Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and the Seven Against Thebes Part 14

That blood, which own'd the breadth of all this isle, Three foot of it doth hold.

King Henry IV. part I. Act 5, sc. 5:

Fare thee well, great heart!

Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou 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.

[159] Surely the full stop after [Greek: polin] in v. 749 should be removed, and a colon, or mark of hyperbaton subst.i.tuted. On looking at Paley's edition, I find myself antic.i.p.ated.

[160] This is Griffiths' version of this awkward pa.s.sage.

I should prefer reading [Greek: alkan] with Paley, from one MS. So also Burges.

[161] See my note on Soph. Philoct. 708, ed. Bohn.

[162] This seems the best way of rendering the bold periphrase, [Greek: ho polybotos aion broton]. See Griffiths.

[163] I follow Paley. Dindorf, in his notes, agrees in reading [Greek: trophas], but the metre seems to require [Greek: epikotos]. Griffiths defends the common reading, but against the ancient authority of the schol. on OEd.

Col. 1375. See Blomfield.

[164] Blomfield with reason thinks that a verse has been lost.

[165] The care which the Messenger takes to show the bright side of the picture first, reminds us of Northumberland's speech, Shakespeare, King Henry IV. part II. Act 1, sc. 1:

This thou would'st say--Your son did thus and thus; Your brother, thus; so fought the n.o.ble 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 with--brother, son, and all are dead.

--OLD TRANSL.

[166] This is a good example of the figure chiasmus, the force of which I have expressed by the bracketed words repeated from the two infinities. See Latin examples in the notes of Arntzenius on Mamertin. Geneth. 8, p. 27; Pang. Vett. t. i.

[167] The Messenger retires to dress for the Herald's part.

Horace's rule, "Nec quarta loqui persona laboret," seems to have been drawn from the practice of the Greek stage.

Only three actors were allowed to each of the compet.i.tor-dramatists, and these were a.s.signed to them by lot. (Hesychius, [Greek: Nemesis hypokriton].) Thus, for instance, as is remarked by a writer in the Quarterly Review, in the OEdipus at Colonus, v. 509, Ismene goes to offer sacrifice, and, after about forty lines, returns in the character of Theseus. Soon afterward, v. 847, Antigone is carried off by Creon's attendants, and returns as Theseus after about the same interval as before.--OLD TRANSLATION. The translator had misquoted the gloss of Hesychius.

[168] This is the tragic account. See Soph. Antig. 170, sqq.; Eurip. Phaen. 757, sqq. But other authors mention descendants of both.

[169] Another pun on [Greek: Polyneikes].

[170] Cf. Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, sec. 3:

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

[171] This pa.s.sage is confessedly corrupt. Paley seems to have rightly restored [Greek: astolon] from the [Greek: astolon theorida] in Robertelli's edition. This ship, as he remarks, would truly be [Greek: astolos], in opposition to the one sent to Delphi, which was properly said [Greek: stellesthai epi theorian]. The words [Greek: astibe Apolloni] confirm this opinion. In regard to the allusions, see Stanley and Blomfield, also Wyttenbach on Plato Phaedon. sub. init.

[172] This repet.i.tion of [Greek: di' hon] is not altogether otiose. Their contention for estate was the cause both of their being [Greek: ainomoroi] and of the [Greek: neikos]

that ensued.

[173] _I.e._ the sword. Cf. v. 885.

[174] This epithet applied to their ancestral tombs doubtless alludes to the violent deaths of Laus and OEdipus.

[175] On the enallage [Greek: somati] for [Greek: somasi]

see Griffiths. The poet means to say that this will be all their possession after death. Still Blomfield's reading, [Greek: chomati], seems more elegant and satisfactory.

[176] Pauw remarks that Polynices is the chief subject of Antigone's mourning, while Ismene bewails Eteocles. This may ill.u.s.trate much of the following dialogue, as well as explain whence Sophocles derived his master-piece of character, the Theban martyr-heroine, Antigone.

[177] Throughout this scene I have followed Dindorf's text, although many improvements have been made in the disposition of the dramatis personae. Every one will confess that the length of [Greek: io io] commonplaces in this scene would be much against the play, but for the animated conclusion, a conclusion, however, that must lose all its finest interest to the reader who is unacquainted with the Antigone of Sophocles!

[178] Wellauer (not Scholfield, as Griffiths says) defends the common reading from Herodot. V. 49.

[179] [Greek: trachyne] But T. Burgess' emendation [Greek: trachys ge] seems better, and is approved by Blomfield.

[180] Soph. Ant. 44. [Greek: e gar noeis thaptein sph'

aporreton polei].

[181] 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 aeschylus. Paley, who has often seen the truth where all others have failed, ingeniously supposes that [Greek: ou] is a mistaken insertion, and, omitting it, takes [Greek: diatetimetai]

in this sense: "_jam hic non amplius a diis honoratur; ergo ego eum honorabo._" See his highly satisfactory note, to which I will only add that the reasoning of the Antigone of Sophocles, vss. 515, sqq. gives ample confirmation to his view of this pa.s.sage.

[182] Blomfield would either omit this verse, or a.s.sign it to the chorus.