mischief. Heard'st thou, or heard' st thou not, or am I speaking to a deaf woman?

Ch. 0 dear son of CEdipus, I felt terror when I heard the din from the clatter if the cars, when the wheel- whirling naves rattled, and [tie d^] of the fire- WTOught bits, the rudders* of the horses, passing through their mouths that know no rest. Et. What then ? does the mariner who flees from the stern to the prow' find means of escape, when his bark is labour- ing against the billow of the ocean ?

Ch. No; but I came in haste to the ancient statues of the divinities, trusting in the gods, when there was a pattering at om- gates of destructive sleet showering down, even then I was carried away by terror to offer my supplications to the Iramoitals, that they would extend theii- protection over the city.

Et. Pray that our fortification may resist the hostile spear. Ch. Shall not this, thea, be at the disposal of the gods ? Et. Aye, but 'tis said that the gods of the captm-ed city abandon it.

Ch. At no time during my life may this conclave of gods abandon us: never may I behold our city overrun, and an army firi:ig it with hostile flame.

Et. D.) not thou, invoking the gods, take ill counsel; — for svibordhij'.tion, woman, is the mother of saving success; bo the adage runs.

' The boys, girls, etc.

2 Cf. Eur. Hippol. 1219, sqq.

Kni SlCyTTOTIJQ jXtV (TTTTtKoTc tv TjOtcn

f'X(Cfi C>(, Ki07n]v wart vavl3c'(Tiig avijp. ' (. e. to adore the images jilaced at the head of the vessel. See Griffiths.

22G— 260 AGAINST THEBES. 43

Ch. But the jjods liave a power superior still, and oft in adversity does this raise the heiple^s out of severe calamity, when clouds are overhanging his brow.

Et. It is the business of men, to present victims and offer- ings of worship to the gods, when foemen are making an attempt : 'tis thine on the other hand to hold thy peace and abide within doors.

Ch. 'Tis by the blessing of the gods that we inhabit a city unconquered, and that our fortification is proof against the multitude of our enemies. What Nemesis can feel offended at this ?

Et. I am not offended that ye should honour the race of the gods ; but that thou mayest not render the citizens faint-hearted, keep quiet and yield not to excessive terrors.

Ch. When I heard the sudden din, I came, on the very instant, in distracting panic to this Acropolis, a hallowed &eat.

Et. Do not now, if ye hear of the dying or the wounded, eagerly receive them with shrieks ; for with this slaughter of mortals is Mars fed.

Ch. And I do in truth hear the snortings of the horses.

Ex. Do not now, when thou hearest them, hear too dis- tinctly.

Ch. Our city groans fi'om the ground, as though the foes were hemming her in.

Et, Is it not then enough that 1 take measures for this ?

Ch. I fear ! for the battering at the gates increases.

Et. Wilt thou not be silent ? Say nought of this kind in the city.

Ch. O associate band [of gods], abandon not our towers.

Et. Cannot ye endure it in silence, and confusion to ye ?

Ch. Gods of my city ! let me not meet with slavery.

Et. Thoii thyself art making a slave both of me, of thyself, ind of the city.

Ch. O all-potent Jove ! turn the shaft against our foes.

Et. O Jove ? what a race hast thou made women !

Ch. Just as wretched as men when their city is taken.

Et. Again thou art yelping as thou claspest the statues !

Ch. Yes, for in my panic terror hurries away my tongue.

Et. Would to heaven that you would graut me a trifling favour on my requesting it.

44 IDE SEVEN 261—290

Ch. Tell me as quickly as you can, and I shall know at once.

Et. Hold thy peace, wretched woman, alarm not thy friends.

Ch. I hold my peace — with others I will suifer what is des- tined.

Et. I prefer this expression of thine rather than thy former words; and moreover, coming forth from the sta- tues, pray thou for the best, — that the gods may be om' allies. And after thou hast listened to my prayers, then do thou raise the sacred auspicious shout of the Paean, the Grecian rite of saci'ificial acclamation, an encom-agement to thy friends that removes the fear of the foe. And I, to the tutelary gods of our land, both those who haunt the plains, and those who watch over the forum, and to the fountains of Dirce, and I speak not without those of the IsmenusS if things turn out well and our city is preserved, do thus make my vows that we, dyeing the altars of the gods with the blood of sheep, offering bulls to the gods, will deposit trophies, and vestments of our enemies, spear-won spoils of the foe, in their hallowed abodes. Offer thou pray- ers like these to the gods, not with a number of sighs, nor with foolish and wild sobbings ; for not one whit the more wilt thou escape Destiny. But I too, forsooth*, will go and marshal at the seven outlets of om: a^tiIIs, six men, with my- self for a seventh, antagonists to our foes in gallant plight, before both urgent messengers and quickly-bruited tidings arrive, and inflame us by the crisis. [Exit Eteocles.

Cii. I attend, but through terror my heart sleeps not, and cares that press close upon my heart keep my dread alive, because of the host that hems om* walls' around ; like as

* This far-fetched interpretation of an absurd text is rightly con- demned by W. Dindorf in his note, who elegantly reads with Lud. Din- dorf vSaai t 'l(Tfitjvov, Paley has clearly shown the origin of the cor- ruption. Linwood is equally disinclined to support the common reading.

2 Blomfield reads tyw Se y' dvSpag, the change of AEr to AEII being by no means a difficult one. Linwood agrees with this alteration, and Dindorf in his notes. But Paley still defends the common reading, thinking that en' txOpolg is to be taken from the following line. I do not think the poet would have hazarded a construction so doubtful, that we iriiglit take ivrl either with avSpag, exOpo'ig, or by tmesis, with

3 The construction of the exegetical accusative is well illustrated in Jelfs Gk. Gr. § 580. 3.

\,91 — 344 AGAINST THEBES. 4<;

dove, an all-attentive nurse, fears, on behalf of her brood, •ierpents evil intruders into her nest. For some are advancing against the towers in all their numbers, in all their array; (what will become of me ?) and others are launching the vast rugged stone at the citizens, who are assailed on all sides. By eveiy means, O ye Jove-descended gods! rescue the city and the army that spring from Cadmus. "WTiat better plain of land will ye take in exchange to yourselves than this, after ye have abandoned to our enemies the fertile land, and Dirce's water best fed of all the streams that earth-encircling Nep- tune sends forth, and the daughters of Tethys? Wherefore, 0 tutelary gods of the city! having hurled on those without the towers the calamity that slaughters men, and casts away shields, achieve glory for these citizens, and be your statues placed on noble sites, as deliverers of our city', tlu'ough our entreaties fraught with shrill groaniugs. For sad it is to send prematurely to destruction an ancient city, a prey of slaveiy to the spear, ingloriously overthrown in crumbling ashes by an Achaean according to the will of heaven; and for its women to be dragged away captives, alas ! alas ! both the young and the aged, like horses by their hair, while their vestments ai'e rent about their persons. And the emptied city cries aloud, while its booty is wasted amid confused clamours ; — verily I fearfully forebode hea\"y calamities. And a mom'nful thing it is for [maidens] just marriageable', before the celebration of rites for cull- ing the fresh flower of their virginity, to have to traverse a hateful journey from their homes. What? I pronounce that the dead fares better than these ; for full many are the calamities, alas 1 alas ! which a city undergoes when it has been reduced. One di'ags another*, slaughters, and to parts he sets fire — the whole city is defiled with smoke, and ra%'ing Mars that tramples down the nations, violating

^ I. have followed Blomfield, and Dindorf in his notes, in reading KvSoQ TolffSs TToXiraic.

- This is perhaps the sense required ; but, with Dindorf, T cannot see now it can be elicited from the common reading. Perhaps Schneider's apTiTp6(l>oiQ is right, which is approved by Dindorf, Linwood, and Paley.

3 There is the same irregular antithesis between dWov uyii and ra oi (= T^ Si) irvp(popH; as in Soph. Ant. 138, tix' ^' o-Wif to. fxiv, u'SSa 0 'Itt' aXXo(£ ivivujia — ' Apiji,.

46' THE SEVEN 345—5^'"

piety, inspires them. Throughout the town are uproars., against the city rises the turreted circumvallation', and man is slain by man with the spear. And the cries of children at the breast all bloody resound, and there is rapine sister of pell-mell confusion. Pillager meets pillager, and the empty-handed shouts to the empty-handed, wishing to have a partner, greedy for a portion that shall be neither less nor equal. What of these things can speech picture ? Fruits of every possible kind strewn* upon the ground occasion sor- row, and dismal is the face of the stewards. And full many a gift of earth is swept along in the worthless streams, in undistinguished medley. And young female slaves have new sorrows, a foe being superior*, and fortunate as to their wretched captive couch, so that they hope for life's gloomy close to come, a guardian against their all-mournful sorrows.

Semi-Ch. The scout, methinks, my friends, is bringing us some fresh tidings from the army, urging in naste the for- warding axles* of his feet.

Semi-Ch. Aye, and in very truth here comes our prince, son of OEdipus, very opportunely for learning the messenger's report, — and haste does not allow him to make equal foot- steps*.

\_Re-enter Messenger and EiEocLEs^rom different sides.

