Part 78 (1/2)

NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN AULIS

[1] From the answer of the old man, Porson's conjecture, spe?de, seems very probable.

[2] See Hermann's note. The pa.s.sage has been thus rendered by Ennius:

AG. ”Quid nocti” videtur in altisono Cli clupeo?

SEN. Temo superat stellas, cogens Sublime etiam atque etiam noctis Itiner.

See Scaliger on Varr. de L.L. vi. p.143, and on Festus s.v. Septemtriones.

All the editors have overlooked the following pa.s.sage of Apuleius de Deo Socr. p. 42, ed. Elm. ”Suspicientes in hoc perfectissimo mundi, ut ait Ennius, clypeo,” whence, as I have already observed in my notes on the pa.s.sage, there is little doubt that Ennius wrote ”in altisono mundi clypeo,” of which _cli_ was a gloss, naturally introduced by those who were ignorant of the use of _mundus_ in the same sense. The same error has taken place in some of the MSS. of Virg. Georg. i. 5, 6. Compare the commentators on Pompon. Mela. i. 1, ed. Gronov.

[3] Such seems the force of ep? pas?? a?a????. The Cambridge editor aptly compares Hipp. 461. ???? s' ep? ???t??? a?a ?ate?a f?te?e??.

[4] The s????f????? was probably a kind of gentleman usher, but we have no correlative either to the custom or the word.

[5] Hermann rightly regards this as a hendiadys.

[6] d???? for ???? is Markland's, and, doubtless, the correct, reading.

???? is merely a correction of the Aldine edition.

[7] But read ta?--de?t??? with the Cambridge editor, = ”in relation to my former dispatches.”

[8] ta? should probably be erased before ???p?d?, with the Cambridge editor. He remarks, ”the sea-port, although separated from the island by the narrow strait of Euripus, is styled its _wing_.” On the metrical difficulties and corruptions throughout this chorus, I must refer the reader to the same critic.

[9] But ?e?t???, _uxorem_, is better, with ed. Camb.

[10] It is impossible to get a satisfactory sense as these lines now stand.

I have translated e???a. There seems to be a lacuna. The following are the readings of the Camb. ed. e? ?a? p. a?t?s???, pa??? e?. ?. ?a??????, ep?

?????p?? ??? ??e?? ??.

[11] But a???a??? is better, with ed. Camb. from the Homeric ?a???da t'

a???a???. He remarks that this word, in tragedy, is always the epithet of a place.

[12] i.e. to exact satisfaction for her abduction.

[13] i.e. the tents containing the armed soldiers.

[14] ??d?e???? refers both to ???tes??a?? and ?a?a?dea, divided by the schema Alcmanic.u.m. See Markland.

[15] Cf. Homer, Il. ?. 763 sqq.

[16] Cf. Monk on Hippol. 1229. I have translated s?????a? according to the figure of a part for the whole. The whole of the remainder of this chorus has been condemned as spurious by the Cambridge editor. See his remarks, p.

219 sqq.

[17] Can ?et?? refer to a?a?a understood?