NOTES ON MEDEA
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Euripides and Buckley, Theodore Alois
[1] The Cyaneæ Petræ, or Symplegades, were two rocks in the mouth of the Euxine Sea, said to meet together with prodigious violence, and crush the passing ships. See Pindar. Pyth. iv. 386.
[2]ερετμωσαι signifies to make to row; ερετμησαι, to row. In the same sense the two verbs derived from πολεμος are used, πολεμοω signifying ad bellum excito; πολεμεω, bellum gero.
[3] Elmsley reads φυγη in the nominative case, "a flight indeed pleasing," etc.
[4] Literally, Before we have drained this to the very dregs. So Virgil, Æn. iv. 14. Quæ bella exhausta canebat!
[5] Ter. And. Act. ii. Sc. 5. Omnes sibi malle melius esse quam alteri. Ac. iv. Sc. 1. Proximus sum egomet mihi.
[6] Elmsley reads και for ει, "And their father," etc.
[7] In Elms. Dind. το γαρ ειθισθαι, "for the being accustomed," etc.
[8]δυναται here signifies ισχυει, σθενει; and in this sense it is repeatedly used: ουδενα καιρον, in this place, is not to be interpreted "intempestive", but "immoderate, supra modum." For this signification consult Stephen's Thesaurus, word καιρος. EMSLEY.
[9]‛οδε is used in this sense v. 49, 687, 901, of this Play.
[10]μογερα is best taken with Reiske as the accusative plural, though the Scholiast considers it the nominative singular. ELMSLEY.
[11]γεγωτας need not be translated as νομιζομενους, the sense is [Greek; ontas]: so αυθαδης γεγως, line 225.
[12] That is, the character of man can not be discovered by the countenance: so Juvenal,
Fronti nulla fides.
‛οστις, though in the singular number, refers to βροτων in the plural: a similar construction is met with in Homer, Il. Γ. 279.
ανθρωπους τιννυσθον, ‛ο τις κ' επιορκον ‛ομοσσηι.
[13] Grammarians teach us that γαμειν is applied to the husband, γαμεισθαι to the wife; and this rule will generally be found to hold good. We must either then read ‛η τ' εγηματο, which Porson does not object to, and Elmsley adopts; or understand εγηματο in an ironical sense, in the spirit of Martial's Uxori nubere nolo meæ: in the latter case ‛ηι τ' εγηματο should be read (not ‛ην τ'), as being the proper syntax.
[14] The primary signification of πλημμελης is absonus, out of tune: hence is easily deduced the signification in which it is often found in Euripides. The word πλημμελησας occurs in the Phœnissæ, l. 1669.
[15] Elmsley approves of the reading adopted by Porson, though he has given in his text
πονουμεν ‛ημεις, κ' ον πονων κεχρημεθα.
"We are oppressed with cares, and want not other cares," as being more likely to have come from Euripides. So also Dindorf.
[16]‛ως εοικας; is here used for the more common expression ‛ως εοικεν. So Herodotus, Clio, clv. ου παυσονται ‛οι Λυδοι, ‛ως οικασι, πραγματα παρεχοντες, και αυτοι εχοντες. See also Hecuba, 801.
[17] Beck interprets this passage, "Mea quidem vita ut non habeat laudem, fama obstat." Heath translates it, "Jam in contrariam partem tendens fama efficit, ut mea quoque vita laudem habeat." We are told by the Scholiast, that by βιοταν is to be understood φυσιν.
[18] Iolcos was a city of Thessaly, distant about seven stadii from the sea, where the parents of Jason lived: Pelion was both a mountain and city of Thessaly, close to Iolcos; whence Iolcos is called Peliotic.
[19] For the same sentiment more fully expressed, see Hippolytus, 616-625. See also Paradise Lost, x. 890.
Oh, why did God,
Creator wise, that peopled highest heaven
With spirits masculine, create at last
This novelty on earth, this fair defect
Of nature, and not fill the world at once
With men, as angels, without feminine?
[20] Porson rightly reads ταχ' αν πιθοιο with Wyttenbach.
[21] Elmsley has
"‛ως και δοκει μοι ταυτα, και καλως εχειν
γαμους τυραννων, ‛ους προδους ‛ημας εχει,
και ξυμφορ' ειναι, και καλως εγνωσμενα."
"that these things appear good to me, and that the alliance with the princes, which he, having forsaken me, has contracted, are both advantageous and well determined on." So also Dind. but καλως εχει. Porson omits the line.
[22] In Elmsley this line is omitted, and instead of it is inserted
"νυμφηι φεροντας, τηνδε μη φευγειν χθονα."
"offering them to the bride, that they may not be banished from this country," which Dindorf retains, and brackets the other.
[23] Although the Scholiast reprobates this interpretation, it seems to be the best, nor is it any objection, that Μνημοσυνη is elsewhere represented as the Mother of the Muses; so much at variance is the poetry of Euripides with the received mythology of the ancients. ELMSLEY.