Mes. I would fain tell, for I know them well, the arrange- ments of our adversaries, and how each has obtained his lot at our gates. Tydeus now for some time has been raging hard by the gate of Proetus : but the seer allows him not to cross

* See Elmsl. on Eur. Bacch. 611. I follow Griffiths and Paley.

^ There is much difficulty in the double participle ■Kiaiiv-Kv^i^aac,. Dindorf would altogether omit Kv^i]<jaq, as a gloss. But surely Trso-wj' was more likely to be added as a gloss, than KvprjCFag. I think that the fault probably lies in irtawv.

^ This passage is scarcely satisfactory, but I have followed Paley Perhaps if we place a comma after inrtprepov, and treat wg avcp. ^. vr IVTVX' as a genitive absolute, there will be less abruptness, tXTTi'g t(TTi standing for iX-n-iZovcri, by a frequent enallage.

■* The turgidity of this metaphor is almost too much even for .iEschylus !

* The multitude of interpretations of the common reading are from their uniform absurdity sufficient to show that it is corrupt. I have chosen the least offensive, but am still certain that aTrapTi^u is inde- fensible. Hermann (who, strange to say, is followed by WeUauer) reiuLs KarapyiKfi-, Blomfield KaTapric,tL.

373—409 AGAINST THEBES. 47

the stream of Ismeuus, for tlie sacrifices are not auspicious. So Tydeus, raving and greedy for the fight, roars like a ser- pent m its hissings beneath the noontide heat, and he smites the sage seer, son of Oicleus, with a taunt, [saying] that he is crouching to both Death and Battle out of cowardice. Shout- ing out such words as these, he shakes there shadowy crests, the hairy honovirs of his helm, while beneath his buckler bells cast in "brass are shrilly pealing ten-or : on his buckler too he has this arrogant device,— a gleaming sky tricked out with stars, and in the centre of the shield a brilliant full moon is conspicuous, most august of the heavenly bodies, the eye of night. Chafing thus in his vaunting harness, he roars beside the bank of the river, enamoured of conflict, like a steed champing his bit with rage, that rushes forth when he hears the voice of the trumpet^ Whom wilt thou marshal against this [foe] ? Who, when the fastenings give way, is fit to be intrusted with the defence of the gate of Proetus ?

Et. At no possible array of a man should I tremble; and blazonry has no power of inflicting wounds, and crtsts and bell bite not* without the spear. And for this night which thou tellest me is sparkling on his buckler with the stars of heaven, it may perchance be a prophet in conceit' ; for if night shall settle on his eyes as he is dying, verily this vaunting device would con-ectly and justly answer to its name, and he himself will have made the insolence ominous against himself. But against Tydeus will I marshal this wary son of Astacus, as defender of the portals, full nobly born, and one that reverences the throne of ISIodesty, and detests too liaughty languao-e, for he is wont to be slow at base acts, but no

1 Besides Stanley's illustrations, see Pricseus on Apul. Apol. p. 58. Pelagonius in the Geoponica, XVI. 2, observes dyaOoii Ce 'iitirov Kai TOVTO TiKjxr]Oiov, OTUV iarrjKiljg /nj) avkx'irai, aX\d kootwv ri)v yi]v airtp Tpkxtiv iTTiBvuy. St. Macarius Horn. XXIII. 2, tTTuv C£ ^aOg (6 tTTTroc) Kai (JvvtOicBy iIq tov noXtfiov, orav 6/T(;)parO^ kui aKOvir^ fwvtjv TToXi^iov, dvTog troi'jKwc tpxtrai iiri rovt; txOpovc, wart K<d utt' awrjjg T/jc (pojviig iTTotiaiv ifnroitlv to'iq irvXiiiiaig. JMarmion, Canto v., —

" Marmion, like charger in the stall. That hears without the trumpet's call. Began to chafe and swear."

' See Boyes' Illustrations, p. 11.

3 Tliis seems to be the senee of fiuvrig tvvo'ia. Blomfield would alter ivvoia 0 the dative, which is easier.

48 THE SEVEN 4!0— 4?(«

dastard. And fi-om the sown heroes whom Mars spared is Melanippus sprung a scion, and he is thoroughly a native. But the event Mars with his dice will decide. And justice, his near kinswoman, makes him her champion^ that he may ward oS the foeman's spear from the mother that bare him.

Ch. Now may the gods grant unto our champion to be successful, since with justice' does he speed forth in defence of the city ; but I shudder to behold the sanguinary fate of those who perish in behalf of their friends.

Mes. To him may the gods so grant success.— But Ca- paneus has by lot obtained his station against the Eiectran gate. This is a giant, greater than the other aforemen- tioned, and his vaunt savours not of humanity; but he threatens horrors against our towers, which may fortune not bring to pass! for he declares, that whether the god is willing or unwilling, he will make havoc of our city, and that not the Wrath^ of Jove, dashing doAvn upon the plain, should stop him. And he is wont to compare both the lightnings and the thunder-bolts to the heat of noontide, lie has a bearing too, a naked man bearing fire, and there gleams a torch with which his hands are armed* ; — and, in letters of gold, he is uttering, i will burn the city.

Against a man such as this do thou send* . Who

Avill engage with him .^ Who will abide his vaunting and not tremble ?

Et. And in this case" also one advantage is gained upon another. Of the vain conceits of man in sooth the tongue of

^ So Linwood. Justice is styled the near relation of Melanippus, because he was a/ff^pwi' apybg, v. 406. The scholiast however interprets it TO tF]S Kvyytvticu; SiKawv.

- Dindorfs substitution of ^iKaiaQ for SiKaiwQ is no improvement, Palej's oiKaiog is more elegant, but there seems little reason for altera- tion.

^ Probably nothing more than the lightning is meant, as BlomfieW supposes. Paley quotes Eur. Cycl. 328, ttstt \oi' icpovit, Atog iBpovrmaii' liq ipLV KTVTTiov. And this agrees with the fate of Cajiancus as describeti in Soph. Antig. 131, sqq.; Nonnus, XXVIII. p. 480; Eur. Phoen. 1187, sqq.

* Bloinfield compares Eur. Bacch. 733, Bvpaoic hd \(poiv iiivaq. But the present construction is harsher.

» See Bloni field.

• I fo" w Blomfield and Paley.

440- -4 74 i.(~AlNST thebf:8. 49

truth becomes accuser. But Capaneus is menacing, pre- pared for action, dishonouring the gods, and practising his tongue in vain exultation ; — mortal as he is, he is sending loud swelling words into ftieaven to the ears of Jove. But I trust that, as he well deserves, the fire-bearing thunderbolt will with justice come upon him, in no wise likened to the noontide warmth of the sun. Yet against him, albeit he is a very violent blusterer, is a fe.2ro mfirshalled, fiery in his spirit, stout Polyphontes, a trusty guard by the favor of Diana our protectress, and of the other gods. Mention another who hath had his station fixed at another of cm- gates,

Ch. May he peristf who proudly vaunts against our city, and may the thunder-bolt check him before that he burst into my abode, or ever, with his insolent spear force us away from our maiden dwellings.

Miss. And verily I will mention him that, hath next had his post allotted him against our gates : — for to Eteoclus, third in order, hath the third lot leapt from the inverted helm of glittering brass, for him to advance his battalion against the gates of Neis ; and he is wheeling his steeds fuming in their trappings, eager to dash forward against the gates. And their snaffles ring, in barbarian fashion, filled with the breath of their snorting nostrils. His buckler, too, hath been blazoned in no paltry style, but a man in armour is treading the steps of a ladder to his foemen's tower, seeking to storm it. And this man, in a combination of letters, is shouting, how that not even Mars should force him from the bulwarks. — Do thou send also to this man a worthy champion to ward off fi'om this city the servile yoke.

Et. I Avill send this man forthwith, and may it be with good fortune ; and verily he is sent, bearing his boast in deed*, Megareus, the ofispring of Creon, of the race of the sown^; who

1 « We embrace this opportunity of making a grammatical observation with respect to the older poets, which, to the best of our knowledge, has not hitherto been noticed by any grammarian or critic. Wherever a Tish or a prayer is expressed, either by the single optative mnod of the verb, or with i-n), £i0f, ii yup, ('iGt yap, the verb is in the second aorist, if it have a di-tinct second aorist; otherwise it may be in the present tense, but is more frequently in the first aorist." Edinb. Rev. xix, 4S5.

■■^ i. e. not bearing a braggart inscnpuon, but putting confidence in hiti own valour, ou was rightly thrown out by Erfurdt. See Paley.

* I. e. from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus.

K

t,0 THE aB\ RX 475-514

A'ill go fortli from the gates not a whit terrified at the noise of the mad snortings of the horses ; but, either by his fall will fully pay the debt of his nurture to the land, or, having taken two men^ and the city on the shield, will garnish with the spoils the house of his father. Vaunt thee of another, and spare me not the recital.

Ch. I pray that this side may succeed, O champion of my dwellings ! and that with them it may go ill ; and as they, with frenzied mind, utter exceedingly proud vaunts against '.ur city, so may Jove the avenger regard them in his wrath.

