AESCHYLUS, FRAGMENTS 155 - 272

AESCHYLUS FRAGMENTS 155 - 272, TRANSLATED WITH NOTES BY HERBERT WEIR SMYTH

FRAGMENTS OF UNCERTAIN PLAYS

Under each Fragment are added ancient or modern conjectures as to its source.

FRAGMENT 155

Aristophanes, Frogs 1291. Ascribed to Aeschylus because ll. 1264-1288 contain quotations from him.

Giving him (?) as booty to the eager hounds that range the air.

Agamemnôn Scholiast, Memnôn Bergk, Sphinx Fritzche, Argeioi Hartung, Myrmidones or Phryges Rogers.
The “eager hounds” are eagles or vultures. Who or what is their booty is unknown.

FRAGMENT 156

Aelian, On Animals xii. 8, Zenobius, Proverbs v. 79, Suidas, Lexicon s.v. pyraustou moron.

Verily I do fear the stupid death of the moth.

Promêtheus purkaeus Bothe, Semelê ê Hydrophoroi Hartung.
pyraustou moros was a proverbial expression for the brevity of life (Eustathius on Iliad 1304. 8, etc.).

FRAGMENT 157

Ammonius, On Words of like Form but different Meaning 59 (Valckenaer).

Thou criest aloud, thou who art but a spectator of such a deed as this.

Hypsipylê Valckenaer, Salaminiai Hartung.

FRAGMENT 157A

Bekker, Anecdota Graeca 349. 7.

She waileth the nightingale’s lament.

Compare Agam. 1146.

FRAGMENT 158

Cramer, Anecdota Graeca Oxoniensia i. 119. 12.

For all Troy hath beheld by reason of Hector’s fate

Nêreides, or a connected play, Welcker, Phryges Hermann.

FRAGMENT 159

Cramer, Anecdota Graeca Oxoniensia ii. 414. 13.

He bellowed like a bull whose throat has just been cut.

Thrêssai Hartung.

FRAGMENT 160

Cramer, Anecdota Graeca Oxoniensia iv. 315. 28.

Neither am I without experience of this manner of address.

FRAGMENT 161

Anonymous, On the Swelling of the Nile, quoted from cod. Laurentianus lvi. 1 (F) by H. Stephanus in Appendix ad Aristotelis et Theophrasti scripta quadam, and inserted in Parisinus C in the Epitome of the second book of Athenaeus, Deipnosophists (Dindorf i. 165); cp. Aristeides, Or. 48, On Egypt (vol. ii. 443, 460).

Knowing full well, I can laud the race of the Aethiopian land, where seven-channelled Nile rolleth its refreshing tide, fed by abundant, wind-born rain, and therein the fire-eyed sun, beaming forth upon the earth, melteth the snow amid the rocks; and all luxuriant Egypt, filled with the sacred flood, maketh to spring up Demeter’s life-giving grain.

Memnôn Butler, Psychostasia Welcker.

FRAGMENT 162

Anonymous in Orelli, Opuscula Graecorum veterum sententiosa et moralia ii. 222, Stobaeus, Anthology iii. 3. 13 (Hense iii. 195), Scholiast on Iliad B 114, Eustathius on Iliad 188. 43, 480. 43.

From righteous deception God standeth not aloof.

Danaïdes Hermann, Aigyptioi Hartung, Thalamopoioi Oberdick.

FRAGMENT 163

Anonymous in Orelli (as under Frag. 162).

But times there are when God honoureth the season for untruth.

Danaïdes Hermann, Philoktêtês Hartung, Thalamopoioi Wecklein.

FRAGMENT 164

Aristeides, In Defence of the Four Statesmen 46 (vol. ii. 379).

Nor companion in arms, nor neighbour, let him be to me!

Argô Wagner, Oidipous Hartung, Kabeiroi Bergk.

FRAGMENT 165

Aristotle, Natural History ix. 49. p. 633 a20; cp. Pliny, Natural History x. 86 (44).

This hoopoe, spectator of his own distress, hath Zeus bedecked in various hue and showed him forth a bird courageous in his full armour, tenanting the rocks. With the new-come spring he will ply the pinion of the white-feathered hawk – for he will display two forms from a single egg, his offspring’s and his own –; but when the grain is threshed in early harvest0time, parti-coloured wing will direct his course to this side or that. But ever quitting these haunts in loathing he will seek a new home amid the solitary woods and hills.

Now generally referred, with Welcker, to the Têreus of Sophocles (Frag. 581 Jebb-Pearson); Krêssai Hartung.
When Procne had served to Tereus the flesh of their son Itys in revenge for his violation of her sister Philomela, Tereus pursued them with an axe; and when the sisters were overtaken, the gods in pity turned Procne into a nightingale and Philomela into a swallow. Tereus became a hoopoe, or a hawk, according to a variant version of the legend. The poet seems to have assimilated the two legends by making the young hoopoe resemble a hawk.
Before speaking of the hoopoe’s change in colour and appearance, Aristotle remarks that the cuckoo changes its colour. “On the zoological side,” says D’Arcy Thompson, “the myth is based on the similarity of note in the hoopoe and cuckoo, and on the hawk-like appearance of the latter bird.” In l. 1 the epops is called epoptês “spectator” by word-play; and similarly Tereus was “the watcher” (têreô).

