Note 88 (p. 82). "Here, where I struck, I take my rooted stand Upon the finished deed."
The natural attitude of decision. So when Brutus administered the famous oath to the Roman people, "_neminem Romæ regnare passuros_," he and his colleagues are described by Dionysius (V. 1) as σταντες ἐπι των τομίων.
Note 89 (p. 83). "Thou hast cast off: thou hast cut off Thine own husband."
I have endeavoured to express the repetition of the _off_ three times as in the original; but the Greek is far more emphatic, the repetition taking place in the same line, ἀπέδικες, ἀπέταμες ἀπόπολις δ ἕσῃ.
There is much difficulty in settling the reading and the construction of the Greek here; but having compared all the translations, I find that, from POT. down to MED. and FR., substantially the same sentiment is educed. SYM. who praises BLOM.'s arrangement, gives--
"Threaten away, for I too am prepared In the like manner. Rule me if thou canst, Get by thy hand the mastery--rule me then. But if," etc.
WELL. whom I follow, and who objects to BLOM.'s construction, gives--
"Jubeo antem te, quum et ego ad similes minas paratas sim, victoria vi reportata, mihi imperare; sin minus, et si contraria Dii perfecerint, damno edoctus sero sapere disces."
Note 91 (p. 84). "And thine eyes with fatness swell."
I do not know whether I may not have gone too far in retaining the original force of λίπος in this passage. I perceive that few of the translators, not even SEW., so curious in etymological translation, keep me in countenance. However, I am always very loath to smooth down a strong phrase in Æschylus, merely because the modern ear may think it gross. In this case, I am glad to find that I am supported by DROYS.
"Ueber dem Auge glänzt fett Dir das Tropfenblüt,"
though my rendering is a little more free.
STROPHE I. In the arrangement of the following lyric dialogue, I have followed BUT., BLOM., and PEILE, in opposition to that given by HERM., WELL., and FR., not for any metrical reasons sufficiently strong to influence me either one way or other in constituting the text; but because I find the sense complete and continuous after νῦν δε τελειάν, and this alone is a sufficient reason why I, in my subordinate function of a translator, should not suppose anything to have fallen out of the text in this place. How much, however, we are all in the dark about the matter appears from this, that in the place where BLOM. and PEILE suppose an immense _lacuna_, the sense in the mouth of Clytemnestra νῦν δ᾽ ὤρθωσας runs on with a continuous allusion to the preceding words of the Chorus. For which reason I have not hinted the existence of an omission, nor is it at all likely that the reader has lost much. These are matters which belonged to the ancient symmetrical arrangement of the Chorus before the eyes and ears of the spectators, and which I much fear it it impossible for us, readers of a dry MS., to revive at this time of day.