The Agamemnon of Aeschylus, with Notes and a Metrical Table

'"'' ' ;ll!li|!l|li|i!!l!'iiililN|iilii|ii|ii|liiiillli|iiililli.ii:.,: ii lilHiliilSIIKr ;i 'i m il lllli|!ipi' I U liiliH : jii iiliil ii' llliiipii nia:N.:<^H>iilliiiiiiliilliill»|{{l!::'hiHi:!li,,.',llll!ii{liil!llliilii GIFT OF Prof, W.B. Rising THE AGAMEMNON OF .ESCHYLUS, WITH NOTES AND A METRICAL TABLE i NEW EDITION RETISED. By C. C. FELTON, LL.D., ELIOT PROFESSOR OF GREEK LITERATTEE IN THE LXIVERSITV AT CAMIUIIUGE BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE: JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY JI DCCC LIX. Entered according to Act of Conj^ress, in the year 1859, by . C C F E L T O N , 111 the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of >'assachiisi>its. « r ( « ']^ C A M B R I d' G : ^' , r k II } s t ?>ii , Iiff i i e s , a'n il *.P ritehett. P II I X T E K S ; PREFACE. -(iEscHTLUS was born at Eleusls in Attica, in the fourth year of the sixty-third Olympiad, B. C. 525. His father's name was Euphorion. He belonged to a distinguished family of the class of the Eupatridoe. As Bode re- marks,^' he probably may have traced his origin back to Codrus, the last king of Athens ; for, among the life- archons who succeeded in the royal line was an ^'Eschylus, in whose reign the Olympiads commenced, and who may have been an ancestor of the poet. In that case, he in- herited the proudest associations, both in the legendary and the historical traditions of his race. His father seems to have been connected with the worship of Demeter and so, from his earliest youth, he was accustomed to the spectacle of the solemn Eleusinian Mysteries, which, belonged to the most ancient, imposing, and revered services of the Hellenic religion. There is no doubt that at the proper age he was initiated into those Mysteries, which, " as Isocrates says, taught men to entertain " sweeter hopes of a future life ; and that he continued to be a devout * Geschichte der Hellenischen Diclitkunst, B III., §§ 280, 2:9. 237479 IV PREFACE. believer in a superintending providence, and in a righteous retribution, — a judgment to come. He was early taught the severe and ascetic doctrine of Pythagoras. The effect of these associations upon a mind naturally grave, earnest, profound, and enthusiastic, could not fail to strengthen the moral tendencies, and to unfold the lofty characteristics of his genius. We find no difficulty in believing the story repeated by Pausanias, as told by ^schylus himself, '^' that in his boyhood he fell asleep one day in the field, as he was watching the vines, and that Dionysus, appearing in a vision, bade him " write tragedy." The voice of the dream came to him, as he brooded upon it in his waking hours, like a divine command. His imagination had doubtless been excited by the pomp and splendor of the Dionysiac worship which he had beheld at Athens. The lyric exaltation of the dithyrambs chanted by the choirs, as they moved in elaborate dances round the altar of the god, had made a deep impression on his enthusiastic spirit. The changes that were rapidly taking place in the form and tendencies of political composition, especially the new and almost dramatic character which the gay Thespis and the grave Phrynichus had just stamped upon the Dionysiac songs, giving to them an element of human interest, could not fail to appeal with irresistible effect to the creative energies stirring within him ; and what more natural than that, as he fell asleep in the vine- "Lib. I 21. 3. PEEFACE. V yard, while pondering these things, the vintage god, to whom all that dithyrambic and dramatic poetry, festal or solemn, was consecrated, should appear to summon him to his service ? The statement is universal, that he came forward, as soon as he had reached the legal age, and entered into competition with Choerilus and Pratinas, two poets who already stood high in the popular estimation. The judges decided in favor of his rivals. The times were full of excitements more stirring than the struggles of rival poets. In the very year of his first appearance as a dramatic poet commenced the Ionian war, the prelude to those gigantic struggles between Greece and Persia, which placed the former on the loftiest emi- nence among the nations of the earth. In the year B. C. 494, Miletus was taken ; an event which, when brought upon the stage by Phrynichus a few years after, so pain- fully affected the audience that they burst into tears, and, according to Herodotus,'^' fined the author a thousand drachmae " for reminding them of their domestic misfor- tunes." Soon afterwards, the great drama of the Persian inva- sion commenced. The thoughts, the passions, and the strenuous