Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (36 page)
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Authors: Aeschylus
A satyric play
dealing with the story of Cercyon, son of Poseidon and king of Eleusis, who
forced all passers-by to wrestle with him. Bacchylides 17. 26 says that Theseus
“closed his wrestling-school.”
FRAGMENT 52
Pollux,
Vocabulary
10. 175.
Ear-coverings close
to his ear-rings.
amphôtides
were worn to protect the ears of wrestlers.
The Heralds
or
The
Messengers
was a satyric play on an unknown subject; possibly connected with
Heracles.
See Fragments 168, 170, 171, 178.
FRAGMENT 53
Pollux,
Vocabulary
10. 186.
Down over the
skin-coat of lion’s hide.
The seer Polyidus of Corinth
discovered the dead body of Glaucus, the lost son of Minos, and restored it to
life by his skill in interpreting Apollo’s oracle that had been made known to
the father. The power to bring the child back alive – so the god declared – was
to be given him who could find the most appropriate object to be compared to
Minos’ marvellous cow, which each day became in turn white, red, and black (cp.
Frag. 54). The legend of Polyidus was the theme of Sophocles’
Seers
.
To
The Women of Crete
have been ascribed Fragments 165, 173.
FRAGMENT 54
Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists
ii. 36. p. 51D; cp. Eustathius on
Iliad
1254. 25.
For at the same
season [the branch] is weighed down by mulberries, white and black and red.
LEÔ
N
The Lion was a
satyric play of unknown subject. The title may be derived from the Nemean lion
overcome by Heracles.
Stephen of
Byzantium,
Lexicon
699. 13.
The bane of
wayfarers, the serpent that haunts the place.
The satyric play of
the Lycurgean trilogy.
FRAGMENT 56
Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists
x. 67. p. 447C.
And after this he
drank beer thinned by age, and made thereof loud boast in the banquet-hall (?).
According to the
story in the
Aethiopis
of the Cyclic poet Arctinus of Miletus, as
summarized by Proclus in his
Chrestomathy
458, Achilles is informed by
his mother Thetis that Memnon, the son of Eos, clad in full armour fashioned by
Hephaestus, has come to the aid of the Trojans. Antilochus, the son of Nestor,
is slain in battle by the Ethiopian prince, who in turn is slain by Achilles,
whose mother begs of Zeus the boon of immortality for her son. Achilles routs
the Trojans, bursts into the city, is killed by Paris and Apollo; his body is
borne to the ships by Ajax, while Odysseus keeps the Trojans at bay. Thetis,
attended by the Muses and her sister Nereïds, arrives on the scene bewails her
son, whose body she takes from the funeral pyre and carries to the island of
Leuce.
The trilogy consisted of
The
Memnôn, Psychostasia, The Weighing of Souls
(the order is disputed), and a
third play unknown, but probably dealing with the death of Achilles. In the
Psychostasia
Zeus was represented as holding aloft the balance, in the scales of which were
the souls of Achilles and Memnon, while beneath each stood Thetis and Eos,
praying each for the life of her son. Comparing the passage in the
Iliad
(X 210), in which Zeus weighs the fates of Achilles and Hector, Plutarch (
How
a Young Man ought to hear Poems
2. p. 17A) says that Aeschylus accommodated
a whole play to this fable.
Fragments 155, 161, 181, 183 have been referred to the
Memnon
.
FRAGMENT 57
Eustathius on
Iliad
1156. 18, Bekker,
Anecdota Gracea
445. 18 (
kai . .. arkios
); cp.
Hesychius,
Lexicon
.
And lo, he draws
near and his advance fills us with chilling fear, like a blast from the North
that falls on sailors unprepared.
FRAGMENT 58
Bekker,
Anecdota
Graeca
353. 11 (
Aischulos Agamemnoni: Memnoni
Wellaeuer), Photius,
Lexicon
42. 16 (Reitzenstein).
Bronze, unshorn (?)
and stretched over the shield.
Restoration and
translation are wholly uncertain. The ancients were hopelessly confused between
the words
athêrês, atheirês, ateirês, atêrês, atherêtos, atheritos
.
Possibly the bronze of a shield may be said to be “unshorn,” “unconquered,”
since a weapon “shears off” what it strikes (cp. Euripides,
Suppliants
716).