Mes. Another, the fourth, who occupies the adjoining gates of Ouca Minerva, stands hard by with a shout, the shape and mighty mould of Hippomedon ; and I shuddered at him as he whirled the immense orb, I mean the circumference of his buckler — I will not deny it. And assuredly it was not any mean artificer in heraldry who produced this work upon his buckler, a Typhon, darting forth through his fire-breathing mouth dark smoke, the quivering sister of fire, and the circular cavity of the hollow-bellied shield hath been made further solid with coils of serpents. He himself, too, hath raised the war-cry ; and, possessed by Mars, raves for the onslaught, like a Thyiad^, glaring terror. Well must we guard against the attack of such a man as this, for Terror is already vaunting himself hard by our gates.

Et. In the fiist place, this Onca Pallas, who dwells in our suburbs, living near the gates, detesting the insolence of the man, will drive him off, as a noxious serpent from her young. And Hyperbius, worthy son of CEnops, hath been chosen to oppose him. man to man. willing to essay his des- tiny in the crisis of fortune ; he is open to censure neither in form, nor in spirit, nor in array of arm : but INIercury hath matched them fairly ; for hostile is the man to the man with whom he will have to combat, and on their bucklers will they bring into conflict hostile gods; for the one hath fire- breathing Typhon, and on the buckler of Hyperbius father Jove is seated firm, flashing, with his bolt in his hand; and never yet did any one know of Jove being by any chance vanquished'. ' Etodus and the figure on his shield. 2 Like a Bacchic devotee. See Virg. JEq. IV. 301, sqq. So in the Agamemnon, v. 477.

juapriip'T ^e fioi Kacrig ■7r>]\nv ^vj'ovpciQ, ^li^ia Kovic, Ta^f. * Cf. Ag. 17-1. Z/yj^a Si rtf iniviKia KXa^Mi; '{iv^iTai <pptv<lJP ri

315-543 AGAINST THEHES. 51

Such in good sooth is the friendship of the divinities : we are on the side of the victors, but they on that of the conquered, if at least Jove be mightier in battle than Typhon. Where- fore 'tis probable that the combatahts will fare accordingly ; and to Hyperbius, in accordance with his blazonry, may Jove ;hat is on his shield become a saviour.

Ch. 1 feel confident that he who hath upon his shield the adversary of Jove, the hateful form of the subterranean fiend, a semblance hateful both to mortals and the everliving gods will have to leave his head before our gates.

Mes. May such be the issue ! But, fiu'thermore, I mentioi the fifth, marshalled at the fifth gate, that of Boreas, bji the very tomb of Jove -born Amphion. And he makes oath by the spear' which he grasps, daring to revere it more than a god, and more dearly than his eyes', that verily he will make havoc of the city of the Cadmajans in spite of Jove: thus says the foir-faced scion of a momitain-dwelling mother, a stripling hero, and the down is just making its way through his cheeks, in the spring of his prime, thick sprouting hair. And he takes his post, having a ruthless spirit, not an- swering to his maidenly name', and a savage aspect. Yet not without his vaunt does he take stand agaiust our gates, for on his brazen-forged shield the rounded bulwark of his body, he was wielding the reproach of our city, the Sphinx of ruthless maw affixed by means of studs, a gleaming embossed form ; and under her she holds a man, one of the Caduia;ans, so

Trav. Dindorf would omit all the following lines. There is some diffi- culty about the sense of Trpotr^iXaa, which 1 think Pauw best explains as meaning "such is the god that respectively befriends each of these champions."

' Cf. ApoUon. Rhod. I. 466,''I<rrai vvv Sopi) Qovpov, or(;j irtaiwaiov dXXoJV KvCog tvi TTToXifioimv atipofiai, oiiC'S fi 6([>iX\ei 'Ati't; Tirrov bniyariov irtp i^ibv copv. Statius Theb. ix. 54'j — " ades o milii dextera tantum Tu prsesens bellis, et inevitabile numea, Te voco, te solaui sujje- ruui contemptor adoro." See Cerda on Virg. ^En. X. 773.

- So Catullus, iii. 4, 5.

Passer, delicise mese puellae, Quern plus ilia oculis suis am ibat.

And Vathek, p. 124 (of the English version) " Nouronihar loved her cousin more than her own beautiful eyes." Old Translator. See Valcken. on Theocrit. xi. 53.

^ A pun upon the word TrapOkvoe in the composition of I'artlienopivi'.j'j

52 THE SEVEN 544— .1 7 7

that against tliis man^ most shafts are hurled. And he, a youth, Partheiiopscus an Arcadian, seems to have come to fight in no short measure*, and not to disgrace the length of way that he has traversed: for this man, such as he is, is a sojourner, and, by way of fully repaying Argos for the goodly niirture she has given him, he utters against these towers menaces, which may the deity not fulfil.

Et. O may they receive from the gods the things which they are purposing in those very unhallowed vaunts ! Assu- redly they would perish most miserably in utter destruction. ]^ut there is [provided] for this man also, the Arcadian of whom you speak, a man that is no braggart, but his hand discerns what should be done, Actor, brother of the one afore- mentioned, who will not allow either a tongue, without deeds, streaming within om* gates, to aggravate mischiefs, nor him to make his way within who bears upon his hostile buckler the image of the wild beast, most odious monster, which from the outside shall find fault with him who bears it within, when it meets with a thick battering under the city. — So, please the gods, may I be speaking the truth.

Ch. The tale pierces my bosom, the locks of my hair stand erect, when I hear of the big words of these proudly-vaunting impious men. Oh ! would that the gods would destroy them in the land.

Mes. I will tell of the sixth, a man most prudent, and in valour the best, the seer, the mighty Amphiaraus: for he, having been marshalled against the gate of Homolois, reviles mighty Tydeus full oft with reproaches, as the homicide, the troubler of the state, chief teacher of the mischiefs of Argos, the summoner of Erinnys, minister of slaughter, and adviser of these mischiefs to Adrastus. Then again going up' to thy brother, the mighty Polynices, he casts his eye aloft, and, at

' The figure on the shield is undoubtedly the one meant.

2 t. e. " he will fight by wholesale." See comm. Perhaps the Eng- lish phrase to " deal a blow," to " lend a blow," is the nearest approxi- mation to this curious idiom. Boyes quotes some neat illustrations.

^ This passage is a fair instance of the impossibility of construing cer- tain portions of iEschylus as they are edited. Dindoif in his notes ap- proves of Dobree's emendation, Kai tov abv avr aSikcpov ig TrarpoQ uopov ''E.s.vTTTia^iov ovoj.ia, and so Paley, exi^ept that he reads o^fia with Schutz, and renders it " ocuio in patrio (Eaipi fatum religiose mblaio." Blomficld's irporrfioXwi' ofioaTropov seems simpler, and in better taste. dfiocTTTopov was doubtless obliterated by the gloss d^tXpcov (an Ionic lurm ill suited to the senarixis), and tiie ofioioriXtvTop caused the rrtnaaimiej

579— GIO AGAINST THEBES. 53

last, reproachfully dividing his name [into syllables^,] he calls to him : and through his mouth he gives uttei-ance to this speech — "Verily such a deed is well-pleasing to the gods, and glorious to hear of and to tell in after times, that you are making havoc of your paternal city, and its native gods, having brought into it a foreign armament. And what Justice shall staunch the fountain of thy mother's tears? And how can thy father-land, after having been taken by the spear through thy means, ever be an ally to thee ? I, for my part, in very truth shall fatten this soil, seer as I am, buried beneath a hostile earth. Let us to the battle, I look not for a dishonourable fall." Thus spake the seer, wielding a fair-orbed shield, all of brass ; but no device was on its circle, — for he wishes not to seem but to be righteous, reaping fi-uit from a deep fuiTOW in his mind, from which sprout forth his goodly counsels. Against this champion I advise that thou send antagonists, both wise and good. A dread adversary is he that reveres the gods.

Et. Alas ! for the omen' that associates a righteous man with the impious ! — Indeed in every matter, nothing is worse than evil fellowship — the field of infatuation has death for its fruits'. For whether it be that a pious man hath 3mbarked in a vessel along with violent sailors, and some vil- lany, he perishes with the race of men abhorred of heaven ; or, being righteous, and having rightly fallen into the same toils with his countrymen, violators of hospitality, and un- mindful of the gods, he is beaten down, smitten with the 6Com-ge of the deity, which falls alike on all. Now this seer, 1 mean the son of Oicleus, a moderate, just, good, and pious of the error. Burges first proposed onoanopov in Troad. Append, p. 134. D. As to Palsy's idea that CEdipus' death was caused "per contentiorim filii indolem," I ciinnot find either autliority for the fact, or reason for its mention here, and I have therefore followed Blomfield. Dindorf's translation I cannot understand. The explanations of i^virTid'Cwv bvofia are amusing, and that is all.

1 i. e. saying noXvvuKEQ ttoXwuk'sq. Paley ingeniously remarks that ivSaTtlaecii is here used in a double sense, both of divUliny and reproach- ing. See his note, and of. Phoen. 63G. dXj/Owc ovo/ta WoXvvtiKi) irarrip WtTO (Toi 9ti(} TTpovoif, vtiKtwv f ttwvo^ov.

