it too in such a way-and this I will not deny that he could neither escape nor repel his doom. I draw around him the barrier of a net without an outlet, as if for fishes, a fatal abundance of vesture. And I smite him twice, and with two groans he dropped his limbs, and I add a third blow when he had fallen, a votive offering to Pluto, that dwells beneath the earth, guardian of the dead. Thus he chafes in his own soul as he falls; and spouting forth a violent gush of the blood of his slaughter, he bespatters with black drops of murderous dew me that rejoiced no less than seed committed to the earth does in a heaven-sent shower during the teeming of the ear. Since then 'tis thus oh elders of Argos present here, rejoice ye, if ye can rejoice, for I glory in the deed. And were it possible becomingly thus to make libation over the corpse, this would be justly done-exceedingly just it surely is, that he who filled a chalice with so many accursed horrors in his home, should drain it on his return.

y

CHORUS. We are astonished at thy tongue, how bold thy language is, thou that vauntest in such expressions as these over thy husband.

CLYT.-Ye are trying me like a senseless woman; but I say with heart undaunted to you that know me well,and 'tis all one whether thou wilt praise or censure,this is Agamemnon, my husband, and he is dead-the

y I have followed the two conjectural emendations proposed in Dr. Blomfeld's note; i. e. πρεπόντως and ὡδ. For πρεπόντων no defence can be made, since Wellauer decides that Wolf's plan of taking it for mρémov is untenable, as it has not the article prefixed. Heath explains the verse in a very curious way, “ Αd πρεπόντων subauditur ἀφθονία, παρουσία, vel simile quiddam: Et si adesset rerum convenientium copia, adeo ut diis super mortuo libare possemus, hoc etium juste fieret." This seems to be the only true sense of the common reading.

doing of this right hand of mine, a righteous agent. So it is.

CHORUS.-What horrid esculent nourished by the earth, woman! or drink coming from the dragged sea, hast thou tasted, that thou hast prepared this victim, and execrations clamoured by the people? Thou hast cast him from thee, thou hast cut him off; and an outlaw shalt thou be, an object of deep abhorrence to thy countrymen.

CLYT.-Now indeed thou art dooming me to suffer banishment from the city, and the abhorrence of my countrymen, and execrations clamoured by the people,—thou that didst bring nothing of this sort against this my husband, who, making no account of her death, just as if it had been that of a brute, while there was a multitude of sheep in his fleecy folds, immolated his own daughter, the dearest to me of my offspring, as a charm for the Thracian blasts. Should'st thou not have banished him out of this land, in retribution for his foul deeds? but now that thou hearest of my deeds, thou art a stern judge. And I tell thee thus-Menace me under the understanding that I am prepared to return like for like,when thou hast got the victory with thy hand, rule me ;but if God bring the contrary to pass, thou shalt, though certainly full late, be schooled to know discretion.

b

CHORUS.-Thou art lofty of soul, and proud things hast thou uttered: thy soul is maddening as o'er the blooddripping event, an unavenged drop of blood is conspicu

z I could have wished that Dr. Blomfield had explained this word in his Glossary. Mr. Symmons has followed the old reading, pvoãç, wrinkled, for which he gives the more poetical word hoary. But this is excluded by Dr. Blomfield and Wellauer, as offending against the metre.

a Dr. Blomfield has given ror', an emendation of Vossius. ovdiv Tódé is explained by Wellauer, nihil ejusmodi.

b It is very remarkable how often this phraseology occurs, so directly at variance with a system of polytheism. My readers may find it not uninteresting to see the use which Tertullian made of this: it will be found at p. 178 of Bishop Kaye's new work on Ecclesiastical History.

< This sense, which Dr. Blomfield says would best suit the context, is that which is given by Dr. Maltby, Schutz, and Mr. Symmons.

ous upon thy brow. It cannot be but that thou hereafter, bereft of thy friends, shalt atone for stroke by stroked.

CLYT.-Hear thou too the sanctity of my oath: No, by the consummated vengeance of my daughter, by Atè, and Erinnys, to whom I sacrificed this man, I expect not to tread the hall of Terror, so long as Ægisthus burneth fire on my hearth, attached to me as heretofore; for he is to me no small shield of confidence. Low lies he that insulted the woman now before you, the minion of the Chryseïds that dwell beneath Ilion: and she here, his captive and his soothsayer, and partner of his bed, his faithful love, the deliverer of oracles, and his companion at sea on the benches of the galleys. And these two have done deeds that passed not without punishment. For he indeed lies thus; and she too, his love, having like a swan warbled her last dying wail, and to me she hath brought the delight of her fall, a poignant relish to my enjoyment'.

d Compare Shakspeare, Measure for Measure.

e Undoubtedly this is the true sense, as given by Dr. Blomfield and by Mr. Symmons. Schutz, however, perverted it to "mulieris illius, Cassandra sc. corruptor."

This passage, I confess, I have never satisfactorily understood. I have endeavoured to follow Wellauer: " πароvημa habet duplicem genitivum, ut Soph. Aj. 54. ubi vid. Herm. πapo¥úvnμa εvvñs est gaudium, quod ex ejus morte seu sepulcro (sic ɛvvǹ Soph. El. 436.) capitur, apoŵvnμa xλidñs, gaudium quod ad priores delicias accedit.