exertions of every Athenian citizen were now engaged to defend the country against the mighty armies and fleets of the invaders. The young Eleusinian did not remain behind from that brave muster. He fought with distinguished valor at Marathon, and was commemo- Lib. VI. 21. a* VI PREFACE. rated In the picture of this action mentioned by Pau- sanias in the passage already cited. His oldest brother, Cynsegeirus shared with him in the glory of that illus- trious day. The part he took in this achievement he regarded as the most memorable event in his life ; and when he felt that death was approaching, he wrote an epitaph, in which he recorded the victory of Marathon, but made no mention of those dramatic victories so eagerly sought after by his countrymen, and so highly prized by himself." In the sea-fights of Artemisium and Salamis, and in the battle of Plattiea, his bravery was equally conspicuous. In the battle of Salamis, his brother Ameinias was the trierarch who commenced the attack, and was the first to sink a hostile ship.'''' The deeds of these noble brothers, and especially of Cynsegeirus, whose hand was cut off as he attempted to lay hold of one of the ships to which the enemy fled for refuge from the field of Marathon, were favorite subjects for the Athenian poets and artists. It was not until his martial fame was established by his conduct at Marathon, that ^schylus was recognized as a tragic poet of a high order. Six years after this event he gained his first tragic prize, B. C. 484, when he was forty-one years of age. He had previously entered into competition with Simonides of Ceos for the prize for * Herodotus, VII. 84. Diodorus Sic, X[. 27. This action is cele- brated in the drama of the Persians. The name of the poet's brother is not, hoAvever, mentioned, lie merely says that a Grecian ship began the onset, i/ît d' tfiîuXi]g "E/J.tjiy.!^ ruvg. PREFACE. VU the best elegy upon those who had fallen at Marathon, and was defeated. In the following year, iEschylus must have been actively engaged in dramatic composition ; for in the period from the commencement of the Persian wars until their termination by Cimon's victory at the Eurymedon in 470, nearly all of his thirteen tragic victories were gained. In B. C. 468, Sophocles made his first appearance, and bore away the prize from ^^schylus. In fact a new generation had sprung up, who did not fully sympathize with the lofty tone of the Marathonian times. The polished genius of Sophocles better pleased the more fastidious tastes of the new race, than the proud, daring, earnest, and austere spirit of the old hero- poet. " In their first conflict," says Bode,^^ " the elder was compelled to give way to the younger, just as The- mistocles had been forced to yield to Cimon. And in the history of tragic art, it is a very significant circumstance that in that contest Cimon was one of the judges. Sophocles, who flourished down to the brilliant period of the age of Pericles, remained faithful to the principle of his art, as ^schvlus did to his : but both could not exist together. The popular feeling, and the entire in- tellectual character of the beautiful but short-blooming period of Attic life, began to change so much, that the serious and earnest character of an ^-Eschylus could no longer keep on friendly terms w'ith it. There prevailed among the people no longer that devotion and enthusiasm * Geschichte der Hellenischen Dichtkuust, B IIL, p. 218. VUl PEEFACE. which had accompanied Themistocles and Aristeides in laying the foundation of youthfal freedom. In short, the first act of the great patriotic drama was over, and with it the influence of ^schylus, who is the purest rep- resentative of the ethical character of this brief period." In this state of affairs, ^schylus left his country and resorted to the splendid court of Hiero, the king of Syracuse, where other Greek poets were welcomed with honor. Some of the ancients attributed this removal to the mortification of his defeat by Sophocles in the dramatic contest ; others, to disgust at being prosecuted on a charge of impiety for having, as was alleged, revealed the Elusinian secrets in one of his plays. On this accu- sation he appears to have been tried before the Areopagus and acquitted. These may, indeed, have co 'Operated with other causes of dissatisfaction in leading the poet to take the decisive step of banishing himself from his native land ; but there can be little doubt that the principal motive has been correctly indicated by Dr. Bode. Soon after his arrival in Sicily, he composed a piece called iEtna, or the Êtnsean Woman, in celebration of the founding of the city of Êtna by Hiero * a few years before.

Load more