2 See Griffiths.

3 Porson, and all the subsequent editors have bracketed this verse as spurious, but the chief objection to this sense of KiipTTtltaOai seems to be obviated by Paley. See his note.

54 THE SKV'EM CU-G42

man, a miglity prophet, associated with unholy bokl-mouthecl men, in spite of his [better] judgment, when they made their long march, by the favour of Jove, shaE be drawTi along with them to go to the distant city'. I fancy, k;deed, that he will not make an attack on our gates, not as >vi.r.ting spirit, nor from cowardice of disposition, but he knows that it is his doom to fall in battle, if there is to be any fruit in the oracles of Apollo : 'tis his wont too to hold his peace, or to speak what is seasonable. Nevertheless against him we will mar- shal a man, mighty Lasthenes, a porter surly to strangers, and who bears an aged mind, but a youthful form; quick is his eye, and he is not slow of hand to snatch his spear made naked from his left hand*. But for mortals to succeed is a boon of the deity.

Ch. O ye gods, give ear to our righteous supplications, and graciously bring it to pass that our city may be successful, while ye turn the hori ors wi-ought by the spear upon the inva- ders of our country : and may Jove, having flung them [to a distance] from our towers, slay them with his thunderbolt.

Mes. Now will I mention this the seventh, against the seventh gate, thine own brother — what calamities too he impre- cates and prays for against ovir city ; — that, he having scaled the towers, and been proclaimed^ to the land, after having shouted out the pa3an of triumph at the capture, may engage with thee ; and, having slain thee, may die beside thee, or avenge him- self on thee alive, that dishonoured, that banished him^, by exile after the very same manner. Thus does mighty Poly- nices clamour, and he summons the gods of his race and fatherland to regard his supplications. He has, moreover, a newly-constructed shield, well suited [to his arm,] and a double

' Either v/ith ird'Mv or iroXiv theri? is much difficulty, as without an epitliet ttSMs seems harshly api)lied to Hades. Paley thinks that t?)i/ ^xaKpav refers both to iro/j-ir^p and ii6\iv. Dindort a<lopts liis usual plan when a difficulty occurs, and proposes to omit the line. Fritzsthe truly said of this learned critic, that if he had the privilege of omitting CAerything he could not understand, the plays of the Grecian dramatists would speedily be reduced to a collection of fiagments.

' When the spear was not in use, it was held in the left hand, under the shield. See Blomfield.

' so. king, or victor, Blomfield adopts the former.

* '.''his pssage is not satisihctoiy. Paley reads avdprjKarwv, but 1 aiu doubt/Vl aliijut Tcis . . . TSvSe k . ■ rpunov.

643—685 AQATN9T THEBES. 55

device wrought upon it. — For awomauis leailiug on a mailed warrior, forged out of brass, conducting him decorously ; and ^0 she professes to be Justice, as the inscription tells. — i will

ERIKG BACK THIS MAN, AND HE SHALL HAVE THE CITY OF HIS FATHERS, AND A DWELLING IN THE PALACE. Such are

their devices; and do thou thyself now determine whom it is that thou thinkest proper to send : since never at any time shalt thou censure me for my tidings ; but do thou thyself determine the management of th.e vessel of the state.

Et. O heaven-phrenzied, and great abomination of the gods! — Oh! for our race of CEdipus, worthy of all moummg — Alas for me ! now verily are tlae curses of my sire coming to an accomplishment. But it becomes me not to weep or wail, lest birth be given to a lament yet more intolerable. But to Polynices, that well deserves his name, I say, soon shall we know what issue his blazonry will have ; whether letters wrought in gold, vainly vaunting on his buckler, along with phrenzy of soul will restore him. If indeed Justice, the virgin daughter of Jove, attended on his actions or his thoughts, perchance this might be. But neither when he escape the dark- ness of the womb, nor in his infancy, nor ever in his boyhood, nor in the gathering of the hair on his chin, did Justice look on him, or deem him worthy her regards : nor truly do I sup])ose that she will now take her stand near to him, in his ill-omened possession of his father-land. Truly she would then in all reason be falsely called Justice, were she to consort with a man all-daring in his soul. Trusting in this I will go, and face him in person. Who else covdd do so with better riglit? Leader against leader, brother against brother, foeman with foeman, shall I take my stand. Bring me with aU speed my greaves, my spear, and my armour of defence against the stones. Exit Messenger.

Ch. Do not, O dearest of men, son of G'^dipus, become in wrath like to him against whom thou hast most bitterly spoken. — Enough it is that Cadmseans come to the encounter Avith Argives. For such bloodshed admits of expiation. But the death of own brothers thus mutually wrought by their own hands — of this pollution there is no decay.

Et. If any one receives evil without disgi-acc, be it so ; for the only advantage is among the dead: but of evil and disgraceful things, thou canst not tell me honour

5G THK SEVEN 68G — 712

Ch. Why art thou eager, my son? let not Ate, full of wrath, raging with the spear, hurry thee away — but banish the first impulse of [evil] passion.

Et. Since the deity with all power urges on the matter, let the whole race of Laius, abhorred by Phoebus, having received for its portion the wave of Cocytus, drift down with the wind.

Ch. So fierce a biting lust for unlawful blood hurries thee on to perpetrate the shedding of a man's blood, of which the fruit is bitter*.

Et. Aye, for the hateful curse of my dear father, con- summated, sits hard beside me with dry tearless eyes, telling me that profit comes before my after doom*.

Ch. But do not accelerate it; thou wilt not be called das- tardly if thou honourably preservest thy life — and Erinnys*, with her murky tempest, enters not the dwelling where the gods receive a sacrifice from the hands [of the inmates].

Ex. By the gods, indeed, we have now for some time been in a manner neglected, and the pleasure which arises from our destruction is welcomed by them; why should we any longer fawn* upon our deadly doom?

Ch. Do so now, whilst it is in thy power; since the daemon, that may alter with a distant shifting of his temper, will per- chance come with a gentler air; but now he still rages.

Et. Aye, for the curses of ffidipus have raged beyond all .bounds; and too true were my visions of phantoms seen in my slumbers, dividers of my father's wealth*.

Ch. Yield thee to women, albeit that thou lovest them not.

Et. Say ye then what one may allow you ; but it must not be at length.

Ch. Go not thou on this way to the seventh gate.

' In the original there is, perhaps, a slight mixture of construction, utfiarog partly depending upon KafiTrog implied in TviKpoKapivov, ana partly upon av^poKraaiav. dvSpoKT. a'lfi. being the slaughter of a man, by which his blood is shed.

^ Wellauer: denuntians lucrum, quod prius erit morte posteriore . I. e. victoriam quam sequetur mors. And so Griflitlis and Paley.

^ Shakspeare uses this name in the opening speech of King Henry, in part I.:

No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil

Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood.

Old Translator.

' See above, v. SSS.

* Somewhat to the same eflfect is tlic dream of Atossa in the Persse.

ri3 — 753 AGAINST THEBES, 5T

El . Whetted as I am, thovi wilt not blunt me by argument.

Ch. Yet god, at all events, honours an inglorious victory.

Et. It ill becomes a warrior to acquiesce in this advice.

Ch. What! wilt thou ohed the blood of thine own brother?

Et. By heaven's leave, he shall not elude destruction.

Exit Eteocles.

Ch. I shudder with dread that the power that lays waste this house, not like the gods, the all-true, the evil-boding Erinnys simimoned by the curses of the father, is bringing to a consummation the wrathful curses of distracted CEdipus'. 'Tis this quarrel, fatal to his sons, that arouses her. And the Chalybian stranger, emigrant from Scythia, is appor- tioning their shares, a fell divider of possessions, the stern- hearted steeP, allotting them land to occupy, just as much as it may be theirs to possess when dead, bereft of their large domains'. When they shall have fallen, slain by each other's hands in mutual slaughter, and the dust of the t^ound shall have drunk up the black-clotted blood of mm-der, who will furnish expiation? who will purify them? Alas for the fresh troubles mingled with the ancient horrors of this family ! for I speak of the ancient transgression with its speedy punishment; yet it abide? unto the third generation: since Laius, in spite of Apollo, who had thrice declared, in the central oracles of Pytho, that, dying without issue, he would save the state*, did, notwithstanding, overcome by his friends, in his infatuation beget his own destruction, the parricide OEdipus, who dared to plant in an unhal- lowed field, where he had been reared, a bloody root. —

' I prefer Blomfield's transposition to Dindorf' s correction, ^\a-ipi^p6' vtog, which, though repudiated in the notes, is still adopted by Paley. ^ A noble impersonation of the sword. ^ Shakspeare, King John, act iv. sc. 2 :

That blood, which own'd the breadth of all this isle,

Three foot of it doth hold.

King Henry IV. part i. act v. sc. 5.

Fare thee well, great heart ! — Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art tliou shrunk! When that this body did contain a spirit, A kingdom for it was too small a bound ; But now, two paces of the vilest earth

Is room enough.

•• Surely the full stop after ttoXiv in v. 749 should be removed, and a colon, or mark of hyperbaton substituted. On looking at Paley's edition, I find myself anticipated.

