FullReads

OR.
Thine anyhow. That I can prophesy
With perfect inspiration to thine ear.

AEG.
The skill you boast belonged not to your sire.

OR.
You question and delay. Go in!

AEG.
Lead on.

OR.
Nay, go thou first.

AEG.
That I may not escape thee?

OR.
No, that thou may’st not have thy wish in death.
I may not stint one drop of bitterness.
And would this doom were given without reprieve,
If any try to act beyond the law,
To kill them. Then the wicked would be few.

LEADER OF CH.
O seed of Atreus! how triumphantly
Through grief and hardness thou hast freedom found,
With full achievement in this onset crowned!

[THE END]

NOTES:

SOME PROPER NAMES

AIDONEUS, Hades or Pluto.
ARES, The War-God, a destructive Power.
DEO, Demeter.
ERINYES, the Furies.
HELIOS, The Sun-God.
RHEA, the Mother of the Gods.
THEBE, the town of Thebes personified.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The wolf-slaying God. Apollo Lyceius, from Lycos, a wolf.

[2] Ne’er be it mine, etc. Reading [Greek: toume me *lupoun monon | boskema].

[3] That lingers on my brow. A somewhat forced interpretation of [Greek: tende lipare tricha]. Possibly [Greek: tend’ alamprunton tricha]: ‘And this–unkempt and poor–yet give it to him.’

[4] Chariot course of Pelops, full of toil. Pelops won his bride Hippodameia by bribing Myrtilus, his charioteer; whom, in order to conceal his fault, he flung into the sea.

[5] That pulled the side-rope. See on Ant., p. 7, l. 140.

[6] In letting loose again the left-hand rein. The near horse (see above) knows his business, and, when the slackening of the rein shows that the goal is cleared, makes eagerly for the direct downward course. But if he is let go an instant too soon, he brings the car into contact with the stone.

[7] Caught in the reins. In an ancient chariot-race, the reins were often passed round the body of the charioteer, so as to give more purchase. See this described in the Hippolytus of Euripides.

[8] One in a woman’s toils | was tangled. Amphiaraus, betrayed by Eriphyle for a necklace.

[9] Through homeless misery. I read [Greek: aion’ aoikon] for [Greek: aiona koinon] of the MSS.

[10] Purging the sin and shame. I read [Greek: kathagnisasa] for the impossible [Greek: kathoplisasa].

[11] Thou hast been taking, etc. Otherwise, reading with the MSS [Greek: zon tois thanousin ounek’ antaudas isa], At point to die, thou art talking with the dead.