NOTES TO THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES
“Which may averting Jove from me avert.”
The epithet ἀλεξητηριος or ἀλεξίκακος (Pausan. Att. III.) or the averter, applied to the gods (see Odys. III. 346, is to be noted), as characteristic of the grand fact in the history of mind, that with rude nations the fear of evil is the dominant religious motive; so much so, that in the accounts which we read of some savage, or semi-savage nations, religion seems to consist altogether in a vague, dim fear of some unknown power, either without moral attributes altogether, or even positively malignant. In this historical sense, the famous maxim, primus in orbe deos fecit timor—however insufficient as a principle of general theology—is quite true. In the present passage, the phraseology is remarkable.
ὧν Ζεὺς ἀλεξητήριος
Ἐπώνυμος γένοιτο—
literally, of which evils may Jove be the averter, and in being so, answer to his name. This allusion to the names and epithets of the gods occurs in Æschylus with a frequency which marks it as a point of devotional propriety in the worship of the Greeks. I have expressed the same thing in the text by the repetition of avert. So in the Choephoræ, [p. 103], Herald Hermes, herald me in this, &c.
“In his ear and inward sense deep-pondered truths,
By no false art, though without help from fire.”
“Tiresias, the Theban seer, was blind, and could not divine by fire or other visible signs; but he had received from Pallas a remarkably acute hearing, and the faculty of understanding the voices of birds.”—Apollodor. III. 6.—Stan. Well. objects to this, but surely without good reason. Why are the ears—εν ὦσι—mentioned so expressly, if not to make some contrast to the common method of divining by the eye?
“By Mars, Enýo, and blood-loving Terror.”
With Mars in Homer (Il. IV. 440) are coupled φόβος and Δ(ε)ιμος, Fear and Terror, as in this passage of Æschylus, and Ἔρις, Strife.
“Fear and Terror went with him, and Strife that rages without bound,
Strife of Mars the man-destroyer, sister and companion dear.”
And in Livy (I. 27), Tullus Hostilius being pressed in battle, “duodecim vovit Salios, fanaque Pallori et Pavori.”—Compare Cic. de Nat. Deor. III. c. 25. Enýo is coupled in Homer as a war-goddess with Athena—
“Well Tydides knew that Venus was no goddess made for war,
Not Athena, not Eýno city-sacking.”
In our language, we have naturalized her Roman counterpart Bellona.
“. . . the chariot of Adrastus.”
“Because it had been predicted that Adrastus alone should survive the war.”—Scholiast.
Chorus. This Chorus, Schneider remarks, naturally divides itself into four, or, as I think, rather into five distinct parts, (1) The Chorus enter the stage in great hurry and agitation, indicated by the Dochmiac verse—σποράδην, according to the analogy of the Eumenides—(see the βιος Αισχύλου)—in scattered array, and, perhaps in the person of their Coryphæus, describe generally the arrival of the Theban host, and their march against the walls of Thebes. (2) But as the agitation increases, continuity of description becomes impossible, and a series of broken and irregular exclamations and invocations by individual voices follows. (3) Then a more regular prayer, or the chaunting of the Theban litany begins, in which we must suppose the whole band to join. (4) This is interrupted, however, by the near terror of the assault, and the chaunt is again broken into hurried exclamations of individual voices. (5) The litany is then wound up by the whole band. Of course no absolute external proof of matters of this kind can be offered; but the internal evidence is sufficiently strong to warrant the translator in marking the peculiar character of the Chorus in some such manner as I have done. For dramatic effect, this is of the utmost consequence. Nothing has more hurt the dramatic character of Æschylus, than the practice of throwing into the form of a continuous ode what was written for a series of well-arranged individual voices. Whoever he was among more recent scholars that first analyzed the Choruses with a special view to separate the exclamatory parts from the continuous chaunt deserves my best thanks.—See [Note 19] to the Eumenides, [p. 377].
“With clattering hoofs, on and on still they ride.”
