• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

[24] The construction is [Greek: polis hieron potamon]; thus Thebes, Phoenis. l. 831, is called [Greek: pyrgos didymon potamon]. A like expression occurs in 2 Sam. xii. 27. I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken _the city of waters_, [Greek: polin ton hydaton] in the Septuagint version.

[25] Elmsley reads [Greek: pantes], "_we all entreat thee_." So Dindorf.

[26] Elmsley reads [Greek: he dynasei] with the note of interrogation after [Greek: thymoi]; "_or how wilt thou be able,_" etc.

[27] An allusion to that well-known saying in Plato, de Repub. 1. 3. [Greek: Dora theous peithei, dor' aidoious basileas]. Ovid. de Arte Am. iii. 635.

Munera, crede mini, capiunt hominesque deosque.

[28] Vertit Portus, _O infelix quantam calamitatem ignoras_. Mihi sensus videtur esse, _quantum a pristina fortuna excidisti_. ELMSLEY.

[29] Medea here makes use of the ambiguous word [Greek: kataxo], which may be understood by the Tutor in the sense of "bringing back to their country," but implies also the horrid purpose of destroying her children: [Greek: tode 'kataxo' anti tou pempso eis ton Aiden], as the Scholiast explains it.

[30] It was the custom for mothers to bear lighted torches at their children's nuptials. See Iphig. Aul. l. 372.

[31] [Greek: hotoi de phesin ouk eusebes phainetai pareinai toi phonoi, kai dechesthai toiautas thysias, houtos apoto.--toi de autoi melesei synapteon to me pareinai]. SCHOL.

[32] _But there_; that is, in the regions below.

[33] Ovid. Metamorph. vii. 20.

Video meliora proboque, Deteriora sequor.

[34] Elmsley reads

[Greek: pauron de genos (mian en pollais] [Greek: heurois an isos)] [Greek: ouk, k.t.l.]

"_But a small number of the race of women (you may perchance find one among many) not ungifted with the muse_."

[35] A similar expression is found in Iphig. Taur, v. 410. [Greek: naion ochema]. A ship is frequently called [Greek: Herma thalasses]: so Virgil, AEn. vi. Classique immittit habenas.

[36] Elmsley is of opinion that _the instep_ and not _the neck_ is meant by [Greek: tenon].

[37] The ancients attributed all sudden terrors, and sudden sicknesses, such as epilepsies, for which no cause appeared, to Pan, or to some other Deity. The anger of the God they endeavored to avert by a hymn, which had the nature of a charm.

[38] Elmsley has [Greek: anthepteto], which is the old reading: this makes no difference in the construing or the construction, as, in the line before, he reads [Greek: an helkon], where Porson has [Greek: anelkon].

[39] The space of time elapsed is meant to be marked by this circumstance. MUSGRAVE. PORSON. Thus we find in [Greek: M] of the Odyssey, l. 439, the time of day expressed by the rising of the judges; in [Greek: D] of the Iliad, l. 86, by the dining of the woodman. When we recollect that the ancients had not the inventions that we have whereby to measure their time, we shall cease to consider the circumlocution as absurd or out of place.

[40] The same expression occurs in the Heraclidae, l. 168. The Scholiast explains it thus; [Greek: tymbogeronta, ton plesion thanatou honta: tymbous de kalousi tous gerontas, paroson plesion eisi tou thanatou kai tou taphou].

[41] [Greek: autophontais] may be taken as an adjective to agree with [Greek: domois], or the construction may be [Greek: ache pitnonta autophontais epi domois], in the same manner as [Greek: lithos epese moi epi kephalei]. ELMSLEY.

[42] [Greek: me me ti drasosi'] had been "lest they do _me_ any injury." Elmsley conceives that [Greek: nin] is the true reading, which might easily have been corrupted into [Greek: moi].

[43] Here Medea appears above in a chariot drawn by dragons, bearing with her the bodies of her slaughtered sons. SCHOL. See Horace, Epod. 3.

Hoc delibutis ulta donis pellicem, Serpente fugit alite.

[44] [Greek: lyei] may also be interpreted, with the Scholiast, in the sense of [Greek: lysitelei], "the grief delights me." The translation