The Achilles-trilogy, the “tragic
Iliad,” consisting of the
Myrmidones, Nêreïdes, Phruges ê Hektoros lutra
,
dramatized (so far as this was appropriate by visible action or reported
description) the chief events of the Homeric story of the death of Patroclus,
the slaying of Hector, and Priam’s ransom of the body of his son.
See Fragments 155, 240, 263, 266.
FRAGMENT 59
Harpocration,
Glossary
of the Ten Attic Orators
259. 11, explaining
propepôkôs
as having
the meaning of
prodedôkôs
; l. 1 Aristophanes,
Frogs
with
Scholiast.
Beholdest thou
this, glorious Achilles, beholdest thou the distress wrought by the destructive
lance upon the Danaans, whom thou hast betrayed, yet sittest idle within thy
tent?
From the parodus of
the Chorus of Myrmidons.
FRAGMENT 60
Aristophanes,
Frogs
1264 with Scholiast.
Lord of Phthia,
Achilles! Why, oh, why, when thou hearest the man-slaying (Ah woe!) buffetings
of war, dost thou not draw night to our rescue?
By the repetition of l. 2 in
Frogs
1266, 1271,
1275, 1277, after other high-sounding dactylic measures, Aristophanes is here
seeker (
inter alia
) to ridicule Aeschylus for his iteration of the
refrain and his strange use of interjections. In the present instance kopon
yields an intelligible sense with
androdaïkton
; in the other cases the
word (and the entire verse) has no connexion with what precedes, being solely
designed to mark the obscurity of Aeschylus’ choral lyrics.
A later Scholiast on
Frogs
1264 and on
Prom.
441 ascribes the two
verses to envoys, whose pleadings that Achilles enter the battle were received
with inflexible silence.
FRAGMENT 61
Scholiast Venetus
on Aristophanes,
Peace
1177; l. 1 Scholiast Ravennus on
Frogs
932.
The buff horse-cock
fastened thereon, the laborious work of outpoured paints, is dripping.
When the Trojans
set fire to a ship of the Greeks (in O 7171 Hector attempts to burn that of
Protesilaüs), the heat caused the melting of the paint of the figure (or
picture of a horse-cock, the emblem of the vessel. A horse-cock is pictured in
Harrison and MacColl,
Greek Vase-Paintings
pl. viii.
FRAGMENT 62
Aristophanes,
Women
in Parliament
392 with Scholiast. The Scholiast ends the quotation with
mallon
,
but, since Gataker, the following words are also generally ascribed to
Aeschylus.
Antilochus, bewail
me, the living, rather than him, the dead; for I have lost my all.
FRAGMENT 63
Scholiast on
Aristophanes,
Birds
807, 808, Suidas,
Lexicon
s.v.
tauti men
;
l. 1 Pseudo-Diogenianus,
Proverbs
(
Paroemiographi Graeci
i. 180);
ll. 4-5
Birds
808 and often in late writers: Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
On the Power of the Style of Demosthenes
7, Philo of Alexandria,
On
the Incorruptibility of the World
14. 49 (Cohn and Reiter vi. 88), Galen,
On
the Opinions of Hippocrates and Plato
iv (vol. v. 395), Aristeides,
On
Rhetoric
15 (ii. 17), Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists
xi. 86. p. 494B.
Eustathius on
Iliad
632. 35.
Even so is the
Libyan fable famed abroad: the eagle, pierced by the bow-sped shaft, looked at
the feathered device, and said, “Thus, not by others, but by means of our own
plumage, are we slain.”
Achilles has lost
his friend Patroclus, who, by his consent and clad in his armour, fought to
rescue the Greeks only to lose his life.
FRAGMENT 64
Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists
xiii. 79. p. 602E, cp. Plutarch,
On Love
5. p. 751C; 1.2 Plutarch,
How to
know a Flatterer from a Friend
, 19. 61A.
No reverence hadst
thou for the unsullied holiness of thy limbs, oh thou most ungrateful for my
many kisses!
Fragments 64-66 are
from the address of Achilles in the presence of the corpse of Patroclus, who
had been slain by Hector (P 821) and lay with his lower limbs uncovered. Achilles
here mournfully urges against him the reproach that, in his forbidden advance
against the Trojans, he had been heedless of the affection of his friend.
