Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/320

 wish to afford you the utmost assistance ; (a just belief) for I should be hard-hearted not to compassionate a supplication such as this."

Schneidewin : " Tell me, old man, &c. in what frame are ye here, terror-stricken or resigned, as you may be assured that I shall wish to afford you every assistance; for I should be hard- hearted if I did not pity a supplication such as this." As far as the word, I agree with Schneidewin, understand- ing to mean, "dreading evils which impend, but may be averted by deprecatory prayer, or resigned to evils which exist, but may be removed by prayerful submission to the will of the Gods." The very rare sense of " intresting," which Wunder gives to, is, I think, excluded by the tense of that participle. The clause as. is connected With.

But, in the next clause, I totally disapprove Schneidewin's conjectural alteration for  oh, and agree more nearly with Wunder, with his reading and version, but not precisely with his explanation of the construction. Wunder, in his Excursion, explains as equivalent to wore. And he is not far wrong. But I would not put the point precisely so. If the participial clause were necessarily to be regarded as the protasis of a condition, of which is the apodosis, then I should say with Schneidewin, that must be read, and not. But I do not so regard it. The protasis is suppressed (Obs. ), and to be supplied from the previous clause, while the participial clause further explains the word : "for, if I did not wish to help you, I should be hard-hearted, namely, in refusing to compassionate a supplication like this."

is essentially epexegetic; = " that is to say, not."

It occurs with a participle three times in Sophocles: in this place, again in v. 221, and in ''Œd. Col.'' 360. In the last-mentioned passage, there being no condition, the force of the particles is very simply and clearly exhibited.

The participial clause here is a mere epexegesis of : "you are not come empty, that is to say, not without bringing me some fearful tidings."