Thursday, April 04, 2024
A Terrible Thing
Euripides, Orestes 772 (tr. Edward P. Coleridge):
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A terrible thing is the mob, when it has villains to lead it.Scholia ad loc. (tr. Donald J. Mastronarde):
δεινὸν οἱ πολλοί, κακούργους ὅταν ἔχωσι προστάτας.
Perhaps he is alluding covertly to the demagogic activities in his own time,and possibly to Cleophon. For two years before the production of Orestes he was the one who prevented a peace-treaty being concluded for the Athenians with the Lacedaemonians, as Philochorus reports.
ἴσως αἰνίττεται πρὸς τὰς καθ’ αὑτὸν δημαγωγίας, μήποτε δὲ εἰς Κλεοφῶντα. πρὸ ἐτῶν γὰρ δύο τῆς διδασκαλίας τοῦ Ὀρέστου οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ κωλύσας σπονδὰς γενέσθαι Ἀθηναίοις πρὸς Λακεδαιμονίους, ὡς Φιλόχορος [FGrHist 328 F 139b Jacoby] ἱστορεῖ.
