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AESCHYLUS, SEPTEM CONTRA THEBAS 780–7

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2014

Margalit Finkelberg
Margalit Finkelberg*
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
*
finkelbe@post.tau.ac.il
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Extract

The starting point of this brief discussion is the emendation in line 782 of Aeschylus' Septem proposed by M.L. West in his 1990 Teubner edition. In the fifth strophe of the second stasimon, the chorus recollects the misfortunes that struck Oedipus when he finally discovered the truth about his marriage. This severely corrupt passage, whose original meaning was lost at an early stage of transmission, runs as follows:

      ἐπεὶ δ' ἀρτίϕρων ἐγένετο         [στρ. ε]
      μέλεος ἀθλίων γάμων,
      ἐπ' ἄλγει δυσϕορῶν             780
      μαινομέναι κραδίαι
      δίδυμα κάκ' ἐτέλεσεν
      πατροϕόνωι χερὶ τῶν
      †κρεισσοτέκνων δ' ὀμμάτων† ἐπλάγχθη.
      τέκνοις δ' †ἀραίας† ἐϕῆκεν        [ἀντ. ε]
      ἐπίκοτος τροϕᾶς, αἰαί,         786
      πικρογλώσσους ἀράς.

782 δίδυμ' ἃ West 784 κρεισσοτέκνων M2PKQ1Tr κρείσσω τέκνων rell. κυρσοτέκνων Herm. δ' ὀμμάτων HaQTr δ' ἀπ᾽ ὀμμάτων rell. δωμάτων Schütz χρυσοτέχνων πωμάτων Verrall κρεισσοτέρων γνωμάτων West 785 ἀθλίας Prien ἀρχαίας Wil.

But when the miserable man became aware of his wretched marriage, vexed with pain in his frenzied heart, he committed double evil: with his parricidal hand †he wandered from his eyes, dearer than children†. But upon his sons he put bitter-tongued curses, angry on account of his †accursed† sustenance.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 64 , Issue 2 , December 2014 , pp. 832 - 835
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2014 

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References

1 For the discussion see West, M.L., Studies in Aeschylus (Stuttgart, 1990), 116–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 West (n. 1), 117.

3 See West (n. 1), 116: ‘Triclinius in his scholium (784b) claims to have deleted it, but it is noteworthy that it was absent from Q, which presumably antedates Triclinius’ metrical studies.'

4 West (n. 1), 117.

5 This reading was also favoured by Hoernle, E.S., Notes on the Text of Aeschylus (Oxford, 1921)Google Scholar, 90, who drew attention to the fact that mistaking δῶμα for δ' ὄμμα is a trivial scribal error (cf. e.g. Cho. 126 MS δ' ὀμμάτων for δωμάτων); cf. also Eum. 354 MS δομάτων for δωμάτων (ibid., p. 18).

6 See, e.g. Hutchinson, G.O. (ed.), Aeschylus: Septem contra Thebas (Oxford, 1985)Google Scholar, xxv, arguing against Schütz's δωμάτων: ‘Oedipus did not go into exile πατροϕόνωι χερὶ.’

7 κρεισσοτέκνων in Sept. 784 seems to be corrupt beyond repair: ‘an incredible compound’ (West [n. 1], 116); ‘a word of impossible formation’ (Sommerstein, ad loc.).

8 According to the alternative view, ἐπίκοτος τροϕᾶς should be taken as relating to Oedipus' anger at the incestuous origin of his sons: see esp. Hutchinson (n. 6), xxv–xxvi. For the discussion, see Manton, G.R., ‘The second stasimon of the Seven against Thebes’, BICS 8 (1961), 77–84Google Scholar, at 82.

9 τροϕή Soph. OC 352, 362; βίου τροϕαί 338, 446; τροϕεῖα 341.

10 Cf. Hutchinson (n. 6), 172 (on 785 f.). Note that the same adjective occurs in almost the same position in the strophe (779): as the anonymous referee of this article points out, this kind of deliberate responsion is common with keywords in Aeschylus.

11 Soph. OT 1436–end; OC 427–44, 765–71; Eur. Phoen. 1582–end, but see already Pind. Pyth. 4.263–9.

12 Sept. 911–14, 1002–4; cf. Hom. Il. 23.679–80, Od. 11.275–6. According to Brown, A.L., ‘The end of the Seven against Thebes’, CQ 26 (1976), 206–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 213–14, the evidence of the Septem is inconclusive, for neither of the passages referred to above unequivocally states that Oedipus was buried in Thebes.

13 On temporary exile as the standard treatment of homicide, see Parker, R., Miasma (Oxford, 1983)Google Scholar, 114, 118; on the list of the characters of Greek myth who underwent exile and purification, see ibid., pp. 375–92. Parker also points out that the version of the Oedipus myth adduced by Pherecydes (fr. 95 Jacoby/Fowler) implies that Oedipus' second marriage, concluded upon the death of Iocasta, was preceded by a purificatory year (ibid., p. 386); note that here, too, it is presumed that Oedipus died and was buried in Thebes.