[17] Beck interprets this passage, "Mea quidem vita ut non habeat laudem, fama obstat." Heath translates it, "Jam in contrariam partem tendens fama efficit, ut mea quoque vita laudem habeat." We are told by the Scholiast, that by βιοταν is to be understood φυσιν. [18] Iolcos was a city of Thessaly, distant about seven stadii from the sea, where the parents of Jason lived: Pelion was both a mountain and city of Thessaly, close to Iolcos; whence Iolcos is called Peliotic. [19] For the same sentiment more fully expressed, see Hippolytus, 616-625. See also Paradise Lost, x. 890. Oh, why did God, Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven With spirits masculine, create at last This novelty on earth, this fair defect Of nature, and not fill the world at once With men, as angels, without feminine? [20] Porson rightly reads ταχ' αν πιθοιο with Wyttenbach. [21] Elmsley has "‛ως και δοκει μοι ταυτα, και καλως εχειν γαμους τυραννων, ‛ους προδους ‛ημας εχει, και ξυμφορ' ειναι, και καλως εγνωσμενα." "_that these things appear good to me, and that the alliance with the princes, which he, having forsaken me, has contracted, are both advantageous and well determined on_." So also Dind. but καλως εχει. Porson omits the line. [22] In Elmsley this line is omitted, and instead of it is inserted "νυμφηι φεροντας, τηνδε μη φευγειν χθονα." "_offering them to the bride, that they may not be banished from this country_," which Dindorf retains, and brackets the other. [23] Although the Scholiast reprobates this interpretation, it seems to be the best, nor is it any objection, that Μνημοσυνη is elsewhere represented as the Mother of the Muses; so much at variance is the poetry of Euripides with the received mythology of the ancients. ELMSLEY. [24] The construction is πολις ‛ιερων ποταμων; thus Thebes, Phœnis. l. 831, is called πυργος διδυμων ποταμων. A like expression occurs in 2 Sam. xii. 27. I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken _the city of waters_, πολιν των ‛υδατων in the Septuagint version. [25] Elmsley reads παντες, "_we all entreat thee_." So Dindorf. [26] Elmsley reads ‛η δυνασει with the note of interrogation after θυμωι; "_or how wilt thou be able,_" etc. [27] An allusion to that well-known saying in Plato, de Repub. 1. 3. Δωρα θεους πειθει, δωρ' αιδοιους βασιληας. Ovid. de Arte Am. iii. 635. Munera, crede mini, capiunt hominesque deosque. [28] Vertit Portus, _O infelix quantam calamitatem ignoras_. Mihi sensus videtur esse, _quantum a pristina fortuna excidisti_. ELMSLEY. [29] Medea here makes use of the ambiguous word καταξω, which may be understood by the Tutor in the sense of "bringing back to their country," but implies also the horrid purpose of destroying her children: τοδε 'καταξω' αντι του πεμψω εις τον Αιδην, as the Scholiast explains it. [30] It was the custom for mothers to bear lighted torches at their children's nuptials. See Iphig. Aul. l. 372.