Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/336

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326
Journal of Philology.


(Symbol missingGreek characters)

1476, (Symbol missingGreek characters)

Wunder, mistaking these words, badly reads (Symbol missingGreek characters)[1]. Schneidewin appears to understand them rightly, though somewhat vague in his translation. Erfurdt and Linwood correctly: "quum ex ea voluptate, quam olim percepisti, conjecturam fecissem de praesenti."

1494, (Symbol missingGreek characters)

Schneidewin says that (Symbol missingGreek characters) following (Symbol missingGreek characters) would mean, "and to your parents." He reads, therefore, (Symbol missingGreek characters) for (Symbol missingGreek characters). In so doing, he has shewn himself blind to the true force of these words. Sophocles meant Œdipus to represent all the disgrace of his family, retrospective and prospective, as derived from himself. In ordinary parlance, therefore, he would have aaid, (Symbol missingGreek characters) (the emphatic word) (Symbol missingGreek characters). But instead of (Symbol missingGreek characters), this great master of tragic effect has beautifully substituted (Symbol missingGreek characters): " Which will be sullying imputations to (all who are) mine, to my parents, and at the same time to you (my two children)." In this substitution there is also another purpose, viz. to limit the fatherly concern of Œdipus to his daughters. His comparative indifference to his sons had been declared before (1459) ; and the poet had his mind turned to the events of the Œdipodean myth, as developed afterwards in his Œdipus Coloneus. Were I to desire any emendation, it would be (Symbol missingGreek characters) for (Symbol missingGreek characters). In the close of this paper, let me recur for a moment to the fault found with this noble drama by Voltaire and others, on account of the ignorance which Œdipus exhibits of the events before his accession to the throne. This ignorance would not seem to an ancient Athenian so improbable as it does to us. Historical documents did not exist in the days of Œdipus : and that peculiarly strong superstition of the Greeks which restrained them from the mention of evil,

  1. In the edition of Sophocles among the new Teubner classics I regret to see this erroneous reading adopted, as well as (Symbol missingGreek characters) in v. 1085, and (Symbol missingGreek characters) in v. 458. But (Symbol missingGreek characters) in v. 1279 is probably right.