FRAGMENT 166

Aristotle, Rhetoric ii. 10. p. 1388 a7 with Scholiast.

For kinsfolk know well to envy too.

FRAGMENTS 167

Athenaeus, Deipnosophists vii. 66. p. 303c, Plutarch, On the Craftiness of Animals 29. 979E, Aelian, On Animals ix. 42, Scholiast on Oppian, On Fishing iv. 504, Eustathius on Iliad 994. 52.

Squinting his left eye, like a tunny-fish

Kêrykes Droysen.

FRAGMENT 169

Athenaeus, Deipnosophists ix. 17. p. 375E.

But this pig – and a well-fatted pig it is – I will place within the crackling oven. For what daintier dish could a man get than this?

Kirkê E. A. J. Ahrens, Promêtheus saturikos Hartung.

FRAGMENT 170

Athenaeus, Deipnosophists ix. 17. p. 375E; cp. Eustathius on Iliad, 1286. 21.

White, of course, and rarely singed, the pig. Boil him and don’t be troubled by the sire.

Kêrykes E. A. J. Ahrens, Promêtheus satyrikos Hartung.

FRAGMENT 171

Athenaeus, Deipnosophists ix. 17. p. 375E.

But having killed yon pig from the same sow, the sow that had worked me much havoc in the house, pushing and turning everything upside down pell-mell

Kêrykes E. A. J. Ahrens, Promêtheus satyrikos Hartung.

FRAGMENT 172

Athenaeus, Deipnosophists xi. 80. p. 491A; cp. Scholiast A on Iliad S 486, Eustathius on Odyssey 1713. 4.

And they who bear the name of Atlas’ daughters seven oft bewailed their sire’s supremest labour of sustaining heaven, where as wingless Peleiades they have the form of phantoms of the night.

Hêliades Butler, Promêtheus satyrikos Hartung.
The daughters of Atlas and Pleione, transformed by Zeus into the constellation of the Pleiades, were often regarded as doves (peleiades) by poetic fancy and popular mythology. The epithet “wingless” is corrective, because the maidens are not real birds.

FRAGMENT 173

Athenaeus, Deipnosophists xii. 37. p. 528C; cp. Eustathius on Iliad 1292. 53.

And luxurious locks, like those of delicate maidens; wherefore they approved the name Curetes for the folk.

The Kourêtes in question were the earliest inhabitants of Pleuron in Aetolia (cp. Iliad I 529; kourêtes in T 193 are “youths,” kouroi). That the Greeks were hopelessly confused as to the meaning of the name is clear from the lengthy discussion in Strabo, Geography x. 3. 6-8, p. 466-467. Apart from other explanations, the word was derived now from koura, properly “clipping” of the hair; now from kouros “boy” or kourê “girl” (the Homeric forms of koros and korê), and with reference either to hair or to dress. The historian Phylarchus (third century B.C.) declares that Aeschylus here says that the Kourêtes got their name from their luxury; and the Fragment certainly implies that, like girls, they wore their hair long (cp. Scholiast on I 529 para to mê keirethai tas komas, Scholiast L ê epei komas koran eichon). But in Agathon’s Thyestes certain suitors say that they wore their hair long (komôntes) until they had been rejected by their lady-love, when they cut off their locks, “the witnesses of their luxury,” and by reason of their shorn hair (kourimos thrix) gained the glory of being Kourêtes. Archemachus of Euboea (see Strabo) had the notion that the Kourêtes, before they removed to Aetolia, wore their hair long behind, but cut it short in front in order that their enemies might not seize them there. Strabo himself attaches no little probability to the opinion of those who sought to reconcile the different accounts of the name; for he says that the application of art to the hair consists in attending to its growth and koura, and that both are the peculiar care of korai and koroi. To render koura by “hair-dressing,” “coiffure,” with the implication that the reference is to long hair, is opposed to the etymology (from keirô “cut”). Relationship between koura and kourê, korê, accepted by Curtius, is altogether improbable.
Krêssai Butler, Êdônoi Hartung.

FRAGMENT 174

Athenaeus, Deipnosophists xiv. 32. p. 632C.

Or the master of his craft was present, deftly striking the lyre.

Athenaeus says that sophists was anciently used of musicians.

FRAGMENT 175

Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies iv. 7. p. 586.

To him that toileth God oweth glory, child of his toil.

Kares ê Eurôpê Hartung.

FRAGMENT 176

Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies v. 5. p. 661.

But I too have a seal, as a guard, upon my lips.

“My lips were lock’d upon me,” Beaumont and Fletcher.
Epigonoi Hartung.