πεδιοπλόκτυπος. Before this word, another epithet ελεδεμνας occurs, which the intelligent scholar will readily excuse me for having omitted altogether.
“. . . the white-shielded host.”
The epithet λεύκασπις seems characteristic of the Argive host in the Bœotian legend. Sophocles, in the beautiful opening Chorus of the Antigone, and Euripides in the Phœnissæ, has it. Such traits were of course adopted by the tragedians from the old local legends always with conscientious fidelity. Stan. refers it to the general white or shining aspect of the shields of the common soldiers, distinguished by no various-coloured blazonry; which may be the true explanation.
“With chaplet and stole.”
In modern times, the mightiest monarchs have not thought it beneath their dignity to present, and sometimes, even, to work a petticoat to the Virgin Mary. In ancient times, the presentation of a πέπλος to the maiden goddess of Athens was no less famous—
“Take the largest and the finest robe that in thy chamber lies—
Take the robe to thee so dear, and place it duly on the knees
Of the beautiful-haired Athena.”—Il. VI. 273.
Virgil has not forgotten this—Æneid I. 480. The peplos was a large upper dress, often reaching to the feet. Yates, in the Dict. Antiq., translates it “shawl,” which may be the most accurate word, but, from its modern associations, of course, unsuitable for poetry.—See the article.
“O Ares, that shines in the helmet of gold.”
Mars was one of the native ὲπιχώριοι gods of Thebes, as the old legend of the dragon and the sown-teeth sufficiently testifies. The dragon was the offspring of Mars; and the fountain which it guarded, when it was slain by the Phœnician wanderer, was sacred to that god. Apollodor. III. 4; Unger. de fonte Aret. p. 103.
“And their steeds with ringing bridles.”
Bells were often used on the harness of horses, and on different parts of the armour, to increase the war-alarm—the κλαγγή τε ἐνοπή τε (Il. III. 2), which is so essential a part of the instinct of assault. See the description of Tydeus below, and Dict. Antiq. tintinnabulum, where is represented a fragment of ancient sculpture, showing the manner in which bells were attached to the collars of war-horses. Dio Cassius (Lib. LXXVI. 12) mentions that “the arms of the Britons are a shield and short spear, in the upper part whereof is an apple of brass, which, being shaken, terrifies the enemy with the sound.” Compare κωδωνο, φαλαραπωλους. Aristoph. Ran. 963.
“God of pawing steeds, Poseidon.”
Neptune is called equestrian or ἱππίος, no doubt, from the analogy of the swift waves, over which his car rides, to the fleet ambling of horses. In the mythical contest with Pallas, accordingly, while the Athenian maid produces the olive tree, the god of waves sends forth a war-horse.
“Save us, Cypris, mother of Thebans.”
“Harmonia, whom Cadmus married, was the daughter of Mars and Aphrodite.”—Scholiast.
“Save us, save us, Wolf-Apollo.”
Here is one of those pious puns upon the epithets of the gods, which were alluded to in [Note 1] above. With regard to this epithet of Apollo, who, in the Electra of Sophocles, v. 6, is called distinctly wolf-slayer (λυκοκτόνος), there seems to me little doubt that the Scholiast on that passage is right in referring this function to Apollo, as the god of a pastoral people (νὸμιος). Passow (Dict. in voce), compare Pausan. (Cor. II. 19).
“O Onca, blest Onca.”
Onca, says the Scholiast, was a name of Athena, a Phœnician epithet, brought by Cadmus from his native country. The Oncan gate was the same as the Ogygian gate of Thebes mentioned by other writers, and the most ancient of all the seven.—Unger. p. 267; Pausan. IX. 8.
“The seven-gated city deliver, deliver.”
The current traditional epithet of Thebes, whose seven gates were as famous as the seven mouths of the Nile—
“Rari quippe boni: numerus vix est totidem quot
Thebarum portæ vel divitis ostia Nili.”—Juv. Sat. XIII. 26.
