154 See above, v. 383.

155 Somewhat to the same effect is the dream of Atossa in the Persæ.

156 I prefer Blomfield's transposition to Dindorf's correction, βλαψιφρόνως, which, though repudiated in the notes, is still adopted by Paley.

157 A noble impersonation of the sword.

158 Shakespeare, King John, Act 4, sc. 2:

King Henry IV. part I. Act 5, sc. 5:

159 Surely the full stop after πόλιν in v. 749 should be removed, and a colon, or mark of hyperbaton substituted. On looking at Paley's edition, I find myself anticipated.

160 This is Griffiths' version of this awkward passage. I should prefer reading ἀλκὰν with Paley, from one MS. So also Burges.

161 See my note on Soph. Philoct. 708, ed. Bohn.

162 This seems the best way of rendering the bold periphrase, ὁ πολύβοτος αἰὼν βροτῶν. See Griffiths.

163 I follow Paley. Dindorf, in his notes, agrees in reading τροφᾶς, but the metre seems to require ἐπίκοτος. Griffiths defends the common reading, but against the ancient authority of the schol. on Œd. Col. 1375. See Blomfield.

164 Blomfield with reason thinks that a verse has been lost.

165 The care which the Messenger takes to show the bright side of the picture first, reminds us of Northumberland's speech, Shakespeare, King Henry IV. part II. Act 1, sc. 1:

—Old Transl.

166 This is a good example of the figure chiasmus, the force of which I have expressed by the bracketed words repeated from the two infinities. See Latin examples in the notes of Arntzenius on Mamertin. Geneth. 8, p. 27; Pang. Vett. t. i.

167 The Messenger retires to dress for the Herald's part.

Horace's rule, "Nec quarta loqui persona laboret," seems to have been drawn from the practice of the Greek stage. Only three actors were allowed to each of the competitor-dramatists, and these were assigned to them by lot. (Hesychius, Νέμησις ὑποκριτῶν.) Thus, for instance, as is remarked by a writer in the Quarterly Review, in the Œdipus at Colonus, v. 509, Ismene goes to offer sacrifice, and, after about forty lines, returns in the character of Theseus. Soon afterward, v. 847, Antigone is carried off by Creon's attendants, and returns as Theseus after about the same interval as before.—Old Translation. The translator had misquoted the gloss of Hesychius.

168 This is the tragic account. See Soph. Antig. 170, sqq.; Eurip. Phæn. 757, sqq. But other authors mention descendants of both.

169 Another pun on Πολυνείκης.

170 Cf. Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, sec. 3:

171 This passage is confessedly corrupt. Paley seems to have rightly restored ἄστολον from the ἄστολον θεωρίδα in Robertelli's edition. This ship, as he remarks, would truly be ἄστολος, in opposition to the one sent to Delphi, which was properly said στέλλεσθαι ἐπὶ θεωρίαν. The words ἀστιβῆ Ἀπόλλωνι confirm this opinion. In regard to the allusions, see Stanley and Blomfield, also Wyttenbach on Plato Phædon. sub. init.

172 This repetition of δι᾽ ὧν is not altogether otiose. Their contention for estate was the cause both of their being αἰνόμοροι and of the νεῖκος that ensued.

173 I.e. the sword. Cf. v. 885.

174 This epithet applied to their ancestral tombs doubtless alludes to the violent deaths of Laïus and Œdipus.

175 On the enallage σώματι for σώμασι see Griffiths. The poet means to say that this will be all their possession after death. Still Blomfield's reading, χώματι, seems more elegant and satisfactory.

176 Pauw remarks that Polynices is the chief subject of Antigone's mourning, while Ismene bewails Eteocles. This may illustrate much of the following dialogue, as well as explain whence Sophocles derived his master-piece of character, the Theban martyr-heroine, Antigone.

177 Throughout this scene I have followed Dindorf's text, although many improvements have been made in the disposition of the dramatis personæ. Every one will confess that the length of ἰὼ ἰὼ commonplaces in this scene would be much against the play, but for the animated conclusion, a conclusion, however, that must lose all its finest interest to the reader who is unacquainted with the Antigone of Sophocles!

178 Wellauer (not Scholfield, as Griffiths says) defends the common reading from Herodot. V. 49.

179 τράχυνε But T. Burgess' emendation τραχύς γε seems better, and is approved by Blomfield.

180 Soph. Ant. 44. ἢ γὰρ νοεῖς θάπτειν σφ᾽ ἀπόρρητον πόλει.

181 I have taken Griffiths' translation of what Dindorf rightly calls "lectio vitiosa," and of stuff that no sane person can believe came from the hand of Æschylus. Paley, who has often seen the truth where all others have failed, ingeniously supposes that οὐ is a mistaken insertion, and, omitting it, takes διατετίμηται in this sense: "jam hic non amplius a diis honoratur; ergo ego eum honorabo." See his highly satisfactory note, to which I will only add that the reasoning of the Antigone of Sophocles, vss. 515, sqq. gives ample confirmation to his view of this passage.

182 Blomfield would either omit this verse, or assign it to the chorus.