[167] Athen. xiii. 601 A, where it is further noted that these plays were received with applause.
[168] According to Schol. Ar. Ran. 911, first of all, μέχρι τριῶν ἡμερῶν οὐδὲν φθέγγεται.
[169] The reader must be careful here to give the proper sense to σέβας ἁγνόν, translating “ne sancta quidem reverentia qua casta atque intemerata tua femora servavi, te movit, ingrate, etc.” Fr. 136, whether genuine or not—it reads very like a misquotation of its predecessor—must obviously mean the same, in spite of Theomnestus and Lucian.
[170] Athen. xiii. 601 B.
[171] Startling as it appears at first sight, this is probably the simplest way of understanding Athenaeus’ τὸν τῶν παίδων (sc. ἔρωτα). Those who have properly appreciated what such ἔρως meant to the early Greeks, will not be surprised to find the term applied to the affection of an elder for a younger brother.
[172] Plut. Amor. 17, p. 760 D, τῶν μὲν γὰρ τοῦ Σοφοκλέους Νιοβιδῶν βαλλομένων καὶ θνησκόντων ἀνακαλεῖταί τις οὐδένα βοηθὸν ἄλλον οὐδὲ σύμμαχον ἢ τὸν ἐραστήν.
[173] Cp. Aristoph. Vesp. 579.
[174] The marked differences in the versions of the legend, and the fact that it appeared in the Theogamia of the pseudo-Peisander—a writer who seems to have drawn his materials in most cases from early sources—seem to show that it must have been of a certain antiquity, and anyhow was not a pure invention on the part of Euripides. The evidence of Aelian (N. H. vi. 15), though of little value, is to the same effect: Λάϊος δὲ ἐπὶ Χρυσίππῳ, ὦ καλὲ Εὐριπίδη, τοῦτο οὐκ ἔδρασεν, καίτοι τοῦ τῶν ἀρρένων ἔρωτος, ὡς λέγεις αὐτός, καὶ ἡ φήμη διδάσκει, Ἑλλήνων πρώτιστος ἄρξας.
[175] The remark of the Scholiast that the behaviour of Laius to Chrysippus was parallel to that of Zeus to Ganymede, like the similar remark in Cicero (loc. cit.), belongs of course to an age when the primitive meanings of the legends had long been forgotten. The allusion to the legend in Aristoph. Pelargi, Fr. 1 is too general to give evidence either way. See Meineke, Com. Fr. ii. p. 1126 seq.
[176] That this is the relation between Ajax and Teucer in Homer already, is pretty clear. Vide e.g. Il. ix. 266 seqq.; cp. Schol. Theocr. xii. 29. This, no doubt, accounts for the frequent mention of Ajax in the Scolia (cp. [p. 90]).