Chapter XIV: Part 14

that my paraphrase proceeds. With regard to the second part of this Strophe, beginning with Μάλα γὰρ (ὀ)υν, I follow WELL. and all the later editors, except SCHOE., in retaining it for metrical reasons, in the place to which Heath transposed it. SCHOE's observations, however, are worthy of serious consideration, as it is manifest that, if these Pæonic lines be replaced to where they stand in all the old editions, viz.:--between ὀρχησμοῖς τ᾽ (ε)πιφθόνοις ποδός and πιπτων δ᾽ ουκ ὀιδεν, their connection with what precedes, and also with what follows, will be more obvious than what it is now. FR.'s observation, however, in answer to this, is not to be kept out of view--that this second part of the Antistrophe takes up the idea, as it takes up the measure, with which the corresponding part of the Strophe, as now arranged, ends, viz.--διόμεναί κρατερὸν ὄνθ, which the reader will find clearly brought out in my version--the concluding lines of the Pæonic section of the Strophe--

"Though fleet we shall find him,"

being taken up in the opening lines of the Pæonic section of the Antistrophe--

"But swift as the wind,
We follow and find."

Note 33 (p. 154). "The cry that called me from Scamander's banks."

The Sigean territory in the Troad was disputed between the Athenians and the people of Mitylene; which strife Herodotus informs us (V. 94) ended, by the activity of Pisistratus, in favour of the Athenians--B.C. 606. In that same territory, continues the historian, there was a temple of Pallas, where the Athenians hung up the arms of the poet Alcæus, who, though "_ferox bello_," had been obliged to flee from the battle which decided the matter in favour of the Athenians. Æschylus, like a true patriot and poet, throws the claim of the Athenians to this territory as far back into the heroic times as possible; and, by the words put into the mouth of Athena, makes the claim {381} on the part of the Lesbians tantamount to sacrilege.--See SCHOLIAST and STAN.

Note 34 (p. 155). "He'll neither swear himself, nor take my oath."

"The Greek words, ἀλλ ὅρκον ὀυ δεξαιτ ἄν, ὀυ δοῦναι θέλει have, in the juridical language of Athens, decidedly only this meaning; and, in the present passage, there is no reasonable ground for taking them in any other sense, though it is perfectly true that in some passages, ὅρκου διδόναι signifies simply to _swear_, and ὅρκον δέχεσθαι, _to accept an attestation on oath._"--SCHOEMANN.

Note 35 (p. 155). "In old Ixíon's guise."

"Ixíon was the son of Phlegyas, his mother Dia, a daughter of Deioneus. He was king of the Lapithæ, or Phlegyes, and the father of Peirithous. When Deioneus demanded of Ixíon the bridal gifts he had promised, Ixíon treacherously invited him as though to a banquet, and then contrived to make him fall into a pit filled with fire. As no one purified Ixíon from this treacherous murder, and all the gods were indignant at him, Zeus took pity on him, purified him, and invited him to his table."--_Mythol. Dict._

Note 36 (p. 156). "The ancient city of famous Priam thou Didst sheer uncity."

The original ἄπολιν Ιλίου πόλιν ἔθηκας, contains a mannerism of the tragedians too characteristic to be omitted. 'Tis one of the many tricks of that wisdom of words which the curious Greeklings sought, and did not find, in the rough Gospel of St. Paul.

Note 37 (p. 156). "For thee, in that thou comest to my halls."

The best exposition that I have seen of the various difficulties of this speech, is that of SCHOE., unfortunately too long for extract. As to κατηρτὺκὼς, LIN. has, in the notes to his edition, justly characterised his own translation of it, in the Dictionary as _durissimum_. The first ὃμως, of course, must go; and there is nothing better than changing it with PAUW, MÜLL., and SCHOE., into ἐμ(ο)ις. The second ὅμως must likewise go; say ὁσιὼς with MÜLL. or ὅυτως with SCHOE. There is then no difficulty.

Note 38 (p. 157).

CHORAL HYMN. This chorus contains a solemn enumeration of some of the main texts of Greek morality, and is in that view very important. The leading measure is the heptasyllabic trochaic verse so common in English, varied with cretics and dactyles. I have amused myself with giving a sort of imitation of the rhythm, so far as the trochees and cretics are concerned; to introduce the dactyles in the places where they occur, would produce--as I found by experiment--a tripping effect altogether out of keeping with the general solemnity of the piece.

Note 39 (p. 158). "But who sports, a careless liver."

'Tis impossible not to agree with SCHOE. that these two lines are corrupt beyond the hope of emendation. He proposes to read--

τίς δὲ μηδὲν ἐυσεβεῖ
καρδίας ἄγᾳ τρεων.

{382}

A very ingenious restoration; and one which, as matters now stand, I should have little scruple in introducing into the text; but, for poetical purposes, I have not been willing to lose the image with which the present reading, ἐν φάει, supplies me and FR.--

"Wer der nicht bei Wonneglanz
Trauer auch im Herzen hegt," etc.

Note 40 (p. 158). "To the wise mean strength is given, Thus the gods have ruled in heaven."

This is one of those current common-places of ancient wisdom, which are now so cheap to the ear, but are still as remote from the general temper and the public heart as they were some thousands of years ago, when first promulgated by some prophetic Phemonoe of the Primeval Pelasgi. The great philosopher of common sense, Aristotle, seized this maxim, as the groundwork of practical ethics, some three hundred years before Christ--῾Φθείρεται γαρ, says he, ἡ σωφροσύνη και ἡ ἀνδρεία ὑπὸ τῆς ὑπερβολῆς καὶ τῆς ἐλλειψεως, ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς μεσότητος σώζεται; and Horace, the poet of common sense, preached many a quiet, tuneful sermon to the same ancient text--

"Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
Sobrius aula."

Note 41 (p. 158). "Pride, that lifts itself unduly."

