Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics)

by Aeschylus

  The favourite supplement of those who insist that Niobe must be the speaker is therefore unlikely to be right; but their main contention is not necessarily wrong. For epoimôzousa did not necessarily arise from epôzei zôsa. It may equally well have arisen from epôzô zôsa; and though the ugly repetition of zô may be thought to make against this reading, it is somewhat likelier to have given reise to the corruption in the papyrus than is epôzei zôsa. Hesychius, it is true, puts the verb in the third person; but since he is probably paraphrasing the text rather than quoting it, this consideration has little weight.

  We are forced to conclude that the text as it stands offers no reliable means of determining whether Niobe speaks the lines or no. Those who argue that she does not contend that their tone is too calm and reflective to be suitable to her. I feel some sympathy with this argument, but it is not one that can be pressed far; though it may derive some strength from the reflection that ll. 10-11 look as if they are not spoken by or to Niobe. Not that this is certain.

  Some scholars think the fragment is part of a dialogue, ll. 1-9 being spoken by an actor, 10-13 by the Chorus and the rest by the actor again. This cannot be ruled out, but is unlikely to be right. The question in ll. 12-13 looks like a rhetorical question of the kind that the asker himself at once proceeds to answer; for such a question and answer in Aeschylus compare, for instance, P.V. 500-4.

  If the speaker is not Niobe, who else may it be? Latte suggested Niobe’s nurse; others refuse to credit a nurse with so much semnotês and suggest Niobe’s mother-in-law, Antiope. There is some reason to suspect that a nurse was mentioned in this play (see Lesky, l.c., p. 7); and as the single instance of the Choephoroe does not prove that all Aeschylean nurses were incapable of semnotês, the nurse ahs a shade the better claim. But we cannot know which of them it was, if it was either.

  To sum up, we have not sufficient evidence to know whether Niobe is the speaker or no. Nor can we be quite sure that they belong to a single speaker, though it is likelier than not that this is so. I suspect, although I cannot prove, that this speaker was not Niobe, and my supplements are made accordingly. But I offer them with very little confidence.

  1-3 The speaker does not mean to say: “She can only weep for Tantalus.” The speaker means to say: “She can only weep for the disastrous marriage which Tantalus made for her”; but this is expressed by means of the common construction exemplified, e.g., by Eur., Med. 37: dedoika d’autên mê ti bouleuêi neon.

  But she can only lament over her luckless marriage, one that proved no haven, into which mighty Tantalus, the father that begot her and gave her away., forced her fortune’s ship. For the blast of all manner of evil is striking against her house, and you yourselves can see the conclusion of the marriage. This is the third day she has sat by this tomb, wailing over her children, the living over the dead, and mourning the misfortune of their beauty. Man brought to misery is but a shadow. Mighty Tantalus will in due course come here; to bring her home will be the purpose of his coming. But what cause of wrath had the Father against Amphion, that he has thus ruthlessly destroyed his family, root and branch? Loyal as you are, I will tell you. A god causes a fault to grow in mortals, when he is minded utterly to ruin their estate. But none the less, a mortal must abstain from rash words, carefully nursing the happiness that the gods give him. But in great prosperity men never think that they may stumble and spill the full cup of their fortune. So it was that this woman, exultant in . . . beauty . . .

  PROMÊTHEUS PYRKAEUS

  FRAGMENT 278

  Ed. pr. Lobel, P. Oxy., vol. 20, no. 2245, with Plate I.

  Aeschylus wrote certainly three and probably four plays about Prometheus; the extant Prometheus Desmotes, the Prometheus Lyomenos, the Prometheus Pyrphoros, which was probably either the first or the third play of the trilogy that contained the former two, and the Prometheus Pyrkaeus. The last-mentioned play was probably the satyr-play produced in 472 together with the Persae, the Phineus and the Glaucus Potnieus: see the hypothesis to the Persae. The play probably dealt with the bringing of fire to earth by Prometheus; and the numerous vases that show satyrs carrying fire in fennel-stalks, sometimes accompanied by Prometheus himself, are likely to be connected with it: see Beazley in A.J.A. 43, 1939, 618; ibid., 44, 1940, 212; Brommer, Satyrspiele 44, 79. Fraenkel is almost certainly right in assigning this fragment to this play. Its subject-matter accords well with what is known of the Pyrkaeus (see fr. 117 with note); and both the dance and the allusion to the nymphs suggest satyric drama rather than tragedy. The lines may belong to the chorus of satyrs; but he reference to Prometheus in the third person does not preclude their belonging to Prometheus himself.