58 niK SEVKN 753— 7'J9

'Twas plirenzy linked the distracted pair; and as it were a eea of troubles brings on one billow that subsides, and rears another triply cloven, which too dashes about the stern af our state. But between [it and us] there stretches a fence at a small interval, a tower in width alone*. And I fear lest the city should be overcome along with its princes. For the execrations, that w^ere uttered long ago, are finding their accomplishment : bitter is the settlement, and deadly things in their consummation pass not away. The wealth of enter- prising merchants*, too thickly stowed, brings with it a casting overboard from the stern. For whom of mortals did the gods, and his fellow-inmates in the city, and the many Hves of herding men', admire so much as they then honoured CEdi- pus, who had banished from the realm the baneful pest that made men her prey. But Avhen he unhappy was apprised of his Avretched marriage, despairing in his sorrow, wuth phrenzied heart he perpetrated a twofold horror; he de- prived liimself with parricidal hand of the eyes that were more precious than his children. And indignant because of his scanty supply of food*, he sent upon his sous, alas ! alas ! a cm-se horrible in utterance, even that they should some time or other, share his substance between them with sword- wielding hand: and now I tremble lest the swift Erinnys should be on the point of fulfilling that prayer.

Re-enter Messenger. Be of good cheer, maidens that have been nurtured by your mothers". This city hath escaped the yoke of servitude ; the vauntings of our mighty foes have fallen ; and oiu' city is calm, and hath not admitted a leak from the many bufiets of the surge; our fortification too stands proof, and we have fenced our gates with champions fighting single-handed, and bring- ing surety ; — ^for the most part, at six of our gates, it is well ; but the seventh the revered lord of the seventh, sovereign

' This is Griffiths' verbion of this awkward passage. I should prefer reading uXkuv with Paley, from one MS. So also Burges.

2 See my note on Soph. Philoct. 708, ed. Bohn.

3 This seems the best way of rendering the bold periphrase, 6 noXv- ^OTOQ crtujv jSpoTwv. See Griffiths.

■• I follow Paley. Dindorf, in his notes, agrees in reading rpo 0ac, but the metre seems to require hTriKOTog. Griffiths defends the common rending, but against the aucient authority of the schol. on CEd. Ccl. 1375. See Blomfield.

^ Blomlieid with reason thiuks that a verse has been lost.

SOO— 821 AGAINST THKBRS. 5L'

Apollo, cliose for himself, bringing to a consummation the ancient indiscretions of Laius.

Ch. And what new event is happening to our city ?

Mes. These men have fallen by hands that dealt mutual 6laughter^

Ch. Who? What is it thou sayest! I am distracted with terror at thy tidings.

Mes. Now be calm and listen, the race of CEdipus —

Ch. Alas for me wretched ! I am a prophetess of horrors.

Mes. Stretched in the dust are they beyond all tlispute.

Ch. Came they even to thai? bitter then are thy tidings, yet speak them.

Mes. Even thus [too surely] were they destroyed by bro- therly hands.

Ch. Even thus was the dtcmon at once impartial to sjth.

Mes. And he himself, be sm-e of this, is cutting ofi'the ill fated race.

Ch. Over such events one may both rejoice and weep — [rejoice] at the success of our city — but [mourn because]* om* princes, the two generals, have portioned out the whole possession of their substance with the hammer-wrought Scythian steel, and they will possess of land just as much as they receive at their burial, carried otf according to the unhappy imprecations of their sire.

Mes. The city is rescued, but earth hath drank the blood of the brother princes through theii' slaughter of each other.

£xit Messenger'.

Ch. Oh mighty Jove! and tutelary divinities of our city

1 The care which the Messenger takes to show the bright side of the jiicture first, reminds us of Northumberland's speech, Shakspeare, King Henry IV. part ii. act i. sc. 1 :

This thou would'st say,— Your son did thus and thus:

Your brother, thus; so fought the noble Douglas;

Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds ;

But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed,

Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise.

Ending v^ith — brother, son, and all are dead. Old Transl.

* This is a good £:sample of the figure chiasmus, the force of which 1 have expressed by the bracketed words repeated from the two infinities. !?ee Latin examples in the notes of Arntzenius on Mamertiu. Geneth. 8, p. 27; Paneg. Vett. t. i.

* The jNIesseriger retires to dress for the Herald's part.

Horace's rule, "Nee ^uaiia loqui persona labore:," seems to have

60 THK SEVEN 819—860

ye that do in very deed protect these towers of Cadmus, am I to rejoice and raise a joyous hymn to the saviour of our cit)', the averter of mischief, or shall I bewail the miserable and ill-fated childless' commanders, who, in very truth, correctly, according to their name'", full of rancour, have perished in im- pious purpose ? Oh dark and fatal curse of the race and of ffidipus, what horrible chill is this that is falling upon my heart*? I, like a Thyiad, have framed a dii-ge for the tomb, hearing of the dead, dabbled in blood, that perished haplessly — verily this meeting of spears was ill- omened. The impreca- tion of the father hath taken full effect, and hath not failed : and the unbelieving schemes of Lai'us have lasted even until now; — and care is through our city, and the divine declara- tions lose not their edge — Alas! worthy of many a sigh, ye have accomplished this horror surpassing credence ; and lamentable sufferings have come in deed. This is self- e^ddent, the tale of the messenger is befoi-e my eyes — Double are our sorrows, double are the horrors of them that have fallen by mutual slaughter ; doubly shared are these con sum mated sufferings. What shall I say? What, but that of a certainty troubles on troubles are constant inmates of this house ? But, my friends, ply the speeding stroke of your hands about yoiu- heads, before the gale of sighs, which ever wafts on its passage, the bark, on which no sighs are heard, with sable sails, the freighted with the dead, untrodden for Apollo, the sunless, across Acheron, and to the invisible all-receiving shore*.

been drawn from the practice of the Greek stage. Only three actors were allowed to each of the competitor-dramatists, and these were assigned to them by lot. (Heeychius, Nejuz/itic inroKpiron'.) Thus, for instance, as is remarked by a writer in the Quarterly Review, in the CEdipus at Colonus, V. 509, Ismene goes to offer sacrifice, and, after about forty lines, returns in the character of Theseus. Soon afterwards, v. 847, Antigone is carried off by Creon's attendants, and returns as Theseus after about the same interval as before. Old Translation. The trans- lator had misquoted the gloss of Hesychius.

' This is the tragic account. See Soph. Antig. 170, sqq. ; Eurip. Pbjen. 757, sqq. But other authors mention descendants of both.

'■' Another pun on TloXwiiKrig.

* Cf. Romeo and Juliet, act iv. sc. 3:

" I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins."

* This passage is confessedly corrupt. Paley seems to have rightly restored duroXoi' from the daroXov OtiopiSa in Robertelli's edition. This chip, as he remarks, would truly be drrToXog, in opposition to the one sent, to Delphi, which was properly caid ffTiXXfcrOni Ltti Otwpiav. Tho

8G1 — 910 AGAINST THEBES. (?1

But [enough] ! for here are coming to this bitter office Loth Antigone and Ismene. I am assured beyond all doubt that they wiU send forth a fitting wail from their lovely deep-cinc- tured bosoms. And right it is that we, before the sound of their wailing reach us, both ejaculate the dismal-souuding chaunt of Erinnys, and sing a hateful paean to Pluto. Alas ! ye that are the most hapless in your sisterhood of all women that fling the zone aroimd their robes, I weep. I mourn, and there is no guile about .so as not to be truly wailing from my very soul.

Semi-Chortjs. Alas! alas! ye frantic youths, distrustful of friends, and unsubdued by troubles, have wretched seized on your paternal dwelling with the spear.

Semi-Ch. Wretched in sooth were they who found a wretched death to the bane of their houses.

Semi-Ch, Alas! alas ! ye that overthrew the walls of your palace, and having cast an eye on bitter monarchy how have ye now settled your claims with the steel:

Semi-Ch. And too truly hath awful Erinnys brought [the curses] of their father CEdipus to a consummation.

Semi-Ch. Smitten through your left Smitten in very

truth, and through sides that sprung from a common womb.

Semi Ch. Alas for them, wretched ! Alas! for the impre- cations of death which avenged murder by murder.

Semi-Ch. Thou speakest of the stroke that pierced through and through those that were smitten in their houses and in their persons, with speechless rage, and the doom of discord brought upon them by the curses of their father.

Semi-Ch. And moreover sighing pervades the city, the towers sigh, the land that loved her heroes sighs : and for pos- terity remains the substance by reason of which, by reason of whicy , contention came upon them whom evil destiny, and the issue of death.

Semi-Ch. In the fierceness of their hearts they divided between them the possessions, so as to have an equal share ; but the arbiter' escapes not censure from their friends, and joyless was their warfare.

words dffTijSij' iroWwvi confirm this opinion. In regard to t;he allusions, see Stanley and Blomfield, also Wyttenbach on Plato Phsedon. sub iiiit.

' This repetition of S' wv is not altogether otiose. Their contentiou for estate was the cause both of their being atvofiopoi and of the vt'iKO^ chat ensued.