FRAGMENT 177

Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies vi. 2. p. 739; l. 1 Pseudo-Diogenianus Proverbs vii. 35 (without naming the poet); with dei for chrê, attributed to Sophocles (Frag. 934 Jebb-Pearson) by Stobaeus, Anthology iii. 39. 14 (Hense iii. 724).

He who is truly happy should bide at home [and he who fares ill, he too should bide at home]

L1. 1-2 Danaïdes Hermann, l. 1 Hêliades Hartung.
Nauck regards l. 2 as a tag by a comic poet: “And he who fares ill? He too should bide at home.” The comic poets were fond of describing “the truly happy man.”

FRAGMENT 178

Etymologicum Magnum 149. 57.

So much, Herald, do thou set forth from me point by point.

Hiketides l. 953A Burges, Eleusinioi Hartung, Kêrykes Droysen, Thalamopoioi Wecklein.

FRAGMENT 179

Etymologicum Genuinum s.v. asalês (Etymologicum Magnum 151. 49 s.v. asalês mania).

Or reckless madness from the gods.

Neaniskoi Hartung.

FRAGMENT 180

Etymologicum Magnum 490. 12, Etymologicum Gudianum 298. 9, Cramer, Anecdota Graeca Oxoniensia ii. 456. 6, Suidas, Lexicon s.v. kapêlos.

Applying huckster tricks

Phryges Welcker, Philoktêtês Hartung.

FRAGMENT 181

Eustathius on Iliad 1157. 36; cp. Pollux, Vocabulary 10. 56, Hesychius, Lexicon i. 323.

Who had four fillies under yoke, their nostrils bound with fluted muzzles.

Psychostasia Butler, Glaukos Potnieus Hermann, Memnôn Kausche.
To produce a terrifying effect by a horse’s breathing or trumpeting, its bronze muzzle was pierced with holes, through which the sound issued, as though the pipes of a flute. Cp. Seven against Thebes 461 ff.

FRAGMENT 182

Eustathius on Iliad 1183. 18.

Until Zeus, letting fall the drops from his hands, himself shall purify thee with sprinklings of the blood of a slain swine.

Ixiôn Pauw, Perrhaibides Hermann.

FRAGMENT 183

Eustathius on Odyssey 1484. 48.

Is it some Aethiopian dame that shall appear?

Memnôn Hermann.

FRAGMENT 184

Eustathius on Odyssey 1625. 44.

A newly caught antelope, a lion’s food

Glaukos Potnieus Hermann, Xantriai Hartung.

FRAGMENT 185

Harpocration, Glossary of the Ten Attic Orators 198. 3.

Push on, pursue, in no wise faint of foot!

Laïos Gronovius, Hêliades Gataker, Philoktêtês Hermann.

FRAGMENT 186

Hesychius, Lexicon s.v. ostrakôn; cp. Photius, Lexicon 353. 17.

Wingless, tiny, but just now bare of the egg-shell.

Oidipous Hartung.

FRAGMENT 187

Macrobius, Saturnalia i. 18. 6.

Apollo, the ivy-crowned, the reveller, the seer.

Neaniskoi Hartung, Bassarai Nauck.
The ecstatic mantic art of Apollo assumes a Bacchic character.

FRAGMENT 188

Orion, Etymologicum 26. 5.

Mistress maiden, ruler of the stormy mountains.

Êdônoi Hermann, Kallistô Hartung.

FRAGMENT 189

Plato, Republic ii. 383B, whence Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel xiii. 3. p. 647A; ll. 5-9 Athenagoras, Apology 21. 104; ll. 7-8 attributed to Sophocles by Phoebammon, On Figures, in Rhetores Graeci viii. 518; cited, without naming the author, by Plutarch, How a Young Man ought to hear Poems 2. 16E.

He dwelt on my happiness in my children, whose days were to be many and unacquainted with disease; and, comprising all, in triumph-strain that cheered my soul, he praised my lot, blest of the gods. And so I deemed that falsehood sat not upon Phoebus’ lips divine, fraught with the prophet’s art. But he, who raised this song himself, he who himself was present at my marriage-feast, he who himself spake thus, he it is who himself hath slain my son.

Psychostasia Butler, Welcker (or from another play of the same group), Hoplôn krisis Ern. Schneider, Thalamopoioi Wagner, Nêreides Hartung.
Thetis contrasts Apollo’s prophecy of her happy motherhood, uttered at her marriage to Peleus, with his deed in guiding the shaft of Paris that killed her son.

FRAGMENT 190

Plutarch, How a Young Man ought to hear Poems 14. 36B.

Courage! Suffering, when it climbs highest, lasts not long.

Philoktêtês Hartung.

FRAGMENT 191

Plutarch, Consolation to Apollonius 10. 106C.

Since unjustly men hate death, which is the greatest defence against their many ills.

Philoktêtês Hartung.

FRAGMENT 192

Plutarch, Of Isis and Osiris 20. 358E; cp. Etymologicum Genuinum and Etymologicum Magnum s.v. apargmata.

Thou needs must spit it out and make clean thy mouth.

