Ὑμὴν ὦ, Ὑμέναι ̓ ὦ. ΠΕ. ἕπεσθε νῦν γάμοισιν, ὦ φύλα πάντα συννόμων τήνελλα καλλίνικος, ὦ 1755 1760 1765 NOTES. 1-60.] Euelpides and Peisthetaerus, with a jackdaw and raven to guide them, are seeking the birds, in order to consult Tereus as to where they may find a quiet city, being tired of the lawsuits of Athens. At last they come to a rock where their guides seem to intimate there is something to be found. They knock, and summon Epops, the hoopoo. I. ὀρθὴν κελεύεις] sc. ὁδὸν ἰέναι. He addresses his jackdaw, who is directing him to go right at the steep rocks ahead of them. 2. Siappayeins] Addressed to the raven apparently. He then turns to his friend, and reports ÿde d' að ‘and this bird, on the other hand.' Kρúšeι πáλiv] 'croaks "back":' croaks that we are to go back. 3. πλανύττομεν] A similar formation is κινύσσομαι (Aesch. Cho. 196) from κινέομαι. 4. προφορουμένω] προφορεῖσθαι λέγεται τὸ παραφέρειν τὴν στήμονα τοῖς διαζομένοις. Schol. But διάξεσθαι means 'to set the threads in the loom;' i.e. to set the warp, the perpendicular threads, as L. and S. give it under διάζεσθαι. And στήμων is “the warp. Evidently the sense of Tроpoрeîola here is 'to move to and fro,' and it must be from the passing to and fro of the horizontal threads or weft. Xenophon (Cyn. VI. 15) uses it of hounds coursing to and fro when trying to strike the scent. Join here aλλws π. т. ☀. 'idly journeying to and fro, shuttle-fashion.' 5. κορώνη] Of the two words κόραξ, κορώνη, for the various Corvidae Kópağ appears to be general, κopúvn more special, in common Greek use. Ornithologists adopted Kópaέ for 'raven,' kopwvn for 'carrion crow.' 'Raven' sounds here more distinct, and more of a contrast to the jackdaw. And apparently Gr. кopwvn, Icel. hrafn, Eng. raven, Germ. rabe, Lat. corvus, are all cognate. Tò d'èμè...πEρieλ0eîv] Cf. Ran. 741, Nub. 268. The infinitive is used similarly in Latin to express surprise, indignation, etc.: as in Virgil's well-known 'Mene incepto desistere victam!' 6. πλεῖν] This peculiar Attic contraction for πλέον seems confined to the combination Tλev : which is frequent. 8. ȧτоσтоdîσα K. T.λ.] 'should wear off my toe-nails.' Dindorf's note "De ipso Euelpide intell. qui prae sollicitudine ungues mordet" is wrong. dáкTUλo is often 'toes:'e. g. Eq. 874 eůvoúσtatóv te tŷ TÓλEL καὶ τοῖσι δακτύλοισιν. And if it refers to the fingers here, it will mean that he has worn and broken his finger-nails by scrambling. 9. ὅπου γῆς] To be joined in constr. as in Ach. 209, ὅποι τέτραπται γῆς. ΙΙ. μά Δία γ] Porson corrects οὐδὲ μὰ Δί' ἐντεῦθεν γ ̓ ἂν, on the ground that ye does not, without any word interposed, follow the formula of an oath. Cf. below v. 22 οὐδὲ μά Δί ̓ ἐνταῦθά γ' for the γε occurring separated by one word. It is not quite clear that we ought to reject the consensus of MSS. in such cases; but certainly it is ἐντεῦθεν that wants emphasizing and not μὰ Δία. Meineke (with Fritzsche on Thesm. 225, a passage which offends against Porson's rule) reads évуeтeû0ev, a curious form to admit on conjecture. Perhaps οὐδ ̓ ἂν μὰ Δί' ἐντεῦθεν γ ̓ ἂν would be an improvement on Porson's amendment. Εξηκεστίδης] Cf. below v. 764 δοῦλός ἐστι καὶ Κὰρ ὥσπερ Εξηκεστίδης, and v. 1525 οὐ γὰρ εἰσὶ βάρβαροι, ὅθεν ὁ πατρῷός ἐστιν Εξηκεστίδῃ; the scholiast calls him a foreigner and a wanderer who knew the various roads, οἱ γὰρ ξένοι μᾶλλον ἴσασι τὰς ὁδούς. We may probably infer from vv. 760-768 that Execestides had claimed, successfully or unsuccessfully, Athenian citizenship. Hence Peisthetaerus here means 'we are so far out of the usual tracks that even Execestides, clever as he is at finding a country that does not belong to him rightly, could not find one from this place.' 12. τὴν ὁδὸν ταύτην] εἰς τὴν οἴμοι ὁδὸν βάδιζε. Schol. • You may take the way to woe, I will not,' says Peisthetaerus. 13. OùK Tŵv ¿pvéwv] 'he of the bird-market, the poultry.' So Hyperbolus is ouk Tv λúxvwv in Nub. 1065. Other words similarly used are ἰχθύες, μυρρίναι, χύτραι, λάχανοι, μύρον: Vesp. 189, Thesm. 