NOTES ON ALCESTIS
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Euripides and Buckley, Theodore Alois
[1] Lactant. i. 10. "Quid Apollo? Nonne ... turpissime gregem pavit alienum?" B.
[2] Hygin. Fab. li. "Apollo ab eo in servitutem liberaliter acceptus." B.
[3] Cf. Hippol. 1437. B.
[4] No one will, I believe, object to this translation of ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ; it seems rather a matter of surprise that Potter has kept the Latin ORCUS, a name clearly substituted as the nearest to ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ of the masculine gender.
[5] Cf. Æsch. Eum. 723 sqq. B.
[6] It was customary to bury those, who died advanced in years, with greater magnificence than young persons.
[7] The horses of Diomed, king of Thrace. The construction is, Ευρυσθεως πεμψαντος [αυτον] μετα ‛ιππειον οχημα [αξοντα] εκ τοπων δυσχει μερων Θρηικης. MONK.
[8] On this custom, see Monk, and Lomeier de Lustrationibus § xxviii. B.
[9] Perhaps, "as though all were over," B.
[10] Casaubon on Theophr. § 16, observes that it was customary to place a large vessel filled with lustral water before the doors of a house during the time the corpse was lying out, with which every one who came out sprinkled himself. See also Monk's note, Kirchmann de Funeribus, iii. 9. The same custom was observed on returning from the funeral. See Pollux, viii. 7. p. 391, ed. Seber. B.
[11] See Dindorf. B.
[12] Potterus, Arch. Gr. mortuos a Græcis προνωπεις vocari tradit, quod solebant ex penitiore ædium parte produci, ac in vestibulo, i.e. προνωπιωι collocari: atque hunc locum adducit, sed frustra, ut opinor. Non enim mortua jam erat, nec producta, sed, ut recte hanc vocem interpretatur schol. εις θανατον προνενευκυια, i.e. morti propinqua. Proprie προνωπης is dicitur, qui corpore prono ad terram fertur, ut Æschyl. Agam. 242. Inde, quia moribundi virium defectu terram petere solent, ad hos designandos translatum est. KUINOEL.
[13] The old word "dizening" is perhaps the most literal translation of κοσμος, which, however, here means the whole preparations for the funeral. Something like it is implied in Hamlet, v. 1.
... her virgin rites,
Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
Of bell and burial. B.
[14] Aristophanes is almost too bad in his burlesque, Equit. 1251. σε δ' αλλος τις λαβων κεκτησεται, κλεπτης μεν ουκ αν μαλλον, ευτυχης δ' ‛ισως. B.
[15] Some would translate προνωπης in the same manner as in verse 144.
[16] Conf. Ter.: Phorm. iv. 4, 5. Opera tua ad restim mihi quidem res rediit planissume.
[17] Perhaps it is unnecessary to remark, that αβιωτον agrees with βιον implied in βιοτευσει.
[18]‛οραι scilicet ‛ηλιος. MONK.
[19] Cf. Hippol. 1372. B.
[20] It must be remembered that to survive one's children was considered the greatest of misfortunes. Cf. Plaut. Mil. Glor. l. 1. "Ita ut tuum vis unicum gnatum tuæ Superesse vitæ, sospitem et superstitem." B.
[21] Kuinoel carries on the interrogation to γαμους, and Buchanan has translated it according to this punctuation. Monk compares Iliad, p. 95; μηπως με περιστελωσ' ‛ενα πολλοι.
[22] Compare my note on Æsch. Ag. 414 sqq. B.
[23]These, my children.
[24] Reiske proposes to read τεθριππα δε ζευγη τε και—And both from your chariot teams, and from your single horses cut the manes.
[25] This festival was celebrated in honor of Apollo at Sparta, from the seventh to the sixteenth day of the month Carneus. See Monk. B.
[26] On λιπαραις Αθαναις, see Monk. B.
[27] Literally, the duplicate of such a wife.
[28]αναξ πελτης, so αναξ κωπης in Æsch. Pers. 384, of a rower. Wakefield compares Ovid's Clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax. MONK.
[29] Heath and Markland take τωι for τινι.
[30] Cf. Theocrit. Id. i. 71 sqq. of Daphnis, τηνον μεν θωες, τηνον λυκοι ωρυσαντο, Τηνον χοι 'κ δρυμοιο λεων ανεκλαυσε θανοντα ... πολλαι μεν παρ ποσσι βοες, πολλοι δε τε ταυροι, πολλαι δ' αυ δαμαλαι και πορτιες ωδυραντο. Virg. Ecl. v. 27 sqq. Calpurnius, Ecl. ii. 18. Nemesianus, Ecl. i. 74 sqq.; ii. 32. B.
[31]αρδην γινεται απο του αιρειν. δηλοι δε το φοραδην. Schol.
[32] Cf. Suppl. 773. "Αιδου τε μολπας εκχεω δακρυρροους, φιλους προσαυδων, ‛ων λελειμμενος ταλας ερημα κλαιω. See Gorius Monum. sive Columbar. Libert. Florent. mdccxxvii. p.186, who observes, "χαιρε was the accustomed salutation addressed to the dead. Catullus, Carm. xcvii. Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu, atque in perpetuum frater HAVE, atque VALE." The same scholar compares a monument, apud Fabretti, cap. v. p. 392, n. 265,
D. M AVE SALVINIA OMNIUM. AMAN TISSIMA. ET. VALE,
which is very apposite to the present occasion. B.
[33] Wakefield reads χαιρε καιν Αιδου δομοις; having in his mind probably Hom. Il. Ψ. 19. Χαιρε μοι ‛ω Πατροκλε, και ειν Αϊδαο δομοισι.
[34] I should scarcely have observed that this is the proper sense of the imperfect, had not the former translator mistaken it. B.
[35] Cf. Iph. Taur. 244. χερνιβας δε και καταργματα ουκ αν φθανοις αν ευτρεπη ποιουμενη. B.