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
Ζεὺς ἀγορᾶιος. The students of Homer may recollect the appeal of
Telemachus to the Ithacans in council assembled (Odys. II. 68). Jove,
as we have already had occasion to remark, has a peculiar right of
presidency over every grand event of human life, and every important
social institution; so that, on certain occasions, the Greek Polytheism
becomes, for the need, a Monotheism--somewhat after the same fashion as
the aristocratic Government of the old Roman Republic had the power of
suddenly changing itself, on important occasions, into an absolute
monarchy, by the creation of a Dictator.
Note 62 (p. 172).
"Gracious-minded sisterhood."
The Furies were called Ευμενίδες, or gracious, to propitiate their
stern deity by complimentary language. Suidas says (_voc_. Ευμενίδες)
that Athena, in this play, calls the Furies expressly by this name; but
the fact is, that it does not occur in the whole play. Either,
therefore, the word ἔυφρων, which I have translated "gracious-minded"
in the play, must be considered to have given occasion to the remark of
the lexicographer (which seems sufficient), or, with HERMANN and
SCHOE., we must suppose something to have fallen out of the present
speech.
NOTE.
On p. 132, after the _dramatis personæ_, I perceive that I have stated
that the scene of this piece changes from Delphi to the _Hill of Mars_,
Athens. This is either inaccurate, or, at least, imperfect; for the
first change of scene is manifestly (as stated p. 148), to the temple of
Athena Pallas, on the Acropolis; and, though the imagination naturally
desires that the institution of the Court of the Areopagus should take
place on the exact seat of its future labours, yet the construction of
the drama by no means necessitates another change of scene, and the
allusion to the Hill of Mars in p. 162 is easily explicable on the
supposition that it lies directly opposite the Acropolis, and that
Pallas points to it with her finger.
NOTES TO PROMETHEUS BOUND
{387}
Note 1 (p. 183).
"This Scythian soil, this wild untrodden waste."
"The ancient Greek writers called all the Northern tribes (_i.e._ all
who dwelt in the Northern parts of Europe and Asia) generally by the
name of Scythians and Celto-Scythians; while some even more ancient than
these make a division, calling those beyond the Euxine, Ister, and
Adria, Hyperboreans, Sarmatians, and Arimaspi; but those beyond the
Caspian Sea, Sacæ and Massagetæ." Strabo, Lib. XI. p. 507.--STAN.
Note 2 (p. 183).
"This daring wretch."
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