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

by Aeschylus

  OIDIPOUS

  The second play of the Oedipoedea: Laïos, Oidipous, Hepta epi Thêbas, Sphinx. Of the Laïos no certain remains are attested.

  See Fragments 164, 186, 201, 214, 229.

  FRAGMENT 88

  Scholiast on Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrranus 733.

  We were coming on our journey to the place from which three highways part in branching roads, where we crossed the junction of the triple roads at Potniae.

  HOPLÔN KRISIS

  The Award of the Arms, the first play of the Ajax-trilogy, dealt with the contest between Ajax and Odysseus for the arms of Achilles after that hero’s death. From Fragment 90 it appears that each of the chieftains set forth his pretensions and indulged in detraction of his rival. According to a verse of the Odyssey (L 547, rejected by Aristarchus) the Trojans were the judges; according to the Aethiopis of Arctinus the award was made by Trojan captives; according to Lesches’ Little Iliad the decision in favour of Odysseus resulted from the fact that a Trojan, overheard by Achaean scouts under the walls of the city, pronounced that warrior more redoubtable than Ajax. The constitution of the Chorus is uncertain. Fragment 89 is cited as addressed to Thetis by some one who called upon the Nereïds to make the award. Welcker held that Trojan captives formed the choral group.

  Fragment 189 has been referred to the play.

  FRAGMENT 89

  Scholiast on Aristophanes, Acharnians 883.

  Queen of Nereus’ fifty daughters.

  FRAGMENT 90

  Scholiast on Sophocles, Ajax 190.

  But Sisyphus drew nigh unto Anticleia – aye, unto thy mother, I say, who bare thee.

  Ajax calls Odysseus a bastard of Sisyphus, the crafty knave.

  FRAGMENT 91

  Stobaeus, Anthology iv. 43. 24 (Hense v. 1104).

  For wherein is life sweet to him who suffers grief?

  Spoken by Ajax.

  FRAGMENT 92

  Stobaeus, Anthology 3. 11. 4 (Hense iii. 431).

  For simple are the words of truth.

  FRAGMENT 93

  Photius, Lexicon 39. 7 (Reitzenstein).

  And through his lungs he breathes fevered sleep.

  OSTOLOGOI

  The Bone-Gatherers was a tragedy, if, as seems not improbably, the Chorus consisted of the relatives of the suitors of Penelope who came to exact vengeance from Odysseus for the slaughter of their kin and to collect their bones after their bodies had been burned on the funeral pyre (cp ô 417). On this supposition, Fragments 94 and 95 were spoken by Odysseus standing by the corpses of the suitors and recounting the insults he had received at their hands.

  A counter interpretation, regarding the play as satyric, derives the title from the hungry beggars in the palace at Ithaca, who collected the bones hurled at them by the suitors (cp. u 299, s 394).

  FRAGMENT 94

  Athenaeus, Deipnosophists xv. 5. p. 667C.

  Eurymachus here, another, brought no less unseemly outrage upon me; for he continually made my head his mark, and at it, with bent-armed casts, his vigorous hand kept aiming true.

  The poet has in mind that form of the cottabus-game (kottabos or kossabos) in which each of the players so bent his arm and turned his wrist as to aim the wine left in the bottom of his cup at the head of a small bronze figure (manes) placed in a saucer (plastinx).

  FRAGMENT 95

  Athenaeus, Deipnosophists i. 30. p. 17C; cp. Eustathius on Odyssey 1828. 28; tên kakosmon . . . kara Sopocles, Frag. 565. Ascribed to Aeschylus by Athenaeus, to this play by Welcker.

  There is the man who once hurled at me (nor did he miss his aim) a missile that caused them all to laugh, even the ill-smelling chamber-pot; crashed about my head, it was shivered into shards, breathing upon me an odour unlike that of unguent-jars.

  PALAMÊDÊS

  Palamedes, son of Nauplius, was the human, as Prometheus was the divine, inventor or discoverer of arts and sciences useful to man; and to both were ascribed the introduction of the alphabet, number, and the skill to know the periods of the stars. Later epic and the tragic drama were especially concerned with the manner of his death at Troy. According to the legend preferred by the tragedians, his violent end was due to the ancient enmity of Odysseus, whose feigned madness to escape participation in the Trojan war had been detected by the ingenuity of Palamedes. One account had him drowned by Odysseus and Diomedes; another had him lured into a well in search of treasure and then crushed with stones. More famous was the story that Odysseus, in concert with Agamemnon (to whom Palamedes, as leader of the peace party, was opposed) concocted a plot to show that their adversary purported to betray the Greeks: gold was hidden in his tent, likewise a letter purporting to be written to him by Priam, on the discovery of which by the people he was stoned to death by Odysseus and Diomedes.