" i. e. the sword. Cf. v 885.

53 rnE sevek 51]— 901

Semi-Ch. Smitten by the steel, here they lie; and smitten by the steel^ there await them — one may perchance ask what ' —the inheritance of the tombs of their fathers.

Semi-Ch. From the house the piercing groan sends forth its sound loudly over them, mourning with a sorrow sufferings as o"er its own, melancholy, a foe to mirth, sincerely weeping from the very soul, which is worn down while I '^ail for thes.^ two princes.

Semi-Ch. We may say too of these happy men that they both wrought many mischiefs to their countrymen, and to the ranks of all the strangers, that perished in great numbers in battle. Semi-Ch. Ill-fated was she that bare them before all women, as many as are mothers of children. Having taken to herself her own son for a husband, she brought forth these, and they have ended their existence thus by fraternal hands that dealt mutual slaughter.

Semi-Ch. Fraternal in very truth! and utterly undone were they by a severing in no wise amicable, by phrenzied strife at the consummation of their feud.

Semi-Ch. But their enmity is terminated : and in the reeking earth is their life-blood mingled, and truly are they of the same blood. A bitter arbiter of strife is the stranger from beyond the sea, the whetted steel that bounded forth from the fire; and bitter is the horrible distributer of their substance, Mars, who hath brought the curse of their father truly to its consummation.

Semi-Ch. Hapless youths ! They have obtained their portion of heaven-awarded woes, and beneath their bodies shall be a fathomless wealth of earths Alas ! ye that have made your houses bloom with many troubles! And at its ftill these Curses raised the shout of triumph in shrill strain, when the race had been put to flight in total rout; a trophy of Ate has been reared at the gate at which they smote each other, and, having overcome both, the daemon rested. Enter Antigone and Ismene. Ant. When wounded thou didst wound again*.

' This epithet applied to their ancestral tombs doubtless alludes to the violent deaths of Laius and CEdipus.

* On the enallage adifiari for awfiaffi see Griffiths. The poet means to say that this will be all their possession after death. :still Blomfield's reading, ^aijuan, seems more elegant and satir.factory.

* Pauw remarks that Tolyniccs is the chief subject cf Antigone s

9e;— 990 AQAIXST THEHKR. G3

Ism. And thou, having dealt death, didst perish

Ant. With the spear thou didst slay.

Ism. By the spear thou didst fall.

Ant. Wretched in thy deeds !

IsM. Wretched in thy sufferings !

Ant. Let tears arise.

Ism. Let groans resound.

Ant. Having slain, he shall lie prostrate. Alas a\as 1 my soul is maddening with sighs.

IsM. And my heart mom-ns within me.

Ant. Alas I thou that art worthy of all lamentation .

Ism. And thou again also utterly wretched.

Ant. By a friend didst thou fall.

Ism. And a friend didst thou slay.

Ant. Double horrors to tell of.

IsM. Double horrors to behold !

Ant. These horrors are near akin to such sorrows.

Ism. And we their sisters here are near to our broti;8rs.

Ch. Alas! thou Destiny, awarder of bitterness, wietched! and thou dread shade of (Edipus ! and dark Erinnys ! verily art thou great in might.

Ant. Alas ! alas ! sufferings dismal to behold hath ha shown to me after his exile.

Ant. And he returned not when he had slain him.

Ism. No — but after being saved he lost his life.

Ant. In very truth he lost it.

Ism. Aye, and he cut off his brother.

Ant. Wretched family !

Ism. That hath endured wretchedness. Woes that are wretched and of one name. Thoroughly steeped in three-fold sufferings.

Ant. Deadly to tell —

Ism. Deadly to look on.

Ch. Alas! alas! thou Destiny, awarder of bitterness, wretched ! and thou dread shade of OLidipus ! ai;d dark Erinnys ! verily art thou great in might.

Ant. Thou in sooth knowest this by passing through it.

nourning, whilst Ismene bewails Eteodes. This may illustrate much of the following dialogue, as well as explain wlience Sopliocles denvai his masterpiece of character, the Thebaa martyr-heroine. Antigone.

C4 THE SKVE.N 991— 1(/21

Ism. And so dost thou, having learned it just as scon as he.

Ant. After that thou didst return to the city.

Ism. An antagonist too to this man here in battle-fray.

Ant. Deadly to tell.

Ism. Deadly to look on.

Ant. Alas ! the trouble.

Ism. Alas ! the horrors upon our family and our land, and me above all.

Ant. Alas! alas! and me, be sure, more than all.

Ism. Alas ! alas ! for the wretched horrors ! O sovereign Eteocles, our chieftain !

Ant. Alas ! ye most miserable of all men.

Ism. Alas ! ye possessed by Ate.

Ant. Alas ! alas ! where in the land shall we place them both ? Alas ! in the spot that is most honom-able. Alas ; alas ! a woe fit to sleep beside my father'. Enter Herald.

'Tis my duty to announce the good pleasure and the decree of the senators of the people of this city of Cadmus. It is resolved to bury this body of Eteocles for his attachment to his country, with the dear interment in earth! for in repelling our foes he met death in the city, and being pure in respect to the sacred rites of his country, blameless hath he fallen where 'tis glorious for the young to fall ; thus, indeed, hath it been commissioned me to announce concerning this corpse : But [it has been decreed] to cast out unburicd, a prey for dogs, this the corpse of his brother Polynices, inasmuch as he would have been the overturner of the land of Cadmus, if some one of the gods had not stood in opposition to his spear : and even now that he is dead, he will lie under the guilt of pollution with the gods of his country, whom he having dis- honoured was for taking the city by bringing against it a foreign host. So it is resolved that he, having been buried dishonourably by winged fowls, should receive his recompense,

1 Through.iut this scene I have followed Dindorf 's text, although many Improvements have heen made in the disposition of the dramatis persona. Every one will confess that the length of iw iw commonplaces in this scene would be much against the i)lay, but for the animated conclusion, a conclusion, however, tliat must lose all its finest interest to the reader who IS unacquainted with the Antigone of Soidiocles I

1022—1051 AGAINST THP.BES. g'i

and that neither piling up by hands of the mound over his tomb should follow, nor any one honour him with shrill- voiced wailings, but that he be ungraced with a funeral at the hands of his friends. Such is the decree of the magistracy of the Cadmaeans.

Ant. But I say to the rulers of the Cadmseans, if not another single person is willing to take part with me in burying him, I will bm-y him, and will expose myself to peril by biirj'ing my brother. And I feel no shame at being guilty of this disobedient insubordination against the city. Powerful is the tie of the common womb from which we sprung, from a wi'etched mother, and a hapless sire. Where- fore, ray soul, do thou, willing with the willing share in his woes, with the dead, thou living, with sisterly feeling— and nought shall lean-bellied Avolves tear his flesh — let no one suppose it. All woman though I be, I will contrive a tomb and deep-dug gi'ave for him, bearing earth in the bosom-fold of my fine-linen robe, and I myself will cover him ; let none imagine the contrary: an effective scheme shall aid my boldness.

IIek. I bid thee not to act despite the state in this matter.

Ant. I bid thee not announce to me superfluous things.

Her. Yet stern is a people that has just escaped ti'oubles.

Ant. Aye, call it stern', — ^j^et this [corpse] shall not lie unburied.

Her. What ! wilt thou honour with a tomb him whom our state abhors' ?

Ant. Heretofore he has not been honoured by the gods*

Her. Not so, at least before he put this realm in jeopardy.

Ant. Having suffered injiu-iously he repaid with injury.

' Wellauer (not Scholefield, as Griffiths says) defends the common reading from Herodot. V. 49.

^ rpdxvvi. But T. Burgess' emendation rpaxvQ y£ seems better, and isi approved by Blomfield.

^ Soph. Ant. 44. y yap voci^ QcnrrHv <r^' cnroppr)Tov 7r(5Xf t ;

"• I have taken Griffiths' translation of what Dindorf rightly calls "lectio vitiosa," and of stuff that no sane person can believe came from the hand of yEschylus. Paley, who has often seen the truth wliere all others have failed, ingeniously supposes that oi' is a mistaken insertion, and, omitting it, takes SiaTiTifirjrai in this sense: ''jam hie non ampliiis a diis hono- ratur; ergo ego eum honorabo." See his highly satisfactory note, to which I will only add that the reasoning of the Antigone of Sophocles, vsa 515, sqq. gives ample confirmation to his view of this passage.

95 TUE SEVEX AGAINST THEBES. 1052—1078

Her. Aye, but this deed of his fell on all instead of one.

Ant. Contentioai is the last of the gods to finish a dispute*, and I will bury him ; make no more words.

Her. Well, take thine own way — yet I forbid thee.

Exit Hekald.

Ch. Alas ! alas ! O ye fatal Furies, proudly triumphant, and destructive to thi? race, ye that have ruined the family of OEdipus from its root. What will become of me ? What shall I do ? What can I devise ? How shall I have the heart neither to bewail thee nor to escort thee to the tomb? But I dread and shrink from the terror of the citizens. Thou, at all events, shalt in sooth have many mourners ; but he, wretched one, departs unsighed for, having the solitary- wailing dirge of his sister. Who will agree to this ?

