“And blithely shall welcome them Fortune the fairest.”

This passage being very corrupt, is rendered freely. I adopt Stan.’s conjecture ἰδεῖν ἀκοῦσαι θ᾽ ἱεμενοις, and suppose μέτοικοι to refer to Orestes and Electra.

[ Note 68 (p. 128). ]

“. . . not

My father, but the Sun that fathers all

With light.”

There is a certain mannerism in this description of a thing by the negation of what is similar, to which the tragedians were much addicted. As to the invocation of the sun, see the note in the Prometheus to the speech beginning

O divine ether and swift-winged winds.

[ Note 69 (p. 128). ]

“Or a torpedo, that with biteless touch