to thee libations sumptuous as those of nuptials from the paternal dwelling: and of all things to this sepulchre of thine will I chiefly pay homage.

ORESTES. O earth, send up my father to overlook the conflict.

ELECTRA. O Proserpine, vouchsafe to us also victory of beauteous aspect.

ORESTES.-Bear in mind the bathing vessels in which thou wast bereaved of life, O my father.

ELECTRA. Bear in mind too how novel a use they made of the casting-net.

ORESTES.-Thou wast ensnared in fetters not wrought of brass, O my father.

ELECTRA.—In folds of vestments too foully planned. ORESTES.-Art thou then aroused by these reproaches, my father?

ELECTRA.-Rearest thou then erect thy dearest head? ORESTES.-Either despatch Dicè, an ally to thy friends, or give them to receive in recompense injuries like to thine, if indeed after having been mastered thou wishest to triumph in thy turn.

ELECTRA.-And give ear, my father, to this final cry of mine to thee. When thou seest thy young ones here sitting on thy sepulchre, take pity upon thy female, and likewise on thy male offspring; and do not utterly blot out this seed of the Pelopida. For thus thou art not dead, not even though thou didst die, for children are to the deceased preservers of his fame; and like corks they buoy up the net, upholding the twist of the cordd from the depth. Give ear! 'tis on thy behalf that laments such as these are poured forth, and thou thyself art advantaged by honouring this our petition.

c Dr. Butler also and prof. Scholefield prefer the version of Stanley: see Dr. Blomfield's note on v. 487. Abresch follows the scholiast in the interpretSchutz refers αἰσχρῶς τὸ ἐθηρεύθης.

ation which is there reprobated.

d Wellauer reads λívov in apposition with rλworñpa. Dr. Butler explains κλωστῆρα λίνον by λίνον κεκλωσμένον, to which prof. Scholefield gives his sanction.

CHORUS.-And verily ye have lengthened out this your petition so that it is open to no censure, an honour to the tomb and to his unwept fate: for the rest, since thou hast been aroused in spirit to achieve it, proceed forthwith to action, essaying thy fortune.

ORESTES.-It shall be so; but it is not going out of my course to enquire how it is that she sent drink-offerings, in consequence of what it is that she makes tardy compensation for an irreparable wrong? To the dead too, not conscious of it, a sorry offering was sent; I am not able to guess the import of these gifts, but they are too small for the trespass. For though one were to make every possible out-pouring by way of atonement for a single murder, the labour would be all in vain: so runs the legend. So if thou knowest this matter, tell it to me desirous of hearing it.

CHORUS.-I know it, my child, for I was by; for in consequence of having been agitated by dreams and restless terrors of the night, the godless woman sent these drink-offerings.

ORESTES.-Did ye

to tell it correctly?

also hear the dream, so as to be able

CHORUS. She fancied, as she herself says, that she gave birth to a serpent.

ORESTES.-And to what issue does the tale come, how is it brought to a close?

and

h

CHORUS. -that the new-born monster was lying in

• The proverbial expression to which Dr. Blomfield refers in his Glossary, occurs in the Frogs of Aristophanes, v. 995. ed. Brunck.

f Orestes was very young when the Chorus had been brought captives from Troy; so that this address is not unnatural.

πарñ. Dr. Elmsley restored the form for v in four places of the Œd. Tyr. of Sophocles. Compare Hermann's discussion, p. viii. etc. of his preface to that drama.

Compare the very different account of Clytemnestra's dream, which Sophocles has put in the mouth of Chrysothemis.

h I have followed Wellauer in deriving opμñσaι from opuśw. Hermann, who constructs the words thus, ὃν χρήζοντα ὁρμῆσαι βορᾶς τίνος, I suppose derives it from ὁρμάω.

swaddling-clothes like an infant, in want of food, and she in her dream gave it her breast.

ORESTES.-And how was it that the dugi escaped being wounded by the abomination?

CHORUS.-It did wound her, so as to draw clotted blood along with the milk.

ORESTES.-The visions of man come not in vain*.

CHORUS. And she, having been scared, screamed in her sleep; and many a lamp that had been extinguished in darkness was relit in the palace on account of our mistress. So then she sends these funereal drink-offerings, hoping for a duly-prepared remedy for her sufferings1.

ORESTES.-Well, I make my prayer to this earth, and to the tomb of my father, that this dream may bring accomplishment to me. And i'faith I interpret it so that it exactly tallies; for if, after quitting the same place with me, the serpent was decked in my swaddling-clothes, and mouthed the breast that gave me nutriment, and mingled with clotted blood the loved milk, and she shrieked at this fearful mischance-it is doomed in truth that she, as she reared a terrific portent, should die a violent death; and I, having been metamorphosed into a serpent, will slay her, as this dream of her's declares. And I choose thee for my expounder of portents as touching this

m

matter.