I will not multiply citations here to show the reader how this pride or insolence of disposition, ὓβρις (the German _Uebermuth_), is marked by the Greek moralists as the great source of all the darker crimes with which the annals of our floundering race are stained (See Note, p. 349 above). They are wrong who tell us that Humility is a Christian and not a Heathen virtue: no doubt the name ταπεινοφροσύνη, used in the New Testament, was not the fashionable one among the Greeks: but that they had the thing, every page of their poetry testifies, with this difference, however, to be carefully noted, that while Heathen humility is founded solely on a sense of dependence, Christian humility proceeds also, and perhaps more decidedly, from a sense of guilt. Neither does the phraseology of Heathen and Christian writers on this subject differ always so much as people seem to imagine; between the μη ὐπερφρον(ε)ιν παρ ὃ δεῖ φρονεῖν of St. Paul (Rom. xii. 3), and the ὀυδεπώποτε ὐπερ ἄνθρωπον ἐφρόνησα of Xenophon (Cyropaed. VIII), it were a foolish subtlety that should attempt to make a distinction.

Note 42 (p. 159). "Give the air-shattering Tyrrhene trump free voice."

"It is a correct and significant observation made by the Scholiast on Iliad XVIII. 219, that Homer never mentions the trumpet (σάλπιγξ) in the narrative part of his poem, but only for a comparison: familiar as he was with the instrument, he was not ignorant that the use of it was new, and not native in Greece. Indeed, it was never universally adopted in that country: the Spartans and Cretans marching into battle, first to the accompaniment of the lyre, and afterwards of the flute. The tragedians again are quite familiar with the Tuscan origin of the trumpet, though they make no scruple of introducing it into their descriptions of the Hellenic heroic age"--MÜLL.; Etrusker I. p. 286.

{383}

Note 43 (p. 160).

_Enter_ APOLLO. Here commences a debate between the daughters of Night and the god accusing and defending, which, as Grote (History of Greece, I. 512) remarks, is "eminently curious." And not only curious, but unfortunately, to our modern sense at least, not a little ludicrous in some places. The fact is, that the strange moral contradictions and inconsistencies so common in the Greek mythology, so long as they are concealed or palliated under a fair imaginative show, give small offence; but when placed before the understanding, in order to be interrogated by the strict forms of judicial logic, they necessarily produce a collision with our practical reason and a smile is the result.

Note 44 (p. 161) ". . . himself did bind With bonds his hoary-dated father Kronos."

"In the fable of the binding of Kronos by his son Jove, Æschylus saw nothing disrespectful to the character of the supreme ruler, but only the imaginative embodiment of the fact, that one celestial dynasty had been succeeded by another. The image of binding, and of the battles of the Titans generally, might seem to his mind not the most appropriate; but the offence that lay in them was softened not a little by the consideration that the enchainment of Kronos and the Titans was only a temporary affair, leading to a reconciliation. The result was, that the Titans themselves at last acknowledged the justice of their punishment, and submitted themselves to Jove, as the alone legitimate ruler of Earth; and Herr Welcker is quite wrong in supposing that either here, or in the Agamemnon, or the Prometheus, there is any indication that the mind of Æschylus was fundamentally at war with his age in regard to the celestial dynasties."--SCHOEMANN's Prometheus, p. 97.

Note 45 (p. 162). ". . . How With any clanship share lustration?"

Or, with BUCK., "what laver of his tribe shall receive him?"--the word in the original being φρατόρων. The ancient Hellenic tribes φράτραι were social unions, founded originally in the family tie, and afterwards extended. These unions had certain religious ceremonies which they performed in common, and to which allusion is here made. (Compare Livy VI. 40, 41, _nos privatim auspicia habemus_ of the Patrician families.) To be ἀφρήτωρ, or _excluded from a tribe_ (Il. IX. 63), was among the Greeks of the heroic ages a penalty half-civil, half-religious, similar in character to the _excommunication_ of the middle ages. Of this extremely interesting subject, the English reader will find a most luminous exposition in GROTE's _Greece_, vol. iii. p. 74.

Note 46 (p. 162). ". . . whom we call The mother begets not."

Strange as this doctrine may seem to our modern physiologists, it seems founded on a very natural notion; and to the Greeks, who had such a low estimate of women, must have appeared perfectly orthodox. The same doctrine is enunciated by the poet in the Suppliants, v. 279, when he says, "the male artist has imprinted a Cyprian character on your female features"--the image being borrowed from the art of coining. And this, like many fancies cherished by the Greeks, seems to have had its home originally in {384} Egypt. STAN. quotes from Diodorus I. 80, who says--"The Egyptians count none of their sons bastards, not even the sons of a bought slave. For they are of opinion that the father is the only author of generation; the mother but supplieth space and nourishment to the fœtus." In the play of Euripides, Orestes uses the same argument (Orest. 543).

Note 47 (p. 162). "Now, hear my ordinance, Athenians!"

This address of the goddess, of practical wisdom, in constituting the Court of the Areopagus, was pointed by the poet directly against the democratic spirit, in his day beginning to become rampant in Athens; and is applicable not less to all times in which great and, perhaps, necessary social changes take place. The poet states, with the most solemn distinctness, that the mere love of liberty will never protect liberty from degenerating into licentiousness; but that a religious reverence for law is as essential to society as a religious jealousy of despotism. Only he who profoundly fears God can dispense with the fear of man; and he who fears both God and man is the only good citizen.

Note 48 (p. 162). ". . . Here, on this hill, The embattled Amazons pitched their tents of yore."

The Amazons, "as strong as men" (αντιάνειραι, Il. III. 189), are famous in the history of the Trojan war; and their expedition against Athens, mentioned here, was familiar to every Athenian eye, from the painting in the _Stoa Pœcile_, described by Pausanias (I. 15). As to the historical reality of these hardy females, the sober Arrian (VII. 13) is by no means inclined (after the modern German fashion) to brush them, with a stroke of his pen, out of the world of realities; and, considering what a strange and strangely adaptable creature man is, I see no reason why we should be sceptical as to their historical existence.

Note 49 (p. 163). "Thou say'st."

"This is an ancient way of replying to a captious question, as we see in the Gospel (Matth. xxvii.), where, when Pilate asks, 'art thou the king of the Jews,' our Lord, Jesus Christ, answers in these very words Συ λέγεις--'_Thou say'st._'"--STAN.

Note 50 (p. 163). "Such were thy deeds in Pheres' house."

