Monday, May 13, 2013
Iphigenia among the Taurians
Some notes on Euripides' Iphigenia among the Taurians, from Maurice Platnauer's commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1938; rpt. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1999).
Line 502 (ἀνώνυμοι θανόντες οὐ γελῴμεθ᾽ ἄν, note on p. 103):
Line 1447 (note on p. 177):
Newer› ‹Older
Line 502 (ἀνώνυμοι θανόντες οὐ γελῴμεθ᾽ ἄν, note on p. 103):
To any Greek, and above all to tristis Orestes, the thought of an enemy's exultation in his death would be bitterer than the thought of death itself. But no personal exultation is possible where the name of the dead is not known. Euripides is therefore psychologically as well as dramatically justified in making Or. here and at l. 504 refuse to give his name.Line 697 (note on p. 120):
The importance to a Greek of having his family continue is a matter of religion: for naturally where there are no descendants there can be no ancestor-worship.Line 1119 (note on p. 154):
κάμνεις; the 'ideal' second person is here very clumsy. The poet Milton emended to κάμνει and he was almost certainly right.For more on Milton's emendations in Euripides, see here.
Line 1447 (note on p. 177):
For divine telephony unaccompanied by television cf. E. Hipp. 85, 6 σοὶ καὶ ξύνειμι καὶ λόγοις ἀμείβομαι, | κλύων μὲν αὐδῆς, ὄμμα δ' οὐχ ὁρῶν τὸ σόν; cf. also S. Aj. 14, 5.For more on epiphanies see:
