PH. And shall I now, my guests, be thus forlorn abandoned by you, and will ye not pity me?

CHO. This youth is our vessel's commander, what-` soever he shall say to thee, that do we also speak to thee.

NE. I shall indeed hear myself reproached by this man with being by nature 'over pitiful; yet tarry, if he wish it, thus much time, until the mariners shall have got the ship's tackle ready, and we shall have 'prayed to the Gods. And he meanwhile may haply adopt sentiments more to our advantage: let us two, however, hasten hence, and be ye quick in your departure, when we shall summon you.

PH. O cavity of the hollow rock, alike warm and icy-cold, how am I then, wretch that I am, doomed never hereafter to quit thee! no, e'en in death thou wilt be my shelter. O me, woe is me! O abode, wretched abode, full fraught with my sorrows, what will ever be my daily sustenance? What provider shall I hapless ever frame to myself, from what hope? O that the 'ocean harpies with shrill-toned whizzings

• Πλέως πλέων, whence πλείων, Attic for πλέος πλείος, in the same dialect shortly after λύω for λώονα a λωίων, and y for yῶι.

а

* Such was uniformly the Greek custom: "'Ezun dì ai vñes æλnρεις ἦσαν, καὶ ἐσέκειτο ἤδη ὅσα ἔμελλον ἀνάξεσθαι, τῇ μὲν σάλπιγγι σιωπὴ ὑπισημάνθη, εὐχὰς δὲ τὰς νομιζομένας πρὸ τῆς ἀναγωγῆς, οὐ κατὰ ναῦν ἑκάστην, ξύμπαντες δὲ ὑπὸ κήρυκος, ἐποιοῦντο, κρατῆρας τὶ κεράσαντες παρ ̓ ἅπαν τὸ στράτευμα, καὶ ἐκπώμασι χρυσοῖς τε καὶ ἀργυροῖς οἵ τε ἐπιβάται καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντες σπένδοντες.” Thuc. VI. 32.

Of this passage there are many various readings. Aldus has it

of their wings would take me aloft in air! for I can endure no longer.

CHO. Thou, even thou, mark me, hast brought it on thyself, ill-fated man: from no other and higher quarter art thou visited with this misfortune; when at least, it being in thy power to be wise, thou hast chosen to adopt the worse fate for the better.

Pн. Аh hapless, hapless I, then, and marred by trouble, who now henceforth wretch that I am, dwelling in future with no human being here shall perish, alas! alas! no longer bringing home food, nor possessing it by means of my winged arrows and with my powerful hands; no, the unsuspected and dissembled words of a crafty mind beguiled me: but O could I but see him, the wretch that has devised all this, for as long a time doomed to my afflictions!

CHO. Destiny from Heaven, and no treachery of mine at least possessed thee with all this; keep then thy curse, thine abhorred, ill-omened curse, for others. For I am caring even for this, that thou spurn not my kindness.

PH. Ah me! me! And somewhere, seated on the shore of the hoary main, he laughs at me, wielding in his hand the support of me unhappy, which none ever carried besides. O my loved bow, from friendly hands wrested by violence, full surely, if thou hast any feel

πτωκάδες, Gedike πλωτάδες. Brunck gives the other conjectures of the Scholia. But Barby has adopted Vossius' correction, Myth. Bucfi. v. i. p. 211, who alters it to πτωάδες from the old word πτώειν, πίπτειν. Vossius however understands it to allude to the Harpies, and their pouncing stoop.

ings, thou lookest with pity on the friend of Hercules, "thus wretched, never again hereafter to use thee. No, by change of masters art thou handled by an artful man, witnessing his base deceits, and the detestable and loathed villain causing to dawn crimes on crimes innumerable, all of evil that Ulysses hath plotted against me.

CHO. 'Tis a man's part, look you, fairly to speak the truth, and when one have said it not to vent forth the envious displeasure of his tongue. He, having been appointed one out of many, by the instructions of this Ulysses, accomplished for his friends a public service.