  Nauplius, failing to obtain justice form the murderers of his son, took vengeance on the Greek commanders by raising deceptive fire-signals on the Capherean cliffs in Euboea at the time of their homeward voyage.

  Fragment 252 has been referred to this play.

  FRAGMENT 96

  Athenaeus, Deipnosophists i. 19. p 11D; oiston . . . trita Eustathius on Odyssey 1791. 42.; l. 3 often in later writers.

  Both commanders of regiments and centurions did I appoint for the host, and I determined their knowledge of different foods, and for them to take breakfast, dinner, and supper third.

  Spoken by Palamedes (Athenaeus).

  1. At Athens taxiarchoi commanded the troops raised from each of the tribes.

  2. It is uncertain whether the mention of food refers to soldiers’ rations or has regard to a distinct invention on the part of Palamedes. Possibly eidenai is corrupt.

  FRAGMENT 97

  Scholiast A on Iliad D 319.

  By reason of what injury hast thou slain my son?

  Nauplius reproaches Odysseus for the death of his son.

  PENTHEUS

  The Pentheus anticipated Euripides’ Bacchae, in which play Dionysus, angered at the refusal of Pentheus, ruler of Thebes, to recognize his godhead, inspired with frenzy the prince’s mother Agave and her sisters. In their madness the women tore Pentheus to pieces, and Agave bore his head in triumph in the delusion that it was that of a lion. See Eumenides 26, and cp. Fragment 197.

  FRAGMENT 98

  Galen, Commentary on Hippocrates’ Epidemics vi. Vol. xvii. 1. 880.

  Nor do thou cast a drop of blood upon the ground.

  PERRHAIBIDES

  The Women of Perrhaebia belongs with the Ixion. Compare Fragments 182, 192, 222.

  FRAGMENT 99

  Athenaeus, Deipnosophists xi. 99. p. 499A, Eustathius on Odyssey 1775. 22.

  Where are my many promised gifts and spoils of war? Where are my bold and silver cups?

  Eïnoeus here, as in Frag. 100, demands the bridal-gifts promised him by Ixion.

  FRAGMENT 100

  Athenaeus, Deipnosophists xi. 51. p. 476C, Eustathius on Iliad 917. 63.

  With silver-mounted drinking-horns, fitted with golden mouthpieces.

  FRAGMENT 101

  Eustathius on Iliad 352. 34, Favorinus, Lexicon s.v. apaiolê.

  He has perished piteously, defrauded of his own.

  PÊNELOPÊ

  FRAGMENT 102

  Etymologicum Geniunum s.v. aoidoiestaton; cp. Etymologicum Magnum 31. 6.

  I am a Cretan of most ancient lineage.

  Odysseus, on the occasion of his first conversation with Penelope after his return, fabricates the tale that he is a Cretan, the grandson of Minos (t 180). In x 199 he tells Eumaeus that he is a Cretan, the son of Castor.

  PROMÊTHEIS

  The Medicean Catalogue of Aeschylus’ plays names three entitled Promêtheus (desmôtês, lyomenos, purphoros); a fourth, Promêtheus purkaeus (Pollux, Vocabulary 9. 156, 10. 64) was probably the satyric drama of the trilogy Phineus, Persai, Glaukos (pontios) produced in 472 B.C. From the Scholiast on Prom. 511 it is to be inferred that the Lyomenos followed the Desmôtês. The theme and place of the Pyrphoros
are still disputed: (1) it is another name for the Pyrkaeus; (2) it preceded the Desmôtês in the trilogy and dealt with the Titan’s theft of fire – in this sense, it is the Fire-Bringer or Fire-Giver; (3) as the Fire-Bearer, it followed the Lyomenos, and described the inauguration of the Promêtheia, the Athenian festival at which torch-races were held in honour of the Titan, now become the god of the potter-guild. Some, who follow Canter in identifying the Pyrphoros with the Pyrkaeus, maintain that it was the satyric drama, and dealt with the Attic worship of the god. A satyr-play in the Prometheus-trilogy is unknown.

  The extract from the Literary History, appended to the Life of the poet in the Medicean and many other manuscripts, says that “some of Aeschylus’ plays, as those entitled Prometheus (oi Promêtheis), dealt only with gods.” The singular Promêtheus, may at times be a collective title; but it generally indicates a particular play whose more exact designation was unknown or neglected. Late writers sometimes city, as from the Desmôtês, passages not appearing in that play: these should, if possible, be located among the other dramas of the group rather than forced into the text of the extant tragedy.

