Note 39 (p. 52). "If they have sinned." ἀμπλακητος. In defence of this reading, which, with WELL., I prefer, CON. has a very excellent note, to which I refer the critical reader. FR., following AHRENS (as he often does), makes a bold transposition of the lines, but the sense remains pretty much the same. As to the guilt incurred by the Greeks, spoken of here and in the previous lines, the poet has put it, as some palliation of her own contemplated deed, into the mouth of Clytemnestra, but in perfect conformity also with the Homeric theology, which supposes that suffering must always imply guilt. Thus in the Odyss. III. 130-135, old Nestor explains to Telemachus:-- "But when Priam's high-perched city by the Greeks was captured, then In their swift ships homeward sailing, they were scattered by a god; To the Greeks great Jove had purposed in his heart a black return, For not all had understanding, and not all observant lived Of Justice." Note 40 (p. 53). "The gods are blind." I cannot here forbear recalling to the reader's recollection a similar passage in Milton:-- "Just are the ways of God And justifiable to men; Unless there be who think not God at all. If any be, they walk obscure: For of such doctrine never was there school, But the heart of the fool, And no man therein doctor but himself." --SAMSON AGONISTES. {344} Note 41 (p. 53). "Self-will fell Até's daughter." I have here paraphrased a little the two lines-- βιᾶται δ᾽ἁ τάλαινα πειθὼ προβουλόπαις ἄφερτος Ἄτας-- in which two evil powers are personified--_Ate_, destruction, and _Peitho_, persuasion, which here must be understood of that evil self-persuasion, by which, in the pride of self-will and vain confidence, a man justifies his worst deeds to himself, and is driven recklessly on to destruction. The case of Napoleon, in his Russian expedition, is in point. What follows shows that Paris is meant. As to the strange, truly Æschylean compound, προβουλόπαις, CON. says well, that the simple πρόβουλος means "one who joins in a preliminary vote," and, of course, the compound is, as LIN. has it, a "forecounselling child." Note 42 (p. 54). "Even as a boy in wanton sport." There is a great upheaping of incongruous images in this passage for which, perhaps, the poet may be blamed; as the one prevents the other from coming with a vivid and distinct impression on the mind. This image of the boy chasing the butterfly is, however, the one which places the inconsiderate love of Paris and Helen most distinctly before us; and it comes, therefore, with peculiar propriety, preceded by the more general and vague images, and immediately before the mention of the offender. Note 43 (p. 54). "The prophets of the house loud wailing."