Perrhaibides or Laïos Etymologicum Genuinum.
Those who committed murder by treachery sought to purify themselves by tasting, and then spitting out, the blood of their victims.

FRAGMENT 193

Plutarch, On the E at Delphi 9. 389A.

‘Tis meet that the dithyramb, his fellow-reveller, half song, half shout, attend on Dionysus.

Neaniskoi Hermann, Êdônoi Hartung.

FRAGMENT 194

Plutarch, On the Cessation of Oracles 43. 434A.

For seizing a self-sharpened Euboean sword

Thrêssai Osann.
“Self-sharpened” is supposed to mean “cold-forged,” not “fire-forged” (cp. Seven against Thebes 942). artithêkton “just sharpened,” Sidgwick (after arti thêkton Blaydes) is the best of the many conjectures.

FRAGMENT 195

Plutarch, On the Restraint of Anger 4. 454E.

[The flame,] come to its youthful strength, consumed the lofty labour of the carpenters.

FRAGMENT 196

Plutarch, Table Talk i. 8. 1. p. 625D.

. . . But when old show thyself a clear scribe (?)

Salaminiai Hartung.
Cited by Plutarch to illustrate his remark that old men can read only when a book is held at a distance. The mangled passage eludes satisfactory emendation: su de (so Heath)| apothem eides auton ou gar egguthen | horan gerôn ktl. Dindorf; and so E. A. J. Ahrens, but reading horas. su d’ ex apoptou (cp. Sophocles, Philoctetes 446) Headlam. The second line seems to mean “when old, write a large, clear hand,” remembering that the aged read with difficulty.

FRAGMENT 197

Plutarch, On Monarchy, Democracy, Oligarchy 4. 827A, Life of Demetrius 35.

Thou indeed didst give me life, thou dost think to destroy me.

Pentheus Anonymous reported by Stanley, Xantriai Stanley, Niobê Hartung, a satyr-play Gomperz.
The reading su toi me phygas, su me kataithein dokeis, adopted by Perrin, means “Thou fannest indeed my flame, methinks thou dost quench me too.”
Demetrius Poliocetes quoted the verse in addressing Fortune.

FRAGMENT 198

Plutarch, That the Stoics speak greater Improbabilities than the Poets 2. 1057F.

[Changed from] a piteous old man with a stitch in his back and cramped by pain

Têlephos Schülz, Philoktêtês Butler, Dionysou trophoi Hartung.

FRAGMENT 199

Plutarch, Life and Poety of Homer 157 (Wyttenbach v. 1196). In l. 2 Wecklein read moira for terma.

A man dies not for the many wounds that pierce his breast, unless it be that life’s end keep pace with death, nor by sitting on his hearth at home doth he the more escape his appointed doom

Eleusinioi Hartung.
This is perhaps the nearest approach to pure fatalism in Greek tragedy. Cp. Demosthenes, On the Crown (18. 97) peras men gar apasin anthrôtois esti tou biou thanatos, kan en oikiskô tis auton katheirxas têrê, “for all men’s lives have a fixed limit in death, even though a man shut himself in a chamber and keep watch.”

FRAGMENT 200

Cited from Aeschylus by Aristophanes, Fragment 610 (Pollux, Vocabulary 6. 80).

Truly then thou shalt pick the seeds from out the bitter-sweet pomegranate.

Eleusinioi Butler.

FRAGMENT 201

Pollux, Vocabulary 7. 60; cp. Stephen of Byzantium, Lexicon 415. 10.

A fock that copies the Libyrnic cloak

Êdônoi Hartung, Oidipous others.

FRAGMENT 202

Pollux, Vocabulary 7. 78

And thou in a well-woven robe of drill

Êdônoi Hartung.
trimitos, “three-threaded,” having three threads in the warp.

FRAGMENT 203

Pollux, Vocabulary 7. 167, cp. 10. 46.

But easily from baths exceedingly large

Glaukos pontios Hermann.

FRAGMENT 204

Proclus, Commentary on Hesiod’s Works and Days 156.

A mortal woman from out a seed moulded of clay

Promêtheus lyomenos Butler, a Promêtheus Hermann.
After Prometheus had stolen fire, Zeus in revenge bade Hephaestus fashion Pandora out of earth.

FRAGMENT 205

Scholiast Ravennas on Aristophanes, Lysistrata 1257.

Froth from human blood streamed over their jaws.

Glaukos Potnieus Hartung.

FRAGMENT 206

Scholiast on Aristophanes, Clouds 1130, on Theocritus, Idyll xv. 48; and in collectors of proverbs: Zenobius iii. 37, Pseudo-Diogenianus iv. 35, Gregory of Cyprus (cod. Leid. 1. 88, Mosq. 2. 84), Macarius, Rose-bed iii. 21, and other late writers.

Truly at weaving wiles the Egyptians are clever.

Danaïdes Hermann, Thalamopoioi Oderdick.

FRAGMENT 207

Scholiast on Euripides, Orestes 25.