  FRAGMENT 103

  Scholiast on Aristeides, In Defence of the Four Statesmen, vol. iii. 501. 17 (en Promêthei desmôtê).

  For silence is gain to many of mankind.

  Cp. Agam. 548, Frag. 118.

  PROMÊTHEUS LYOMENOS

  Fragments 104, 105, 106 are from the parodus of the Chorus of Titans, now released from Tartarus by the clemency of Zeus. To them Prometheus describes his tortures (Frag. 107) and his benefits to man (Frag. 108). In his search for the golden apples of the Hesperides, Heracles, having come to the Caucasus, where Prometheus is confined, receives from him directions concerning his course through the land of the peoples in the farthest north (Frag. 109-111) and the perils to be encountered on his homeward march after slaying Geryon in the farthest west (Frag. 112, cp. 37). Frag. 113-114 refer to Heracles’ shooting of the eagle that fed on the vitals of the Titan.

  See Fragments 204, 208, 209, 230, 261.

  FRAGMENT 104

  Arrian, Voyage in the Euxine 99. 22, Anonymous in Müller, Fragmenta Historicum Graecorum v. 194.

  We have come to look upon these thy ordeals, Prometheus, and the affliction of thy bonds.

  FRAGMENT 105

  Strabo, Geography i. 2. 27. p. 33.

  [Leaving] the Erythraean Sea’s sacred stream red of floor, and the mere by Oceanus, the mere of the Aethiopians . . . that giveth nourishment unto all, where the all-seeing Sun doth ever, in warm outpourings of soft water, refresh his undying body and his wearied steeds.

  Cited by Strabo as proof that the ancient Greeks designated as Aethiopia all the southern countries toward the ocean. In l. 3 chalkokeraunon is credited with the meaning “flashing like bronze.” But keraunos is not used for steropê (chalkosteropon Weil, chalkomaraugon Hermann; but neither satisfies).

  FRAGMENT 106

  Arrian, Voyage in the Euxine 99. 22, Anonymous in Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum v. 184.

  Here Phasis, the mighty common boundary of the land of Europe and Asia

  FRAGMENT 107

  Cicero, Tusculan Disputations ii. 10. 23-25; ll. 14-15 sublime – sanguinem in Nonius Marcellsu, Compediosa Doctrina 17. 9M.

  Ye race of Titans, offspring of Uranus, blood-kinsmen mine ! Behold me fettered, clamped to these rough rocks, even as a ship is moored fast by timid sailors, fearful of night because of the roaring sea. Thus hath Zeus, the son of Cronus, fastened me, and to the will of Zeus hath Hephaestus lent his hand. With cruel art hath he riven my limbs by driving in these bolts. Ah, unhappy that I am! By his skill transfixed, I tenant this stronghold of the Furies. And now, each third woeful day, with dreadful swoop, the minister of Zeus with his hooked talons rends me asunder by his cruel repast. Then, crammed and glutted to the full on my fat liver, the utters a prodigious scream and, soaring aloft, with winged tail fawns upon my gore. But when my gnawed liver swells, renewed in growth, greedily doth he return anew to his fell repast. Thus do I feed this guardian of my awful torture, who mutilates me living with never-ending pain. For fettered, as ye see, by the bonds of Zeus, I have no power to drive from my vitals the accursed bird. Thus, robbed of self-defence, I endure woes fraught with torment: longing for death, I look around for an ending of my misery; but by the doom of Zeus I am thrust far from death. And this my ancient dolorous agony, intensified by the dreadful centuries, is fastened upon my body, from which there fall, melted by the blazing sun, drops that unceasingly pour upon the rocks of Caucasus.

  FRAGMENT 108

  Plutarch, On Fortune 3. 98C (cp. On the Craftiness of Animals 7. 965A), Porphyry, On Abstinence 3. 18.

  Giving to them stallions – horses and asses –and the race of bulls to serve them as slaves and to relieve them of their toil.

  FRAGMENT 109

  Galen, Commentary on Hippocrates’ Epidemics vi, vol. xvii. 1. p. .

  Follow this straight road ; and, first of all, thou shalt come to the north winds, where do thou beware the roaring hurricane, lest unawares it twist thee up and snatch thee away in wintry whirlwind.

  FRAGMENT 110

  Stephen of Byzantium, Lexicon 7. 5 (s.v. Abioi) on Iliad N 6 (cp. Scholiasts AT). Homer calls the Abioi the “most just of men.”

