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
Note 40 (p. 158).
"To the wise mean strength is given,
Thus the gods have ruled in heaven."
This is one of those current common-places of ancient wisdom, which are
now so cheap to the ear, but are still as remote from the general temper
and the public heart as they were some thousands of years ago, when
first promulgated by some prophetic Phemonoe of the Primeval Pelasgi.
The great philosopher of common sense, Aristotle, seized this maxim, as
the groundwork of practical ethics, some three hundred years before
Christ--῾Φθείρεται γαρ, says he, ἡ σωφροσύνη και ἡ ἀνδρεία ὑπὸ τῆς
ὑπερβολῆς καὶ τῆς ἐλλειψεως, ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς μεσότητος σώζεται; and Horace,
the poet of common sense, preached many a quiet, tuneful sermon to the
same ancient text--
"Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
Sobrius aula."
Note 41 (p. 158).
"Pride, that lifts itself unduly."
I will not multiply citations here to show the reader how this pride or
insolence of disposition, ὓβρις (the German _Uebermuth_), is marked by
the Greek moralists as the great source of all the darker crimes with
which the annals of our floundering race are stained (See Note, p. 349
above). They are wrong who tell us that Humility is a Christian and not
a Heathen virtue: no doubt the name ταπεινοφροσύνη, used in the New
Testament, was not the fashionable one among the Greeks: but that they
had the thing, every page of their poetry testifies, with this
difference, however, to be carefully noted, that while Heathen humility
is founded solely on a sense of dependence, Christian humility proceeds
also, and perhaps more decidedly, from a sense of guilt. Neither does
the phraseology of Heathen and Christian writers on this subject differ
always so much as people seem to imagine; between the μη ὐπερφρον(ε)ιν
παρ ὃ δεῖ φρονεῖν of St. Paul (Rom. xii. 3), and the ὀυδεπώποτε ὐπερ
ἄνθρωπον ἐφρόνησα of Xenophon (Cyropaed. VIII), it were a foolish
subtlety that should attempt to make a distinction.
Note 42 (p. 159).
"Give the air-shattering Tyrrhene trump free voice."
"It is a correct and significant observation made by the Scholiast on
Iliad XVIII. 219, that Homer never mentions the trumpet (σάλπιγξ) in
the narrative part of his poem, but only for a comparison: familiar as
he was with the instrument, he was not ignorant that the use of it was
new, and not native in Greece. Indeed, it was never universally
adopted in that country: the Spartans and Cretans marching into battle,
first to the accompaniment of the lyre, and afterwards of the flute.
The tragedians again are quite familiar with the Tuscan origin of the
trumpet, though they make no scruple of introducing it into their
descriptions of the Hellenic heroic age"--MÜLL.; Etrusker I. p. 286.
{383}
Note 43 (p. 160).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account