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See the Andromache, vs. 986. το ξυγγενες γαρ δεινον.

I have preferred Blomfield's επαχθη to επραχθη.

Την εν ναρθηκι θησαυρισθεισαν, says Hesychius. The ferule was hollow, and capable of containing fire.

Bishop Blomfield considers the word shoonless as being expressive of extreme haste; and he quotes several passages from ancient writers as illustrative of this view. With regard to his quotation from Bion's elegy—

προς κεντρα κωλον εκτενεις. This proverb occurs also, and more exactly in the words of Scripture, in the Agamemnon, vs. 1614. προς κεντρα μη λακτιζε. Also in Pindar, Pyth. ii. 173. and Euripides, Fragm. Peliad.

Before the time of Elmsley, this was the opening line to a speech of Oceanus. With admirable judgment, he removed the landmark; and restored one of the sublimest passages of poetry to lips most worthy to pronounce it,—to the lips of Prometheus.

In a fragment of Pindar, preserved by Strabo, Typhon is represented as having only fifty heads: but it seems to be thought corrupted. See Julian's fourth letter. He is called “hundred-headed” in the 1st and 8th Pythian.

See the Medea, vs. 1200.

The introduction of Arabia in this place has been a wonder among critics. Butler explains it by extending its boundary; and a learned writer, in the Edinburgh Review, perhaps more satisfactorily, by limiting Æschylus's geographical information.

The twenty-first verse of the fifth chapter of Jeremiah is suggested to us by this passage in a profane writer. The resemblance can scarcely be accidental.

See Apollonius Rhodius, lib. i. vs. 490.

Euripides ascribes the invention of navigation to some one of the gods. See the speech of Theseus in the Supplices, from vs. 201 to 213. Euripides must have had Prometheus in his mind. Among the obligations, due from man to deity, he records—

Sophocles, in the first choral ode of his Œdipus Coloneus, ascribes the invention to Neptune.

Hermann and Elmsley, followed by Blomfield, attach this line to the preceding speech of Io: and after all, I have ventured to adhere to the old editions. It certainly does seem to me finer and more characteristic, that Io, hurried on by the vehemence of anguish, should appear to have forgotten the presence of Prometheus, than that she should give utterance to anguish, with the mere object of describing it to him. Bishop Blomfield observes, that in the case of this line being attributed to the Chorus, to the Chorus must also be attributed the conclusion of Io's next speech. I confess my inability to feel the full force of this remark, or indeed to see any necessary connection between the two passages. Io, in her next speech, has become aware of Prometheus's superior wisdom, and her whole object is to profit by it.

In a fragment of the Prometheus Solutus preserved in the translation of Attius, a line occurs very similar to this:—

Bishop Blomfield has received Canter's Λερνης τε κρηνην into his text; but he mentions in a note, a conjecture, which “nuper in mentem venit,” and “magis placet,”—ακτην τε Λερνης. It pleases me much more: it is picturesque, and varies the scene; and as we are just now looking at “Cenchrea's pleasant wave,” nobody can be solicitous about having “Lerne's fount” besides—κου μιγνυται υδασιν υδωρ. Butler and Scholefield retain Λερνης ακραν: and the latter observes in a note, that it is an allusion to the rocks hanging over Lerne. He seems, however, to doubt the accuracy of the reading.

Bishop Blomfield has enumerated thirteen:—Epaphus, Libya, Belus, Danaus, Hypermnestra, Abas, Prœtus, Acrisius, Danae, Perseus, Electryon, Alcmena, and Hercules the Deliverer. The predicted spouse, whose son was to be superior to his father, was Thetis. In submission to the prophecy, she married Peleus instead of Jupiter, and her Achilles fulfilled it.

See the opening of the tenth Olymp., and Sophocles's Θες δ' εν φρενος δελτοισι τους εμους λογους. Parallel thoughts respecting the tablet of Hamlet's memory will be written upon the reader's.

The Pythian priestess exclaims, in her powerful description of the Furies (vide Eumenid. vs. 48.) “ουτοι γυναικας, αλλα Γοργονας λεγω.” It may therefore be humbly conjectured that Gorgons had some kind of horrible family likeness to Furies;—an honor, to which the priestess will by no means admit Harpies.

Erfurdt has justly observed, that the Greek poets have called the most fearful monsters dogs. In this place griffins are called dogs; a little further on, and in the Agamemnon, eagles are called dogs; in the Œdipus Tyrannus of Sophocles, the sphinx is called a dog; in the Hercules Furens of Euripides, the hydra is called a dog; in the Electra, both of Sophocles and Euripides, the Furies are called dogs; in Apollonius Rhodius, the Harpies are called dogs; in the Andromache of Euripides, (what a climax!) a woman is called a dog; and Synesius goes a step higher, and calls the Devil a dog: in short, Brutus did not know the strength of his own expression when he said that he would “rather be a dog.”

Bishop Blomfield supposes the poet to be here speaking of the Catadupa of the Nile, where that river is precipitated from the mountains.

Bishop Blomfield notices this word in a learned and interesting manner in his Glossary. He observes that Adrastia is to be identified with Nemesis, the goddess of temperance; and that the Greeks, in order to avert envy, were in the habit of saying, “I do homage to Nemesis,”—προσκυνω την Νεμεσιν.

See Pindar's tenth Olymp.

Gataker, in his annotations on Marcus Antoninus, has many interesting observations on this idea, which he traces up to Homer. Elmsley and Blomfield endeavour to turn the wave into Prometheus instead of into Mercury; and against Morell and Butler, and the disciples of Apostolius. It is a poetical, not a grammatical question; and I cannot help thinking that poetry decides as my translation has done.

The hair of the lightning—literally. In the Agamemnon there is a great beard of light; and that of Gray's Minstrel, which streamed like a meteor, would never have done so without Æschylus.