Sem. Let the state do or not do aught to those who be- wail Polynices. We, on this side will go and join to escort his funeral procession ; for both this sorrow is common to the race, and the state at difierent times sanctions different maxims of justice.

Sem. But we wiU go with this corpse, as both the city and justice join to sanction. For next to the Immortals and the might of Jove, this man prevented the city of the Cadmceans from being destroyed, and thoroughly overwhelmed by the surge of foreign enemies.

* Blomfield would either omit this verse, or ajsign it to the choruH.

1-13

THE PERSIANS.

The ill-boding dream of Atossa is confirmed by a messenger from the Persian army, giving an account of the defeat at Salamis, and the shade of Darius, being invoked, denounces the mad folly of Xerxes, with whose lamentations, upon bis disgraceful return, the play concludes.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

Chorus of aged Persians. I The Ghost ok Dariits. Atossa, the Queen-Mother. Xerxes.

A Messenger. |

Ch. These are the faithful band* left by the Persians who have gone into the land of Hellas, and guardians of these opu- lent abodes aboimding in gold, whom our prince Xerxes himself, a monarch descended from Darius, selected according to senior- ity, to ha^•e the superintendence of the realm. And now for some time my iil-boding soul within me has been in a state of exceeding agitation concerning the return of our monarch, and of the army in its rich ari-ay, for the whole native jiower of Asia hath gone, and [my mind] calls for its youthful hero*.

* TTiffrd = 01 TTicrroi, see Blomfield, who shows that this was a custo- mary epithet applied to the Satraps and other Persian dignitaries. Siebe- lis, Diairib. in ^schyli Persas, pp. 37, sqq. brings a great show of learn- ing to prove that these were the Eunuchs, especially from their being roJisulted by Atossa, and moreover supposes both from the etymology of ffirtain of the names, and the enumeration of those allies of the Persians only, who were chiefly infamous for their effeminacy, that a stream of irony runs throughout the whole of this chorus, admirably calculated to please an Athenian audience. This is confirmed by .(^.schylus having ventured to emjdoy a parody of the commencement of Phrynichus' Phoe- nissse, which ran thus: ruo' trrrt Utpffiov twv iri'iKai litjiiiKorwv (see Sieb. ibid, p. 39). The scene is laid at Susa, where tlie royal residence and treasury was. See Herodot. V. 49. Hence Susa is placed "inter ornamenta regni" by Curtius V. 1,7.

* 1 have, with Paley, followed the clear and satisfactory explanation wtuch Linwood has confirmed in his Lexicon, s. v. jiaoi^tiv. lie well

F 2

S8 THE PERSIANa 14 — 54

And neither doos any messenger nor any horseman arrive at the city of the Persians, Avho, having quitted the city of Susa and of Eebatana', and the antique Cissian fortress, set forth, some on steeds, some in ships, and the infantry in slow march, forming a dense file of war. Amistres', for instance, and Artaphrenes, and Megabayes, and Astaspes, leaders of the Persians, kings, subalterns of the great king, speed their way, inspectors of the great host, both those that conquer with the bow, and mounted upon steeds, fearful to look upon*, and ter- rible in fight, through their stern determination of spirit. Artembaces too, rejoicing in his charger, and Masistres, and stout Ima3us that slays with the bow, and Pharandaces and Sos- thanes, driver of steeds. And others Nile, the mighty stream and nourisher of many, sent forth; Susiscanes, Pegastagon native of Egypt, and the lord of sacred Memphis mighty Arsames, and Ariomardus ruler of ancient Thebes, and the dwellers in the fens, skilful rowers of galleys, and in multi- tude beyond all numbering. There follows a crowd of Lydians, delicate in their habits of life, and they that hold every nation native on the continent*, whom Mithragathes and valiant Arc- teus, inspector-princes, and Sardis that teems Avith gold, send forth in many chariots, in ranks of double and treble yokes*, a spectacle fearful to look upon. The borderers too on sacred Tmolus are bent on casting the yoke of servitude around Hellas, Mardon, Tharybis, [twin] anvils of tlie spear, and the Mysians who launch the javelin. Babylon too, that teems with gold, sends forth her mingled multitude in long array,

remarks that we cannot supply 'Atn'a from ' A(^iaToyivi)g, because the subject referred to is not really the same in both cases. Jelf, Gk. Gr. §566, 3, says " /Sau^si av6pa, the shout was 'ai/jjp;'" comparing Eur. Hipp. 168, avTtov "ApTSfxiv. But the passages are not parallels. The force of (SavZf^i is well illustrated by Stanley.

' Ecbatana was another royal residence. Cf. Herodot. I. 98 ; Curtius, V. 8, 1.

2 Siebelis (pp. 43, 4) will entertain the reader with some facetious etymologies of some of these Persian names. At all event;^ .(Eschylus was not very particular about their orthography or prosody,

3 Blomfield observes from Herodot. Erato CXII. that this was no more than the truth.

* This is Blomfield's interpretation, who supposes the lonians to be designated by this circumlocution, but Dini.orf approves the correction of Schutz, omitting rovf, and wriliiig (>• r'.

* t. e. with four or six horses.

[,,- 97 THE PERSIANS. fly

both those who embark in ships, and are trust in their valour to draw the bow. And the scimitar- wielding populace from all Asia follows in their train, luider the ckead mandates of the king. Such a flower of men is gone from the Persian land ; concerning whom the Asiatic soil which reared them is shrivelled with vehement anxiety : and parents and wives, as they count the day, shudder at the lengthening date.

The royal armament that makes havoc of cities, hath some time since passed over to the adjoining opposite region, having crossed the frith of Helle daughter of Athamas', on a cable- fastened raft, after flinging a many-rivetted causeway by way of yoke over the neck of Ocean. And against every land does the impetuous lord of many-peopled Asia urge forward his godlike armament in two divisions, of infantry, and of forces drawn from the sea, trusting in his strong sturdy commanders, a man equal to the gods of the race that sprung from gold-. And flashing from his eyes the dark-blue glare of the deadly serpent, appointed with many a warrior and many a mariner, and m-ging on his Syrian' car, he is leading on a war victorious with the bow against men who are famous for the speai-*. And no one is of such approved prowess as that, having made stand against a mighty torrent of men, he can repulse, by mighty bulwarks, the irresistible billow of the sea. For terri- ble to approach is the army of Persians, and valiant of soul the host. But what mortal man shall elude the treacherous deceit of the deity? Who is he that with an agile foot, of easy spring", can bound over it ? For fawning on him at first

> Hygin. Fab. III. : " Phrixus et Helle, insania a Libero objecta, cum in sylvis errarent, nebula mater eo dicitur venisse, et aiietem inauratum adduxisse Neptum et Theophancs lilium, eumque natos suos ascendere jussit, et Colchos ad regem ^etam Soils filium transire, ibique arietem Marti immolare. Quo cum ascendissent, et aries eosin pelagus detulisset, Helle de ariete decidit, ex quo Hellespontum pelagus est appellatum."

2 Schol. a. prefers it. It alludes to the way in which Jove was feigned to have visited Danae, v. 86.

^ i. e. Assyrian. See Blomficld.

* Great stress is constantly laid upon the superiority of the hand to hand contests of the Grecian weapons over the archery of the barbarians. See Heiodot. V. 49, VII. 211, and Siebelis, p. 41.

* Wellauer vainly attempts to defend uva<7<Twv. Althoucb tlie enallage proposed by Blomfield is defensible, I still prefer rcs,'ardiiig Tr/jOrj/utroc merely as the attributive genitive, with Linwood's Lex. p. 3;i, and Jelf's Gk. Gr. 521. Obs. 13. .

70 THE PERSIANS. 97—155

with kindly disposition it lures a man on witliin the densest toils, whence it is not possible for mortal to struggle out and make his escape. For destiny, fixed by heaven, prevailed in the olden time, and enjoined on the Persians to carry on wars that beat down towers, and the tumults of cavahy war- fare, and demolitions of cities. They learned, too, to look upon the ocean fields of the wide -winding sea when it whitens with the violent blast, putting confidence in their slightly-con- structed tackling, and the machines in which hosts are wafted [across the deep]. By reason of these things my soul, wi'apt in gloom, is torn by terror, alas ! for this army of the Persians I lest the state should learn that the mighty city of the Susian district is drained of its warriors, and the fortress of the Cissians ; (the crowded assemblage of women uttering* this word, alas ! will re-echo the strain,) and rending shall fall upon the finely- woven vestments. For all the host that dri\'e the steed, and that tramp along the plain, hath gone off like a swarm of bees, along with the leader of the army, having crossed the ocean promontory common to both continents*, united to either side. And through regret for their lords, the couches are filled with tears : and the matrons of Persia in excessive grief, each one of them in tenderness for her lord, having sent off" her fierce warrior consort, is left behind in solitude. But come, Per- sians, let us seat ourselves beneath in this ancient dwelling, and take wary and well-pondered care, — for the necessity has arrived — how haply fares our king Xerxes, offspring of Darius, being of the same ancestral race with us*. Is it the drawing of the bow that prevails, or hath the, might of the barbed spear got the mastery ? But here comes forth a light like to the eyes of gods, the mother of oiu* sovereign, and my queen, I do lowly homage. And fitting it is that we all address her yflth words of salutation. \^£ni'er Atossa.] 0 queen, supreme of Persia's deep-waisted matrons, aged mother of Xerxes, hail to thee! spouse to Darius, consort of the Per-

1 Jelf, Gk. Gr. § 583, 23.

2 Blomfield rightly understands this of the bridge across the Hellespont, which, in respect to either side, formed a kind of promontory,

^ I have followed Uindorf in retaining tlie old reading. Dindorf com- pares the forms iTroivy/ttoc and irapwvvfuoQ, to which Paley adds varii- riof. This origin was from Perses.

