Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (42 page)

FRAGMENT 229

Stobaeus,
Anthology
iv. 53. 17 (Hense v. 1102) SA, om. M, Menander,
Single-verse Maxims
193.

Death is rather to
be chosen than a toilsome life; and not to be born is better than to be born to
misery.

Oidipous
Hartung; Euripides, L. Dindorf.

FRAGMENT 230

Strabo,
Geography
vi. 6. p. 258.

Whence it shall
bear the name Rhegium

Glaukos pontios
Hermann,
Promêtheus
lyomenos
Schültz.
At Rhegium Sicily was broken off (
aporrhêgnym
) from the mainland by an
earthquake.

FRAGMENT 231

Strabo,
Geography
viii. 7. 5. p. 387 (ll. 2-3 in
the Cozza-Luzzi MS.); l. 3 Stephen of Byzantium,
Lexicon
707. 13; cp.
Photius,
Lexicon
492. 10.

Hallowed Bura and
thunder-smitten Rhypae, and Dyme, Helice and Aegeira and precipitous, sacred
Olenus

All these places are in Achaea.
Glaukos pontios
Hartung,
Kares ê Eurôpê
Meineke,
Danaïdes
M. Schmidt.

FRAGMENT 232

Strabo,
Geography
ix. 1. 9. p. 393.

Aegina yonder lies
towards the southern blasts.

Salaminiai
Wagner. A description of the position of the ancient city of Salamis.

FRAGMENT 233

Anonymous
Grammarian in Lexicon Vaticanum (cod. Vaticanus Graecus 12) s.v. akmên.

But as yet all the
cymbals that raised a din

FRAGMENT 234

Aristophanes,
Frogs
1431,
Palatine Anthology
x. 110, Suidas,
Lexicon
s.v.
ou chrê
and
skymos
; l. 1 Macarius,
Rose-bed
vi. 71; ll. 2-3 quoted by
Plutarch in reference to Alcibiades in his
Life
16.

One must not rear a
lion’s whelp in the State [best of all not to rear a lion in the State]; but if
one be reared to his full growth, we must humour his ways.

Compare
Agam.
717 ff.
L1. 1 and 3
Danaïdes
Hermann.

FRAGMENT 235

Thomas Magister,
Collection
of Attic Nouns and Verbs
238.8

Nobly to die were
better than to save one’s life.

Hept epi Thêbas
Thomas Magister, but
mallon enoikôteros
(cp. l. 673) is lacking in his
citation.

FRAGMENT 236

Stobaeus,
Anthology
i. 3. 24 (Wachsmuth i. 56), Theophilus,
To Autoloycus
ii. 37. p. 176.

For, of a truth,
the doer is bound to suffer.

Probably from
Sophocles (Fragment 229 Jebb-Pearson), but ascribed to Aeschylus because of
Choëph.
313.

FRAGMENT 237

Aristophanes,
Frogs
704 with Scholiast.

With our lives in
the clasp of the waves

Archilochus 25, but
ascribed to Aeschylus by Didymus.

FRAGMENT 238

Strabo,
Geography
viii. 3. 8. p. 341, Eustathius on
Iliad
305. 534.

Possessing as their
allotted share all Cyprus and Paphos

Danaïdes
or
Thalamêpoloi
(sic) Hartung; from Archilochus according to Meineke.

FRAGMENT 239

Clement of
Alexandria,
Miscellanies
v. 14. p. 727, Eusebius,
Preparation for the
Gospel
xiii. 13. p. 689B, [Justin Martyr,]
On Monarchy
2. 130.

Set God apart from
mortal men, and deem not that he, like them, is fashioned out of flesh. Thou
knowest him not; now he appeareth as fire, unapproachable in his onset, now as
water, now as gloom; and he, even himself, is dimly seen in the likeness of
wild beasts, of wind, of cloud, of lightning, thunder, and of rain. Ministers
unto him are sea, and rocks, and every spring, and gathered floods; before him
tremble mountains and earth and the vast abyss of the sea and the lofty
pinnacles of the mountains, whensoever the flashing eye of their lord looketh
on them. For all power hath he; lo, this is the glory of the Most High God.

Aeschylean authorship has generally
been rejected since Grotius.
The Fragment was ascribed to Aeschylus in antiquity probably because of its
lofty conception of God.

FRAGMENT 240

Plutarch,
Consolation
to Apollonius
29. 116F,
Stobaeus,
Anthology
iv. 4. 36 (Hense v. 967).

This is the mark of
men just and wise as well – even in calamity not to cherish anger against the
gods.