A device, irresistible and inextricable

In place of Choêphoroi l. 999 Wecklein, Prôteus Wilamowitz.

FRAGMENT 208

Scholiast B on Iliad X 200, Scholiasts DE on Odyssey a98.

Take ye your stand in a ring about yon altar and its gleaming fire, and with your band grouped in a circle offer up your prayers.

Hiketides (after l. 232) Burges, Danaïdes Hermann, Promêtheus lyomenos Hartung, Mysoi Droyson.

FRAGMENT 209

Scholiasts BLT on Iliad P 542.

For where might and justice are yoke-fellows – what pair is stronger than this?

Promêtheus lyomenos Hartung.

FRAGMENT 210

Scholiast and Tzetzes on Lycophron’s Alexandra 1247; cp. Harpocration, Glossary of the Ten Attic Orators 151. 5, Hesychius, Lexicon s.v. theoinia.

Father Theoinos, thou subduer of the Maenads!

From a Dionysiac drama, possibly the Xantriai, Butler; Neaniskoi Hartung.

FRAGMENT 211

Scholiast on Pindar, Nemean 10. 31 (18).

Hera, the Perfecter, wedded wife of Zeus

Compare Eumenides 214.

FRAGMENT 212

Scholiast on Pindar, Pythian 2. 18 (10).

O Hermes, lord of games, son of Maia and Zeus!

FRAGMENT 213

Scholiast on Sophocles, Electra 286, and Scholiasts TV on Iliad PS 10.

Truly lamentation is a prop of suffering.

FRAGMENT 214

Scholiast on Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus 1047.

With bright flashes, the torches’ might.

Eleusinioi Pauw, Oidipous Lobeck, Iphigeneia or Hiereiai Fritzche.
Aeschylus may be speaking of Eleusis, where the initiates bore torches. But cp. Eumenides 1022.

FRAGMENT 215

Scholiast on Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus 1049.

I thrill with the rapture of this mystic rite.

Eleusinioi Pauw, Bakchai (=Bassarai) Hartung.

FRAGMENT 216

Scholiast on Theocritus, Idyll ii. 36; cp. Aristeides, Athena 17 (vol i. 27).

Lady Hecate, before the portal of the royal halls

Aigyptioi Tittler, Dionysou trophoi Hartung.

FRAGMENT 217

Stobaeus, Anthology ii. 8. 10 (Wachsmuth ii. 155), Menander, Single-verse Maxims 679.

Fortune is for all, judgment is theirs who have won it for themselves.

FRAGMENT 218

Stobaeus, Anthology iii. 3. 11 (Hense iii. 194) MA, om. S.

Who knows things useful, not many things, is wise.

FRAGMENT 219

Stobaeus, Anthology iii. 3. 14 (Hense iii. 195) MA, om. S.

Truly even he errs that is wiser than the wise.

FRAGMENT 220

Stobaeus, Anthology iii. 4. 18 (Hense iii. 223).

Verily a prosperous fool is a heavy load.

FRAGMENT 221

Stobaeus, Anthology iii. 18. 12 (Hense iii. 515); cp. Athenaeus, Deipnosophists x. 31. p. 427F omitting the source.

Bronze is a mirror of the face, wine of the mind.

Argô Hartung.

FRAGMENT 222

Stobaeus, Anthology iii. 27. 2 (Hense iii. 6110, Arsenius, Violet-bed in Paroemiographi Graeci i. 579. 25.

Oaths are not surety for a man, but the man for the oaths.

Perrhaibides Hartung.

FRAGMENT 223

Stobaeus, Anthology iii. 29. 31 (Hense iii. 630).

God loves to help him who strives to help himself.

From Euripides, according to Arsenius, Violet-bed in Paroemiographi Graeci ii. 712. 13.

FRAGMENT 224

Stobaeus, Anthology iii. 29. 24 (Hense iii. 632), Menander, Single-verse Maxims 297.

‘Tis seemly that even the aged learn wisdom.

FRAGMENT 225

Stobaeus, Anthology iii. 34. 5 (Hense iii. 683) SM, om. A.

Ere thou utterest words such as these, thou must bite thy lips.

FRAGMENT 226

Stobaeus, Anthology iv. 4. 14 (Hense iv. 187).

For successful rascals are insufferable.

FRAGMENT 227

Stobaeus, Anthology iv. 34. 44 (Hense v. 838), Apostolius in Paroemiographi Graeci ii. 686. 3.

For mortal kind taketh thought only for the day, and hath no more surety than the shadow of smoke.

Niobê Hartung.

FRAGMENT 228

Stobaeus, Anthology iv. 50. 7 (Hense v. 1022).

For age is more just than youth.

FRAGMENT 229

Stobaeus, Anthology iv. 53. 17 (Hense v. 1102) SA, om. M, Menander, Single-verse Maxims 193.

Death is rather to be chosen than a toilsome life; and not to be born is better than to be born to misery.

Oidipous Hartung; Euripides, L. Dindorf.