And Homer, in the Odyssey XI. 263, talks of—
“Amphion and Zethus,
First who founded and uptowered the seat of seven-gated Thebes.”
These may suffice from a whole host of citations in Unger. Vol. I. p. 254-6, and Pausan. IX. 8. 3.
“. . . a foreign-speaking foe!”
This appears strange, as both besieged and besiegers were Greeks, differing no more in dialect than the Prussians and the Austrians, or we Scotch from our English neighbours. I agree with E. P. that it is better not to be over-curious in such matters, and that Butler is right when he says that ἐτερόφωνος is only paullo gravius dictum ad miserationem—that is, only a little tragic exaggeration for hostile or foreign.
“. . . the painted gods upon the prow.”
The general practice was, that the tutelary gods were on the poop, and only the figure-head on the prow (Dict. Antiq., Ships and Insigne), but, as there was nothing to prevent the figure-head being itself a god, the case alluded to by Æschylus might often occur.—See the long note in Stan.
“Who knows not
That, when a city falls, they pass to the Victor”
The Roman custom of evoking the gods of a conquered city to come out of the subject shrines, and take up their dwelling with the conqueror, is well known. In Livy, V. 21, there is a remarkable instance of this in the case of Veii—“Tuo ductu,” says Camillus, “Pythice Apollo, tuoque numine instinctus pergo ad delendam urbem Veios: tibique hinc decumam partem prædæ voveo. Te simul, Juno regina, quæ nunc Veios colis, precor ut nos victores in nostram tuamque mox futuram urbem sequare; ubi te dignum amplitudine tua templum accipiat.”
“For blood of mortals is the common food.”
I read φόνῳ, not φόβῳ, principally for the sake of the sentiment, as the other idea which φοβῳ gives, has been already expressed. Certainly Well. is too positive in saying that φόβῳ is “prorsus necessarium.” Both readings give an equally appropriate sense: that in the text, which Pot. also gives; or this other—
“Your fear but heaps the fuel of hot war
I’ the hearts o’ the foe.”
“Dirce and Ismenus’ sacred stream.”
These were waters in Theban legend no less famous than Inachus and Erasinus in that of Argos. The waters of Dirce, in particular, were famous for their clearness and pleasantness to drink. “Dirce, flowing with a pure and sweet stream,” says Aelian, Var. Hist. XII. 57, quoted by Unger. p. 187, and Æschylus in the Chorus immediately following, equals its praise to that of the Nile, sung so magnificently in the Suppliants.”
“From Poseidon earth-embracing,
And from Tethys’ winding sons.”
Γαιήοχος—the “Earth-holder” or “Earth-embracer,” is a designation of Poseidon, stamped to the Greek ear with the familiar authority of Homer. According to Hesiod, and the Greek mythology generally, the fountains were the sons of Ocean either directly or indirectly, through the rivers, who owned the same fatherhood. Tethys is the primeval Amphitrite.—See [Note 13] to Prometheus, [p. 390] above.
“. . . at the Prœtian portal Tydeus stands.”
“A gate of doubtful parentage, from which the road went out from Thebes direct to Chalcis in Eubœa.”—Unger. p. 297. “Here, by the wayside, was the tomb of Melanippus, the champion of this gate, who slew his adversary Tydeus.”—Pausan. IX. 8. This Tydeus is the father of Diomedes, whose exploits against men and gods are so nobly sung in Iliad V. From the frequency of the words βοᾶν, βοὴν, βρέμειν, etc. in this fine description, one might almost think that Æschylus had wished to paint the father after the Homeric likeness of the son, who, like Menelaus, was βοὴν ἀγαθός. In the heroic ages, a pair of brazen lungs was not the least useful accomplishment of a warrior. The great fame of the father of Diomedes as a warrior appears strikingly from that passage of the Iliad (IV. 370), where Agamemnon uses it as a strong goad to prick the valorous purpose of the son.
