Three Notes on Sophocles
Author(s): E. L. Harrison
Source: The Classical Review, New Series, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Mar., 1962), pp. 13-15
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
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THE CLASSICAL REVIEW
13
produces asyndeton and not asyndeton contrast. If one can say sineconstantia,sineauctoritate
(Ann.iii. 26)
(Hist. i. 9) or sinepoenaautcoercitionibus
or sineprobro,scelere(ibid.), might one not also on occasion say quodnon
subuexittransposuit?
The text should then probably be altered only by the addition of ore,and the
meaning will be 'the fleet was stationed at the mouth of the Ems, on the left
bank. Germanicusmade a mistake in not taking upstream and shipping across
the river the soldiers who were to proceed to the right: this caused a delay of
several days while bridges were being built.'
iv. 38. 3: socios ciues et deos et deos ipsos.
The obvious correctionof M is not, with M2, to emend to deasipsas,but with
Pichena to remove the doublet and read socios ciues et deos ipsos. Instead,
Koestermann (ed. 3) has conjectured deos ipsos et deas, which wrecks the
rhetorical climax. To argue, on the strength of one other example (Ann.vi. 6),
that Tiberius had a special fondness for di et deaeis risky; further, that other
example is di deaeque(the commoner form), it has no ipse and it is not the
climax of a series. A far more useful parallel is Ann.iii. 6o maiorum... sociorum
... regum... ipsorumque
numinum,which supports Pichena's correction.
vi. 49. 2: genua patris.
M's obvious error has usually been corrected, after Rhenanus, to patrum.
But Lenchantin, followed by Koestermann, suggestspatribus.The dative is no
doubt possible but, on the evidence of usage, unlikely. Tacitus uses aduolui
genua (Hist. iv. 81; Ann. i. 13; xv. 71) or aduolui pedibus (Ann. i. 23; ibid.
32), both with a possessive genitive. Other writers too employ either the
genitive (e.g. Livy viii. 37. 9) or a possessiveadjective (e.g. Pliny, Epp.ix. 21. 1),
or dispense altogether with the possessive (e.g. Livy xxxiv. 40. 2). Servius on
Virgil, Aen. i. 307, quotes from Sallust genuapatrum aduoluuntur.It seems more
likely that Tacitus here followed his own and other writers' normal practice
(especially in a phrase which echoed his model Sallust), than that he introduced an isolated example of the dative, to produce a constructionnot otherwise found until the fourth century A.D.
RoyalHollowayCollege,London
THREE
N. P. MILLER
NOTES
ON SOPHOCLES
(I) Antigone,26 ff.
-r3v8' OAlmw
Ouavowva
IoAvvdlKOVS
VrKVV
unburied corpse by a passer-by who wishes to
safeguard himself from pollution (as in
Horace, Odes I. 28), and burial by a survivda7OtTalckanov
KKEK7jPVX~a&T' 1L77
ing relative, who wishes to safeguard the
va,
7rdaC
KWOKJoal r
dead man from the desecration which was
KaA,'#at
8
,1478e
d
iv
iKAaVwov,
Taqov,o'wvoCeyAvKOv
always in Greek eyes such an abomination.
OacravpdvEclopcat rpd3 Xaiptvflopasg.
The burial on which the play centres belongs
BEFORE
we consider these lines something to the second category, not to the first. That
should be said of Jebb's treatmentof Poly- is clear throughout; and although Antigone's
nices' burial. It is a weakness of his inter- original purpose of removing the corpse is
defeated by Ismene's refusal to help (43 ff.),
pretation of the play that he confuses two
distinct aspects of ancient burial-practice:
she nevertheless does succeed in covering the
viz. the symbolical sprinkling of earth on an corpse sufficiently to hide it from the view
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THE CLASSICAL
REVIEW
14
of birds and dogs' (255, 257-8, and cf. 409).
the
other we have Antigone herself, bitterly
on
Naturally, when the guard finds the corpse rejecting anything short of active co-operastill in situ and not completely interred, he
tion in the task she is determined to fulfil.
thinks at once in terms of symbolical burial
The bitterness reaches its climax at 86. She
throws Ismene's otCot back at her, and tells
(256), but he is mistaken, and we should
beware of making too much of what he says her, scornfully, to reveal the secret. But she
here. Jebb's difficulty at line 429 is thus surely does not add (pace Campbell,
Murray, Watling, etc.) 'you will be much
imaginary; and so is the alleged 'dramatic
blemish' after Creon relents (p. xix ofJebb's
more hateful to me if you do not' (which
introduction). For however anxious the gives us a rather silly exaggeration where
we expect bitter sarcasm), but rather 'after
spectators may be for Antigone to be saved,
it is also a matter of dire urgency that Polyall, you have your popularity to think about'
nices' body should be rescued from the dogs -i.e. 7rac not e•o~ois understood with xO'lowv,
and birds which are already lacerating it and Antigone is hitting at the sentiment of
78-79 o 8E IPlaIroA&cwv pav qvv &Iztxavos.
