Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

N° XLIV.

Verfe 116ο. Εὐηρέτμες ναυς αντίας Ἑλληνίσιν.

1195. Against the fleet of Græce the hoftile fleet.

ACCORDING to the idea of Barnes, which is alfo adopted by Heath and Mufgrave', Euripides here alludes. to the naval engagement of the Greeks with the Barbarians at Salamis. The English Translator communicated to me his difficulty upon this conftruction, as involving an enormous anachronifin; which could fcarcely be imagined to flow from Euripides, or to be tolerated by an Athenian Audience:

4

3

Shakespear, fays he, might as well have introduced an Offi er of Henry the Fifth, fpeaking of the defeat of the Spanish Armada before the battle of Agincourt." I affented to this ingenious obfervation: for though in a preceding 3 line, as in those immediately fubfequent, and both alluding to the labours of Hercules, the exact chronology * is not perfectly obferved; yet this deviation in a point of remote antiquity is far different from the grofs and recent anachro nifm contained in this line, according to the above interpretation: If the Ancient Tragedians are to be indulged with this monstrous licentioufnefs, there is an end of all hiftorical propriety in their dramas: Some of the Spectators of this Play at Athens were probably at the victory of Salamis, which event is faid to have happened on the very day when our Poet was born: And is it to be imagined, that Euripides

I Not. in Ion. p. 140. 3 V. 1144

2 Note on (V. 1178.) of his Edition.

4 See my Note on (v. 192.) p. 87.

Would

7

would flatter the vanity of his Countrymen fo egregiously at the expense of their common understandings, as he must inevitably have done, if this line in the Ion alluded to the naval Glory of the Græcians on that day? I have already proved, that the æra of the drama may be fairly calculated at 1373 years before CHRIST: Now the Battle of Salamis was only 481 years before that event, according to the record of the Arundelian Marbles: There is therefore the vaft difference of 892 years, which is a term above five times greater than the anachronism, flowing from the battle of Agincourt and the Spanish Armada, when inverting each other in the order of Chronology: I cannot imagine that Euripides could be guilty of this violation of the unity of time by a single verse, which would occafion a motley piece of tapestry of the most barbarous contexture: We must therefore endeavour to dif cover for the reputation of our Græcian Poet another allufion in this paffage, more confiftent with historical propriety. Mr. Potter fuggefted to me, "that fome event, in which Hercules was concerned, and perhaps Eetes's pursuit of the Argo, when Jafon carried away the Golden Fleece, is here intended:" I am inclined to adopt this ingenious conjecture; and proceed to confirm it on principles of Grammar and of Hiftory: By the former, because the line then naturally con

5 See my Note on V. 192. p. 87.

6"Since Xerxes having paffed the Hellefpont over a bridge of boats fought the battle of Thermopylae at the fame time that his fleet was defeated by the Greeks near Salamis, Callias at that time Archon of Athens, 217 years." If we add to this ancient record 264 years, as the date of its infcription preceding the Chriftian era, the amount as ftated will be 481 years. (See Dufrefnoy's Chronological Tables, Vol. 1. p. 89 & 177.)

7 Since from the year 1415, in the reign of Henry the Fifth to 1588 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there is a difference only of 173, which multiplied by 5 gives 865 years.

nects,

II

8

nects, as united with the conjunction copulative, with the two immediately fubfequent lines, which manifeftly allude to the labours of Hercules: By the laft, because Diodorus Siculus afferts, "that Hercules failed in concert with Jason to Colchis;" and in his defcription of the Argonautick Expedition he informs us, "that the affembling Chiefs chofe Hercules for their Leader in confequence of his valour :" But according to Hyginus', he refused the command, though offered, in favour of Jafon: Thus Pindar 10 and Apollonius Rhodius reprefent him as the companion of Jason in this enterprize. When the object of their voyage, the Golden Fleece, was obtained, Diodorus 12 Siculus in another paffage relates, "that many of the Ancient, as well as Modern Hiftorians, among whom was Timæus, recorded, that the Argonauts having heard, that the mouth of the Pontus was blocked up by the ships of Æetes, performed a wonderful operation in their return by another paffage." Here then we difcover an hoftile oppofition of fhips, which were the property of Barbarians, against those of the Græcians: If it fhould be objected to this interpretation, that the expedition of thefe Heroes to Colchis is generally reprefented to have confifted only of a fingle fhip, the Argo; and that the expreffion of 'Exalow is here in the plural number, it must