  Terzaghi’s case for attributing the fragment to the Pyrphoros rests on the word chitôna in l. 3. Satyrs, he says, do not wear chitônes and therefore the text cannot belong to a satyr-play. But even if we could be sure that this word referred to the dress of the Chorus, which we cannot, vases not infrequently show satyrs dressed like ordinary people. Of course we do not know to which play the fragment belongs; but there is no positive evidence in favour of Terzaghi’s view.

  . . . and . . . gracious kindness sets me dancing. [Throw down] your bright cloak by the unwearying light of the fire. Often shall one of the Naiads, when she has heard me tell this tale, pursue me by the blaze within the hearth.

  The nymphs, I know full well, shall join their dances in honour of Prometheus’ gift!

  Sweet, I think, will be the song they sing in honour of the giver, telling how Prometheus is the bringer of sustenance and the eager giver of gifts to men.

  The nymphs, I know full well, shall join their dances in honour of Prometheus’ gift!

  (Fragments of six more lines, including “. . . shine . . . shepherd’s (shepherds?),” “night-wandering dance . . . crowned with . . . leaves,” “deep thicket.”)

  SEMELÊ Ê HYDROPHOROI

  FRAGMENT 279

  Ed. pr. Lobel, P. Oxy., vol 18, no. 2164, with Plate I.

  Ed. pr. Assigned this fragment to the Xantriae, because ll. 16-17 coincide with a quotation assigned by one of its quoters to that play. This quotation is fr. 84, the following authors preserve: (1) Plato, Rep. 381D; (2) Diogenes, Epist. 34, 2; (3) Scholiaston Aristophanes, Frogs 1344. These authorities in Lobel’s words, “diverge strangely from each other and from the papyrus.”

  Only the scholion on Aristophanes names the Xantriae. Latte points out that we have good reason to think this play contained an account of the tearing to pieces on Mt. Cithaeron of Semele’s nephew, Pentheus; the testimony of a scholion on Eum. 26, is borne out by fr. 85, whose words were spoken by Lyssa, the goddess of madness (see Dodds on Eur., Bacchae 977). It is hard to see how a play that contained this can also have contained a scene in which Hera appeared disguised as a begging priestess. But such a scene would fit well into another play which was part of the same trilogy, the Semele. Semele’s ruin, according to the usual story, was brought about by Hera, who disguised as an old woman induced her to persuade Zeus to appear before her armed with his thunder. The versions of this legend known to us make Hera disguise herself as an old nurse. But these are all of much later date. In Aeschylus she may well have disguised herself as a priestess; and such a priestess may well have claimed to have arrived in Thebes from Argos, the centre of Hera’s worship. (Nilsson’s assumption that the invocation of the Argive nymphs proves that the scene of the play was Argos seems to me unsafe.) Latte points out that Asclepiades was a careless writer, and gives several examples of a quotation being mistakenly assigned to a play belonging to the same trilogy as that to which it really belongs. He rightly concludes that the balance of probability is in favour of the Semele, and not the Xantriae, being the play to which this fragment belongs.

  Ll. 1-11 seem to consist of choriambic dimeters, 12-15 of marching anapaests, 16-30 or lyric hexameters. The general sense of 1-15 cannot be guessed at with any certainty; but it seems reasonable to guess that the Chorus is describing the favours conferred by
Zeus on Semele and praying that her good fortune may continue.

