The Tragedies of Euripides Part 45

THES. Oh me! for thy pious and brave soul!

HIPP. Pray to have legitimate sons like me.

THES. Do not, I prithee, leave me, my son, but be strong.

HIPP. My time of strength is past; for I perish, my father: but cover my face as quickly as possible with robes.

THES. O famous realms of Athens and of Pallas, of what a man will ye have been bereaved! Oh unhappy I! What abundant reason, Venus, shall I have to remember thy ills!

CHOR. This common grief to all the citizens hath come unexpectedly. There will be a fast falling of many tears; for the mournful stories of great men rather obtain.

NOTES ON HIPPOLYTUS

[1] The construction in the original furnishes a remarkable example of the "nominativus pendens."

[2] Or, _that posterity might know it_. TR. Dindorf would omit these words.

B.

[3] Dindorf would omit these lines. I think the difficulty in the structure may be removed by reading ??st?? instead of ??s???. The enallage, ??st??

... t??t???, is by no means unusual. B.

[4] Cf. Soph. d. Col. 121, sqq. B.

[5] Which at present you do not appear to have.

[6] Monk would join ??ea??? with pet?a, as in the translation, but other commentators prefer, which is certainly more simple, to join it with ??d??.

Then the difficulty occurs of sea-water being unfit for washing vests. This difficulty Beck obviates, by saying that ??d?? ??ea??? may be applied to fresh water, Ocean being the parent of all streams, the word ??ea??? being here, in a manner, redundant. TR. Matthiae is very wrath with the "all on a washing day" manner in which the Chorus learned Phaedra's indisposition. The "Bothie of Toper na Fuosich" will furnish some similar simplicities, such as the meeting a la.s.sie "digging potatoes." But we might as well object to the whole story of Nausicaa. It must be recollected that the duties of the laundry were considered more aristocratic by the ancients, than in modern times. B.

[7] Cf. aesch. Pr. 23. ????a? ae??e?? a????. B.

[8] Literally _a speech mounted on madness_. A similar expression occurs, Odyssey ?. 297. ??p?aa? ??ee??.

[9] Plutarch in explanation of this line says, "?a?ape? p?da ?e??, ep?d?d??ta ?a? p??sa???ta ta?? ??e?a?? t?? f???a?."

[10] I have followed the elegant interpretation of L. Dindorf, who observes that ?? d?? ?e???sa refers to Phaedra's a.s.sertion, ?? ?a? e? s' aa?ta??, and that the meaning is, "non quidem consilio in me peccas, sed si tu peribis, ego quoque occidero." He compares Alcest. 389. B.

[11] See Matthiae's note. I prefer, however, ??e??, with Musgrave. B.

[12] Matthiae considers this as briefly expressed for t? t??t?, t? e?a?, ?a ?e???s? p??e?? a????p???. Still I can not help thinking a????p?? a better reading. B.

[13] Phaedra struggles between shame and uncertainty, before she can p.r.o.nounce the name. It should be read as if ??st?? p??'--???t??--?? t??

?a?????. B.

[14] Matthiae takes pa?ae???? as = e? t??de t?? ??e?a?, i.e. up to this very time. I think the pa.s.sage is corrupt. B.

[15] This pa.s.sage, like many others in the play, is admirably burlesqued by Aristoph., Ran. 962. B.

[16] _Or, this is a second favor thou mayst grant me_.

[17] On the numberless references to this impious sophism, see the learned notes of Valckenaer and Monk. Compare more particularly Aristoph. Ran. 102, 1471. Thesmoph. 275. Arist. Rhet. iii. 15. B.

[18] Literally, "spurious coined race." B.

[19] The MSS. reading, f?t??, is preferable. B.

[20] The syntax appears to be d?se?pe?at?? ???, _such as my like can scarcely get over_. Musgrave has followed the other explanation of the Scholiast, which makes ??? depend on pa???. TR. I have followed the Scholiast and Dindorf. B.

[21] p??t?ep??sa, a?t? t?? ??t??sa ?a? e?e?e???sa. Schol. Dindorf acknowledges the strangeness of the usage, and seems to prefer p??s??p??s', with Monk. B.

[22] Cf. Soph. Ant. 751. ??d' ??? ?a?e?ta?, ?a? ?a???s' ??e? t??a. B.

[23] For the meaning and derivation of a??at???, see Monk's note.

[24] ?a???t?p?? seems to be an awkward epithet of ??a, unless it mean "_dashed [against the sh.o.r.e] by the waves_." Perhaps a???t?p?? would be less forced. B.

[25] ??pe?a?t??? ??sa s?f??a?, a metaphor taken from a ship which can no longer keep out water.

[26] See the note on my Translation of aesch. Agam., p. 121, note 1. ed.

Bonn. B.

[27] Read ??? e?? p????: epa??? ? ta?a? with cod. Hav. See Dindorf. B.

[28] Cf. Matth. apud Dindorf. B.

[29] In the same manner the chorus in the Alcestis comforts Admetus. v.

?? ?a? t? p??t??, ??de ???s???? ??t??

???a???? es???? ?p?a?e?.

[30] ??pe? is here to be understood. VALK.

[31] Sfe?d???, literally, the setting of the seal, which embraces the gem as a sling its stone.

[32] See a similar expression in aesch. Eum. 254,

?s? ??te??? ?a?at?? e p??s?e?a?.

[33] The construction is, e?? a? e?? a??t?? t??a ???, ??ste t??e??

a?t??. MONK.

[34] ?, _which land, together with the present earth_.

[35] On the Orphic abstinence from animal food, see Matth. apud Dind.

Compare Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 3 sqq. B.