Hecuba
Model: Euripides’ Ἐκάβη, if not some unknown play.
The ghost of Polydorus speaks the prologue:
Servius, on Cisseis (daughter of Cisseus) in Virgil: Queen Hecuba, according to Euripides, who is followed by Ennius, Pacuvius, and Virgil.
202
He tells of the misdeed of Polymestor:
Nonius: ‘Salum’ is the neuter gender.... Ennius has it in the masculine in Hecuba —
Ghost of Polydorus the surging sea 203
Hecuba is about to tell her dream:
Varro: Men speak of a ‘templum’ in the sky, as in Hecuba —
Hecuba You mighty precincts of all those who dwell In heaven, commingled with the shining stars, 204–5
Hecuba has heard news that Polyxena is to be slain:
Nonius: ‘Miserete’... —
Hecuba
Pity me an aged woman; give me a sword that I may reave me of life.
206–8
Hecuba tries to persuade Ulysses to make the Achivi change their minds:
Gellius: There are lines of Euripides in Hecuba remarkable and famous for their diction, thought and terseness. Hecuba is in the course of a speech addressed to Ulysses. ‘But your influence, though you speak on the wrong side, will prevail. For speech issuing from those held in no repute, though it be the same as speech from the reputable, has not the same power.’ These lines Quintus Ennius, when he was translating that tragedy, rivalled in no unsuitable way, I can assure you. The lines of Ennius are the same in number, as follows —
Hecuba Although this message you will give is crooked, An easy task you’ll find to sway the Achivi; For when the well-to-do and lowly born Speak in like purport, yet their words and speech, Though equal and alike, have not like weight. 209
Hecuba despairs of saving Polyxena:
Nonius: ‘Sanguis’... in the masculine gender... Ennius in Hecuba has it in the neuter —
Hecuba
Ah! Woe is me! I am undone; on they go, to bathe blood in blood!
210–11
Talthybius has found Hecuba lying in a swoon:
Nonius: ‘Pauperies’ for ‘paupertas’... —
Talthybius I am an old man; would that I could meet My death before a thing should come to pass Which in my poverty and age I should Loudly bewail. 212
From Hecuba’s speech after she has heard of the death of Polyxena:
Cicero: Even if pain is an evil, to be without that evil is not enough to make a good life. Let Ennius, if he prefers, say that —
Hecuba A passing good thing has the man who suffers No ill day by day.
But let us reckon a happy life not by the repulse of evil but by the attainment of good.
213
Hecuba shows Agamemnon the corpse of Polydorus:
Nonius: ‘Guttatim’... —
Hecuba
See him on whom my tears fall drop by drop.
214
Hecuba implores Agamemnon in the name of Cassandra, who shares his bed, to help her to avenge her son:
Nonius: ‘Modicum’ is a term which the old writers would use for moderated and fitting... —
Hecuba
A woman who as bed-mate grants your wishes With shyness and restraint.
215
Hecuba wishes that her very body could speak:
Cicero: They often used to contract for brevity’s sake, quite apart from vowels, so as to use expressions like ‘multi modis,’ ‘et vas argenteis,’ ‘palm et crinibus’ —
Hecuba with hands and hair
‘tecti fractis.’
216
Hecuba on true friendship:
Cicero: How heavy and hard do most people find it to be someone’s companion in disasters! It is not easy to find anyone who could condescend to such fellowships. Yet Ennius is right when he says —
Hecuba
A friend in need is seen a friend indeed.
217–18
Agamemnon tells Polymestor of his disapproval of Polymestor’s crime:
Nonius: ‘Perbitere,’ to perish... —
Agamemnon But you have never made a written law Establishing the pains whereby should perish The murderer of parent or of guest. 219
Hecuba gives thanks for the success of her vengeance on Polymestor:
Nonius: ‘Gratulari,’ to give thanks... —
Hecuba All-Highest Jupiter, the ill deed done, To thee I render thanks at last.
Iphigenia
That Ennius followed Euripides’ Ἰφιγένεια ἡ ἐν Αὐλίδι is certain; but instead of a chorus of maidens, Ennius most fittingly makes his chorus of warriors. This like certain other divergences may have been based on a Sophoclean version (R., 494 ff.).
220–1
Opening of the play:
Agamemnon bids an old servant hurry to him to take a letter for Clytaemnestra:
Festus: ‘Pedum’ (sheep-hook) is a curved staff which shepherds use for catching hold of ewes or she-goats; it is derived from ‘pedes.’ Virgil among others makes mention of it in the Bucolics (V., 88).... But I cannot wonder enough when Verrius says that in that line which occurs in Iphigenia of Ennius —
Agamemnon
Come hither, strive to put forward the support of your steps — you loiter, O trusty one a sheep-hook is actually meant, because... the real meaning is plain to see.
222–5
Progress of the night:
Varro: —
Agamemnon
What time of night does it seem to be in heaven’s high-sounding shield?
Old Servant
The Wain, driving on and on through night’s lofty course, surmounts the stars.