  At 16-17, the reading of the papyrus seems to confirm the opinion of the commentator on Aristophanes that oressigonoi was not in the text, as Asclepiades supposed it was. Diogenes’ krênais may be an explanatory gloss; and Latte’s suggestion (printed below) is likely to be right. The nymphs of the Argive rivers were four of the daughters of Danaus, Hippe, Automate, Amymone and Physadeia. Danaus was descended from Inachus; and this, together with the fact that Inachus was the principal river of Argos, makes it natural for the nymphs to be called “daughters of Inachus.” The nymphs were patronesses of marriage and childbirth (se Latte, p. 54). This is why brides and women who had just given birth performed a ceremonial ablution in the water of the particular spring consecrated by their city to this purpose. At Athens this was Enneakrounos (Thuc., 2, 15), at Thebes Ismenus (Eur. Phoen. 347), at Argos Atuomate (see Callim., fr. 65 Pfeiffer).

  [?]

  . . . anointed with unguents . . . not more than Hera . . . more arrogant . . . mighty . . . from afar. May there abide . . . life . . . the gods . . . among friendly . . . But may all the envious be absent, and all unseemly rumour. We pray that Semele’s good fortune may ever steer a straight course. For . . . this other . . . Semele . . . Cadmus . . . the all-powerful Zeus . . . marriage.

  [HERA]

  Nymphs that speak the truth, honoured goddesses are they for whom I collect offerings, the life-giving children of Inachus the river of Argos. They are present at all the actions of men, at feasts and banquets and the sweet songs of marriage, and they initiate maidens lately wedded and new to love. . . . kindly . . . eyes . . . of the eye . . . For unsullied modesty . . . is by far the best or adorners for a bride. And fruitful in children are the families of those to whom the nymphs shall come in kindness, with sweet disposition, . . . coming . . . both . . . harsh and hateful . . . when they come near. Many . . . husband . . . girdles . . .

  UNKNOWN PLAY (I)

  FRAGMENT 280

  Ed. pr. Lobel, P. Oxy., vol. 20, no. 2251, with Plate III.

  A Chorus composed of female persons is lamenting for a hospitable person (or for such a person’s house), one who (or which) has been visited by some grievous and, in their opinion undeserved, fate. Miss Cunningham thinks the fragment belongs to the Aigyptioi, the second play of the trilogy about the Danaids; she recalls the conjecture (see Hermann, Opusc., ii, 323 f.) that the Argive king Pelasgus was killed in battle while protecting the Danaids against the sons of Aegyptus. But for all we know many hospitable persons may have suffered destruction in lost plays of Aeschylus; and there are positive objections to Miss Cunningham’s view. One is that the name of the play Aigyptioi indicates that the sons of Aegyptus formed the Chorus; this compels Miss Cunningham to suggest that the Danaids may have formed an additional Chorus. There is an extra Chorus of handmaidens in the Supplices, and it is not impossible that there may have been an extra Chorus in the Aigyptioi. But the necessity of supposing that here is does not recommend the theory which involves it. Further, the letters katask[ in l. 3 are most easily explained by Snell’s supplement, printed below; Miss Cunningham in the interests of her theory is driven to conjecture that kataskaphenta was written by mistake for katasphagenta. The verdict must be that the evidence is wholly insufficient to assign this piece to the Aigyptioi or to any other play.

  L. 8: “the metaphor in anaulon bregma is not appreciably odder than in kai psall’ etheiran (Persae 1062)”: Lobel. One may speak of “plucking” the string of a musical instrument; and to speak of “plucking” one’s hair is not unnatural extension of this usage. But is it easy to speak of the front of one’s head as being “without the pipe”? Since the pipe was associated with joyful occasions, “without the pipe” might be used as equivalent to “joyless”. (But Stinton suggests anaudon, which may be right).

  For look now, Zeus, lord of the law of host and guest, upon the destruction of the hospitable house! What kindness do the gods show to righteous men? Therefore I tear my hair with unsparing hand and beat my crown with joyless sound, lamenting with wailing your fortune. . . .

  UNKNOWN PLAY (II a)

  FRAGMENT 281

  Ed. pr. Lobel, P. Oxy., vol. 20, no. 2256, fr. 9, with Plate V.

  This piece is written in the same hand as No. 282. In itself, this need mean no more than that both are by the same author (see Lobel in P. Oxy., vol. 20, p. 29); but the content indicates that they may well come form the same scene of the same play. If so, it seems rather likelier than not that this piece came before the other; but one cannot be sure of this. The text presents several difficult problems of interpretation.