  Thereafter thou shalt come unto a people of all mortals most just and most hospitable, even unto the Gabians; where nor plough nor mattock, that cleaves the ground, parteth the earth, but where the fields, self-sown, bring forth bounteous sustenance for mortals.

  FRAGMENT 111

  Strabo, Geography vii. 3. 7. p. 301.

  But the well-ordered Scythians that feed on mares’ milk cheese

  In Iliad N 5 Homer mentions Hippêmolgoi, who drink mares’ milk.

  FRAGMENT 112

  Strabo, Geography iv. 1. 7. p. 183; ll. 1-3 Dionysius of Halicarnasus, Early History of Rome i. 41.

  Thou shalt come to the dauntless host of the Ligurians, where, full well I know, thou shalt not be eager for battle, impetuous though thou art; for it is fated that even thy arrows shall fail thee there; and thou shalt not be able to take from the ground any stone, because the whole place is smooth. But the Father, beholding thy helplessness, shall pity thee, and, holding above thee a cloud, shall overshadow the land with a shower of round stones. Hurling these, thou shalt easily drive back the Ligurian host.

  According to Strabo, Prometheus here gives directions to Heracles concerning the road he is to take on his journey from the Caucasus to the Hesperides.

  Strabo states that the place was called the Stony Plain, and was situated between Marseilles and the outlets of the Rhone, about a hundred stades distant from the sea. It is now identified with “la plaine de la Crau” near Arles.

  FRAGMENT 113

  Plutarch, On Love 14. 757E. Ascribed to this play by Schültz.

  May Hunter Apollo speed my arrow straight!

  The prayer of Heracles as he bends his bow against the eagle that rends Prometheus (Plutarch).

  FRAGMENT 114

  Plutarch, Life of Pompey 1.

  Of his sire, mine enemy, this dearest son

  Prometheus addresses Heracles as the author of his deliverance (Plutarch).

  PROMÊTHEUS PYRKAEUS

  To Prometheus the Fire-Kindler has been referred Fragment 156; to the “satyric Prometheus,” 169, 170, 171, 172.

  FRAGMENT 115

  Pollux, Vocabulary 10. 64.

  And linen-lint and long bands of raw flax

  FRAGMENT 116

  Galen, Commentary on Hippocrates’ Epidemics vi, vol. xvii. 1. 880.

  And do thou guard thee well lest a blast strike thy face; for it is sharp, and deadly-scorching its hot breaths.

  FRAGMENT 117

  Plutarch, How to Profit by our Enemies 2. 86F, Eustathius on Iliad 415. 7.

  Like the goat, you’ll mourn for your beard, you will.

  Spoken, says Plutarch, by Prometheus to the satyr who desired to kiss and embra
ce fire on seeing it for the first time. Eustathius took tragos to be the nominative used for the vocative; and the passage thus interpreted has been regarded as a proof that the satyr of the satyr-play was addressed as “goat.” The translation assumes the existence of a proverb about a goat that burnt his beard (Shorey in Classical Philology iv. (1904) 433).

  PROMÊTHEUS PYRPHOROS

  Apart from Fragment 118, the only extant reference to Prometheus the Fire-Bearer is contained in the scholium on Prom. 94, where the statement is made that, in the Pyrphoros, Prometheus declared that he had been bound (dedesthai) thirty thousand years (to the same effect, Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 15, but without naming the play). On the assumption that the Pyrphoros preceded the Desmôtês and that the Titan was prophesying the duration of his bondage, Hartung conjectured dedêsesthai, Cobet dethêsesthai. Welcker proposed to refer the utterance of Prometheus to the Lyomenos; in Desmôtês l. 774 the hero says to Io that he shall be released by her descendant in the thirteenth generation.

  FRAGMENT 118

  Gellius, Attic Nights xiii. 19. 4.

  Both silent, when there is need, and speaking in season

  Cp. Seven against Thebes 619, Libation-Bearers 582, Euripides, Frag. 413.

  PRÔTEUS

  The satyr-play of the Orestea and dealing with the fortunes of Menelaüs in Egypt, whither he seems to have been carried by the storm described in Agam. 674. In the fourth book of the Odyssey, Menelaüs relates his encounter with the “deathless Egyptian Proteus,” whom he compelled to disclose how he might find his way home from the island of Pharos.

  FRAGMENT 119

  Athenaeus, Deipnosophists ix. 50. p. 394A.

  A wretched piteous dove, in quest of food, dashed amid the winnowing-fans, its breast broken in twain