284. πλεῖστον ἔχθος—i. e. έχθιστον.

286. Yes, Athens is a name of hate to our unhappy race. Full well may one remember how many of our Persian women she made mourners and husbandless ", i. e. at Marathon.

288. μáray-does not go with the verb in the sense that the former expedition was a fruitless one, but is attached to the adjective ("poor bereaved mourners "), being used much like the Homeric αύτως. Cp. Soph. Αj. 634, ὁ νοσῶν μάταν.

290-330. Atossa now bids the man be calm and tell all his news, who is dead, who survives. His first words reassure her as to the safety of Xerxes, and shortly and with dignity she expresses her joy. He proceeds with his roll of dead cap. tains, some of whose names we remember as proudly rehearsed in the first Ode (see on 1. 1), and adds that this is but an instalment of his ill tidings.

290. Atossa has hitherto kept silence because Aeschylus did not wish to exhibit her as joining in any undignified display of grief, which would have been the more conspicuous from her elevation in the car or litter (see on 1. 155). Nevertheless a sort of apology for silence is here put into her own mouth. Cp. Prom. 436. For the present tense of σɩyŵ see on 1. 177.

291. "For this calamity is passing great, so that I might neither speak nor ask of our woes". Agat governs the accusative πάθη, μήτ' ἐρωτῆσαι being inserted as (in point of grammar) a parenthesis. Cp. Prom. 331. Others make re the subject to λέξαι, ἐμὲ τὸ ἐρωτήσαι. But Atossa is excusing her own silence, and is not concerned to account for the messenger's want of self-control.

293. "Yet necessity is laid on mortals to bear woes when the gods send them ".

βροτοῖς—is placed before φέρειν to give it greater promis nence: "to those who are mortals".

294. "Unfold the whole mishap, speak, compose thee!" The aorist participle dvarrúas here refers to the same time as the verb gov. Cp. L 700.

295. Suas-is not unfrequently thus placed, the clause which contains the condition intervening between it and the verb. Cp. 1. 840, also Cho. 115:

μέμνησ' Ορέστου, κεί θυραῖός ἐσθ' ὅμως.

296. "Who is not dead?" i, e. is any living? Atossa hopes to hear Xerxes' name in reply, though she dare not ask directly for him.

kal-emphasizes the verb of the question: “Whom shall we mourn (since mourn we surely must)?" Cp. Agam. 278: ποίου χρόνου δὲ καὶ πεπόρθηται πόλις ;

"When was the city sacked (since sacked it surely has been)?" 297. ἀρχελείων—“leaders of the_people” (λεως). So the Scholiasts. Others would derive it from Aela. Cp. the word ἀγελεία.

ἐπὶ σκηπτουχίᾳ ταχθείς— Set in the post of high command". KNTOUXO was the title of certain officers of the Persian court; but that Aeschylus uses the word in the more general sense in which it is found in Homer appears from the list of chiefs from different countries and holding high commands which the messenger gives in reply.

298. avav pov-is used proleptically: in full, τίς ἠρήμου τὴν τάξιν ὥστε ἄνανδρον εἶναι αὐτήν; 299. So the herald (Agam. 677) reports Menelaus, καὶ ζῶντα καὶ βλέποντα.

Cp. I. 1. 88,

ἐμεῦ ζῶντος καὶ ἐπὶ χθονὶ δερκομένοιο.

300. elmas paos-"Thy word is light to my house". odos is a secondary accusative of result after elwas (i.e. elwas twos). So Agam. 22:

ἡμερήσιον

φάος πιφαύσκων καὶ χορῶν κατάστασιν, where however κal is inserted.

paos-suggested by the last line, is used in the epic sense of the joy of victory or deliverance.

301. For k, "after", cp. Ag. 900,

κάλλιστον ήμαρ εἰσιδεῖν ἐκ χείματος.

peλayx (μov-see on 1. 114. Cp. Cho. 11.

302. & answers to uèv in the messenger's last speech (1.299), to which the pèv in Atossa's speech is assimilated, as she takes up his words.

'Apreußáρns-Cp. 1. 29, where however the penultimate is long. (See on 1. 21.)

Inπov-"horse," i.e. cavalry. So often in prose. Cp.

1.815.

βραβεύς "leader ", op. φιλόμαχοι βραβεῖς, Agam. 230. 303. στυφλούς—Cp. 1. 78.