FRAGMENT 230

Strabo, Geography vi. 6. p. 258.

Whence it shall bear the name Rhegium

Glaukos pontios Hermann, Promêtheus lyomenos Schültz.
At Rhegium Sicily was broken off (aporrhêgnym) from the mainland by an earthquake.

FRAGMENT 231

Strabo, Geography viii. 7. 5. p. 387 (ll. 2-3 in the Cozza-Luzzi MS.); l. 3 Stephen of Byzantium, Lexicon 707. 13; cp. Photius, Lexicon 492. 10.

Hallowed Bura and thunder-smitten Rhypae, and Dyme, Helice and Aegeira and precipitous, sacred Olenus

All these places are in Achaea.
Glaukos pontios Hartung, Kares ê Eurôpê Meineke, Danaïdes M. Schmidt.

FRAGMENT 232

Strabo, Geography ix. 1. 9. p. 393.

Aegina yonder lies towards the southern blasts.

Salaminiai Wagner. A description of the position of the ancient city of Salamis.

FRAGMENT 233

Anonymous Grammarian in Lexicon Vaticanum (cod. Vaticanus Graecus 12) s.v. akmên.

But as yet all the cymbals that raised a din

DOUBTFUL OR SPURIOUS FRAGMENTS

FRAGMENT 234

Aristophanes, Frogs 1431, Palatine Anthology x. 110, Suidas, Lexicon s.v. ou chrê and skymos; l. 1 Macarius, Rose-bed vi. 71; ll. 2-3 quoted by Plutarch in reference to Alcibiades in his Life 16.

One must not rear a lion’s whelp in the State [best of all not to rear a lion in the State]; but if one be reared to his full growth, we must humour his ways.

Compare Agam. 717 ff.
L1. 1 and 3 Danaïdes Hermann.

FRAGMENT 235

Thomas Magister, Collection of Attic Nouns and Verbs 238.8

Nobly to die were better than to save one’s life.

Hept epi Thêbas Thomas Magister, but mallon enoikôteros (cp. l. 673) is lacking in his citation.

FRAGMENT 236

Stobaeus, Anthology i. 3. 24 (Wachsmuth i. 56), Theophilus, To Autoloycus ii. 37. p. 176.

For, of a truth, the doer is bound to suffer.

Probably from Sophocles (Fragment 229 Jebb-Pearson), but ascribed to Aeschylus because of Choëph. 313.

FRAGMENT 237

Aristophanes, Frogs 704 with Scholiast.

With our lives in the clasp of the waves

Archilochus 25, but ascribed to Aeschylus by Didymus.

FRAGMENT 238

Strabo, Geography viii. 3. 8. p. 341, Eustathius on Iliad 305. 534.

Possessing as their allotted share all Cyprus and Paphos

Danaïdes or Thalamêpoloi (sic) Hartung; from Archilochus according to Meineke.

FRAGMENT 239

Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies v. 14. p. 727, Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel xiii. 13. p. 689B, [Justin Martyr,] On Monarchy 2. 130.

Set God apart from mortal men, and deem not that he, like them, is fashioned out of flesh. Thou knowest him not; now he appeareth as fire, unapproachable in his onset, now as water, now as gloom; and he, even himself, is dimly seen in the likeness of wild beasts, of wind, of cloud, of lightning, thunder, and of rain. Ministers unto him are sea, and rocks, and every spring, and gathered floods; before him tremble mountains and earth and the vast abyss of the sea and the lofty pinnacles of the mountains, whensoever the flashing eye of their lord looketh on them. For all power hath he; lo, this is the glory of the Most High God.

Aeschylean authorship has generally been rejected since Grotius.
The Fragment was ascribed to Aeschylus in antiquity probably because of its lofty conception of God.

FRAGMENT 240

Plutarch, Consolation to Apollonius 29. 116F, Stobaeus, Anthology iv. 4. 36 (Hense v. 967).

This is the mark of men just and wise as well – even in calamity not to cherish anger against the gods.

From Aeschylus (Plutarch), Myrmidones E. A. J. Ahrens, Niobê Burmeisters; from Euripides (Stobaeus: Nauck Frag. 1078).

FRAGMENT 241

Spoken by Aeschylus to Aristophanes, Frogs 886-7 (see Scholiast); l. 1 assigned to Aeschylus in inferior MSS. (not in Ven. or Rav.).

O Demeter, thou that didst nourish my soul, grant that I be worthy of thy Mysteries!

Eleusinioi Butler.

FRAGMENT 242

Athenaeus, Deipnosophists x. 85 p. 457B.

Having won a glorious victory in battle

Assigned to Aeschylus by Nauck.

FRAGMENT 243

Hesychius, Lexicon s.v. empedês.

May Hades, whose portion is the earth, seize and fetter thee!

Assigned to Aeschylus by Burges.
Text and application are uncertain. Possibly Hades is called “landowner” to contrast his distinctive domain from that of Zeus and of Poseidon.