FRAGMENT 65
[Lucian],
The
Loves
54.
And the chaste
nearness of thy limbs.
The Fragment was
ascribed to Aeschylus by Porson.
FRAGMENT 66
Bekker,
Anecdota
Graeca
321. 22, Suidas,
Lexicon
s.v.
abdelukta
, etc.
And yet – for that
I love him – they are not repuslive to my sight.
MYSO
I
According to the common version of the
legend, Telephus, son of Heracles and Auge, daughter of Aleüs of Tegea, being
ignorance of his parents, was directed by an oracle to seek for them in Mysia,
of which country Teuthras was ruler. Aristotle (
Poetics
1460 a 32), however,
referring to the fault that improbably incidents are sometimes set forth within
a play (whereas they ought, if possible, to be external, as part of the fable)
alludes to Telephus as having come speechless all the way from Tegea to Mysia,
a taboo explicable only if he had incurred blood-guiltiness (cp.
Eumenides
448). Telephus had, in fact, killed his maternal uncles.
Fragment 208 has been referred to
The Mysians
.
FRAGMENT 67
Strabo,
Geography
xiii. 1. 70. p. 616 (wrongly ascribing the verse to the prologue of The
Myrmidones, an error corrected by Pauw), Macrobius,
Saturnalia
v. 20.
16.
Hail, Caïcus and ye
streams of Mysia!
FRAGMENT 68
Photius,
Lexicon
344, 19, Suidas,
Lexicon
s.v.
orgeônes
.
Hail, thou first
priest of Caïcus’ stream, by thy healing prayers mayest thou preserve thy
lords!
FRAGMENT 69
Photius,
Lexicon
113. 15 (Reitzenstein).
I saw them trotting
(?) amid the spears.
The Youths
, the third play of
the Lycurgus-trilogy, apparently has its name form the Edonians who celebrated
the worship of Dionysus that had gained admission into the kingdom of Lycurgus
despite the opposition of that prince.
See Fragments 179, 187, 193, 210, 256.
FRAGMENT 70
Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists
xi. 109. p. 503C.
Breezes in cool,
shady places
FRAGMENT 71
Photius,
Lexicon
102. 13 (Reitzenstein).
Besides, in
addition to these, having the plenteous woes of the immortals.
Thetis, accompanied by her sister
Nereïds, comes from the depths of the sea to enquire the cause of the
lamentations of her son (cp. S 53 ff.). She finds Achilles by the dead body of
Patroclus and promises to procure from Hephaestus new armour that he may take
vengeance on Hector, who has been exulting over the death of Patroclus. The
play probably contained a description of Achilles’ new armour, his
reconciliation with Agamemnon, and his combat with Hector, whose corpse was
dragged in at the close.
See Fragments 158, 189.
FRAGMENT 72
Scholiast on
Euripides,
Women of Phoenicia
209.
Having crossed the
plain of the sea, that bears dolphins
FRAGMENT 73
Herodianus
Technicus,
Excerpts
22. 31 (Hilgard).
Let fine linen be
cast about his body.
FRAGMENT 74
Hesychius,
Lexicon
s.v.
enarophoros
, states that ancient commentators compared X 412: “for
it is unholy to boast over slain men,” and gives the meaning of the much
mangled words as follows:
Death, the spoiler
and slayer, angry at boastings, will quit the company of the immortals on high
(?).
FRAGMENT 75
Scholiast on
Pindar,
Nemean
6. 85 (53).
Hurling the shaft
with forked point
The place and progress of the action
of this famous drama cannot be determined with any certainty. Apart from the
title-heroine, the only person know to participate in the action is Tantalus,
the father of Niobe – himself, like his daughter, destroyed because of evil
pride engendered by great good fortune. Niobe, according to Homer (Ô 602 ff.),
had vaunted herself a more prolific mother than Leto, whose two children,
Apollo and Artemis, therefore slew her seven sons and seven daughters. From
Fragment 81 it has been inferred that he scene remained Thebes throughout the
play. Since it is expressly reported that Sophocles in his
Niobe
made
the mother return to her native Lydia after the destruction of her children in
Thebes, it is likely that this transference of the place of action from Thebes
to Lydia was not anticipated by Aeschylus. – The older poet gives no hint as to
the reason for the calamity visited by Zeus upon Amphion, Niobe’s husband and
his own son.