(xox6 ff., cf. 1198), and properly interred.
Everything does not depend exclusively on This goes well with what follows, though
here again the traditional interpretation
Creon's being in time to save Antigone
(p. xviii). This said, we can now perhaps see seems to me to be questionable. There are
two objections to 'thou hast a hot heart for
more clearly what 29-30 mean. There have
been many suggestions, including emendachilling deeds' (Jebb, etc.). (a) There is a
tion of Elaopckar
to elaop~ciat: and Campbell,
slight awkwardness about the way in which
this anticipates the reference to the deed at
after suggesting two possibilities in his commentary, introduces yet a third in his transla- 1. go, making Ismene describe it as 'chilling'
and 'impossible' in almost the same breath.
tion of the play. In the last he rightly (I
believe) sees that there is a hyperbaton, with
(b) More particularly: Antigone's immediate rejoinder ('I know I please those I
fopa-c defining O~qaavpdvand softening the
most need to please') surely indicates some
boldness of the image, and rpdrXdptvqualireference here to her displeasing someone
fying elcop.atk. But 'that eye him greedily'
seems to me to miss the point. The edict for- whom she considers not to belong to this
bids the concealment of the body: it is surely category. I would suggest then that the exto be left 'unwept, unburied, a sweet store of treme bitterness of 86-87 (as now interfood for birds that can look upon it as they preted) leads Ismene to reply: 'You have
please'. Their view as they fly over must be a heart hotly bent on treating me coldly.'
left unrestricted, and desecration will ineviAntigone's reply then makes good sense.
tably follow.
(2) Antigone,82 ff.
la. OL1oc, aAawr'vvWErEpaEOLKa
d
(oV.
Av. p '7
ip
~dV dpOovrd'rp.ov.
er"rvaov
'tpordo•-po
obv
JAA'
ye 70o70
Io.
Iro LEV
trpopErvvaO,
70opyoP,
KpUf
p,
KEVOC,
rv S' a' gw
Yc*.
Av. opOLs,KaTaaa. 7roAAOv
XOiwveal7
~v p~ rraaL
7(MTE.
atycta', dTL VXPOLFt Kap&Gav
la. 0EpPwyV
K•)p6V.l XEL.
Av.
JAA' otS'
apiJKovc7
OlS pLALc'
Setv /LE
XP7iOn the one side we have Ismene, trying hard
to humour her sister, but unwilling to support her in her plan to bury Polynices; and
S. M. Adams (Sophoclesthe Playwright,
Toronto 1957, 49 ff., cf. C.R. xlv [ 931],
suggests that Polynices' burial was
Ilo-I•)
not
Antigone's work, but the result of a
previous dust-storm similar to that described
at 417 ff. But if this is so, it is difficult to see
why, when the dust-storm recurs in the
same area, it fails to cover the corpse once
more. Moreover the language of 422 ff.
seems against this. It is true enough that
(3) 0."T.687-8.
Ot.
pq
T7
rooV
t
LV'
n"KEL,
dya0os
Av yVCLrL)v av67p,
Kal KaTra/flVdvw
v KEap;
raptLPE
'Honest man as you are' (Campbell, followed by most translators since) for d"ya0sgov
yvwpqYvvqp is surely wrong. Oedipus' disgust with the chorus is, for the time being,
complete (contrast 1. 700 with 671-2); and
Murray's scornful 'thou wise counsellor' is
right. (For the chorus's pretensions in this
respect, and a parallel use of yvc6'p, cf. i o86
g Ep Kat Kara yvw;1av
f.: EL7ep Eyw'pLdaVTL
... .) More should be made, too, of
Sp•s
dpqs tv' 7•KEs; Jebb comments: 'dpa v"
77KEL9 conveys indignant reproach: a grave
'Neither Antigone nor any other human
being could accomplish such a burial as the
guard describes' at 249 ff. (Adams, p. 47);
but the guard of course has good reason to
invest the event with an aura of the supernatural, since this will remove any blameworthiness from himself and his colleagues.
It is part of his policy of 'fencing himself
round against blame' (1. 241).