Σιληνιών—Gen. of Σιληνίας, & part of the shore of Salamis. 805. πήδημα κούφον] Cognate aco, after αφήλατο. The

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NOTES.

rough humour underlying the narrative throughout this speech should be noticed. Here it was perhaps suggested by Il. XVI. 745, where Patroclus, jibing at the death-bound of Cebriones, says,

ὦ τόποι ἢ μάλ' ἐλαφρὸς ἀνὴρ, ὡς ῥεῖα κυβιστᾷ.

306. Some editions have åpureus, after Blomfield. The sense is the same, but áporos is the simpler and more epić word.

Layern's—“a true-born Bactrian", whereas many of the Persian contingents were led by foreign generals; as the Lydi ans by Arcteus (1. 44) an Egyptian (1. 311); the men of Egyptian Thebes by Ariomardus (1. 38) a man of Sardis (1. 321). Herodotus (vII. 96) tells us that in many cases native commanders were superseded, whether naval or military.

307. Cp. Hom. Il. 11. 557:

Δίας δ ̓ ἐκ Σαλαμῖνος ἄγεν δυοκαίδεκα νῆας (i.e. ó Teλauúrios), also Soph. Aj. 134, 596.

Toλe "haunts". Used in the middle in Prom. 645. A touch of the same humour as above, 1. 305.

308. Αρσάμης—Cp. 1. 37.

309. τὴν πελειοθρέμμονα (cp. πολυθρέμμονα in l. 33). The Scholiast understands Salamis, but Salamis had just been described (1. 307). Hermann, arguing from Eustathius that Salamis was more likely to breed ducks than doves, thinks that a small island near it is meant. Salamis in Cyprus was sacred to Aphrodite, and her doves might be poetically transferred to the Greek island. See on 1. 37.

310. Kúpiσσov-In the course of the messenger's narrative there are frequent instances of the omission of the aug. ment (11. 313, 376, 416, 458, 490, 506). Most of these occur at the beginning of a line, one (1. 490) at the end after a word ending in a diphthong, one (1. 313) ́at the end after a consonant. Linwood (8.v. Kukλoûσba) gives a full account of the facts, and of the dispute among scholars as to their explana tion. His conclusion is that "the Tragics, though in ordi. nary passages always inserting the augment, did occasionally omit it when imitating the epic narrative style, and this not in the beginning only, but also in the middle of a verse". This forcible verb is not met with elsewhere in a metaphorical

sense.

312. 'APKтeds-Cp. 1. 44, and see on 1. 306.

813. M. has of re. The want of augment in wérov has offended many critics, see above on 1. 810, but no probable correction is offered.

vads ir pas-Possibly "At the onset of one (Greek) ship". So Teuffel. Cp. Theb. 805, τεθνᾶσιν ἐκ χερῶν αὐτοκτόνων. But cp. 1. 963, which rather supports the old translation here: were lost out of one ship".

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314. Xpvoeds-from Chrysa in the Troad. Cp. I. 1. 37. Huρióvтaρxos-Formed on the (misapplied) analogy of exaτόνταρχος. Cp. 1. 994.

315. peλalvns-"Swarthy" or "black-armed", epithet of the riders rather than of the horses.

316. Tuppdv-(Porson and others alter to rupohy). This is best taken as a predicate (cp. 1. 298), giving another grim jest. "Chryses was dyeing his swarthy beard till it became a red one".

Topдupla Badĥ—i.e. with blood, but with a thought of the purple dye ever being distilled beneath the sea (see Agam. 958), and of the "sea change" being worked on the body as it floated. For the synizesis see on 1. 95.

With dárkov yeveiáda cp. Soph. Trach. 13.

Xpara-either "the complexion" or better "the colour" (χρώμα). Cp. Il. v. 354.

Others make the original colour of the hair ruppàr, i.e. yellow, which is dyed red by the blood. But the word peλalvns suits the other picture better.

318. Mayos a member of the Magian family mentioned by Herodotus (1. 101). Perhaps Aeschylus designedly lengthens the first syllable to distinguish from the priestly caste.Cp. Soph. O. T. 387.

819. σkλnpás μéTOLKOS yns-proleptic: "becoming (by death) a settler in a stony land". This again is grimly said. Cp. Cho. 671, μέτοικον, ἐς τὸ πᾶν ἀεὶ ξένον, θάπτειν (to bury him in a foreign land instead of bringing him home to his own). Cp. also Soph. O. C. 934, and Soph. Aj. 516.

320. "Αμηστρις—Cp. 1. 21.

321. 'Apióμapdos—Cp. 1.'88, and see note on 1. 306. It will be observed that this line offends against the rule of the "Final Cretic". Perhaps this may be excused in the case of a proper name, especially of a foreign one.

322. Zaσáμns-Cp. 1. 894. Herodotus (v11. 66) mentions: Sisamnes.