[36] Cf. Apul de Deo Socr. § II. ed. meæ, "quos probe callet, qui signorum ortus et obitus comprehendit," Catullus (in a poem imitated from Callimachus) carm. 67, 1. "Omnia qui magni dispexit lumina mundi, Qui stellarum ortus comperit atque obitus." See on Agam. 7.
[37] On the following discoveries consult the learned and entertaining notes of Stanley.
[38] ἤγαγον φιληνίους, i.e. ὥστε φιληνίους εἶναι.
[39] See the elaborate notes of Blomfield and Burges, from whence all the other commentators have derived their information. Κρᾶσις is what Scribonius Largus calls "compositio." Cf. Rhodii Lexicon Scribon, p. 364-5; Serenus Sammonicus "synthesis." The former writer observes in his preface, p. 2, "est enim hæc pars (compositio, scilicet) medicinæ ut maxime necessaria, ita certe antiquissima, et ob hoc primum celebrata atque illustrata. Siquidem verum est, antiquos herbis ac radicibus earum corporis vitia curasse."
[40] Apul. de Deo Socr. § 20, ed. meæ, "ut videmus plerisque usu venire, qui nimia ominum superstitione, non suopte corde, sed alterius verbo, reguntur: et per angiporta reptantes, consilia ex alienis vocibus colligunt." Such was the voice that appeared to Socrates. See Plato Theog. p. 11. A. Xenoph. Apol. 12; Proclus in Alcib. Prim. 13, p. 41. Creuz. See also Stanley's note.
[41] On these augurial terms see Abresch.
[42] Although the Vatican mythologist above quoted observes of Prometheus, "deprehendit præterea rationem fulminum, et hominibus indicavit—" I should nevertheless follow Stanley and Blomfield, in understanding these words to apply to the omens derived from the flame and smoke ascending from the sacrifices.
[43] Cf. Herodot. I. 91, quoted by Blomfield: τὴν πεπρωμένην μοίρην ἀδύνατά ἐστι ἀποφυγέειν καὶ τῷ θεῷ. On this Pythagorean notion of Æschylus see Stanley.
[44] Or, "in pleasure at the nuptials." See Linwood. Burges: "for the one-ness of marriage."
[45] No clew is given as to the form in which Io was represented on the stage. In v. 848, the promise ἐνταῦθα δή σε Ζεὺς τίθησιν ἔμφρονα does not imply any bodily change, but that Io labored under a mental delusion. Still the mythologists are against us, who agree in making her transformation complete. Perhaps she was represented with horns, like the Egyptian figures of Isis, but in other respects as a virgin, which is somewhat confirmed by v. 592, κλύεις φθέγμα τᾶς βούκερω παρθένου.