"Alluding to Admetus, son of Pheres, whom Apollo raised from the dead, having obtained this boon from the Fates, on condition that some one should die in his stead.--See the well-known play of Euripides, the Alcestes."--STAN. The Scholiast on that play, v. 12, as Dindorf notes, remarks that, on this occasion, Apollo moved the inflexible goddesses by the potent influence of wine. This is alluded to a few lines below.

Note 51 (p. 164). ". . . all my father lives in me."

κάρτα δ᾽ ειμι τοῦ πατρος; specially wisdom and energy.--So Milton--

"All my father shines in me."--Paradise Lost, VII.

Compare the Homeric epithet of Pallas ὁβριμοπάτρη with Nägelsbach's Comprehensive Commentary--Hom. Theologie, p. 100.

{385}

Note 52 (p. 164).

_Apollo_, FR., who examined the Medicean Codex, says that there is here discernible the mark which introduces a new speaker. Who that speaker is, however, the sense does not allow us to decide; but Orestes and the Chorus having spoken, I do not see why Apollo, who showed such eagerness before, should not now also, put in his word; and, therefore, deserting WELL., I follow the old arrangement of VICT. and STAN.

Note 53 (p. 167). "Sharing alone the strong keys that unlock His thunder-halls."

As Pallas possesses all her father's characteristic qualities of wisdom and strength, so she is entitled to wield all his instruments, and even the thunder. STAN. quotes--

"Ipsa (Pallas) Jovis rapidum jaculata e nubibus ignem."--Virgil, ÆN.
I. 46.

And Wakefield compares CALLIM, Lavac. Pall, 132. So the _aegis_, or _shield of dark-rushing storms_ (ἀισσω), belongs to Pallas no less than to Zeus (Il. V. 738).

Note 54 (p. 167). ". . . thou shalt hold An honoured seat beside Erectheus' home."

Erectheus, who, as his name signifies (ἔραζε, _Eretz_, Heb., _Erde_, Teut., _Earth_), was the earth-born, or Adam of Attic legend, had a temple on the Acropolis, beside the temple of the city-protecting (πολιάς) Pallas, of which the ruins yet remain. The cave of the Furies was on the Hill of Mars, directly opposite.--See Introductory Remarks.

Note 55 (p. 168). ". . . save my city From brothered strife, and from domestic brawls."

It was a principle with the Romans that no victory in a civil war should be followed by a triumph; and, accordingly, in the famous triumph of Julius Cæsar, which lasted three days, there was nothing to remind the Roman eye that the conqueror of Pharsalia had ever plucked a leaf from Pompey's laurels. In v. 826, I read with MÜL. ὀυ δόμοις παρων, the present reading, μόλις, being clumsy any way that I have seen it translated.

Note 56 (p. 169). "The fortress of gods."

This designation is given to Athens with special reference to the Persian wars; for the Persians destroyed everywhere the temples of the Greek gods (only in the single case of Delos are they said to have made an exception), and the Athenians, in conquering the Persians, saved not only their own lives, but the temples of the gods from destruction.

Note 57 (p. 169). "Woe to the wretch, by their wrath smitten."

WELL., as usual, is too cautious in not changing μὴ κύρσας into δὴ κύρσας with PAUW and MÜL., or μὴν with LIN. and SCHOE.

Note 58 (p. 169). "Not for his own, for guilt inherited."

"The sins of the fathers, as in the Old Testament, so also among the Greeks, are visited on the children even to the third and fourth generation; nay, even the idea of original sin, derived from the Titanic men of the early ages, and exhibiting itself as a rebellious inclination against the gods more or less in all--this essentially Christian idea was not altogether unknown to the ancient Greeks."--SCHOEMANN.

{386}

Note 59 (p. 170). "And, when Hermes is near thee."

What we call a "god-send," or a "wind-fall," was called by the Greeks ἓρμαιον, or a thing given by the grace of Hermes. In his original capacity as the patron god of Arcadian shepherds, Hermes was, in like manner, looked on as the giver of patriarchal wealth in the shape of flocks.--Il. xiv. 490.

Note 60 (p. 170). "Ye Fates, high-presiding."

There is no small difficulty in this passage, from the state of the text; but, unless it be the Furies themselves that are spoken of, as KL. imagines (Theol. p. 45), I cannot think there are any celestial powers to whom the strong language of the Strophe will apply but the Fates. If the former supposition be adopted, we must interrupt the chaunt between Athena and the Furies, putting this Strophe into the mouth of the Areopagites, as, indeed, KL. proposes; but this seems rather a bold measure, and has found no favour. It remains, therefore, only to make such changes in the text as will admit of the application of the whole passage to the Fates, who stand in the closest relation to the Furies, as is evident from Strophe III. of the chorus (p. 146 above). This MÜL. has done; and I follow him, not, however, without desiring some more distinct proof that ματροκασιγνῆται, in Greek, can possibly mean sisters.--See SCHOE.'s note.

Note 61 (p. 170). "Jove, that rules the forum, nobly In the high debate hath conquered."

Ζεὺς ἀγορᾶιος. The students of Homer may recollect the appeal of Telemachus to the Ithacans in council assembled (Odys. II. 68). Jove, as we have already had occasion to remark, has a peculiar right of presidency over every grand event of human life, and every important social institution; so that, on certain occasions, the Greek Polytheism becomes, for the need, a Monotheism--somewhat after the same fashion as the aristocratic Government of the old Roman Republic had the power of suddenly changing itself, on important occasions, into an absolute monarchy, by the creation of a Dictator.

Note 62 (p. 172). "Gracious-minded sisterhood."

The Furies were called Ευμενίδες, or gracious, to propitiate their stern deity by complimentary language. Suidas says (_voc_. Ευμενίδες) that Athena, in this play, calls the Furies expressly by this name; but the fact is, that it does not occur in the whole play. Either, therefore, the word ἔυφρων, which I have translated "gracious-minded" in the play, must be considered to have given occasion to the remark of the lexicographer (which seems sufficient), or, with HERMANN and SCHOE., we must suppose something to have fallen out of the present speech.

NOTE.

On p. 132, after the _dramatis personæ_, I perceive that I have stated that the scene of this piece changes from Delphi to the _Hill of Mars_, Athens. This is either inaccurate, or, at least, imperfect; for the first change of scene is manifestly (as stated p. 148), to the temple of Athena Pallas, on the Acropolis; and, though the imagination naturally desires that the institution of the Court of the Areopagus should take place on the exact seat of its future labours, yet the construction of the drama by no means necessitates another change of scene, and the allusion to the Hill of Mars in p. 162 is easily explicable on the supposition that it lies directly opposite the Acropolis, and that Pallas points to it with her finger.

NOTES TO PROMETHEUS BOUND

{387}

Note 1 (p. 183). "This Scythian soil, this wild untrodden waste."

"The ancient Greek writers called all the Northern tribes (_i.e._ all who dwelt in the Northern parts of Europe and Asia) generally by the name of Scythians and Celto-Scythians; while some even more ancient than these make a division, calling those beyond the Euxine, Ister, and Adria, Hyperboreans, Sarmatians, and Arimaspi; but those beyond the Caspian Sea, Sacæ and Massagetæ." Strabo, Lib. XI. p. 507.--STAN.

Note 2 (p. 183). "This daring wretch."

λεωργὸν, a difficult word; "evil-doer"--MED. and PROW.; _Bösewicht_--TOELP.; _Freveler_--SCHOE. The other translation of this word--"artificer of man" (Potter)--given in the _Etym._ was very likely an invention of Lexicographers to explain this very passage. But the expounders did not consider that _Æschylus_ through the whole play makes no allusion to this function of the fire-worker. It was, I believe, altogether a recent form of the myth.--See WEISKE. "The precise etymology of the word is uncertain."--LIN.

Note 3 (p. 183). ". . . a kindred god."

"A fellow deity"--MED. But this is not enough. Vulcan, as a smith, and Prometheus were kindred in their divine functions, for which reason they were often confounded in the popular legends, as in the case of the birth of Pallas from the brain of Jove, effected by the axe, some say of Hephaestus, some of Prometheus--APOLLODOR. I. 3-6. EURIPID. Ion. 455; from which passage of the tragedian WELCKER is of opinion that Prometheus, not Hephaestus, must have a place in the pediment of the Parthenon representing the birth of Pallas.--_Class. Museum_, Vol. II. p. 385.

Note 4 (p. 183). "High-counselled son Of right-decreeing Themis."

Not CLYMENE according to the Theogony (V. 508) or ASIA, one of the Oceanides according to Apollodorus (I. 2), which parentage has been adopted by SHELLEY in his _Prometheus Unbound_. That Æschylus in preferring this maternity meant to represent the Titan as suffering in the cause of _Right_ against _Might_, as Welcker will have it (_Trilog_. p. 42), is more than doubtful. One advantage, however, is certainly gained, viz., that Prometheus is thus brought one degree further up the line of ascent in direct progress from the two original divinities of the Theogony--URANUS or HEAVEN, and GEE or the EARTH; for, according to Hesiod, THEMIS is the daughter, CLYMENE only the grand-daughter, of these primeval powers (Theog. 135, 315). Thus, Prometheus is invested with more dignity, and becomes a more worthy rival of Jove.

Note 5 (p. 183). ". . . saviour shall be none."

I entirely agree with SCHOE. that in the indefinite expression--(ο) λωφήσων γὰρ ὀυ πέφυκέ πω any allusion, such as the Scholiast suggests, to {388} HERCULES, the person by whom salvation did at length come, would be in the worst possible taste here, and quite foreign to the tone of the passage.

Note 6 (p. 184). "Jove is not weak that he should bend."

This character of harshness and inexorability belongs as essentially to JOVE as to the FATES. Pallas, in the Iliad, makes the same complaint--

"But my father, harsh and cruel, with no gentle humour raging,
Thwarts my will in all things."
ILIAD VIII. 360.

We must bear in mind that Jove represents three things--(1) that iron firmness of purpose which is so essential to the character of a great ruler; (2) the impetuous violence and resistless power of the heavenly elements when in commotion; (3) the immutability of the laws of Nature.

Note 7 (p. 184). "All things may be, but this To dictate to the gods."

Ἅπαντ ἐπράχθη πλὴν θε(ο)ισι κοιρανεῖν--literally, _all things have been done, save commanding the gods_. I do not know whether there is any philological difficulty in the way of this translation. It certainly agrees perfectly well with the context, and has the advantage of not changing the received text. SCHOE., however, adopting HERM.'s emendation of ἐπαχθῆ translates--

"Last trägt ein jeder, nur der Götter König nicht."
"All have their burdens save the king of the gods."

On the theological sentiment, I would compare that of SENECA--"_In regno nati sumus; Deo parere libertas est_" (_Vit. Beat._ 15)--and that of EURIPIDES, where the captive Trojan queen, finding the king of men, Agamemnon, willing to assist her, but afraid of the opinion of the Greeks, speaks as follows:--

"Ουκἔστι θνητῶν ὃστις ἐστ ἐλέυθερος,
ἢ χρημάτων γαρ δ(ο)υλος ἐστιν ἡ τύχης
η πλῆθος ἀυτὸν πόλεως, ἤ νόμων γρἤφαι
ἔιργουσι χρῆσθαι μὴ κατὰ γνῶμην τρόποις."
HEC. 864.

Note 8 (p. 185). "Thou hast been called In vain the Provident."

This is merely translating PROMETHEUS (from προ before, and μῆτις counsel) into English. These allusions to names are very frequent in Æschylus--so much so as to amount to a _mannerism_; but we who use a language, the heritage of years, a coinage from which the signature has been mostly rubbed off, must bear in mind that originally all words, and especially names, were significant. See the Old Testament everywhere (particularly Gen. c. xxix. and xli., with which compare Homer, Odyssey xix. 407). And, indeed, in all original languages, like Greek or German, which declare their own etymology publicly to the most unlearned, no taunt is more natural and more obvious than that derived from a name. Even in Scotland, a man who is called _Bairnsfather_ will be apt to feel rather awkward if he has no children. "In the oldest Greek legend," says WELCKER (_Tril._ p. 356), "names were frequently invented, in order to fix down the character or main feature of the story"--(so Bunyan in the Pilgrim's Progress)--a true principle, which many German writers abuse, to evaporate all tradition into mere fictitious allegory. But the practice of the Old Testament patriarchs shows that the significancy of a name affords of itself no presumption against its historical reality.

{389}

Note 9 (p. 185).

_Prometheus_. The critics remark with good reason the propriety of the stout-hearted sufferer observing complete silence up to this point. It is natural for pain to find a vent in words, but a proud man will not complain in the presence of his adversary. Compare the similar silence of Cassandra in the Agamemnon; and for reasons equally wise, that of Faust in the Auerbach cellar scene. So true is it that a great poet, like a wise man, is often best known, not by what he says, but by what he does _not_ say--(και τῆς ἂγαν γάρ έστί που σιγῆς βάρος, as Sophocles has it). As to the subject of the beautiful invocation here made by the Titan sufferer, the reader will observe not merely its poetical beauty (to which there is something analogous in Manfred, act I. sc. 2--

"My mother Earth,
And thou fresh-breaking day, and you, ye mountains,
And thou the bright eye of the Universe,")

but also its mythological propriety in the person of the speaker, as in the early times the original elementary theology common to the Greeks with all polytheists, had not been superseded by those often sadly disguised impersonations which are represented by the dynasty of Jove. OCEAN and HYPERION (ὑπερίων--he that walks aloft) are named in the Theogony, along with THEMIS and IAPETUS, as the first generation of gods, directly begotten from Heaven and Earth.--(Theog. 133-4.) In the natural progress of religious opinion, this original cosmical meaning of the Greek gods, though lost by anthropomorphism to the vulgar, was afterwards brought out by the natural philosophers, and by the philosophical poets; of which examples occur everywhere among the later classics. Indeed, the elemental worship seems never to have been altogether exploded, but continued to exist in strange confusion along with the congregation of fictitious persons to which it had given birth. So in Homer, Agamemnon prays--

"Father Jove from Ida swaying, god most glorious and great,
And thou Sun, the all-perceiving and all-hearing power, and ye
RIVERS and EARTH," etc.--Il. III. 277.

Note 10 (p. 185). "The multitudinous laughter."

ἀνήριθμον γέλασμα. I must offer an apology here for myself, Mr. Swayne, and Captain Medwyn, because I find we are in a minority. The Captain, indeed, has paraphrased it a little--

"With long loud laughs, exulting to be free,"

but he retains the laugh, which is the stumbling-block. Swayne has

"Ye ocean waves
That with incessant laughter bound and swell
Countless,"

also a little paraphrased, but giving due prominence to the characteristic idea. E. P. Oxon. has

"Ocean smiling with its countless waves,"

with a reference to Stanley's note, "Refertur ad levem sonum undarum ventis exagitatarum qui etiam aliquantulum _crispant_ maris dorsum quasi amabili quadam γελασιᾳ," in which words we see the origin of POT.'s--

"Ye waves
That o'er the interminable ocean wreathe
Your crisped smiles."

PROW. has--

"_Dimpled in multitudinous smiles._"

And SCHOE.'s--

"_Zahllosses Blinken._"

{390}

And so BLOM. in a note, emphatically--

"_Lenis_ fluctuum agitatio."

But why all this gentleness? Does it agree either with the strength of the poet's genius, or with the desolation of the wild scene around his hero? I at once admit that γελάω is often used in Greek, where, according to our usage, _smile_ would be the word; but in the Old Testament we find the broad strong word _laugh_ often retained in descriptions of nature; and I see not the least reason for walking in satin shoes here.

Note 11 (p. 186). ". . . in a reed concealed it."

νάρθηξ--"still used for this purpose in Cyprus, where the reed still retains the old Greek name"--WELCKER, _Tril._ p. 8, who quotes Walpole's Memoirs relative to Turkey, p. 284, and Tournefort, Letter 6. I recollect at school smoking a bit of bamboo cane for a cigar.

Note 12 (p. 186). ". . . Ah me! ah me! who comes?"

The increased agitation of mind is here expressed in the original by the abandonment of the Iambic verse, and the adoption of the Bacchic--τίς ἀχὼ, etc., which speedily passes into the anapæst, as imitated by my Trochees. Milton was so steeped in Greek, that I think he must have had this passage in his mind when he wrote the lines of Samson Agonistes, v. 110, beginning "_But who are these?_" Altogether, the Samson is, in its general tone and character, quite a sort of Jewish Prometheus.

Note 13 (p. 187). "Daughters of prolific Tethys."

The ancient sea-goddess, sister and wife of Oceanus, daughter of Heaven and Earth. The reader will observe that the mythology of this drama preserves a primeval or, according to our phrase, antediluvian character throughout. The mythic personages are true contemporaries belonging to the most ancient dynasty of the gods. For this reason Ocean appears in a future stage of the play, not _Poseidon_. Tethys, with the other Titans and Titanesses are enumerated by Hesiod, Theog. 132-7, as follows--

"Earth to Uranus wedded bore Ocean deep with whirling currents,
Coeus, Creios, Hyperion, Theia, Rhea, Iapetus,
Themis, Mnemosyne, lovely Tethys, likewise Phœbe golden-crowned,
Then the youngest of them all, deep-designing Kronos."

As for the epithet _prolific_ applied to _Tethys_, the fecundity of fish is a proverb in natural history; but I suppose it is rather the infinite succession of waves on the expanded surface of Ocean that makes his daughters so numerous in the Theogony (362)--

"Thrice ten hundred they are counted delicate-ancled Ocean maids."

Note 14 (p. 187). ". . . the giant trace Of Titan times hath vanished."

Here we have distinctly indicated that contrast between the _old_ and the _new_ gods, which Æschylus makes so prominent, not only in this play, but also in the Furies. The conclusion has been drawn by various scholars that Æschylus was secretly unfavourable to the recognised dynasty of Jove, and that his real allegiance was to these elder gods. But the inference is hasty and unauthorised. His taste for the sublime led him into these primeval ages, as it also did Milton: that is all we can say.

{391}

Note 15 (p. 188). ". . . the new-forged counsels That shall hurl him from his throne."

The new-forged counsels were of Jove's own devising--viz., that he should marry Thetis; of which marriage, if it should take place, the son was destined to usurp his father's throne.--SCHOLIAST.

Note 16 (p. 188). "O, 'tis hard, most hard to reach The heart of Jove!"

