[370]. As in Homer (Il. i. 14) so here, the servant of Apollo bears the wand of augury, and fillets or wreaths round head and arms. The divining garments, in like manner, were of white linen.
[371]. If we adopt this reading, we must think of Cassandra as identifying herself with the woe (Atè) which makes up her life, just as afterwards Clytæmnestra speaks of herself as one with the avenging Demon (Alastor) of the house of Atreus (1473). The alternative reading gives—
“Make rich in woe another in my place.”
[372]. Perhaps, “in home not mine.”
[373]. When the victim, instead of shrinking and struggling, went, as with good courage, to the altar, it was noted as a sign of divine impulse. Such a strange, new courage the Chorus notices in Cassandra.
[374]. Possibly,
“My one escape, my friends, is but delay.”
[375]. The implied thoughts of the words is that Priam and his sons, though they had died nobly, were yet miserable, and not happy.
[376]. The Syrian ritual had, it would seem, become proverbial for its lavish use of frankincense and other spices.
[377]. The close parallel of Shakespeare's Henry VI., Act. v. sc. 6, is worth quoting—