“. . . the wise Oiclidan seer.”
“Amphiaraus, the son of Oicles, being a prophet, and foreseeing that all who should join in the expedition against Thebes would perish, refused to go himself, and dissuaded others. Polynices, however, coming to Iphis, the son of Alector, inquired how Amphiaraus might be forced to join the expedition, and was told that this would take place if his wife Eriphyle should obtain the necklace of Harmonia. This, accordingly, Polynices gave her, she receiving the gift in the face of an interdict in that matter laid on her by her husband. Induced by this bribe, she persuaded her husband to march against his will, he having beforehand promised to refer any matter in dispute between him and Adrastus to the decision of his wife.—Apollodor. III. 6; Confr. Hor. III. 16, 11.
“The brazen bells ring fear.”
A Scottish knight, in an old ballad, has these warlike bells on his horse’s mane—
“At ilk tail o’ his horse’s mane,
There hung a siller bell:
The wind was loud, the steed was proud,
And they gied a sindry knell.”—Young Waters.
And one of Southey’s Mexican heroes has them on his helmet—
“Bells of gold
Embossed his glittering helmet, and where’er
Their sound was heard, there lay the press of war,
And Death was busiest there.”—Madoc. II. 18.
“His race from those whom Ares spared he draws.”
That is to say, he belonged to one of the oldest originally Theban families—was one of the children of the soil, sprung from the teeth of the old Theban dragon, which Cadmus, by the advice of Athena, sowed in the Earth; and from that act, the old race of Thebans were called σπαρτόι, or the Sown. See Stan.’s note.
“Proud Capaneus before the Electran gate.”
This gate was so called from Electra, the sister of Cadmus. Pausan. IX. 8-3. And was the gate which led to Platæa and Athens. Unger. p. 274.
“. . . The third lot to Eteocles
Leapt from the upturned brazen helm.”
The custom of using the helmet, for the situla or urn, when lots were taken in war, must have been noted by the most superficial student of Homer. Stan. has collected many instances, of which one may suffice—
“Quickly, in the brazen helm, we shake the lot; and first of all,
Of Eurylochus, mighty-hearted, leapt the lot.”—Odyssey X. 206.
“At the Netaean gate.”
So called from Neis, a son of Zethus, the brother of Amphion. Pausan. IX. 8; Unger. p. 313.
“Black smoke, the volumed sister of the flame.”
Just as Homer, in a familiar passage, calls “sleep the mother of death” (Il. XIV. 231), adopted by Shelley in the exquisite exordium of Queen Mab—
“How beautiful is Death,
Death and his brother Sleep!”
Mitchell, in a note on the metaphors of Æschylus (Aristoph. Ran. 871), mentions this as being one of those tropes, where the high-vaulting tragedian has jerked himself over from the sublime into the closely-bordering territory of the ridiculous; but neither here nor in διαδρομᾶν (ο)μαίμονες, which he quarrels with, is there anything offensive to the laws of good taste. It sounds, indeed, a little queer to translate literally, Rapine near akin to running hither and thither; but, as a matter of plain fact, it is true that, when in the confusion of the taking of a city, men run hither and thither, rapine is the result. In my version, Plunder, daughter of Confusion ([p. 272] above), expresses the idea intelligibly enough, I hope, to an English ear.
“Round its hollow belly was embossed
A ring of knotted snakes.”
The old Argolic shield, round as the sun—
“Argolici clypei aut Phœbæœ lampadis instar.”
See Dict. Antiq. Clypeus. The kind described in the text finds its modern counterpart in those hollow Burmese shields often found in our museums, only larger.
“. . . by the god of war
Indwelt.”
ἔνθεος δ᾽ Αρει, literally, “ingodded by Mars,” or having the god of war dwelling in him. This phrase shows the meaning of that reproach cast by the Pharisees in the teeth of Christ—ἔχει δαιμόνιον—he hath a devil, or, as the Greeks would have said, a god—i.e. he is possessed by a moral power so far removed from the common, that we must attribute it to the indwelling might of a god or devil.
“. . . a hostile pair
Well matched by Hermes.”
The Greeks ascribed to Hermes every thing that they met with on the road, and every thing accidentally found, and whatever happens by chance—and so two adversaries well matched in battle were said to have been brought together by the happy contrivance of that god.”—Schol.; and see [Note 59] to the Eumenides, [p. 386].
“The sixth a sober man, a seer of might,
Before the Homoloidian gate stands forth.”
i.e. Amphiaraus—see above, [Note 23], [p. 420]. Homer (Odys. XV. 244) speaks of him as beloved by Jove and Apollo. The Homoloidian gates were so called either from mount Homole in Thessaly (Pausan. IX. 8), or from Homolois, a daughter of Niobe and Amphion.—Unger. p. 324.
“With bitter taunts his evil-omened name,
Making it spell his ugly sin that owns it.”
The name Polynices means literally much strife; and there can be no question that the prophet in this place is described as taunting the Son of Oedipus with the evil omen of his name after the fashion so familiar with the Greek writers. See Prometheus, [Note 8], [p. 388]. The text, however, is in more places than one extremely corrupt; and, in present circumstances, I quite agree with Well. and Lin. that we are not warranted in introducing the conjectural reading of ὄμμα for ὄνομα, though there can be no question that the reading ὄμμα admits of a sufficiently appropriate sense.—See Dunbar, Class. Museum, No. XII. p. 206.
“The wise man is what fools but seem to be.”
“When this tragedy was first acted, Aristides, surnamed the Just, was present. At the declamation of these words—
ὀυ γὰρ δοκ(ε)ιν ἄριστος ἀλλ᾽ (ἐ)ίναι θέλει,
the whole audience, by an instantaneous instinct, directed their eyes to him.”—Plutarch, Apoth. Reg. et duc. Sallust describes Cato in the same language—“Esse quam videri bonus malebat.”—Stan.
“O god-detested! god-bemadded race!”
In modern theological language we are not accustomed to impute mental infatuation, insanity, or desperate impulses of any kind to the Supreme Being; but in the olden time such language as that of the text was familiarly in the mouth of Jew and Gentile. “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart,” is a sentence which we all remember, perhaps with a strange sensation of mysterious terror, from our juvenile lessons; and “quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat,” is a common maxim in our mouths, though we scarcely half believe it. In Homer and the tragedians instances of this kind occur everywhere; and in the Persians of our author the gods are addressed in a style of the most unmitigated accusation. In such cases, modern translators are often inclined to soften down the apparent impiety of the expression into some polite modern generality; but I have scrupulously retained the original phraseology. I leave it to the intelligent reader to work out the philosophy of this matter for himself.
“. . . the god will have it so.”
This is one of the cases so frequent in the ancient poets ([Note 76] to Choephoræ, [p. 372]) where θεός is used in the singular without the article. In the present case the translators seem agreed in supplying the definite particle, as Phœbus, mentioned in the next line, may naturally be understood. In modern language, where a man is urged on to his destruction by a violent unreasoning passion, reference is generally made to an overruling decree or destiny, rather than directly to the author of all destiny. “But my ill-fate pushed me on with an obstinacy that nothing could resist; and, though I had several times loud calls from my reason and my more composed judgment to go home, yet I had no power to do it. I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret overruling decree that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush upon as with our eyes open. Certainly nothing but some such decreed unavoidable misery attending, and which it was impossible for me to escape, could have pushed me forward against the calm reasonings and persuasions of my most retired thoughts.”—Robinson Crusoe. On this subject see my Homeric Theology. Class. Mus. No. XXVI. Propositions 5, 12, and 18 compared.
“Death is thy only gain, and death to-day
Is better than to-morrow!”
λέγουσα κέρδος πρότερον ὑστερου μόρου—mentioning to me an advantage (viz., in my dying now) preferable to a death at a later period; as his good genius might have whispered to Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo. In translating thus a confessedly difficult passage I have Welcker (Trilog. 363), Butler, Blom., and Schütz., and E. P. Oxon., on my side, also the simple comment of Scholiast II.—κερδ(ο)ς, i.e. τὸ νῦν τεθνᾶναι πρότερον, i.e. τιμιώτερον. Lin. agreeing with Well. translates “urging the glory of the victory which precedes the death which follows after it.” Conz. is singular, and certainly not to be imitated in translating with Schol. I.—
“Wer der erste tödlet gewinnt den Sieg.”
“He who inflicts the first lethal blow gains the victory.”
Pot. has not grappled with the passage. If Lin.’s interpretation be preferred, I should render—
“Beside me sits
The Fury with dry tearless eye, and points to
One glimpse of glory heralding black death.”
or—
“The glorious gain that shall precede the death.”
It will be observed that if πρότερον be taken in the sense of τιμιώτερον, with the Scholiast, and το νῦν τεθναναι understood to κέρδος, Wellauer’s objection falls that μαλλον or μειζον must be understood to render the rendering in my text admissible.
“. . . goddess most ungodlike.”
I have remarked, in a Note above, that the Greeks, so far from having any objection to the idea that the gods were the authors of evil, rather encouraged it; and accordingly, in their theology, they had no need for a devil or devils in any shape. This truth, however, must be received with the qualification, arising from the general preponderating character of the Greek deities, which was unquestionably benign, and coloured more from the sunshine than the cloud; in reference to which general character, it might well be said that certain deities, whose function was purely to induce misery, were ὀυ θεοῖς ὅμοιοι—nothing like the gods.
“O son of Scythia, must we ask thine aid?
Chalybian stranger thine.”
We see here how loosely the ancients used Certain geographical terms, and especially this word Scythia; for the Chalybes or Chaldaei, as they were afterwards called, were a people of Pontus. Their country produced, in the most ancient times, silver also; but, in the days of Strabo, iron only.—Strabo, Lib. XII. p. 549.
“. . . for sorry tendance wrathful.”
I read ἐπίκοτος τροφᾶς with Heath., Blom., and Pal. For the common reading, ἐπικότους τροφάς, Well., with his usual conservative ingenuity, finds a sort of meaning; but the change which the new reading requires is very slight, and gives a much more obvious sense; besides that it enables us to understand the allusion to Æschylus in Schol. Oedip. Col. 1375.—See Introductory Remarks, Welcker’s Trilogie, p. 358, and Pal.’s Note.
“. . . (for still in four and three
The god delights).”
These words are a sort of comment on the epithet ἑβδομαγέτας given to Apollo in the text, of which Pape, in his Dictionary, gives the following account: “Surname of Apollo, because sacrifice was offered to him on the seventh day of every month, or as Lobeck says (Aglaoph. p. 434), because seven boys and seven girls led the procession at his feasts.—Herod. VI. 57. The ancients were not agreed in the interpretation of this epithet.” It is not necessary, however, I must admit with Schneider, to suppose any reference to this religious arithmetic here. Phœbus receives the seventh gate, because, as the prophet of the doom, it was his special business to see it fulfilled; and this he could do only there, where the devoted heads of Eteocles and Polynices stood.
“And I for plaints no less than pæans bring thee.”
I see no sufficient case made out for giving these words from τοιᾶυτα down to φορουμενοι to the Chorus. The Messenger, surely, may be allowed his moral reflections without stint in the first place, as the Chorus is to enlarge on the same theme in the chaunt which immediately follows. It strikes me also, that the tone of the passage is not sufficiently passionate for the Chorus.
“Ay, drenched in gore, in brothered gore.”