Inexorability is a grand characteristic of the gods.

"Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando."--VIRG., ÆN. VI.

And so Homer makes Nestor say of Agamemnon, vainly hoping to appease the wrath of Pallas Athena, by hecatombs--

"Witless in his heart he knew not what dire sufferings he must bear,
For not lightly from their purposed counsel swerve the eternal gods."
ODYS. III. 147.

And of Jove, in particular, Hera says to Themis, in the council of the gods--

"Well thou knowest
How the Olympian's heart is haughty, and his temper how severe."
ILIAD XV. 94.

Note 17 (p. 188). "My mother Themis, not once but oft, and Earth (One shape of various names)."

Æschylus does not and could not confound these two distinct persons, as POT. will have it.--See Eumenides, 2. SCHOE. has stated the whole case very clearly. POT. remarks with great justice, that a multiplicity of names "is a mark of dignity;" it by no means follows, however, that _Themis_, in this passage, is one of those many names which Earth receives. In illustration we may quote a passage from the _Kurma Ouran_ (Kennedy's Researches on Hindoo Mythology; London, 1831; p. 208)--"That," says Vishnu, pointing to Siva, "is the great god of gods, shining in his own refulgence, eternal, devoid of thought, who produced thee (Brahma), and gave to thee the Vedas, and who likewise originated me, and _gave me various names._" Southey, in the roll of celestial _dramatis personæ_ prefixed to the Curse of Kehama, says "that Siva boasts as many as _one thousand and eight names_."

Note 18 (p 189). "Suspicion's a disease that cleaves to tyrants, And they who love most are the first suspected."

"_Nam regibus boni quam mali suspectiores sunt, semperque his aliena virtus formidolosa est._"--Sall. Cat. VII. "In princes fear is stronger than love; therefore it is often more difficult for them to tear themselves from persons whom they hate than to cast off persons whom they love."--RICHTER (Titan).

Note 19 (p. 189). "I only of the gods Thwarted his will."

This is one of the passages which has suggested to many minds a comparison between the mythical tortures of the Caucasus and the real agonies of Calvary. The analogy is just so far; only the Greek imagination never could look on Prometheus as suffering altogether without just cause; he suffered for his own sins. This TOEPEL. p. 71, has well expressed thus--"_Prometheus deos laesit ut homines bearet: Christus homines beavit ut suae, Deique patris obsecundaret voluntati._"

{392}

Note 20 (p. 189). ". . . in cunning torment stretched."

ἀνηλεῶς ἐῤῥύθμισμαι--"_so bin ich zugerichtet_."--PASSOW. A sort of studious malignity is here indicated. So we say allegorically to _trim_ one handsomely, to _dress_ him, when we mean to _punish_. The frequent use of this verb ρυθμίζω is characteristic of the Greeks, than whom no people, as has been frequently remarked, seem to have possessed a nicer sense of the beauty of measure and the propriety of limitation in their poetry and works of art. So Sophocles, Antig. 318, has ρυθμίζειν λύπην.

Note 21 (p. 190). "Blind hopes of good I planted In their dark breasts."

A striking phrase, meaning, however, nothing more, I imagine, according to the use of the Greek writers (and also of the Latins with _caecus_) than _dim_, _indistinct_; neither, indeed, is the phrase foreign to our colloquial English idiom--"The swearing to a _blind_ etcetera they (the Puritans) looked upon as intolerable."--Calamy's Life of Baxter. In the well-known story of Pandora, Hesiod relates that, when the lid of the fatal box was opened, innumerable plagues flew out, only HOPE remained within.--_Works and Days_, 84.

Note 22 (p. 190). "And flame-faced fire is now enjoyed by mortals?"

Lieutenant-Colonel Collins, in his account of New South Wales (London, 1804), mentions that the wild natives produced fire with much difficulty, and preserved it with the greatest care. The original inhabitants of New Holland, and the wild African bushmen described by Moffat, the missionary, are among the lowest specimens of human nature with which we are acquainted. As for Æschylus, it is evident he follows in this whole piece the notion of primitive humanity given in his introductory chapters by Diodorus, and generally received amongst the ancients, viz., that the fathers of our race were the most weak and helpless creatures imaginable, like the famous Egyptian frogs, as it were, only half developed from the primeval slime.

Note 23 (p. 191).

_Enter_ OCEAN. "This sea god enters," says Brunoy, quoted by POT., on "I know not what winged animal--_bizarrerie inexplicable._" Very inexplicable certainly; and yet, as the tragedian expressly calls the animal a _bird_, I do not see why so many translators, both English and German, should insist on making it a _steed_. The bird certainly was a little anomalous, having, as we learn below, four feet (τετρασκελὴς ὀιωνός, v. 395--a _four-footed bira_); but it was a bird for all that, and the air was its element. If the creature must have a name, we must even call it a griffin, or a hippogriff, notwithstanding Welcker's remarks (_Tril._ p. 26). Those who wish to see its physiognomy more minutely described may consult Aeliean. hist, animal. IV. 27, in an apt passage quoted from JACOBS by BOTH. There is an ambiguity in the passage which I have translated--

"Thought instinctive reined the creature,"

some applying γνώμῃ not to the animal, but to the will of the rider. So PROW.--

"Following still
Each impulse of my guiding will."

But for the poetical propriety of my translation I can plead the authority of SOUTHEY--

{393}

"The ship of Heaven instinct with thought displayed
Its living sail, and glides along the sky."
Curse of Kehama, VII. 1.

and of MILTON--

"The chariot of paternal Deity
Instinct with spirit."--VI. 750.

and what is much more conclusive in the present instance, that of Homer, whose τιτυσκόμεναι φρεσὶ νῆες (Odyssey VIII. 556), or self-piloted ships of the Phœnicians, belong clearly to the same mythical family as the self-reined griffin of old Ocean.

Note 24 (p. 191). "From my distant caves cerulean."

_i.e._, in the far West, extreme Atlantic, or "ends of the earth," according to the Homeric phrase.

"To the ends I make my journey of the many-nurturing Earth,
There where Ocean, sire of gods, and ancient mother Tethys dwells,
They who nursed me in their palace, and my infant strength sustained,"

says _Hera_ in the Iliad (XIV. 200).