FRAGMENT 244

Hesychius, Lexicon s.v. Tirynthion plintheuma and Kyklôpôn edos.

Walled Tiryns, the Cyclopes’ seat.

Assigned to Aeschylus by Nauck. The two glosses were joined by Meineke.

FRAGMENT 245

Lucian, The Fly 11 (Sommerbrodt iii. 121).

Shameful is it that the fly, with courageous might, should leap upon men’s bodies to glut itself with blood, yet men-at-arms should dread the foeman’s spear.

Assigned to Aeschylus by Bergk.

FRAGMENT 246

Marcus Antoninus, Meditations 7. 51.

When a storm bloweth, sent of the gods, we needs must endure it, toiling without complaint.

Assigned to Aeschylus by Wagner.

FRAGMENT 247

Plutarch, How a Young Man ought to hear Poems 13. 35E, How to Profit by our Enemies 5. 88F.

ALC. Thou art near akin to a woman that brought death upon her husband.
ADR. And thou, with thine own hand, didst slay the mother that bare thee.

Epigonoi Wagner. Brunck and Hermann ascribed the verses to Sophocles’ Epigonoi.
L. 1 spoken by Alcmeon, son of Amphiaraüs and Eriphyle, l. 2 by Adrastus, brother of Eriphyle. Eriphyle had been bribed by Polynices with the necklace of Harmonia to influence Amphiaraüs against his better judgment to join the first expedition against Thebes, from which he knew that he should not return alive (cp. Seven against Thebes l. 587). In the second expedition the most important person was Alcmeon, who killed his mother and went mad.

FRAGMENT 248

Athenaeus, Deipnosophists xiii. 14. p. 584D.

Cursed boy! What word is this that thou hast uttered?

From the Epigonoi of Aeschylus or of Sophocles (Wagner).

FRAGMENT 249

Plutarch, On Superstition 3. 166A.

But either thou art frightened of a spectre beheld in sleep and hast joined the revel-rout of nether Hecate

Assigned to Aeschylus by Porson

FRAGMENT 250

Pluatch, On Love 15. 758B.

For Night brought me not forth to be the lord of the lyre, nor to be seer or leech, but to lull to rest men’s souls.

Assigned to Aeschylus by Hermann.
Spoken by Sleep.

FRAGMENT 251

Scholiast B on Iliad A 175, and cited by collectors of proverbs; Zenobius iv. 11, Gregory of Cyprus (cod. Leid. 2. 19, Mosq. 3. 53), Pseudo-Diogenianus iv. 95a.

Zeus looked late into his book.

Assigned to Aeschylus by Valckenaer.
A proverb concerning the delayed punishment of the wicked. The “book of Zeus” is the “book of life.” Cp. Eum. 275.

FRAGMENT 252

Stobaeus, Anthology i., proem 1a (Watchsmuth 1. 15); cp. Plato, Republic vii. 522D.

Thereafter I ordered the life of all Hellas and of the allies, the life aforetime confused and like to that of wild beasts. First I invented number, all-wise, chiefest of sciences.

Palamêdês, Wachsmuth. Cp. Frag. 96, from that play.

FRAGMENT 253

Stobaeus, Anthology i. 3. 98 (Wachsmuth i. 57), Theophilus, To Autolycus ii. 37. p. 178.

Justice, voiceless, unseen, seeth thee when thou sleepest and when thou goest forth and when thou liest down. Continually doth she attend thee, now aslant thy course, now at a later time.

Assigned to Aeschylus by Hermann.

FRAGMENT 254

Stobaeus, Anthology i. 6. 16 (Wachsmuth i. 87).

Sovereign of all the gods is Fortune, and these other names are given her in vain; for she alone disposeth all things as she wills.

Assigned to Aeschylus by Achsmuth.
Some “other names” of Tyche are praktêrios Suppliant Maidens 523, sôtêr Agam. 664, hê eu didousa Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrranus 1080.

FRAGMENT 255

Stobaeus, Anthology iii. 4. 16 (Hense iii. 223).

One must not have a manner too swift-paced.

Assigned to Phryges ê Hektoros lytra by Hermann, who made Priam speak this verse, followed (as in Stobaeus) by “For none who hath been overthrown deems that he has been counselled well;” and let Priam, after two verses by Achilles, continue his reproach with the lines: “For this hastiness and lightness of mind hath oft brought mortals to misery.”
Nauck ascribed sphaleis gar ktl. to Chaeremon (Frag. 26), the two verses to Euripides (Frag. 1032).

FRAGMENT 256

Hesychius, Lexicon s.v. methystades.

Like maids, wine-stricken and drunk with love

Lykourgeia Hermann, Neaniskoi Hartung.

FRAGMENT 257

Hesychius, Lexicon s.v. prosaurizousa.

Moisture meeting a current from dry land (?)

Assigned to Aeschylus by Dindorf.

FRAGMENT 258

Hesychius, Lexicon s.v. prosaitherizousa.

Raising to the skies the missive flame

Intruded into Agam. 301 by Dindorf.

