97
So in the
98
Artemis, as one of the special Deities to whom Thebes was consecrated.
99
Apparently an Asiatic invention, to increase the terror of an attack of war-chariots.
100
The phrase and thought were almost proverbial in Athens. Men, as citizens, were thought of as fed at a common table, bound to contribute their gifts to the common stock. When they offered up their lives in battle, they were giving, as Pericles says (Thucyd. ii. 43), their noblest “contribution,” paying in full their subscription to the society of which they were members.
101
Thyiad, another name for the Mænads, the frenzied attendants on Dionysos.
102
103
The name, as we are told in v. 542, is Parthenopæos, the maiden-faced.
104
The Sphinx, besides its general character as an emblem of terror, had, of course, a special meaning as directed to the Thebans. The warrior who bore it threatened to renew the old days when the monster whom Œdipus had overcome had laid waste their city.
105
106
The quarrel between Tydeus and the seer Amphiaraos had been already touched upon.
107
I have used the old English word to express a term of like technical use in Athenian law processes. As the “sumpnour” called witnesses or parties to a suit into court, so Tydeus had summoned the Erinnys to do her work of destruction.
108
109
The words are obscure, but seem to refer to the badge of Polyneikes, the figure of Justice described in v. 643 as on his shield. How shall that Justice, the seer asks, console Jocasta for her son's death? Another rendering gives,
“And how shall Justice quench a mother's life?”
the “mother” being the country against which Polyneikes wars.
110
The words had a twofold fulfilment (1) in the burial of Amphiaraos, in the Theban soil; and (2) in the honour which accrued to Thebes after his death, through the fame of the oracle at his shrine.
111
The passage cannot be passed over without noticing the old tradition (Plutarch,
112
If the former reference to Aristeides be admitted, we can scarcely avoid seeing in this passage an allusion to Themistocles, as one with whose reckless and democratic policy it was dangerous for the more conservative leader to associate himself.
113
The far-off city, not of Thebes, but of Hades. In the legend of Thebes, the earth opened and swallowed up Amphiaraos, as in 583.
114
The short spear was usually carried under the shelter of the shield; when brought into action it was, of course, laid bare.
115
Perhaps “since death is at nigh hand.”
116
The Chorus means that if Eteocles would allow himself to be overcome in this contest of his wishes with their prayers the Gods would honour that defeat as if it were indeed a victory. He makes answer that the very thought of being overcome implied in the word “defeat” in anything is one which the true warrior cannot bear.
117
The “Chalyb stranger” is the sword, thought of as taking its name from the Skythian tribe of the Chalybes, between Colchis and Armenia, and passing through the Thrakians into Greece.
118
The two brothers,
119
The image meets us again in
120
Another reading gives —
“And race of those who crowd the Agora.”
121
This seems to have been one form of the legends as to the cause of the curse which Œdipus had launched upon his sons, An alternative rendering is —
122
123
I follow in this dialogue the arrangement which Paley adopts from Hermann.
124
There seems an intentional ambiguity. They are “borne on,” but it is as the corpses of the dead are borne to the sepulchre.
125
Not here the curse uttered by Œdipus, but that which rested on him and all his kin. There is possibly an allusion to the curse which Pelops is said to have uttered against Laios when he stole his son Chrysippos. Comp. v. 837.
126
As in v. 763 we read of the brothers as made one in death, so now of the concord which is wrought out by conflict, the concord,
127
The Chorus are called on to change their character, and to pass from the attitude of suppliants, with outstretched arms, to that of mourners at a funeral, beating on their breasts. But, perhaps, the call is addressed to the mourners who are seen approaching with Ismene and Antigone.
128
The thought is drawn from the
129
The “Chalyb,” or iron sword, which the Hellenes had imported from the Skythians. Comp. vv. 70. 86.
130
The lyrical, operative character of Greek tragedies has to be borne in mind as we read passages like that which follows. They were not meant to be