CHORAL HYMN. "This sublime hymn is of a character, in some respects, kindred to the καταδέσεις, or incantations of antiquity, which were directed to Hermes, the Earth, and other infernal Deities for the purpose of _binding down_ certain hated persons to destruction. For this reason it is called ὕμνος δέσμιος. This character is specially indicated by the refrain or burden, which occurs in the first pair of Strophes; such repetitions containing the emphatic words of the incantation being common in all magical odes. So in Theocritus (Idyll. 2), we have constantly repeated, '_Iungx, bring me the man, the man whom I mean, to my dwelling,_' and, in the song of the Fates at the marriage of Thetis in Catullus, the line--'_Currite ducentes subtemina, currite fusi!_' and there can be no question, the movements and gestures of the Furies while singing this hymn were such as to indicate the scapeless net of woe with which they were now encompassing their victim."--MÜL. The reader will observe how impressively the metre changes on the recurrence of this burden, the rhythm in the original being Pæonic _v v v_--, the agitated nature of which foot, when several times repeated, is sufficiently obvious. I have done what I could to make the transition and contrast sensible to the modern ear. Note 30 (p. 151). "The seeing and the sightless." αλα(ο)ισι και δεδορκόσι, _i.e._ the living and the dead; an expression familiar to the Greeks, and characteristic of a people who delighted to live in the sun. βλέπειν φάος--_to look on the light_, is the most common phrase in the tragedians for to live; and wisely so-- "Since light so necessary is to life, And almost life itself, if it be true That light is in the soul, The soul in every part."--MILTON. POT. has allowed himself to be led quite astray here by a petulant criticism of De Pauw. {380} Note 31 (p. 151). "The gleeless song, and the lyreless strain." ὕμνος ἀφόρμιγκτος. "The musical character of this Choral Hymn must be imagined as working upon the feelings with a certain solemn grandeur. The κιθάρα or lyre is silent; an instrument which, as the Greeks used it, always exercised a soothing power, restorative of the equipoise of the mind: only the flute is heard, whose notes, according to the unanimous testimony of antiquity, excited feelings, now of thrilling excitement, now of mute awe; always, however, disturbing the just emotional tenor of the soul. Assuredly the ὕμνος ἀφόρμιγκτος in this place is no mere phrase."--MÜLLER. Note 32 (p. 152). "This work of labour earnest."