PH. O winged prey, and tribes of 'fierce wild beasts,

"Quæcunque vox hunc locum obtinuerit, designatur haud dubiè Philoctetes. "Aλov retinendum esse non dixerim, licet colorem ei conciliet Horatianum illud, accedes opera agro nona Sabino.....fuit quidem cum legendum putarem τὸν Ἡρακλεῖ συνάεθλον vel ὁμάεθλον. Priorem vocem habet Oppianus, Cyneg. I. 195. Sed ea lectio hoc habet incommodi, quod Philoctetam Herculis comitem et in laboribus adjutorem faciat, quod nescio an Veterum quisquam tradiderit. Nihil enim aliud memorant Mythologi, nisi Herculis rogum funebrem, reliquis detrectantibus, ab ipso accensum fuisse. Hyginus, fab. 36. Apollodorus, Lib. II. 7. Diod. Sic. IV. 38." Musgrave.

× Hen. Stephanus thus translates this passage: "It is, look you, fair to state what is good in every man, and when another have spoken it, it is equally right not to give vent to the envious pain of the tongue." The translator is inclined to adopt this version from its more evident connection with what immediately precedes and follows it. Shakespeare has the same idea in the scene between Griffith and Catherine in Henry VIII.

y So the Lexica give it, taking the idea from the exultation expressed in the eyes of wild beasts when about to seize on their prey. Vid. Hom. Od. II. 610.

which prowling o'er the hills the place nourishes; no longer in terror do ye from your abodes approach me, for I have not in my hands the former defence of my arrows any longer, wretched that I am! no, this spot freely tenanted by you, no longer a source of fear. Approach, now is it fitting that ye glut your mouths in mutual slaughter, for the sake of my livid flesh: for life I instantly shall quit: since from what source will come my livelihood? who is there thus fed on air, no longer, no longer master of aught, that the life-bestowing earth supplies?

CHO. In the Gods' name, if aught thou respect a guest that is come to thee, to him draw near with all benevolence. But be sure, most sure, that with thee it rests to evade this evil fate: for lamentable is it to support, and unschooled to bear the countless pain wherewith it consorts.

PH. Again, again hast thou hinted at my old affliction, thou best of all that have hitherto set foot on this spot, why hast thou destroyed me? What hast thou done to me?

CHO. Why sayest thou this?

PH. In case thou expectest to carry me to the hateful land of Troy.

CHO. I do, for this I conceive the best.

PH. Now this moment quit me.

CHO. Friendly, aye friendly is this thy bidding to me, and I am well inclined to perform it. Let us go, let us go to our ship whereunto we have been appointed [to repair.]

PH. Go not, by Jove of the curse, I implore.
CHO. Be moderate.

PH. Strangers, tarry, in Heaven's name.

CHO. What clamourest thou?

PH. Alas! alas! fate, fate! I miserable am undone. O foot, foot, what shall I do with thee any longer in life henceforth, wretched that I am? Strangers, come ye back to sojourn with me.

CHO. To do what with purpose differing from those before, of which thou didst before shew thyself-

PH. It is not, look you, fair cause for indignation that a man languishing under tempestuous pain should prate even out of his mind.

CHO. Go now, wretched man, as we desire thee.

PH. Never, never, know this for certain, not even if the fiery Lord of lightning come to blast me with the "flashes of his thunderbolts. Perish Troy, and all they beneath it, as many as had the heart to spurn this my foot's limb. But, strangers, one prayer, at least one, accord me.

CHO. What is this thou wilt utter?

PH. Convey to me a sword, if from any place ye can, or an axe, or some one weapon.

CHO. To do what possible work?

Musgrave admits into his text the old reading, βρονταῖς αὐταῖς, and in his note rejects the emendation of Valckenaër (which Brunck has followed) for ßgorras avgais, which he defends on the authority of Euripides as quoted by Plutarch. Βροντῆς πνεῦμ ̓ ἄναιμον ὤλεσε, οἱ Virgil, Æn. II. 649. Fulminis afflavit ventis, and Statius Theb. V. 586. Moti tamen aura cucurrit Fulminis. But he adds, "Sed videndum ne aura fulminis sit innoxium fulminis genus, minimè que adeò huic loco conveniens: deinde ne ßgovrais avraïs sit vero fulmine, ipsissimo fulmine." Vol. ii. p. 179.