i.e., as she came on her round to her lover, he put his arm on her waist and kissed her on the elbow; and she, though she said nothing with her lips, “her eyes were speaking.”[347]
Whether the actual words ought not to be still further emended, is questionable; but, anyhow, the general sense thus given is a little more complimentary to Greek “company” manners.
The chief objection to this interpretation is, of course, that it bestows on the epigram a decidedly erotic character, which is not elsewhere to be found in this book, and would certainly be an anachronism if the lines belong to the fifth century.
EXCURSUS B.
[[P. 48.]]
The fragments of the Phaedra of Sophocles (among which may be included Soph. Fr. 855, and Eur. Fr. 431, which both very possibly belong to this play) are interesting for the many parallels they show to the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (Hom. Hymn. iv).
There, too, special emphasis is laid on the universal sway of Aphrodite, not only over men (l. 3), but also over animals (l. 4-6), and over Zeus and the gods (l. 34 seqq.). The animals fawn on her as she comes (l. 69, 70, cp. Soph. Fr. 625). From l. 7 one might guess that Soph. Fr. 855, 13 was originally
τίν’ οὐ παλαίουσ’ ἔς τε τρεῖς σφάλλει θεῶν,
or something similar. Both l. 45 and Soph. Fr. 619 give Zeus as well as Aphrodite the power of inspiring love; and other less important parallels could be pointed out.