Mr. Symmons seems to have understood it differently:

'Twas to me he brought

This piece of daintiness to cheat my bed.

I shall venture to subjoin two other explanations: Heath gives, “ Jacet hujus amasia; mihi vero superinduxit cupedias clam sibi paratas præter delicias meas, i. e. quamquam adhuc forma integra et præstanti gaudeam." Schutz, after objecting to this, says, "Nimirum quia xeraɩ de mortua dicitur, ɛvvy similiter de mortua conditione,—(εvvýv olim ɛvøýμwç de sepulcro usurpatum fuisse testis est Eustath. ad Iliad. B'. 783..... Eodem modo infra post keloaι sequitur koirη, v. 1496.) dici possit; hoc sensu: Jacet hujus amasia, mihique morte suâ cumulum voluptatis meæ attulit!

SEM.-Alas! what doom, neither accompanied by extreme anguish, nor such as would make me keep my bed, may come with speed, bringing upon us the sleep that is for ever without end, now that my most gracious guardian has been smitten down, and after having suffered much in a woman's cause? by a woman's hand too he lost his life.

CHORUS.-Woe! O frantic Helen, that singly worked the destruction of the very many lives beneath Troy.

SEM.-Now too, thou hast cropped the flower of a perfect very illustrious life, on account of the bloodshed that could not be washed away:-surely at that time there was in the palace high-towering strife", a hero's bane.

CLYT.-By no means in vexation of spirit pray for the doom of death, nor divert thine indignation upon Helen, as though she, the destroyer of men, as though she singly, having brought to an end the lives of many men, had wrought the sorrow that knows not termination.

SEM. O dæmon, that fallest on this dwelling, and

To

* Thus I have translated, having taken the liberty to adopt the punctuation of Schutz, without which I could not have waded through the passage. what do τελείαν and πολύμναστον refer? ψυχὴν, I think, must naturally occur-this, of course, is Agamemnon, and the aiμ' ävπтov, in that case, is the sacrifice of Iphigenia, to which such prominence is repeatedly given by Æschylus. In v. 1436, my only resource was to read rug with Schutz and Dr. Butler, in spite of Dr. Blomfield's reprobation of it. It seems to be agreed that we are to consider Clytemnestra as addressed by the Chorus in årηvlíow: Dr. Blomfield would have us understand pwv; viz. the rivalry between the wooers of Helen. Schutz and Wellauer do not recognise the distribution between the parts of the Chorus: 1423–1437 is with them one unbroken speech. Between Tɛɛíav and Toλúpvaorov the latter editor marks a lacuna of four entire lines.

h Such is the sense given by Mr. Symmons and the reviewer, (whose identity becomes more apparent as we advance.) Both in the note to the translation, and in the critique, it is defended by the analogy of εὔδματος and θεόδματος, by reference to the phrases νεικέων τέκτονα and ἄτας θριγκώσων in this play, and kaiπvρуov oopíav in the Clouds of Aristophanes. In both it is illustrated by the phrase, "architect of strife," from the Spanish Curate of Fletcher.

the double line of Tantalus', and by means of women exertest equal might that gnaws upon my heart. And standing over the corpse in defiance of what is right, like an odious raven in my eyes, she exults to chant her lay *

*

*

k

CLYT.-Now hast thou corrected the judgment of thy lips in naming the trebly-monstrous dæmon of this race: for through his means is the lust for lapping blood fostered in its vitals: before that the old sorrow comes to an end there is fresh bloodshed.

SEM.-Verily thou mentionest the mighty dæmon of this household, that is dreadful in his wrath. Alas! alas for the horrible mention of calamity ever-greedy! Woe! woe! 'tis by the will of Jove, cause of all things, doer of all things: for what is accomplished among mortals without Jove? what of these things is not decreed by heaven?

CHORUS.-Woe! woe! My king! my king! How shall I weep over thee? what at all shall I utter from my affectionate soul? But thou liest in this web of the spider, breathing forth thy life by an impious death.

SEM.-Ah me! for this ignominious couch; thou wast smitten down by a guileful end, with a two-edged weapon from the hand.

CLYT.-Thou confidently sayest that the deed was mine. But do not ******* *1 that I am the spouse of Agamemnon. No! but the ancient ruthless evil genius

· διφυεῖσι. "Rectius de Atreo et Thyesta quam de Agamemnone et Menelao accipias," says Schutz. The explanation of Dr. Butler, given in Dr. Blomfield's Glossary, seems, however, to refer it to the latter.

k On the two emendations proposed in Dr. Blomfield's note, Wellauer remarks that Tiάxviov is contrary to analogy, and that riñáλaiv departs too widely from the reading in the MSS. He proposes nothing.

1 I have not translated έπλexÿç: it is generally translated, do not thou subjoin; a sense which, of course, as it is in the passive voice, it cannot possibly bear. It is too intimately connected with what is lost to admit of being construed in the present broken state of the text. Wellauer seems confident that more than one verse is missing.