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THE
CLASSICAL
charge has been laid against your king; instead of meeting it with denial, you are led,
by your sympathy with Creon, to imply that
it cannot be directly met, and must be
hushed up.' (Cf. also Campbell, Sheppard,
ad loc.) But Oedipus is surely not primarily
concerned here with the rights or wrongs of
the case, or with the blameworthiness of the
chorus; and to make his outburst simply a
comment on what has just been said misses
the point and impairs the dramatic quality
of the immediate situation. Uppermost in
Oedipus' mind is the impending threat to
his own person (642-3, 658-9, 669-70). And
now that Creon, his would-be destroyer (as
he believes), has been allowed to depart, he
remains sullenly silent, listening to the
THUCYDIDES
REVIEW
15
chorusand Iocasta as they gossipabout the
quarreljust ended,and ponderingon the full
implicationsof Creon's departure.Finally,
when the chorus (who were responsiblefor
it) piously deliver themselvesof their 'let
sleeping dogs lie' pronouncement,he can
containhimselfno longer: 'Do you see what
you have come to with your policy of
assuagingand blunting my anger?' Creon
is no longer under my surveillance: even
now, no doubt, he is on his way to join that
rascally seer and take his plot against my
persona step farther.... Such,surely,is the
implication,and the chorus' reply (689 f.)
is in keepingwith it.
Ontario E. L. HARRISON
Queen'sUniversity,
i. 137.2
THEMISTOCLES' flight on a merchant ship
from Pydna to Ephesus was interrupted by a
storm, which drove the vessel within reach
of the Athenian squadron besieging Naxos.
Because of the chronological difficulties
created by this passage,' some scholars have
preferred to read droosfor Ndeos.2 Plutarch
(Them. 25. 2) quotes this passage of Thucydides closely and one good manuscript of
Plutarch gives this variant. Abandoning for
the moment the question of what Plutarch
may or may not have found in his text of
Thucydides, let us concentrate on the fact
itself: was Themistocles forced off course to
Naxos, or Thasos?
There is a grave objection to Thasos that
becomes immediately apparent to anyone
glancing at a map of the Aegean. The route
from Pydna to Ephesus is almost due southeast through the Sporades, across the Aegean
to the southern cape of Chios, from where it
is a short coasting voyage to Ephesus. It
would take a southerly wind blowing at gale
force for a considerable length of time3 to
drive a vessel off this course to Thasos, which
lies approximately one hundred nautical
miles to the north. The probability of such
an occurrence is extremely low.
The prevailing northerlies, or 'etesian'
winds, are a fact of life in the Aegean from
March to November, and have been duly
noticed as such by both ancient and modern
commentators.4 The storms that wrecked two
Persian fleets both rose suddenly in the north
(Hdt. vi. 44, vii. 188); they were probably
the ecnephiaewell known in the Aegean:
sudden northerly squalls (Arist. Meteor.
365aI-6). There are variations, of course,
such as thunder squalls,5 or light, southerly
evening winds,6 but these are local in nature,
and of short duration.
Now, as every mariner knows, the moment
a categorical statement is made about the
wind, it is apt to respond with vicious perversity; as a matter of fact, Greek sailors
whom I questioned in 1957 in another connexion could remember quite fierce southerlies in the central Aegean in summer,
although they admitted they were rare.
Given, then, that Themistocles' ship was
A good survey of the problems in A. W.
Gomme, Commentaryon Thucydides,i. 39440o.
2 Most recently, W. G. Forrest, 'Themistokles and Argos', C.Q.x (1960), 241. Forrest cites R. Flacelibre, R.E.A. Iv (1953),
5-28, as supporting this position. Flacelibre,
however, never suggests an emendation of
Thucydides; only of the historian's information as quoted by Plutarch: loc. cit., pp. 7-8.
Cf. Gomme, Commentary,
pp. 398-9.
3 Even after reaching shelter the ship had
to lie at anchor a day and a night: Thuc. i.
137. 2.
4 e.g. Arist. Meteor. 364a,5, De Mundo
395a2; Theophrastus, De Ventisi I. See other
references and discussion by Rehm, 'Etesiai',
R.E. vi (1907), 713-17; in general, 0. Maull,
GriechischeMittelmeergebiet,pp. 21-23; M.
Cary, Geogr. Backgroundof Greekand Roman
History,pp. 45-46.
s Diod. xx. 88. 7 mentions a notosecnephias;
cf. Hdt. viii. 12: wrecks were driven north
from Artemisium to Aphetae.
6 Such as the onshore evening breeze that
blows into the Thermaic Gulf: S. Casson,
Macedonia, Thraceand Illyria, pp. 99-Ioo.
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