CHOR. How delighted am I at hearing this from
the messenger; but he says that thy daughter living
abides among the Gods.
CLY. O daughter, of whom of the Gods art thou
the theft? How shall I address thee? What
shall I say that these words do not offer me a vain
comfort, that I may cease from my mournful grief on
thy account?
CHOR. And truly king Agamemnon draws hither,
having this same story to tell thee.
[Enter AGAMEMNON.]
AG. Lady, as far as thy daughter is concerned,
we may be happy, for she really possesses a companionship
with the Gods. But it behooves thee, taking this
young child [Orestes,] to go home, for the army is
looking toward setting sail. And fare thee well,
long hence will be my addresses to thee from Troy,
and may it be well with thee.
CHOR. Atrides, rejoicing go thou to the land
of the Phrygians, and rejoicing return, having obtained
for me most glorious spoils from Troy.
* * * *
*
* * * *
[1] From the answer of the old man, Porson’s
conjecture, [Greek: speude], seems very probable.
[2] See Hermann’s note. The passage has
been thus rendered by Ennius:
AG. “Quid nocti” videtur
in altisono
Coeli
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 passage 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
passage, there is little doubt that Ennius wrote “in
altisono mundi clypeo,” of which coeli
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 [Greek: epi pasin
agathois]. The Cambridge editor aptly compares
Hipp. 461. [Greek: chren s’ epi rhetois
ara Patera phyteuein].
[4] The [Greek: synnymphokomos] 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] [Greek: dromoi] for [Greek: moroi] is
Markland’s, and, doubtless, the correct, reading.
[Greek: monos] is merely a correction of the Aldine
edition.
[7] But read [Greek: tas—deltous]
with the Cambridge editor, = “in relation to
my former dispatches.”
[8] [Greek: tan] should probably be erased before
[Greek: kolpode], 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.