  . . . girdling (?) . . . not to sow evil . . . (Then Peace is . . for mortals. And I praise this goddess; for she honours a city that reposes in a life of quiet, and augments the admired beauty of its houses, so that they surpass in prosperity the neighbours who are their rivals), nor yet to engender it. And they earnestly desire land for ploughing, abandoning the martial trumpet, nor do . . garrisons . . .

  1. Translation very dubious.

  UNKNOWN PLAY (II b)

  FRAGMENT 282

  Ed. pr. Lobel, P. Oxy., vol. 20, no 2256, fr. 91, with Plate VI.

  This fragment is shown to be Aeschylean by the coincidence of l. 29 with fr. 377 Nauck; the occurrence in l.9 of the word hotiê (found at Eur., Cycl. 643, but nowhere in tragedy) points to its coming from a satyr-play. Clearly one of the speakers is the goddess Dike, Justice, who is explaining how she came by her prerogatives and what they are. It is likely, though not certain, that she is conversing with the Chorus. Dike is the paredros of Zeus as early as Hesiod (Op. 259); but in Hesiod it is not she herself, but thirty thousand daimones who are appointed by Zeus to keep a watch on men. On the notion of the “book of Zeus,” in which men’s crimes are recorded, see Solmsen, Class. Quart., 58, 1944, 27. It looks as if Euripides had this play in mind when, in a famous passage from one of his two plays about Melanippe (fr. 506 Nauck) he ridiculed this belief.

  Ll. 30 ff. raise awkward problems. Is the persecutor of travellers, who is cited as a classic instance of injustice punished, Ares himself, or another? The only person connected with Ares who is known to have behaved in this fashion is Cycnus, not the king of Tenedos, but the Cycnus of the Hesiodic Shield of Heracles who persecuted visitors to Delphi and was slain by Heracles. Aeschylus certainly wrote a play in which a Cycnus was a character (see Ar., Frogs 963), though this may have been the other Cycnus. Ares is surely the subject of ll. 31 f.: and perhaps Ares’ support of Cycnus is the subject lower down.

  Another explanation is offered by Robertson, who thinks the speaker is leading up to an account of the trial of Ares before the court of Areopagus for the murder of Poseidon’s son Halirrhothius; and he explains the behaviour attributed to Ares by supposing that he may have been represented as having been a difficult child at this time (cf. the Hermes of the Homeric Hymn and the Ichneutae of Sophocles). Yet in the usual version of this story, Ares was not an aggressor, but was defending the virtue of his daughter Alcippe (see Frazer, Apollodorus, ii. p. 81).

  We cannot be sure that this narration relates to the main theme of the play, and there seems to be nothing to indicate the name of the play this fragment comes from. Eduard Fraenkel has inferred from the apparent importance of Dike in the plot that it is the Aetnaeae (or Aetnae), which Aeschylus wrote to celebrate Hieron’s foundation of the city of Aetna, oiônizomenos bion agathon tois sunoikizousi tên polin (Vita Aeschyli, p. 371, Murry, i. 8; see p. 381). A play that celebrates Dike might be thought appropriate to the foundation of the city which Pindar hopes will conduce sumphônon es hasuchian (Pyth. 1. 71); and he presence among these fragments of a hypothesis of the Aetna-play shows that it would not be surprising if they contained also a portion of its text. But these considerations fall a very long way short of being concrete evidence.

  In. J.H.S., l.c., I have tried to show how this fragment stands in relation to Aeschylus’ theology.

  (Fragments
of four lines, the two first beginning makarôn and autê (hautê?) theôn.)

  DIKE

  [5] And he has his seat upon his father’s very throne, having overcome Kronos by means of Justice; for Zeus can now boast, since his father began the quarrel, that he paid him back with Justice on his side. That is why Zeus ahs done me great honour, because after being attacked he paid him back, not unjustly. I sit in glory by the throne of Zeus, and he of his own will sends me to those he favours; I mean Zeus, who has sent me to this land with kind intent. And you shall see for yourselves whether my words are empty.