CHORUS. So be it: but explain the rest of thy plan to thy friends, bidding some to do something, and others to refrain from action.

i Was this coarse word employed in reference to the nature of the suckling? See Dr. Blomfield's Glossary, 525.

* Dr. Butler follows Schutz's interpretation, (see Gloss.) being scandalized, it appears, by the use of avopòg in reference to Clytemnestra field gives, Visum hominis, non bestiæ, haud vanum.

Prof. Schole

1 Literally, shredded. Compare Agam. 16. Many of the commentators have felt themselves at liberty to follow the scholiast in explaining it as if it had been τμητικὸν.

m i. e. Apollo, says Wellauer, to a statue of whom Orestes points as he pronounces this.

ORESTES.-The tale is simple: I recommend my sister here to go within and to conceal these plans on which I have agreed with her; that after slaying an august monarch, they too may be entrapped by guile, meeting death in the very same toils, in the way in which too Loxias predicted, sovereign Apollo, a prophet of unfailing verity heretofore. For like to a stranger, having a complete costume, I will come with my friend Pylades here to the gates of the court-yard, as a guest and a friend" of the family. And we both will utter the Parnassian dialect, imitating the sound of a Phocian tongue. And suppose that no one of the porters will admit us with gladsome mind, (since the house is possessed with horrors,) we will remain thus, so that any one walking past the house may make a guess, and say this, "Oh, why with closed gates exclude ye the suppliant, if Ægisthus is at home and aware of his presence P?" So if I pass the threshold of the gates of the court-yard, and shall discover him upon my father's throne, or if he come then and speak to me to my face and cast his eyes upon me, be distinctly assured that before he says, "What countryman is the stranger?" I will stretch him a corpse, cutting him down with agile swordsmanship. And Erinnys, that hath not been stinted of slaughter, quaffs blood undiluted, a third draughta. Now then, do thou for thy part take good precautions for what takes place within the house, that these things

" Aopúžεvo proprie dicti qui de hostibus amici facti. Generalius quovis accipitur. Stanley.

pro amico

daupova. Significat servulos quoque sic exasperatos Ægisthi tyrannide ut etiam in peregrinos morosiores sint. Schutz. Nescio an hoc quidem voluerit Æschylus potius quam generalius miseram ædium confusionem sub dispari domino indicari. S. Butler.

P Wellauer reads ȧreiρyeraι, with a comma after Ægisthus.

a The enumeration given in the Glossary is that adopted by Dr. Butler. Schutz begins with the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Is it not more natural to give the first place to the horrible imposition which Atreus is said to have passed upon Thyestes? The reflection with which the Chorus closes the tragedy seems to point us to this.

may issue in exact accordance with our wishes. And you I recommend to keep a still tongue, both to be silent where it is needful, and to speak what is suited to the crisis. For the rest I appeal to this my friend', to come hither and overlook these matters; to him that gives me success in this conflict of the wielded brand.

[ELECTRA enters the palace, ORESTES and PYLADES retire to complete their disguise.

CHORUS.-To full many a dread and loathly horror does the earth give nutriment, and the arms of the deep teem with monsters that are hostile to mortals; there are produced also in mid-air cressets hung aloft. Both the creatures that fly and those that crawl, and the gusty rage of tornadoes, you might be able to describe. But who can tell the surpassingly audacious spirit of man, and of women hardened in their souls, and their loves that venture all, comates with the disasters of mortals? Love such as none should cherish, lording it in a female's heart, overpowers for the worse the social harmonies both of brutes and of men. Let whosoever is not flighty in his thoughts know this, when he hath learned what a kindling device that was which the wretched daughter of Thestius, who worked the ruin of her son, sought out, when she gave to the fire the bloody brand that was his coeval, from the time when he uttered his first cry after having quitted the womb, and commensurate through his life unto the day

Tourų. i. e. Pylades, says Stanley. Schutz, not contented with saying that Apollo is meant, would alter it to poißw. Wellauer supposes Orestes to point again to the statue: he gives the following as the sense of v. 576: qui hæc certamina mihi erexit, proposuit.

• Hæc vocabula diligenter lecta, cum et ad bruta et ad homines referantur. Significant autem omnem ex vitæ societate domestica consuetudinem, adeoque vincula inter parentes et liberos, inter fratres et sorores, inter maritos et uxores designant. Omnia enim vincula, cæteroquin sanctissima, rumpuntur illicito mulierum amore. Sic quoque feræ cum gregalibus suis acerrime propter amores depugnant. Schutz.