Note 25 (p. 192). "Enough my brother Atlas' miseries grieve me."

The reader will see by referring to the old editions and to POT. that the following description of the miseries of Atlas and Typhon is, in the MS., given to Ocean; and, it must be confessed, there seems a peculiar dramatic propriety in making the old sea god hold up the fate of the Cilician Blaster as a warning to the son of Iapetus, whom he saw embarked in a similar career of hopeless rebellion against the Thunderer. But philological considerations, well stated by SCHOE., have weighed with that editor, as with his predecessors BLOM. and WELL., whose authority and arguments I am for the present willing to follow, though not without some lingering doubts. The alteration of the text originally proceeded from Elmsley, and the original order of the dialogue is stoutly defended by TOEPEL. in his notes.

Note 26 (p. 192) "The pillars of Heaven and Earth upon his shoulders."

If the reader is a curious person, he will ask how Atlas when standing on the Earth--in the extreme west of the Earth--could bear the pillars of _Heaven_ and _Earth?_ and the question will be a very proper one; for the fact is that, as Hesiod distinctly states the case, he bore the pillars of _Heaven only_ (Theog. 517). This is, indeed, the only possible idea that could be admitted into a mythology which proceeded on the old principle that the Earth was a flat solid platform in the centre of the Universe, round which the celestial pole (πόλος) wheeled. The phrase "_pillars of Heaven and Earth_" is, therefore, to a certain extent an improper one; for the Earth, being the stable base of all things, required no pillars to support it. In one sense it is true that the pillars of Atlas are the pillars of Heaven and Earth, viz., in so far as they have Heaven at one end and Earth at the other, which is what Homer means when he says (Odyssey I. 54), that these pillars "γᾶιάν τε καὶ ὀυρανὸν ἀμφὶς ἔχουσιν." And that this is the idea of Æschylus, also, is plain, both from the present passage, and from the Epode of the next following Chorus, where, unless we force in one conjecture of Schütz, or another of Hermann into the text, there is no mention of anything but the _celestial pole_. In all this I but express in my own words, {394} and with a very decided conviction, the substance of the admirable note in SCHOE. to v. 426, WELL.

Note 27 (p. 192). ". . . Typhon."

The idea of Typhon is that of a strong windy power, δεινόν ὑβριστήν τ ἄνεμον, according to the express statement of Hesiod (Theog. 307). The Greek word _Typhon_, with which our _typhus fever_ is identical, expresses the state of being _swollen_ or _blown up_; with this, the other idea of _heat_, which belongs also to Typhon (Sallust, περὶ θεῶν, c. 4), is naturally connected. According to the elementary or physical system of mythology, therefore, Typhon is neither more nor less than a _simoom_ or _hot wind_.

Note 28 (p. 193). "Knowest thou not this, Prometheus, that mild words Are medicines of fierce wrath?"

The reader may like to see Cicero's version of these four lines--

"_Oceanus_. Atqui Prometheu te hoc, tenere existimo
Mederi posse rationem iracundiæ."
"_Prom_. Si quidem qui tempestivam medicinam admovens
Non ad gravescens vulnus illidat manus."
TUSC. Q., III. 31.

Note 29 (p. 194). ". . . holy Asia weep For thee, Prometheus."

Here, and in the epithet of the rivers in the Epode (compare Homer's Odyssey X. 351, ἱερων ποταμων, and _Nägelsbach_, Homer, Theologie, p. 85), the original word is ἁγνος, a term to be particularly noted, both in the heathen writers and in the Old Testament, as denoting that religious purity in connection with external objects and outward ceremonies which the Christian sentiment confines exclusively to the moral state of the soul. I have thought it important, in all cases, to retain the Greek phrase, and not by modernizing to dilute it. The religious sentiment in connection with external nature is what the moderns generally do not understand, and least of all the English, whose piety does not readily exhibit itself beyond the precincts of the church porch. The Germans, in this regard, have a much more profound sympathy with the Greek mind.

Note 30 (p. 194). ". . . Araby's wandering warriors weep For thee, Prometheus."

Arabia certainly comes in, to a modern ear, not a little strangely here, between the Sea of Azof and the Caucasus; but the Greeks, we must remember, were a people whose notions of _barbarian_ geography (as they would call it) were anything but distinct; and, in this play, the poet seems wisely to court vagueness in these matters rather than to study accuracy.

Note 31 (p 195). "For, soothly, having eyes to see, they saw not."

