The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I.. Euripides

13

This is the only sense that can be made of ενθανειν, and this sense seems strained: Brunck proposes εντακηναι for ενθανειν γε. See Note687.

14

We must, I think, read τολμαιν.

15

λιμνη is used for the sea in Troades 444; as also in Iliad Ν. 21, and Odyssey Γ. 1. and in many other passages of Homer.

16

The construction is η πορευσεις με ενθα νασων; for εις εκεινην των νασων, ενθα.

17

κεκλημαι for ειμι, not an unusual signification. Hippol. 2, θεα κεκλημαι Κυπρις.

18

When she perceived it, εφρασθη, συνηκεν, εγνω, ενοησεν. Hesych.

19

Dindorf disposes these lines differently, but I prefer Porson's arrangement, as follows:

20

The Gods beneath he despised, by casting him out without a tomb; the Gods above, as the guardians of the rites of hospitality.

21

Whatever was due, either on the score of friendship, or as an equivalent for his care and protection.

22

Musgrave proposes to read προμισθιαν for προμηθιαν: the version above is in accordance with the scholiast and the paraphrast.

23

See note on Medea 338.

24

The story of the daughters of Danaus is well known.

25

Of this there are two accounts given in the Scholia. The one is, that the women of Lemnos being punished by Venus with an ill savor, and therefore neglected by their husbands, conspired against them and slew them. The other is found in Herodotus, Erato, chap. 138. see also Æsch. Choephoræ, line 627, ed. Schutz.

26

Polymestor was guilty of two crimes, αδικιας and ασεβειας, for he had both violated the laws of men, and profaned the deity of Jupiter Hospitalis. Whence Agamemnon, v. 840, hints that he is to suffer on both accounts.

The Chorus therefore says, Ubi contingit eundem et Justitiæ et Diis esse addictum, exitiale semper malum esse; or, as the learned Hemsterheuyse has more fully and more elegantly expressed, it, Ubi, id est, in quo, vel in quem cadit et concurrit, ut ob crimen commissum simul et humanæ justitiæ et Deorum vindictæ sit obnoxius, ac velut oppignoratus; illi certissimum exitium imminet. This sense the words give, if for ου, we read ‛ου, i.e. in the sense of ‛οπου. MUSGRAVE. Correct Dindorf's text to ‛ου.

27

συμπεσεειν in unum coire, coincidere. In this sense it is used also, Herod. Euterpe, chap. 49.

28

The verbal adjective in τος is almost universally used in a passive sense; ‛υποπτος, however, in this place is an exception to the rule, as are also, καλυπτης, Soph. Antig. 1011, μεμπτος, Trachin. 446.

29

Perhaps the preferable way is to make κακοισιν agree with ανθρωποις understood; that the sense may be, You are a bad man to talk of your advantage as a plea for having acted thus.

30

Θανουσα δ' η ζωσ' ενθαδ' εκπλησω βιον; a similar expression occurs in the Anthologia.

31

The place of her burial was called Cynosema, a promontory of the Thracian Chersonese. It was here that the Athenians gained a naval victory over the Peloponnesians and Syracusans, in the twenty-first year of the Peloponnesian war. Thucydides, book viii.

32

στεμματα, ερια, Schol. "eo quod colum cingant seu coronant," Scapula explains it.

33

"Then" is not to be considered as signifying point of time, but it is meant to express ουν, continuativam. See Hoogeveen de Particula ουν, Sect. ii. § 6.

34

The original Greek phrase was ελπιδος λεπτης, which Euripides has changed to ασθενους ‛ρωμης, though the other had equally suited the metre. But Euripides is fond of slight alterations in proverbs. PORSON.

35

But Dindorf reads κτυπου η ηγαγετ'. ουχι; interrogatively, thus: "Ye were making a noise. Will ye not … enable him," etc.?

36

δους – δυναται δε και αποδους. SCHOL.

37

Perhaps this interpretation of χρονιον is better than "slow," for the considerate Electra would hardly go to remind her brother of his infirmities.

38

Dindorf would continue this verse to Orestes.

39

Dindorf supposes something to be wanting after vs. 314.

40

Ποτνιαδες. The Furies have this epithet from Potnia, a town in Bœotia, where Glaucus's horses, having eaten of a certain herb and becoming mad, tore their own master in pieces. SCHOL.

41

Note688.

42

Dindorf would omit this verse.

43

‛αλιτυπων, ‛αλιεων, ‛οι ταις κωπαις τυπτουσι την θαλασσαν. SCHOL.

44

αφυλλου. Alluding to the branch, which the ancients used to hold in token of supplication.

45

"κατα την νυκτα πεπονθα τηρων την αναιρεσιν, και την αναληψιν των οστεων, τουτεστιν, ‛ινα μη τις αφεληται ταυτα." PARAPH. Heath translates it, watchfully observing, till her bones were collected.

46

The old reading was απαιδευτα. The meaning of the present reading seems to be, "Yes, they are awful 'tis true, but still however you need not be so very scrupulous about naming them."

47

αναφορα was a legal term, and signified the line of defense adopted by the accused, when he transferred the charge brought against himself to some other person. – See Demosthenes in Timocr.

48

Œax was Palamede's brother.

49

And therefore we are not to impeach the man. Some would have δουλον to bear the sense of δουλοποιον, enslaves, and therefore can not