448, Lys. 557. Eq. 1375. This poulterer, or birdseller, had served them a shameful trick in selling them such useless birds. 14. πivakoπwλns] Small birds were plucked and strung together and ranged on a board or tray, so Hesychius says, on the word TivaкoTwλns. Below, v. 1078, a reward is offered for the head of Philocrates, ὅτι συνείρων τοὺς σπίνους πωλεῖ καθ ̓ ἑπτὰ τοὐβολοῦ. These small birds were much relished at Athens: we find frequent mention of κixλαi and orivo in the Aristophanic feastings. μελαγχολῶν] ‘in his craziness. There seems no notion whatever of 'melancholy,' as we mean it, in this word. The μeλayxoλla of Chremylus in Plut. 12 is simply 'craziness.' 15-16. ds.. ¿pvéwv] The interpretation 'who was made a bird out of a bird, considering ἐκ τῶν ὀρνέων to be instead of ἐκ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, as a stroke of Satire upon the levity of the Athenians, Tereus being of Attica, seems little better than nonsense. The better way is to join φράσειν νῶν τὸν Τηρέα ἐκ τῶν ὀρνέων: and so one scholiast explains it, σημαίνειν ἡμῖν τὸν ἔποπα δείξαντα ἐκ τῶν ὀρνέων. Brunck, following another scholiast, joins Túde èk T. ỏ, 'that these two alone of the birds would tell us.' Meineke omits the line in his text. In his Vind. he rather supports emendations of ἐκ τ. 6. into ἐξ ἀνδρός ποτε, οι ἄνθρωπός TOT' V. The story of Tereus' metamorphosis is told by Ovid, Met. 671. 17. Tov .] Some son of Tharreleides must have been like a jackdaw, either for garrulity, or, as one scholiast says, for smallness of stature. Frere aptly notices that the raven and jackdaw are characteristic: suited to Peisthetaerus and Euelpides. 18. Tηvdedi] Cf. Eq. 1302 vuvôi, Plut. 227 TOUтodl. The conjunction de is put between the word and the affix . 19. ἤστην] Cf. Ran. 226, ἀλλ' ἐξόλοισθ ̓ αὐτῷ κοάξ, οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐστ ̓ ἀλλ ̓ ἢ κοάξ. This supports ἤστην rather than ᾔστην: “they were, it seems, nothing but peck peck.' normy 'they knew nothing but how to peck:' which is good enough sense also. The scholiast notices a reading ἴστην, ἀντὶ τοῦ ᾔδεσαν. For the form ἤστην from εἰμὶ cf. Eq. 982, οὐκ ἂν ἤστην σκεύη δύο χρησίμω, where there can be no doubt about he meaning. 20. KATȧ TŵV T.] 'down the rocks.' Apparently they had come to some steep and rocky place, overgrown also with wood (v. 92). KATȧ with genitive means 'down from, down along,' e.g. Kar' OvλúμμTOLO Kaρhvwv åttaσa. Hom. But also sometimes down under' of motion into a surface, as κατὰ χθονός, κατὰ κυμάτων. And thus here it may be 'down into or among the rocks.' The barrier here might be either the brow of a steep, or a rising mass of rocks. 22. ȧтраròs] Less than oôós: 'not even a foot-track.' 23. Ti d'; ] This is Meineke's reading. d'ǹ Dind. which is awkward. Ti 8' K. Holden after Cobet, omitting the T before Xével. The text ovd'ʼn k., which the scholiast mentions, if a note of interrogation be put at the end of the line, is admissible for the sense. The Rav. MS. has ήδ ή. 24. où Taura] There's a difference in its croaking, if that can be taken for any direction about the road. 26. ȧπ. pnol] All that it has to say is that it will peck my fingers off: it is (or knows) ovdèv ảλλo πλǹv dákvew, v. 19. 28. és Kópakas] Generally it is easy to go to the bad, 'facilis descensus Averni.' The phrase és Kópaκas is used here with comical force, as in Pac. 117. Our phrase 'to go to the dogs' seems nearly analogous in origin to ἐς κόρακας ἐλθεῖν, if the explanation of that be 'to be left unburied and feed the crows:' conf. Homer's slain heroes, whom war ἑλώρια τεύχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσι τε πᾶσι, 30. ropes] He turns to address the spectators. 31. Záka] The Sacian was Acestor; who appears to have been of Thracian extraction, and a tragic poet; ridiculed, the scholiast tells us, by Callias and Cratinus. Cf. Vesp. 1221, ξένος τις ἕτερος πρὸς κεφαλῆς ̓Ακέστορος. 33. puλŶ kai y. 7.] 'Of honourable tribe and kin.' |