From Aeschylus
(Plutarch),
Myrmidones
E. A. J. Ahrens,
Niobê
Burmeisters; from
Euripides (Stobaeus: Nauck Frag. 1078).

FRAGMENT 241

Spoken by Aeschylus
to Aristophanes,
Frogs
886-7 (see Scholiast); l. 1 assigned to Aeschylus
in inferior MSS. (not in Ven. or Rav.).

O Demeter, thou
that didst nourish my soul, grant that I be worthy of thy Mysteries!

Eleusinioi
Butler.

FRAGMENT 242

Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists
x. 85 p. 457B.

Having won a
glorious victory in battle

Assigned to
Aeschylus by Nauck.

FRAGMENT 243

Hesychius,
Lexicon
s.v.
empedês
.

May Hades, whose
portion is the earth, seize and fetter thee!

Assigned to Aeschylus by Burges.
Text and application are uncertain. Possibly Hades is called “landowner” to
contrast his distinctive domain from that of Zeus and of Poseidon.

FRAGMENT 244

Hesychius,
Lexicon
s.v.
Tirynthion plintheuma
and
Kyklôpôn edos
.

Walled Tiryns, the
Cyclopes’ seat.

Assigned to
Aeschylus by Nauck. The two glosses were joined by Meineke.

FRAGMENT 245

Lucian,
The Fly
11 (Sommerbrodt iii. 121).

Shameful is it that
the fly, with courageous might, should leap upon men’s bodies to glut itself
with blood, yet men-at-arms should dread the foeman’s spear.

Assigned to
Aeschylus by Bergk.

FRAGMENT 246

Marcus Antoninus,
Meditations
7. 51.

When a storm
bloweth, sent of the gods, we needs must endure it, toiling without complaint.

Assigned to
Aeschylus by Wagner.

FRAGMENT 247

Plutarch,
How a
Young Man ought to hear Poems
13. 35E,
How to Profit by our Enemies
5. 88F.

ALC. Thou art near akin to a woman
that brought death upon her husband.
ADR. And thou, with thine own hand, didst slay the mother that bare thee.

Epigonoi
Wagner. Brunck and
Hermann ascribed the verses to Sophocles’
Epigonoi
.
L. 1 spoken by Alcmeon, son of Amphiaraüs and Eriphyle, l. 2 by Adrastus,
brother of Eriphyle. Eriphyle had been bribed by Polynices with the necklace of
Harmonia to influence Amphiaraüs against his better judgment to join the first
expedition against Thebes, from which he knew that he should not return alive
(cp.
Seven against Thebes
l. 587). In the second expedition the most
important person was Alcmeon, who killed his mother and went mad.

FRAGMENT 248

Athenaeus,
Deipnosophists
xiii. 14. p. 584D.

Cursed boy! What
word is this that thou hast uttered?

From the
Epigonoi
of Aeschylus or of Sophocles (Wagner).

FRAGMENT 249

Plutarch,
On
Superstition
3. 166A.

But either thou art
frightened of a spectre beheld in sleep and hast joined the revel-rout of
nether Hecate

Assigned to
Aeschylus by Porson

FRAGMENT 250

Pluatch,
On Love
15. 758B.

For Night brought
me not forth to be the lord of the lyre, nor to be seer or leech, but to lull
to rest men’s souls.

Assigned to Aeschylus by Hermann.
Spoken by Sleep.

FRAGMENT 251

Scholiast B on
Iliad
A 175, and cited by collectors of proverbs; Zenobius iv. 11, Gregory of Cyprus
(cod. Leid. 2. 19, Mosq. 3. 53), Pseudo-Diogenianus iv. 95a.

Zeus looked late
into his book.

Assigned to Aeschylus by Valckenaer.
A proverb concerning the delayed punishment of the wicked. The “book of Zeus”
is the “book of life.” Cp.
Eum.
275.

FRAGMENT 252

Stobaeus,
Anthology
i., proem 1a (Watchsmuth 1. 15); cp. Plato,
Republic
vii. 522D.

Thereafter I
ordered the life of all Hellas and of the allies, the life aforetime confused
and like to that of wild beasts. First I invented number, all-wise, chiefest of
sciences.

Palamêdês
,
Wachsmuth. Cp. Frag. 96, from that play.

FRAGMENT 253

Stobaeus,
Anthology
i. 3. 98 (Wachsmuth i. 57), Theophilus,
To Autolycus
ii. 37. p. 178.

Justice, voiceless,
unseen, seeth thee when thou sleepest and when thou goest forth and when thou
liest down. Continually doth she attend thee, now aslant thy course, now at a
later time.

Assigned to
Aeschylus by Hermann.

