# Sophocles, the Seven Plays in English verse/Notes

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NOTES
SOME PROPER NAMES
Aidoneus, Hades or Pluto.
Ares, The War-God, a destructive Power.
Deo, Demeter.
Erinyes, the Furies.
Helios, The Sun-God.
Rhea, the Mother of the Gods.
Thebe, the town of Thebes personified.
Antigone.
P. 6, l. 126. The serpent. The dragon, the emblem of Thebes.
l. 130. Idly caparisoned. Reading ὑπεροπλίαις.
P. 7, l. 140. Self-harnesscd helper. An allusion to the σειραφόρος, or side trace-horse, in a chariot-race.
P. 13, l. 342. Children of the steed. Mules are so-called by Homer.
P. 30, l. 955. Dryas’ hasty son. Lycurgus. See Homer, Iliad, vi.
l. 971. Phineus’ two sons. Idothea, the second wife of Phineus, persecuted his two sons by Cleopatra, a daughter of Boreas, whom he had repudiated and immured. The Argonauts saw them in the condition here described.
P. 31, l. 1120. The all-gathering bosom wide. The plain of Eleusis, where mysteries were held in honour of Deo or Demeter.
P. 39, l. 1301. Reading *ὁξυθήκτῳ . . . περὶ*ξίφει.
l. 1303. The glorious bed of buried Megareus. Megareus, son of Creon and Eurydice, sacrificed himself for Thebes by falling into a deep cave called the Dragon’s Lair.
Aias.
P. 48, l. 172. Her blood-stained temple. In some of her temples Artemis was worshipped with sacrifices of bulls, and, according to an old tradition, also with human sacrifices.
P. 49. l. 190. The brood of Sisyphus. Amongst his enemies, Odysseus was reputed to be the offspring of Sisyphus and not of Laertes.
P. 59, l. 574. Named of the shield. Eurysakes means Broadshield.
P. 71, l. 1011. Who smiles no more. Compare a fragment of the Teucer of Sophocles (519, Nauck),
‘How vain then, O my son, How vain was my delight in thy proud fame, While I supposed thee living! The fell Fury From her dark shroud beguiled me with sweet lies.’
King Oedipus.
P. 86, l. 36. That stern songstress. The Sphinx. See also ‘minstrel hound.’
P. 96, l. 402. Will hunt Pollution forth. The party cry of ‘driving out the pollution’ was raised against the Alcmaeonidae and other families in Athens, who were supposed to lie under a traditional curse.
P. 99, l. 525. Who durst declare it. Τοῦ πρὸς δ´ ἐφάνθη. Though the emphatic order of words is unusual, this seems more forcible than the v. r. τοὔπος δ´ ἐφάνθη.
P. 102, l. 625. [Cr. You’ll ne’er relent nor listen to my plea.] A line has here been lost in the original.
P. 113, l. 1025. Your purchase or your child? Oedipus is not to be supposed to have weighed the import of the Corinthian shepherd’s words, ‘Nor I nor he,’ &c., supra.
P. 128. l. 1526. His envied fortune mounted beaming. Reading ἐν ζήλῳ πολιτῶν (with 2 MSS.) and ἐπιφλέγων from my conjecture.
Electra.
P. 131, l. 6. The wolf-slaying God. Apollo Lyceius, from Lycos, a wolf.
P. 140, l. 363. Ne’er be it mine, &c. Reading τοὐμὲ μὴ *λυποῦν μόνον | βόσκημα.
​P. 143, l. 451. That lingers on my brow. A somewhat forced interpretation of τήνδε λιπαρῆ τρίχα. Possibly τήνδ´ ἀλάμπρυντον τρίχα: ‘And this—unkempt and poor—yet give it to him.’
P. 144, l. 504. Chariot course of Pelops, full of toil. Pelops won his bride Hippodameia by bribing Myrtilus, his charioteer; whom, in order to conceal his fault, he flung into the sea.
P. 150, l. 722 That pulled the side-rope. See on Ant., p. 7, l. 140.
l. 151. In letting loose again the left-hand rein. The near horse (see above) knows his business, and, when the slackening of the rein shows that the goal is cleared, makes eagerly for the direct downward course. Hut if he is let go an instant too soon, he brings the car into contact with the stone.
l. 746. Caught in the reins. In an ancient chariot-race, the reins were often passed round the body of the charioteer, so as to give more purchase. See this described in the Hippolytus of Euripides.
P. 154, l. 837. One in a woman’s toils | was tangled. Amphiaraüs, betrayed by Eriphyle for a necklace.
P. 160, l. 1085. Through homeless misery. I read αἰῶν´ ἄοικον for αἰῶνα κοινόν of the MSS.
l. 1086. Purging the sin and shame. I read καθαγνίσασα for the impossible καθοπλίσασα.
P. 172, l. 1478. Thou hast been talking. &c. Otherwise, reading with the MSS. ζῶν τοῖς θανοῦσιν οὕνεκ´ ἀνταυδᾷς ἵσα, At point to die, thou art talking with the dead.
Trachinian Maidens.
P. 180, l. 104. Bride of battle-wooing. ‘Dêanira’ signifies ‘Cause of strife to heroes.’
P. 185, l. 303. Ne’er may see thee. The Spartan captives from Pylos had lately been at Athens, and some of them were reputed descendants of Hyllus, the son of Dêanira.
P. 195, l. 654. Frees him for ever. His last contest brings his final deliverance.
P. 201, l. 860. From Love’s dread minister. i.e. from Aphrodite, working through the concealed and silent Iole.
Philoctetes.
P. 222, l. 194. Through Chrysa’s cruel sting. Chrysa was an island near the Troad, sacred to a goddess of the name. Her precinct was guarded by a serpent, whose bite, from which Philoctetes suffered, was incurable. See below, p. 254, l. 1327.
P. 226, l. 344. The fosterer of my sire. Phoenix, the tutor of Achilles.
P. 227, l. 351. For I ne’er | Had seen him. The legend which makes Achilles go to Troy from Scyros is probably ignored.
l. 384. Vile offset of an evil tree. Alluding to the supposed birth of Odysseus. See on Ai., l. 190, p. 60.
P. 230, l. 489. Of old Chalcodon. One of the former generation, a friend and neighbour of Poeas the father of Philoctetes.
P. 237, l. 729. Of him, whose home is in the skies. Heracles, imagined as transfigured on Mount Oeta.
P. 254, l. 1328. The sky-roofed fold. The open precinct that was sacred to the goddess, merely surrounded by a wall. See above, note on p. 222, l. 194.
P. 255, l. 1333. Phoebus’ child. Asclepius.
Oedipus at Colonos.
P. 265, l. 158. Mingles with draughts, &c. Where libations are mixed of water and honey.
P. 288, l. 888. The God. Poseidon. See above, p. 282, l. 55.
P. 306, l. 1525. neighbouring, γειτονῶν (the participle).
l. 1534. The dragon-brood. The Cadmeian race at Thebes, sprung from the dragon’s teeth sown by Cadmus.
N.B.—For other questionable points the student is referred to the small edition of Sophocles, by Campbell and Abbott (2 vols.. Clarendon Press, 1900).
Oxford: Horace Hart, Printer to the University.