[blocks in formation]

10 Pyth. Od. 4. v. 305.

9 Fab. 14. P. 54. 11 L. 1. V. 123.

12 Οὐκ ὀλίγοι γὰρ τῶν τε ἀρχαίων συγγραφέων καὶ τῶν μεταγενεσέρων ὧν ἔτι καὶ Τίμαιος, φασὶ τὰς Αργοναύτας μετὰ τὴν τῶ δέραιος ἁρπαγὴν, πυθομένες ὑπὸ τῶ Αιήτε προκαλαλήφθαι ναυσὶ τὸ τόμα το Πόλο, πράξιν ἐπιτελέσασθαι παράδοξον

[merged small][ocr errors]

agiàv. (L. 4. c. 56. p. 300. ed. Weffel.)

be

14

be allowed, that the most general idea of it fuppofes it only one: But Euftathius 13 in his comment on Dionyfius Periegetes cites the teftimony of Charax, an Hiftorian, for the affertion, "that the Argonauts failed into the Euxine, not with one ship, according to the report of many concerning the Argo, but with many fhips :" And Lilius Gyraldus 4 in his treatise de re Nauticâ mentions the following paffage of Pliny; "Longâ nave Jafonem primum navigâffe Philoftephanus Autor eft: Charax vero non folum nave, fed claffe Jafonem navigâffe fcriptum reliquit:" It is remarkable, that the latter part of this fentence, which contains the exprefs teftimony of Charax to the fame purpose, as before mentioned from Euftathius, is not found in Pliny 15, where the rest of it now occurs. If the above interpretation be not fatisfactory to the Reader, we must then admit, that Euripides in his picturesque description of the feveral objects on the Delphick tapestry conveys in this line a poetical image without an exprefs allufion to any historical event.

13 Ισορει δε Χάραξ τὰς Αργοναύτας, & μιᾷ νηῒ (κατὰ τὸν πολὺν περὶ τῆς ̓Αργός λόγον) ἀλλὰ πολλοῖς πλοίοις εἰσπλεῦσαι τὸν Εὔξεινον. (On v. 687. p. 130. ed. Hill.)

14 Nat. Hift. 1. 7. c. 56. ed. Harduin, vol. 1. p. 417.

15 C. 1. tom. I. p. 602. ed. 1696.

N° XLV.

N° XLV.

Verfe Καὶ μιξόθηρας φῶτας, ἱππείας τ' ἄγρας, 1162. Ἐλάφων, λεόνων τ' αγρίων θηράματα.

Monftrous forms pourtray'd,

Human and brutal mix'd: the Thracian steeds

Are feiz'd, the hinds, and the advent'rous chafe

1199. Of favage lions.

THESE lines moft probably allude to four diftin&t labours of Hercules: The Centaurs are the Monsters, compounded of the human and brutal form, whom Sophocles * calls dipun of a double nature, and which Cicero has tranf lated bicorporem manum: Thus our Poet in his Hercules Furens has painted them in the fame manner,

2

The four hoof'd monfters of the Centaur race.

(Potter, v. 202.)

And again, in the fame play 3, where Hercules enumerates his own labours, he confers the appellation of quadrupeds upon them: Virgil, Ovid', and Silius Italicus 6, have alfo bestowed the epithet of bimembres upon these Centaurs. The remaining part of the line refers to the horses of the Thracian King Diomede, which Hercules, having conquered their Master, carried away: Thefe are again mentioned in our Poet's Alceftis ', where the living Hero is introduced at

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »