"QUEM DEUS VULT PERDERE PRIUS DEMENTAT."
Having disposed of the allegation that the Greek Iambic,
"ὅν θεὸς θέλει ἀπολέσαι πρῶτ' ἀποφρέναι,"
was from Euripides, by denying the assertion, I am also, on farther investigation, compelled to deny to him also the authorship of the cited passage,—
"ὅταν δε Δαίμων ἀνδρὶ πορσύνῃ κακὰ, τὸν νοῦν ἔβλαψε πρὼτον."
Its first appearance is in Barnes, who quotes it from Athenagoras "sine auctoris nomine." Carmeli includes it with others, to which he prefixes the observation,—
"A me piacque come al Barnesio di porle per disteso, ed a canto mettervi la traduzione in nostra favella, senza entrare tratto tratto in quistioni inutili, se alcuni versi appartengano a Tragedia di Euripide, o no."
There is, then, no positive evidence of this passage having ever been attributed, by any competent scholar, to Euripides. Indirect proof that it could not have been written by him is thus shown:—In the Antigone of Sophocles (v. 620.) the chorus sings, according to Brunck,—
"Σοφίᾳ γὰρ ἔκ του
κλεινὸν ἔπος πέφανται·
Τὸ κακὸν δοκεῖν ποτ' ἐσθλὸν
τῷδ' ἔμμεν, ὅτῳ φρένας
θεὸς ἄγει πρὸς ἄταν·
πράσσειν δ' ὀλιγοστὸν χρόνον ἐκτὸς ἄτας."
"For a splendid saying has been revealed by the wisdom of some one: That evil appears to be good to him whose mind God leads to destruction; but that he (God) practises this a short time without destroying such a one."
Now, had Barnes referred to the scholiast on the Antigone, or remembered at the time the above-cited passage, he would either not have omitted the conclusion of his distich, or he would at once have seen that a passage quoted as "ἔκ του, of some one," by Sophocles, seventeen years the senior of Euripides, could not have been the original composition of his junior competitor. The conclusion of the distich is thus given by the old scholiast:
"ὅταν δ' ὁ Δαίμων ἀνδρὶ πορσύνῃ κακὰ,
τὸν νοῦν ἔβλαψε πρῶτον ᾧ βουλεύεται."
The words "when he wills it" being left out by Barnes and Carmeli, but which correspond with the last line of the quotation from Sophocles. The old scholiast introduces the exact quotation referred to by Sophocles as "a celebrated (notorious, ἀοίδιμον) and splendid saying, revealed by the wisdom of some one, μετὰ σοφίας γὰρ ὑπό τινος."
Indeed, the sentiment must have been as old as Paganism, wherein, whilst all voluntary acts are attributed to the individual, all involuntary ones are ascribed to the Deity. Even sneezing was so considered: hence the phrase common in the lower circles in England, "Bless us," and in a higher grade in Germany, "Gott segne euch," which form the usual chorus to a sneeze.
The other scholiast, Triclinius, explains the passage of Sophocles by saying, "The gods lead to error (βλάβην) him whom they intend to make miserable (δυστυχεῖν): hence the application to Antigone, who considers death as sweet."
T. J. Buckton.
Lichfield.