The Lyrical Dramas of Aeschylus Translated into English Verse

Name: The Lyrical Dramas of Aeschylus Translated into English Verse
Author: Aeschylus

Aeschylus

Aeschylus -- Translations into English; Mythology, Greek -- Drama

_Chorus_. Here again I follow the later editors and translators in
dividing the part given to the Chorus by WELL. There is a sort of
natural partition of the style and sentiment palpable to any reader. It
may also be remarked in general, that the broken and exclamatory style
of the lamentation in this Chorus is quite incompatible with long
continuous speeches (such as POT. has given), out of one mouth. The
order of persons I give as in PEILE.


 Note 37 (p. 114).
 "Scathless myself."

φυγεῖν. FR. has unnecessarily changed this into τυχεῖν. In Odyssey
XX. 43, Ulysses uses the same language to Athena.


 Note 38 (p. 114).
 "Thou too shalt taste."

That the dead were believed actually to eat the meat and drink that was
prepared for them at the funeral feast is evident from the eleventh
book of the Odyssey, where they come up in fluttering swarms and sip
the pool of blood from the victim which he had sacrificed.


 Note 39 (p. 115).
 "Well spoken both."

With KL., PEILE, FR., and PAL., I adopt Hermann's emendation--

  κὰι μὴν ἀμεμφῆ τον δ ἐτείνατον λόγον.

and with him give the four lines to the Chorus. A very obvious and
natural sense is thus brought out, besides that καὶ μὴν naturally
indicates a change of person.


 Note 40 (p. 115).
 ". . . try what speed the gods may give thee."

δαίμονος πειρῶμενος. Literally _trying your god_--the dependence of
fortune upon God being a truth so vividly before the Greek mind that
the term δαίμων came to be used for both in a manner quite foreign to
the use of the English language, and which can only be fully expressed
by giving both the elements of the word in a sort of paraphrase.


 Note 41 (p. 116).
 ". . . this whole house with ills
 Is sheer possessed."

δαὶμονᾷ δόμος κακοῖς. Literally, "the house is _godded_ with ills,"
that is, so beset with evil that we can attribute it only to a special
superhuman power--to a god, as the Greeks expressed it, to the devil,
as we say.


 Note 42 (p. 116).
           ". . . Sirs, why dare ye shut
 Inhospitable doors against the stranger?"

To shut the door upon a stranger or a beggar, seems, in Homer's days,
to have been accounted as great a sin, as it is now, from change of
circumstances, necessarily looked on as almost a virtue. Every book of
the Odyssey has some testimony to this; suffice it to quote the maxim--

{366}

     "προς γαρ Διος ἐισιν ἂπαντες
  ξεινοί τε πτωχοί τε."

  "ALL STRANGERS AND BEGGARS COME FROM JOVE."


 Note 43 (p. 116).
 "The third and crowning cup."

"Alluding first to the slaughter of the children of Thyestes by Atreus,
then to the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, and thirdly, that of
Clytemnestra and Ægisthus presently to take place."--KL.


 Note 44 (p. 116).
              ". . . his present aid I ask.
 Who laid on my poor wits this bloody task."

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Lyrical Dramas of Aeschylus Translated into English VerseAeschylus

General

The Lyrical Dramas of Aeschylus Translated into English Verse

Aeschylus

Aeschylus -- Translations into English; Mythology, Greek -- Drama

_Chorus_. Here again I follow the later editors and translators in
dividing the part given to the Chorus by WELL. There is a sort of
natural partition of the style and sentiment palpable to any reader. It
may also be remarked in general, that the broken and exclamatory style
of the lamentation in this Chorus is quite incompatible with long
continuous speeches (such as POT. has given), out of one mouth. The
order of persons I give as in PEILE.


 Note 37 (p. 114).
 "Scathless myself."

φυγεῖν. FR. has unnecessarily changed this into τυχεῖν. In Odyssey
XX. 43, Ulysses uses the same language to Athena.


 Note 38 (p. 114).
 "Thou too shalt taste."

That the dead were believed actually to eat the meat and drink that was
prepared for them at the funeral feast is evident from the eleventh
book of the Odyssey, where they come up in fluttering swarms and sip
the pool of blood from the victim which he had sacrificed.


 Note 39 (p. 115).
 "Well spoken both."

With KL., PEILE, FR., and PAL., I adopt Hermann's emendation--

  κὰι μὴν ἀμεμφῆ τον δ ἐτείνατον λόγον.

and with him give the four lines to the Chorus. A very obvious and
natural sense is thus brought out, besides that καὶ μὴν naturally
indicates a change of person.


 Note 40 (p. 115).
 ". . . try what speed the gods may give thee."

δαίμονος πειρῶμενος. Literally _trying your god_--the dependence of
fortune upon God being a truth so vividly before the Greek mind that
the term δαίμων came to be used for both in a manner quite foreign to
the use of the English language, and which can only be fully expressed
by giving both the elements of the word in a sort of paraphrase.


 Note 41 (p. 116).
 ". . . this whole house with ills
 Is sheer possessed."

δαὶμονᾷ δόμος κακοῖς. Literally, "the house is _godded_ with ills,"
that is, so beset with evil that we can attribute it only to a special
superhuman power--to a god, as the Greeks expressed it, to the devil,
as we say.


 Note 42 (p. 116).
           ". . . Sirs, why dare ye shut
 Inhospitable doors against the stranger?"

To shut the door upon a stranger or a beggar, seems, in Homer's days,
to have been accounted as great a sin, as it is now, from change of
circumstances, necessarily looked on as almost a virtue. Every book of
the Odyssey has some testimony to this; suffice it to quote the maxim--

{366}

     "προς γαρ Διος ἐισιν ἂπαντες
  ξεινοί τε πτωχοί τε."

  "ALL STRANGERS AND BEGGARS COME FROM JOVE."


 Note 43 (p. 116).
 "The third and crowning cup."

"Alluding first to the slaughter of the children of Thyestes by Atreus,
then to the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, and thirdly, that of
Clytemnestra and Ægisthus presently to take place."--KL.


 Note 44 (p. 116).
              ". . . his present aid I ask.
 Who laid on my poor wits this bloody task."

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Lyrical Dramas of Aeschylus Translated into English Verse

The Lyrical Dramas of Aeschylus Translated into English Verse

No reviews yet