FRAGMENT 254

Stobaeus,
Anthology
i. 6. 16 (Wachsmuth i. 87).

Sovereign of all
the gods is Fortune, and these other names are given her in vain; for she alone
disposeth all things as she wills.

Assigned to Aeschylus by Achsmuth.
Some “other names” of Tyche are
praktêrios Suppliant Maidens
523,
sôtêr
Agam.
664,
hê eu didousa
Sophocles,
Oedipus Tyrranus
1080.

FRAGMENT 255

Stobaeus,
Anthology
iii. 4. 16 (Hense iii. 223).

One must not have a
manner too swift-paced.

Assigned to
Phryges ê Hektoros
lytra
by Hermann, who made Priam speak this verse, followed (as in
Stobaeus) by “For none who hath been overthrown deems that he has been
counselled well;” and let Priam, after two verses by Achilles, continue his reproach
with the lines: “For this hastiness and lightness of mind hath oft brought
mortals to misery.”
Nauck ascribed
sphaleis gar ktl
. to Chaeremon (Frag. 26), the two verses
to Euripides (Frag. 1032).

FRAGMENT 256

Hesychius,
Lexicon
s.v. methystades.

Like maids,
wine-stricken and drunk with love

Lykourgeia
Hermann,
Neaniskoi
Hartung.

FRAGMENT 257

Hesychius,
Lexicon
s.v.
prosaurizousa
.

Moisture meeting a
current from dry land (?)

Assigned to
Aeschylus by Dindorf.

FRAGMENT 258

Hesychius,
Lexicon
s.v.
prosaitherizousa
.

Raising to the
skies the missive flame

Intruded into
Agam
.
301 by Dindorf.

FRAGMENT 259

Aelian,
Historical
Miscellanies
xiii. 1.

Shooting upward,
[the flame] flashed forth like lightning.

Placed after
Agam.
301 by Meineke, after l. 307 by Wecklein.

FRAGMENT 260

Stobaeus,
Anthology
iii. 20. 13 (Hense iii. 541).

Words do provoke to
senseless wrath.

A corruption or
variation of
Prom.
380.

FRAGMENT 261

Strabo,
Geography
iv. 1. 7. p. 182.

The black North, a
blast violent and chilling, descends in a tempest.

Promêtheus lyomenos
Teuffel.
Probably from a description of the
Lithôdes
, the Stony Plain; cp. Frag.
112.

FRAGMENT 262

Clement of
Alexandria,
Miscellanies
ii. 15. p. 462: l. 2 cited, without the poet’s
name, by Plutarch,
On Moral Virtue
6. 446A, Stobaeus,
Anthology
ii. 7. 10a (Wachsmuth ii. 89).

Naught escapes me
whereof thou admonishest me; yet, for all my resolve, Nature constrains me.

Laïos
Gataker, Euripides
Chrysippos
Valckenaer.

FRAGMENT 263

Trypho,
On
Tropes in Rhetores Graeci
viii. 738, who saw that
pheidôlia
(which
generally means “sparing”) is here used in the sense of
akibeia
, “accurace”;
cp. Gregory of Corinth,
Tropes
viii. 767, Moschopulus,
Opsuscula
Grammatica
76.

Teucer, plying his
bow with sure aim, stayed the Phrygians as they would overleap the foss.

Salaminiai
Hermann,
Myrmidones
Anon. in Welcker; Sophocles
Teukros
Blomfield. From a description of the battle in TH 266 ff.

FRAGMENT 264

Clement of
Alexandria,
Miscellanies
ii. 15. p. 462; ll. 1-2 Letronne,
Les
Papyres grecs
p. 96.

So then ’tis true –
no misery gnaws a free man’s soul like dishonour. Thus do I suffer, and the
deep stain of my calamity ever stirs me from the depths, agitated as I am by
the piercing goads of frenzy.

Thrêssai
Süvern.
Spoken by Ajax before his suicide (Clement).

FRAGMENT 265

Plato,
Republic
viii. 550C.

Another man
stationed against another State

Quoted by Plato as from Aeschylus, but
probably a playful allusion to
Seven against Thebes
(cp. ll. 451, 570).
From a lost play, Herwerden.

FRAGMENT 266

Aristophanes,
Frogs
1400.

Achilles has thrown
two aces and a four.

Of unknown source
(Aristarchus),
Myrmidones
(a late Scholiast). Now generally assigned to
Euripides (Frag. 688), whose Telephus is said, on poor authority, to have
represented the heroes as dicing. Dionysus, who quotes the verse in
Aristophanes, implies that he verse is as bad as the throw. Three dice were
used, the highest cast being a triple six (Agam. 33).