156—190 THfi PERSIANS. 7i

sians' god, and mother of a god thou art, unless iu some respect our ancient fortune hath forsaken our host.

At. For this reason, in truth, am I come, having left my gold- garnished mansion, the common bridal-dwelling both of Darius and of myself. And anxiety is tearing me at heart : and 1 will make a disclosure to you, my friends, being of my- self by no means free from apprehension, lest mighty wealth, having made great speed, should, with his foot, overturn the wealth which Darius reared, not without the aid of some god. These things are to my soid a two-fold unut- terable care, not to honour with reverence a multitude of riches unprotected by men, and that the light shines not on those who are destitute of wealth, however great the strength which they may possess. For our wealth at all events is beyond the reach of censm-e, but touching our eye^ iis my terrors. For I deem the presence of the master the eye of an household. Whereupon, since these things stand thus, lend me your counsel in this matter, ye aged trusty servants of the Persians. For all my good measures depend on you.

Ch. Be well assured of this, O queen of this land, that thou needest not to speak twice of either word or deed, to which our ability can lead the way to completion. For thou sum- monest us who are well- affected to thee, as in these matters.

At. I have been continually haunted by many dreams in the night, ever since my son, having fitted forth his armament, went to the land of the lonians, purposing to lay it waste. But I never yet saw any so plain, as on the night just passed, — and I will tell it thee. There seemed to appear before two women' in fair attire — the one robed in Persian vestments, but the other in Doric, both in statue by for the most comely of those who live now-a-days, and in beauty beyond rebuke, and sisters of the same family. And as to country — they inhabited, the one, having had it assigned to her by lot, the land of Hellas, — the other the barbarian*; these two, as 1 fancied I saw, had a feud the one with the other: and my son, when he heard it, was checking and soothing them, and

- t. e. Xerxes, as Blomfield, Linwood, and Paley rightly understand.

' This description of Atossa's dream has been imitated by Moschus in a similar vision seeu by Europa, 11. 8.

This phrase, as I'auw remarks, was more proper in iEschylus than Atossa.

72 THE PERSIANS. li>d--221

he yokes them beneath his car, and places a collar on their necks. And the one towered loftily in these trappings, and had a tractable mouth in the reins: but the other kept plunging, and tears in pieces with her hands the harness of the car, and whirls it violently along without the bit, and snaps the yoke in the middle : and my son falls, and his sire Darius stands beside him, commiserating him ; and when Xerxes sees him, he rends his robes about his person. These things, indeed, I say that I beheld last night. But when I had arisen, and had touched with my hands a fair-streaming fountain*, I stood by the altar, wishing to offer a sacrificial cake to the divinities that avert evil, to whom these rites belong. And I behold an eagle fleeing to the altar of Phcebus ; and from terror I stood speechless, my friends, and afterwards I see a falcon speeding onward in his course with his pinions, and tearing his head with his talons. And the eagle did nought but cower down and yield his body. These sights are terrible for me to behold, and for you to hear. For be ye well assured, my son, were he successful, would be a man worthy of admiration, and though he fail, he is not liable to be called to account by the state; but if he escape, will equally be sovereign of this realm*.

Ch. We wish not, O mother, either to terrify too much by om- words, or to cheer thee ; but do thou, if thou hast seen aught disastrous, approach the gods with supplications, and implore of them to grant it may be averted, but that what is favourable may be accomplished for thyself, and for thy children, and for the city, and for. all thy friends. And in the second place it is proper that thou pour libations both to the earth and to the departed. And gently make thy prayer that thy husband Darius, whom thou sayest thou didst see by night, would send good things for thee and for thy

' This was the custom after an iil-omened dream. Washing, either of the hands or the whole hody, was the first act on rising, which was fol- lowed by the offering of a salted cake, wine, and incense. Cf. TibulL

I. 5, 9— III. 4, 9; Apul. Met. XI. p. 257, ed. Elm.; Plautus Aniph.

II. 2; Mil. Glor. II. 4; Martial, XI. 50; Sueton. Galba, § XVIII.; Silius Ital. Pun. VIII. 122, sqq.; Valer. Flacc. V. 330, sqq. See also an exquisite burlesque of the custom in Aristoph. Ran. 1338, sqq.

* I cannot relish this passage as it stands, and think some lines hsre been lost.

222—243 TlIK PERSIANS. 73

child, into the light of day from beneath the earth : and that what is contrary to these, being detained beneath the earth, may fade awaj' in gloom. This advice have I given thee with kindly intent, auguring by my mind's judgment. And, touching these things, we judge that in all things there will come to thee a favourable issue.

At. Well certainly thou the first interpreter of these dreams of mine, with friendly disposition at least, towards my son and house, hast given confirmation to this. And may what is good in very deed come to pass. And all these things, as thou enjoinest, I will perform to the gods, and to thope dear to me beneath the earth, after I shall have gone into the pa- lace ; but on those points, my fi'iends, I wish to be thoroughly informed, in what part of the earth they say Athens is situated^ ?

Ch. Far hence, towards the west, where are the wanings of the sovereign sun

At. \Vliat ! had my son then a desire to make this city his prey ?

Ch. Yes, for so all Hellas would be in subjection to the king.

At. Does so numerous a force belong to them ?

Ch. Aye. and such an army as in good truth wrought the Medes much mischief.

At. And what beside these things have they ? In there sufficient wealth in their dwellings ?

Ch. They have a fountain of silver, a treasure of their soil.

At. Does the bow-stretching shaft display itself in their hands ?

Ch. Not at all. They have spears foi- close fighting, and shield-guarded panoply.

At. And who is over them as their leader, and has the command of their army.

Ch. They are not called the slaves nor even the subjects of any man.

At. How then should they abide invading foemen ?

* Nothing but the fact that this play (like the Heraclidoe and Supplices of Euripides) was written as a pleasing compliment to Atiienii>n vanity, can excuse the absurdity of tiiese interrogations. In this case vlLschylus could certainly not plead that he wrote for the information of the audience! Siebelis, however, (p. 55, sq.^ has not only found an excuse for this, buC

reason also.

1i THE PERSIANS. 244 — 279

Ch. So ["well do they], that they destroyed a. large and goodly army of Darius.

At. Truly thou tellest of what is dreadful for the parents of those '.vho are gone to think upon.

Ch. But, as it seems to me, thou shalt soon know the whole truth ; for the running of this man we may plainly per- ceive to be that of a Persian ; and he is bringing some clear tidings of good or ill for us to hear.

Unter Messengee.

O ye cities of the whole land of Asia ! 0 realm of Persia, and mighty haven of opulence, how hath the ample weal been demolished by a single stroke, and the flower of the Persians is fallen and gone. Woe's me, 'tis an ill office to be the first messenger of ill, but yet it is necessary to unfold the whole of the disaster of the Persians, for all the army of the barbarians hath perished.

Ch.» Dismal, dismal, strange evils, and adverse, — alas . Drench yourselves in tears, ye Persians, hearing of this sorrow.

Mes. How has all that armament gone to ruin! But I myself, beyond my hope, behold the day of my return.

Ch. Verily this life of ours appears too long protracted to us aged men, that we should hear of this unlooked-for cala- mity.

Mes. And in very deed I, being on the spot, and not having heard reports from others', can tell how great ills have been dealt out to the Persians.

Ch. Woe ! woe ! in vain did the multitude of shafts of every kind go from the land of Asia, against a hostile land, the realm of Hellas.

Mes. The shores of Salamis, and all the adjoining region, are full of the corpses of those who miserably perished.

Ch. Woe ! woe ! thou tellest us that the dead bodies of our friends, tossed on the billow, oft immersed, are borne along on the twice-changing surface of the tide'.

Mes. Yes, for our bows availed us nought, and our whole host perished, beaten down by the collision of the beaks of the vessels.

Ch. Shriek forth a doleful outcry, full of woe to the

» Cf. Soph. CEd. C. 6.

' This is Blomfield's interpretation. See others in Paley's note.

280—318 THE PEHSIAN8. 75

wi-etched Persians; for 111 did triey succeed in all things, alas ' when their host was destroyed.

Mes. O name of Salamis, most hateful to our ears. Alas ! how I sigh when I remember Athens.

Ch. Hateful is Athens to us miserable : we have to re- member, in sooth, how many of the Persian matrons it has made widows and bereft of their husbands to no gain of