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



1476,

Wunder, mistaking these words, badly reads. 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,

Schneidewin says that following  would mean, "and to your parents." He reads, therefore, for. 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, (the emphatic word). But instead of, this great master of tragic effect has beautifully substituted : " 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 for. 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 Historical documents did not exist in the days of Œdipus : and that peculiarly strong superstition of the Greeks which restrained them from the mention of evil,