With regard to the origin of the human race there are two principal opinions, which have in all times prevailed. One is, that man was originally created perfect, or in a state of dignity far transcending what he now exhibits; that the state in which the earliest historical records present him is a state of declension and aberration from the primeval source; and that the {395} whole progress of what is called civilization is only a series of attempts, for the most part sufficiently clumsy, and always painful, whereby we endeavour to reinstate ourselves in our lost position. This philosophy of history--for so it may most fitly be called--is that which has always been received in the general Christian world; and, indeed, it seems to flow necessarily from the reception of the Mosaic records, not merely as authentic Hebrew documents, but as veritable cosmogony and primeval history--as containing a historical exposition of the creation of the world, and the early history of man. The other doctrine is, that man was originally created in a condition extremely feeble and imperfect; very little removed from vegetable dulness and brutish stupidity; and that he gradually raised himself by slow steps to the exercise of the higher moral and intellectual faculties, by virtue of which he claims successful mastery over the brute, and affinity with the angel. This doctrine was very common, I think I may safely say the current and generally received doctrine, among the educated Greeks and Romans; though the poets certainly did not omit, as they so often do, to contradict themselves by their famous tradition of a golden age, which it was their delight to trick out and embellish. In modern times, this theory of _progressive development_, as it may be called, has, as might have been expected, found little favour, except with philosophers of the French school; and those who have broached it in this country latterly have met with a most hot reception from scientific men, principally, we may presume, from the general conviction that such ideas go directly to undermine the authority of the Mosaic record. It has been thought, also, that there is something debasing and contrary to the dignity of human nature in the supposition that the great-grandfather of the primeval father of our race may have been a monkey, or not far removed from that species; but, however this be, with regard to ÆSCHYLUS, it is plain he did not find it inconsistent with the loftiest views of human duty and destiny to adopt the then commonly received theory of a gradual development; and, in illustration, I cannot do better than translate a few sentences from DIODORUS, where the same doctrine is stated in prose: "Men, as originally generated, lived in a confused and brutish condition, preserving existence by feeding on herbs and fruits that grew spontaneously. * * * Their speech was quite indistinct and confused, but by degrees they invented articulate speech. * * * They lived without any of the comforts and conveniences of life, without clothing, without habitations, _without fire_ (Prometheus!), and without cooked victuals; and not knowing to lay up stores for future need, great numbers of them died during the winter from the effects of cold and starvation. By which sad experience taught, they learned to lodge themselves in caves, and laid up stores there. By-and-by, they discovered fire and other things pertaining to a comfortable existence. The arts were then invented, and man became in every respect such as a highly-gifted animal might well be, having hands and speech, and a devising mind ever present to work out his purposes." Thus far the Sicilian (I. 8); and the intelligent reader need not be informed that, to a certain extent, many obvious and patent facts seemed to give a high probability to his doctrine. "Dwellers in caves," for instance, or "troglodytes," were well known to the ancients, and the modern reader will find a historical account of them in STRABO, and other obvious places. The HORITES (Gen. xiv. 6) were so called from the Hebrew word HOR, a cave--(see Gesenius and Jahn, I. 2-26). But it is needless to accumulate learned references in a matter patent to the most modern observation.--MOFFAT's "African Missions" will supply instances of human beings in a state as degraded as anything here described by the poet; and with {396} regard to the aboriginal Australians, I have preserved in my notes the following passage from COLLINS: "The Australians dwell in miserable huts of bark, all huddled together promiscuously (ἔφυρον εικῆ πάντα!) amid much smoke and dirt. _Some also live in caves._" I do by no means assert, however, that these creatures are remnants of primeval humanity, according to the development theory; I only say they afford that theory a historic analogy; while, on the other hand, they are equally consistent with the commonly received Christian doctrine, as man is a creature who degenerates from excellence much more readily in all circumstances than he attains to it. These Australians and Africans may be mere imbecile stragglers who have been dropt from the great army of humanity in its march.

Note 32 (p. 195). "Numbers, too, I taught them (a most choice device)."

"The Pythagorean tenets of Æschylus here display themselves. It was one of the doctrines attributed to this mysterious sect that they professed to find in numbers, and their combinations, the primordial types of everything cognisable by the mind, whether of a physical or moral nature. They even spoke of the soul as a number."--PROW. But, apart from all Pythagorean notions, we may safely say--from observation of travellers indeed certainly affirm--that there is nothing in which the civilized man so remarkably distinguishes himself from the savage, as in the power to grasp and handle relations of number. The special reference to Pythagoras in this passage is, I perceive, decidedly rejected by SCHOE.; BERGK. and HAUPT., according to his statement, admitting it. Of course, such a reference in the mind of the poet can never be _proved_; only it does no harm to suppose it.

Note 33 (p. 196). ". . . the fire-faced signs."

(φλογωπὰ σήματα). PROWETT refers this to _lightning_; but surely, in the present connection, the obvious reference is to the sacrificial flame, from which, as from most parts of the sacrificial ceremony, omens were wont to be taken. When the flame burned bright it was a good omen; when with a smoky and troublous flame, the omen was bad. See a well-known description of this in Sophocles' Antigone, from the mouth of the blind old diviner Tiresias, when he first enters the stage, v. 1005; and another curious passage in Euripides' Phœniss. 1261.

Note 34 (p. 196). "And who is lord of strong Necessity?"

Necessity (Ἀνάγκη), a favourite power to which reference is made by the Greek dramatists, is merely an impersonation of the fact patent to all, that the world is governed by a system of strict and inexorable law, from the operation of which no man can escape. That the gods themselves are subject to this Ἀνάγκη. is a method of expression not seldom used by Heathen writers; but that they had any distinct idea, or fixed theological notion of NECESSITY or FATE, as a power separate from and superior to the gods I see no reason to believe.--See my observations on the Homeric μοῖρα in _Clas. Mus._, No. XXVI., p. 437. And in the same way that Homer talks of the _fate from the gods_, so the tragedians talk of _necessity from or imposed by the gods_--τὰς γὰρ ἐκ θεῶν ἀνάγκας θνητον ὀντα δεῖ φέρειν. With regard to Æschylus, certainly one must beware of drawing any hasty inference with regard to his theological creed from this insulated passage. For here the poet adopts the notion of the strict subjection of Jove to an external FATE, {397} principally, one may suppose, from dramatic propriety; it suits the person and the occasion. Otherwise, the Æschylean theology is very favourable to the absolute supremacy of Jove; and, accordingly, in the Eumenides, those very Furies, who are here called his superiors, though they dispute with Apollo, are careful not to be provoked into a single expression which shall seem to throw a doubt on the infallibility of "the Father." For the rest, the Fates and Furies, both here and in the Eumenides, are aptly coupled, and, in signification, indeed, are identical; because a man's _fate_ in this world can never be separated from his _conduct_, nor his conduct from his _conscience_, of which the Furies are the impersonation.

Note 35 (p. 196). "No more than others Jove can 'scape his doom."

The idea that the Supreme Ruler of the Universe can ever be dethroned is foreign to every closely reasoned system of monotheism; but in polytheistic systems it is not unnatural (for gods who had a beginning may have an end); and in the Hindoo theology receives an especial prominence. Southey accordingly makes Indra, the Hindoo Jove, say--

"A stronger hand
May wrest my sceptre, and unparadise
The Swerga."--Curse of Kehama, VII.

We must bear in mind, however, that it is not Æschylus in the present passage, but Prometheus who says this.

Note 36 (p. 197) "Plant his high will against my weak opinion!"

The original of these words, "μηδάμ θ(ε)ιτ᾽ εμᾀ γνώμᾶ κράτος ἀντίπαλον Ζεὺς," has been otherwise translated "_Minime Jupiter indat animo meo vim rebellem;_" but, apart altogether from theological considerations, I entirely agree with SCHOE. that this rendering puts a force upon the word κράτος, which is by no means called for, and which it will not easily bear.

Note 37 (p. 197) "Won by rich gifts didst lead."