Part 31 (1/2)

st??t?? est?.

[37] The Scholiast makes ?ep??ta the accusative singular to agree with pa??pt??. Musgrave takes it as agreeing with ?ata; in this latter case ???pt??ta is used in a neuter signification. Note [F].

[38] This is Musgrave's interpretation, by putting the stop after ???, which also Porson adopts; others would join ??? with p??s??. It seems however more natural that the torch should be referred to Tydeus's emblem, than to himself.

[39] Commentators and interpreters are much at variance concerning the word st??f?????. For his better satisfaction on this pa.s.sage the reader is referred to the Scholia.

[40] ?e?ssa is in apposition to ?aa? in the preceding line. Cf. Orestes, 1585.

[41] Commentators are divided on the meaning of e???ata. One Scholiast understands it to mean the uprights of the ladder in which the bars are fixed. Eustathias considers e???at?? a??a a periphrasis for a??a, e???ata being the a??a or a??de?, which e?e???a?ta? t??? ?????? ??????.

[42] Musgrave would render ?????t?t' e?a?t?a? by ”mobilitatem male coalescentem;” in this case it would indicate the bad omen, and be opposed to a??a? ?apada, which then should be translated ”the pointed flame.”

Valckenaer considers the pa.s.sage as desperately corrupt. See Musgrave's note. Cf. Note [G].

[43] If the flame was clear and vivid.

[44] If it terminated in smoke and blackness.

[45] The construction of this pa.s.sage is the same as that of Il. ? 155.

?a?at?? ?? t?? ?????' eta???. ”Fdus, quod pepigi, tibi mortis causa est.”

PORSON.

[46] Beck, by putting the stop after pet???, makes ??p?d???? to agree with ?????, ”_his limb diverted from its tread_.”

[47] The construction is f???? ??a??e?? f????: a?at? depends on e?

understood.

[48] Most MSS. have ???et??. Here then is a remarkable instance of the same word having both an active and a pa.s.sive signification in the same sentence.

[49] a???p????, not a???p???, is Porson's reading, a???p???? ??? is explained ”vita in qua longo tempore spiratur; ergo longa.”

[50] See note at Hecuba 65.

[51] The old reading was t? t?a?; t? t?a?; making it the present tense.

Brunck first edited it as it stands in Porson. Antigone repeats the last word of her father.

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

[A] ”Signum interrogandi non post ?ea??a?, sed post ???a??? ponendum.

???a??? in libris pedagogo tribuitur: quod correxit Hermannus.” DINDORF.

[B] Porson and Dindorf (in his notes) favor Reiske's conjecture, p?????s?

for p?????s?.