In the old editions, and in Pot. and Glasg. these words are given to Ismene; but never was a scenic change made with greater propriety than that of Brunck, when he continued these speeches down to the end of Antistrophe IV. to the Chorus. Nothing could be more unnatural than that the afflicted sisters, under such a load of woe, should open their mouths with long speeches—long, assuredly, in comparison of what they afterwards say. They are properly silent, till the Chorus has finished the wail; and then they speak only in short exclamations—articulated sobs—nothing more. For the same reason, deserting Well., I have given the repeated burden Ἰὼ Μοιρα, etc. to the Chorus. The principal mourners in this dirge should sing only in short and broken cries.
“Moera, baneful gifts dispensing.”
The word μοῖρα originally means lot, portion, part, that which is dealt or divided out to one. In this sense it occurs frequently in Homer, and is there regarded as proceeding from the gods, and specially from Jove. But with an inconsistency natural enough in popular poetry, we sometimes find μοῖρα in Homer, like ἀτη, elevated to the rank of a separate divine personage. “Not I,” says Agamemnon, in the Iliad (XIX. 86), “was to blame for the quarrel with Achilles,
But Jove and Moera and the Fury, walking through the darkness dread.”
The three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, like the three Furies, were a post-Homeric birth. We thus see how, under the influence of the Polytheistic system, new gods were continually created from what were originally mere functions of the divine mind, or results of the divine activity.
“Due burial in its friendly bosom.”
θάπτειν ἔδοξε γῆς φιλαις κατασκφαῖς. The words here used seem to imply interment in the modern fashion, without burning, but they may also refer to the depositing of the urns in subterranean chambers. Ancient remains, as well as the testimony of classical authors, prove that both practices existed among the ancients, though cremation was latterly the more common. The reader will be instructed by the following extract on this subject from Dr. Smith’s admirable Dictionary of Antiquities, article Funus: “The body was either buried or burnt. Lucian, de luctu, says that the Greeks burn, and the Persians bury, their dead; but modern writers are greatly divided in opinion as to which was the usual practice. Wachsmuth (Hell. Alt. II. 2, p. 79) says that, in historical times, the dead were always buried; but this statement is not strictly correct. Thus we find that Socrates (Plut. Phædon) speaks of his body being either burnt or buried; the body of Timoleon was burnt; and so was that of Philopæmon (Plutarch). The word θάπτειν is used in connection with either mode; it is applied to the collection of the ashes after burning; and accordingly we find the words κάιειν and θάπτειν used together (Dionys. Archæolog. Rom. V. 48). The proper expression for interment in the earth is κατορύττειν; whereas we find Socrates speaking of το σῶμα η καόμενον, ἠ κατορυττόμενον. In Homer, the bodies of the dead are burnt; but interment was also used in very ancient times. Cicero (de leg. II. 25) says that the dead were buried at Athens in the time of Cecrops; and we also read of the bones of Orestes being found in a coffin at Tegea (Herod. I. 68). The dead were commonly buried among the Spartans (Plut. Lycurg. 27) and the Sicyonians (Paus. II. 7); and the prevalence of this practice is proved by the great number of skeletons found in coffins in modern times, which have evidently not been exposed to the action of fire. Both burning and burying appear to have been always used, to a greater or less extent, at different periods; till the spread of Christianity at length put an end to the former practice.”
“Mighty Furies that triumphant
Ride on ruin’s baleful wings.”
I have here, by a paraphrase, endeavoured to express the remarkably pregnant expression of the original κῆρες Εριννύες—combining, as it does, in grammatical apposition, two terrible divine powers, that the ancient poets generally keep separate. The κῆρες, or goddesses of destruction and violent death, occur frequently in Homer. Strictly speaking, they represent only one of the methods by which the retributive Furies may operate; but, in a loose way of talking, they are sometimes identified with them. Schoemann, in a note to the Eumenides, p. 62, has quoted to this effect, Hesiod v. 217, and Eurip. Elect, v. 1252:—
“The terrible Kerés, blushless persecutors,
Will chase thee wandering frenzied o’er the earth.”