He wishes to indicate, from the movement of the Wain, a late hour of the night.
226–8
Cicero: Democritus with very good argument explains the reasons why cockerels crow before dawn... in the silence of the night, in the words of Ennius —
Agamemnon
The cockerels keep silence with their ruddy-wattled throats from crowing, and check their wings from flapping.
229–30
Quarrel between Agamemnon and Menelaus:
Cicero: Next wrath... under whose impulse there starts even among brothers a brawl like this —
Agamemnon
What man in all the world has surpassed you in shamelessness?
Menelaus
Or what man you in spite?
You know what follows; for the brothers hurl the most crushing taunts at each other, line for line, so that you can easily see that they are Atreus’ sons....
231
Rufinianus: Ἀγανάκτησις is indignation, which comes about chiefly by tone of voice. Ennius in Iphigenia —
Agamemnon
Menelaus brawls at me; it is that domination of his which stands an obstacle to my affairs.
232–4
Rufinianus: Σύγκρισις or ἀντίθεσις is to put side by side things or persons contrary to each other, for example —
Agamemnon
Am I taunted because you do wrong? Because you go astray, am I brought to task? For her misdeeds should Helen come back, in her guiltlessness should a maiden perish? Should your wife be brought back to favour, my daughter be butchered?
235–6
Agamemnon laments because he sees that the sacrifice of Iphigenia will be unavoidable:
Jerome: And wisely does Ennius write —
Agamemnon The commoners stand better than their king In this — the commoners may weep, the king May not, with honour. 237–8
Clytaemnestra, complying with a deceitful message, has come with her daughter and greets her husband:
Cicero: —
Clytaemnestra
So soon as tidings from you, that I was to come, reached my ears, Agamemnon, I forthwith...
gave up what I had begun; I put aside what I had in hand and I wrote rough-hewn what you had asked for.
239
From the dialo
gue where Agamemnon tells Clytaemnestra of the past life of Achilles:
Varro: ‘Lymphata’ is a term derived from ‘lympha’ (water), ‘lympha’ from ‘nympha’; in like manner Θέτις as written by Greek authors is in a passage of Ennius —
Thelis his mother.
240
Agamemnon tries in vain to persuade Clytaemnestra to return to Argos:
Servius (supplemented), on Aen., I, 52: It is a fact that the old writers used to put ‘vastus’ for ‘desolate’... —
Agamemnon
Maids who are now bereft of you and desolate.
241–8
Impatience, of the, army held back in Aulis:
Gellius, on the word ‘praeterpropter’: Celsinus at once ordered a copy of Quintus Ennius’ Iphigenia to be brought out. In a chorus of that tragedy we read the following lines —
Chorus
He who knows not how to use leisure when there is leisure, in leisure has more work than he has in work when there is work. For he for whom a task is set to do, does it without any work; he attends to it; therein too he delights his mind and his thoughts. In leisurely leisure a sick mind knows not what it wants. Thus it is with us also; look you, we are now neither at home nor are we afield. We go hither and then thither; and when thither we have come, away again it pleases to go. Our mind wanders unsure; our lives we live but more or less.
... Well then we ask you to tell us... what is the unknown meaning of this fine, ‘Our mind wanders unsure; our lives we live but more or less.’
249–51
Achilles sneers at Calchas’ prophecy:
Cicero: The famous words of Achilles from Iphigenia were always in his mouth —
Achilles?
... what a peering there is at the star-readers’ constellations in the sky; when the She-goat or the Scorpion rises, or some such name chosen from the beasts, no man looks at what is before his feet; one and all scan the stretches of the sky.
252
Agamemnon and Menelaus have yielded to the demands of Ulysses and the army. Iphigenia is ready to be sacrificed:
Festus: That the archaic writers used the preposition ob for ad Ennius bears witness when he says... in Iphigenia —
Iphigenia
I shall go to meet Acheron, where the treasures of Death lie in my way.
Medea or Medea Banished
Cicero (de Fin., I, 2, 4) includes Ennius’ Medea among plays which were translated word for word from the Greek. That this is not really true of this play the following fragments will show. In all the essentials, however, it was a Latin reproduction of Euripides’ Μήδεια. But Ennius extended his play to include also the plot of Euripides’ Μήδεια ἐν Αἰγεῖ, or at least far enough to bring Medea to Athens (Schol. ad Il., XI, 741 and other sources; V., CCVIII). It is not right to assume a second play ‘Medea Atheniensis’ (R., 157–9; see fr. 294–5); Varro, Cicero, and Nonius knew only one Medea of Ennius, to which the poet apparently gave the title Medea Exul (that is, in exile at Corinth with Jason). Cf. G. Monaco, Stud. Ital di Fil. Class., XXIV, 1950, 249 ff.; N. L. Drabkin, The Medea Exul of Ennius.
253–61
Opening of the play; prologue spoken by Medea’s aged nurse:
The author of To Herennius says: I have deemed what I have last said to be enough by way of exposition at this point, lest we be found to be copying Ennius and the rest of the poets, who were granted the right to speak in the following way —
Nurse
Would that the firwood timbers had not fallen to earth hewn by axes in a Pelian grove; and that thereupon no prelude had been made to begin the ship which is now known by the name of Argo, for that chosen Argive heroes were carried in it when they were seeking the golden fleece of the ram from the Colchians, by trickery, at the behest of King Pelias. For thus never would my misled mistress Medea, sick at heart, smitten by savage love, have set foot outside her home.
For if the poets had a care for that only which were enough, then it was enough to say here, ‘would that my mistress Medea, sick at heart, smitten by savage love, had not set foot outside her home.’
262–3
The usher to Jason’s children addresses the nurse:
Nonius: ‘Eliminare,’ to thrust outside the ‘limen’... Ennius in Medea Banished —
Usher
You aged faithful woman, guardian of your mistress’ person, wherefore bring you yourself thus outdoors, forspent outside your dwelling?
264–5
From the end of the nurse’s reply:
Cicero: But there are others to whom in their grief it is often a delight to hold converse with loneliness itself, for example the well-known nurse in Ennius —
Nurse
Now has a desire taken hold of me, poor wretch, to speak out to heaven and earth Medea’s miseries.
266–8
Medea comes out of the palace and defends her moody behaviour:
Cicero writes to Trebatius: All you have to do is to lay aside the silly fads and longings of town and town’s fashions, and follow up with zest and fortitude the plan with which you set out. We as your friends will pardon you this as readily as Medea was pardoned by —
Medea
You well-to-do and well-born ladies, who have for your own the lofty stronghold Corinth,
whom she with thickly plastered hands persuaded not to call her to task that she was away from her native land ; for —
Many there are who have performed well their own and their commonweal’s tasks far from the fatherland; and many there are who because they passed their days at home were for this held in no honour.
Among the latter number you certainly would have been numbered had we not pushed you out of it.
269–70
Nonius: ‘Cernere’ also means to fight or strive... —
Medea for I would fain make trial of my life thrice under arms, than give birth just once.
271
Medea answering Creon who is suspicions of her:
Cicero writes to Trebatius: You who have learnt to look out on behalf of the rest of mankind, in Britain look out lest you be taken in by carters, and (since I began with playing the part of Medea) remember you at all times that famous line —
Medea
He who, though wise himself, cannot help himself, is wise in vain
272–3
Creon threatens Medea as he grants a day’s delay before she leaves the land:
Cicero: And to kings belong these commands.... And the famous threat —
Creon
If one day hence I do light upon you, you shall die.
Of these we ought to be readers and spectators, not that we may merely be delighted by them, but that we may learn how to beware also and to escape.
Chorus
Ο Medea of Colchis, would that you had not ever with hankering heart set foot outside...
282–3
Dispute between Medea and Jason:
Charisius: A ‘figure of thought’ comes about... by ‘paraleipsis’ when we want to point out something while denying that we are doing so, for example —
Medea... I say no word of how I lulled To sleep the fury of the savage snake, Nor how I tamed the temper of the bulls, And the stout valour of the warrior cro–5
Medea stresses her loneliness:
Cicero: Let wrath claim for itself one kind of voice... pity and grief another kind — wavering, full, broken by a sobbing tone —
Medea Whither shall I turn now? What road set out To tread? Towards my father’s home, or what? To Pelias’ daughters? 286
Jason replies to Medea:
Cicero: What says the renowned leader of the Argonauts in the tragedy? —
Jason You saved me more for love’s sake than for honour’s.
Well then, what a blaze of woes did this love of Medea stir up.
287
King Aegeus of Athens on making an oath; or Medea reveals her plan of taking refuge with Aegeus at Athens:
Nonius: ‘Sub
limare,’ to lift right up. Ennius in Medea —
... The sun, Who lifts aloft in heaven his blazing brand
288
Medea reveals her plan to the chorus?:
Nonius: ‘Aucupavi,’ an active form put for the passive... —
Chorus
my ears catch a harvest of words.
289–90
Medea takes leave of her children:
Nonius: ‘Cette’ means ‘tell ye’ or ‘give ye,’ from the word cĕdŏ... —
Medea Good-bye, you dearest little things; there now! Give me your hands and you take mine. 291–3
From the song sung by the chorus while Medea does her horrid work within:
Probus: We can prove that Homer also in this very passage made mention of the four elements... and Ennius likewise in Medea Banished, in the following lines —
Chorus Ο Jupiter, thou rather, Sun most high, Who lookest upon all things, and pervadest Sea land and sky with thy light, look on this Dread deed before’tis done; prevent this sin.
For here too both Jupiter and the Sun are put for fire, which pervades sea and land and sky; so we need not doubt that he used the term ‘sky’ for ‘air.’
294–5
Medea in flight approaches Athens; the city is pointed out to her:
Nonius: ‘Contempla,’... Ennius in Medea — Stand there and Athens contemplate, a city Ancient and wealthy,
Collected Fragments of Ennius Page 11
