Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/259

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Eumenides.
189

341. In ἐμαῖσι λιταῖς I suspect that ἐμοῖς ἀλίταις, "my criminals," is hidden. We need such a phrase to make ἔθνος τόδε clear. The rare word ἀλίτης (Homeric ἀλείτης) would easily be mistaken.

343. αἱματοσταγὲς is metrically refuted, but Dindorf's innovations (here and in the strophic line also) are extreme. We must drop out αἰματοσταγὲς; thereupon we find a trochaic word needful before ἔθνος. The lost word may have been φοινόν, interpreted by ἁιματοσταγές.

348. σφαλερὰ seems to be active, and καὶ to have been lost after it: "my limbs, which trip up even swift runners."

352. κατὰ γᾶν, if opposed to ὑπ᾽ αἰθέρι, should be κατὰ γᾶς.

363. ἀτίεται is against the metre. Drop it entirely, and the theory of a hiatus in the antistrophe drops with it.

448. A corrupt and doubtful word is ἀμφότερα. Musgrave's συμφορὰ gives good sense. Δυσπήμαντα, I believe, ought to be δυσπέπαντα.

456. ἥξω cannot be right. Better Τάξω (Dind. 3rd. ed. v. 488.)

457 is a very doubtful line. Perhaps
ὅρκου παρέντας μηδὲν ἐκδίκοις φρεσίν.

481. ὑπόδοσιν, "a diminution," gives a wrong sense: λῆξιν ἐπίδοσιν τε, "allotment and augmentation," is what we expect; yet ἐπίδοσιν would not have been corrupted into ὑπόδοσιν. Is it not possible that λῆξις is is the first allotment of tax, and ὑπόδοσις means "after-payment," a second rate, when the first has proved insufficient?

492–4. Vulg. δειμαίνει is impossible. I suggest δάμναται. Also οἴκοι, "within,""in the heart," for εὖ καί, which is nonsense.

497. ἐν φάει καρδίαν is clearly wrong. The obviously right sense is given, with right metre, by τίς δὲ μηδέν᾽ ἐμφυῆ κῆρι δεῖμον ἀνατρέφων, ἔμπολις βροτοῖς. [ἢ πόλις βροτός θ᾽ is not Greek.]