[124] See Boyes' Illustrations, p. 11.
[125] This seems to be the sense of μάντις ἔννοια. Blomfield would add ἔννοια to the dative, which is easier.
[126] So Linwood. Justice is styled the near relation of Melanippus, because he was αἰσχρῶν ἀργὸς, v. 406. The scholiast however interprets it τὸ τῆς ξυγγενείας δίκαιον.
[127] Dindorf's substitution of δικαίας for δικαίως is no improvement. Paley's δίκαιος is more elegant, but there seems little reason for alteration.
Probably nothing more than the lightning is meant, as Blomfield supposes. Paley quotes Eur. Cycl. 328, πέπλον κρούει, Διὸς βρονταῖσιν εἰς ἔριν κτυπῶν. And this agrees with the fate of Capaneus as described in Soph. Antig. 131, sqq.; Nonnus, XXVIII. p. 480; Eur. Phœn. 1187, sqq.
[129] Blomfield compares Eur. Bacch. 733, θύρσοις διὰ χεροῖν ὡπλισμένας. But the present construction is harsher.
[130] See Blomfield.
[131] I follow Blomfield and Paley.
[132] "We embrace this opportunity of making a grammatical observation with respect to the older poets, which, to the best of our knowledge, has not hitherto been noticed by any grammarian or critic. Wherever a wish or a prayer is expressed, either by the single optative mood of the verb, or with μὴ, εἴθε, εἰ γὰρ, εἴθε γάρ, the verb is in the second aorist, if it have a distinct second aorist; otherwise it may be in the present tense, but is more frequently in the first aorist."—Edinb. Rev. xix. 485.