Aeschylus Fragment Pl.Rep.383

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jeidsath
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Aeschylus Fragment Pl.Rep.383

Post by jeidsath »

πολλὰ ἄρα Ὁμήρου ἐπαινοῦντες, ἀλλὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐπαινεσόμεθα, τὴν τοῦ ἐνυπνίου πομπὴν ὑπὸ Διὸς τῷ Ἀγαμέμνονι· οὐδὲ Αἰσχύλου, ὅταν φῇ ἡ Θέτις τὸν Ἀπόλλω ἐν τοῖς αὑτῆς γάμοις ᾁδοντα ἐνδατεῖσθαι τὰς ἑὰς εὐπαιδίας

νόσων τ᾽ ἀπείρους καὶ μακραίωνας βίους,
ξύμπαντά τ᾽ εἰπὼν θεοφιλεῖς ἐμὰς τύχας
παιᾶν᾽ ἐπηυφήμησεν, εὐθυμῶν ἐμέ.
κἀγὼ τὸ Φοίβου θεῖον ἀψευδὲς στόμα
ἤλπιζον εἶναι, μαντικῇ βρύον τέχνῃ·
ὁ δ᾽, αὐτὸς ὑμνῶν, αὐτὸς ἐν θοίνῃ παρών,
αὐτὸς τάδ᾽ εἰπών, αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ κτανὼν
τὸν παῖδα τὸν ἐμόν—
Do we know anything else about the play that this is from? I was very struck by it, especially the last three lines.
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

mwh
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Re: Aeschylus Fragment Pl.Rep.383

Post by mwh »

It’s not known what play it’s from, though modern scholars have made various guesses. It’s fr.350 Radt, the standard edition of Aeschylus’ fragments, with commentary in Latin. Used to be fr.189; an old translation online at https://www.theoi.com/Text/AeschylusFragments3.html. Lloyd-Jones discusses it; I don’t remember if it’s in Alan Sommerstein’s Loeb (Aesch. vol.3), but it should be. Best critical text is in Diggle’s Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta Selecta.

Aeschylus (if it is Aeschylus) is alluding to Apollo’s attendance at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis—see esp. Pindar’s Pythian Ode 5 and the Francois Vase. The most memorable account of the Wedding is in Catullus 64, but there Apollo is expressly said to have been absent—an unorthodox version of the celebrated myth.

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