FRAGMENT 259

Aelian, Historical Miscellanies xiii. 1.

Shooting upward, [the flame] flashed forth like lightning.

Placed after Agam. 301 by Meineke, after l. 307 by Wecklein.

FRAGMENT 260

Stobaeus, Anthology iii. 20. 13 (Hense iii. 541).

Words do provoke to senseless wrath.

A corruption or variation of Prom. 380.

FRAGMENT 261

Strabo, Geography iv. 1. 7. p. 182.

The black North, a blast violent and chilling, descends in a tempest.

Promêtheus lyomenos Teuffel.
Probably from a description of the Lithôdes, the Stony Plain; cp. Frag. 112.

FRAGMENT 262

Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies ii. 15. p. 462: l. 2 cited, without the poet’s name, by Plutarch, On Moral Virtue 6. 446A, Stobaeus, Anthology ii. 7. 10a (Wachsmuth ii. 89).

Naught escapes me whereof thou admonishest me; yet, for all my resolve, Nature constrains me.

Laïos Gataker, Euripides Chrysippos Valckenaer.

FRAGMENT 263

Trypho, On Tropes in Rhetores Graeci viii. 738, who saw that pheidôlia (which generally means “sparing”) is here used in the sense of akibeia, “accurace”; cp. Gregory of Corinth, Tropes viii. 767, Moschopulus, Opsuscula Grammatica 76.

Teucer, plying his bow with sure aim, stayed the Phrygians as they would overleap the foss.

Salaminiai Hermann, Myrmidones Anon. in Welcker; Sophocles Teukros Blomfield. From a description of the battle in TH 266 ff.

FRAGMENT 264

Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies ii. 15. p. 462; ll. 1-2 Letronne, Les Papyres grecs p. 96.

So then ‘tis true – no misery gnaws a free man’s soul like dishonour. Thus do I suffer, and the deep stain of my calamity ever stirs me from the depths, agitated as I am by the piercing goads of frenzy.

Thrêssai Süvern.
Spoken by Ajax before his suicide (Clement).

FRAGMENT 265

Plato, Republic viii. 550C.

Another man stationed against another State

Quoted by Plato as from Aeschylus, but probably a playful allusion to Seven against Thebes (cp. ll. 451, 570).
From a lost play, Herwerden.

FRAGMENT 266

Aristophanes, Frogs 1400.

Achilles has thrown two aces and a four.

Of unknown source (Aristarchus), Myrmidones (a late Scholiast). Now generally assigned to Euripides (Frag. 688), whose Telephus is said, on poor authority, to have represented the heroes as dicing. Dionysus, who quotes the verse in Aristophanes, implies that he verse is as bad as the throw. Three dice were used, the highest cast being a triple six (Agam. 33).

FRAGMENT 267

Strabo, Geography xii. 8. 2. p. 572, and in collectors of proverbs; Gregory of Cyprus iii. 99, Macarius, Rose-bed viii. 83, and other late writers.

The boundaries of the Mysians and the Phrygians are distinct.

Assigned to Aeschylus by Hermann.

FRAGMENT 268

Eustathius on Odyssey 1484. 49.

The Cilisian country and the haunts of the Syrians

Phryges Bergk (epistrophai occurred in this play according to Hesychius, Lexicon s.v.).
Frag. 267 may have been followed immediately by Frag. 268 (Nauck).

ELEGIAC FRAGMENTS

FRAGMENT 269

Theophrastus, History of Plants ix. 15; cp. Pliny, Natural History xxv. 11 (5).

The race of the Tyrrhenes, a nation that maketh drugs

FRAGMENT 270

Plutarch, Concerning the Fortunes or Virtue of Alexander the Great ii. 2. p. 334D, cp. Table Talk ii. 5. 2. p. 640A; and without naming the poet, Concerning the Fortune of the Romans 3. 317E, Comparison of Cicero and Demosthenes 2, Eustathius on Iliad 513. 33.

[A warrior,] study, heavy-armed, terrific to the foe

EPIGRAMS

FRAGMENT 271

Palatine Anthology vii. 255.

On other Thessalian champions. Dark Fate likewise laid low these valiant spearmen defending their fatherland, rich in sheep. But living is the glory of the dead who of old, steadfast in battle, clothed themselves in Ossa’s dust.

FRAGMENT 272

Life of Aeschylus in the Medicean and many other MSS, ll. 1-2 Plutarch, Of Banishment 13. 604F. Eustratius on Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics iii. 2. p. 1111a; ll. 3-4 Athenaeus, Deipnosophists xiv. 23. p. 627C.

This tomb hideth the dust of Aeschylus, an Athenian, Euphorion’s son, who died in wheat-bearing Gela; his glorious valour the precinct of Marathon may proclaim, and the long-haired Medes, who knew it well.

Athenaeus and Pausanias (i. 14. 5) state that the epigram was written by Aeschylus himself. The Life states that it was inscribed by the Geloans on the public tomb in which he was buried with splendid honours as the cost of their city.