Sources other than the text inform us that Aeschylus gave Niobe fourteen
children, a number adopted by Euripides and Aristophanes; whereas, apart from
other variations in the tradition, Homer states that they were twelve, Hesiod
twenty, equally divided as to sex. – Until the third part of the play Niobe sat
speechless upon the tomb of her dead offspring, apparently the most celebrated
instance of the dramatic device of silence often employed by Aeschylus, and for
which he is ridiculed by Euripides in Aristophanes,
Frogs
911.
It has been disputed whether the title refers only to the one play
Niobe
,
or whether, like
Prometheus
, it was both a collective designation of an
entire trilogy and also the name of a single drama; in any case, as to the
dramas presented at the same time we have no information. Welcker sought to
establish the group
Trophoi
(distinct from
Dionysos trophoi
),
Niobê
,
Propompoi
. R. J. Walker finds a trilogy in
Kallistô, Atalantê, Niobê
on the ground that all the persons thus named suffered metamorphosis, and that
Artemis was prominent in each member of the group. From Aristotle (
Poetics
18. 1456 a
16) it would seem that Aeschylus did not, like some playwrights, deal with the
whole story of Niobe. There is no indication whether or not Aeschylus adopted
the legend that Niobe was turned to stone.
Fragments 197, 227, 240 have been ascribed to the
Niobe
.
FRAGMENT 76
Choeroboscus (41.
10) on Hephaestion’s
Handbook of Metres
7 (Consbruch 3. 15).
Maidens such as
these Ister and pure Phasis claim to breed.
FRAGMENT 77
Plato,
Republic
ii. 380A, whence Eusebius,
Preparation for the Gospel
xiii. 3. 643C; without mention of the
poet’s name: Plutarch,
How a Young Man ought to hear Poems
2. 17B,
On
Common Conceptions against the Stoics
14. 1065E.
God planteth in
mortal men the cause of sin whensoever he wills utterly to destroy a house.
FRAGMENT 78
Hesychius,
Lexicon
s.v.
epôzein
(he took the passage to mean that Niobe sat over her dead
children as a hen sits on her eggs – an interpretation still current).
Seated on their
tomb she made lament over her dead children.
FRAGMENT 79
Strabo,
Geography
xii. 7. 18. p. 580;
speirô . . . chôron
Plutarch,
On Banishment
10. 603A,
That a Philosopher ought chiefly to converse with Great Men
3.
778B.
I sow a field
twelve days’ journey wide, even the Berecynthian land, where Adrastea’s seat
and Ida resound with lowing oxen and bleating sheep, and the whole plain roars.
Spoken by Tantalus.
The words of Fragment 80 have regard to the overthrow of his house and followed
close upon those of Fragment 79.
FRAGMENT 80
Plutarch,
On
Banishment
10. 603A.
My fate, that dwelt
aloft in Heaven, now falleth to earth and saith to me “Learn not to esteem
human things overmuch.”
FRAGMENT 81
Stobaeus,
Anthology
iv. 51. 1 (Hense v. 1066) in cod. Sambuci; ll. 1-3 Scholiasts AB on
Iliad
I 158 (cp. Eustathius on
Iliad
744. 3); l. 1 Aristophanes,
Frogs
1392, Scholiast on Sophocles,
Electra
139, and on Euripides,
Alcestis
55, Suidas,
Lexicon
s.v.
thanatôn, monos theôn, pagkoinos
.
For, alone of gods,
Death loves not gifts; no, not by sacrifice, nor by libation, canst thou aught
avail with him; he hath no altar nor hath he hymn of praise; from him, alone of
gods, Persuasion stands aloof.
FRAGMENT 83
Plato,
Republic
iii. 391E; cp. Strabo,
Geography
xii. 8. 21. p. 580.
The kindred of the
gods, men near to Zeus, whose is the altar of Zeus, their sire, high in clear
air on Ida’s hill, and in their veins not yet hath ceased to flow the blood
divine.
Spoken by Niobe,
says Strabo.