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Westphal's Transposition in Aeschylus, Supplices 86–95

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Extract

Westphal wished to transpose lines 88–90 and 93–5 of the Supplices. This transposition has been supported recently by R. D. Dawe (The Collation and Investigation of Manuscripts of Aeschylus, 163), by Holger Friis Johansen in C. & M. xxvii (1966), 43–4 (also in his edition of the play), and by Sir Denys Page (in his new Oxford Text of Aeschylus). However, the transposition gains little support from a careful examination of the language and context of the passage, as I shall now proceed to demonstrate. I discussed the whole passage previously in my article ‘Aeschylus Supplices 86–95’, Classical Philology, 1 (1955), 21–5, and much of my argument can be found in that earlier article.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1974

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References

page 209 note 1 The ‘metaphorical’ interpretation was not suggested in my earlier article; it is a more recent addition. The existence of three levels of meaning is not an extravagance; this phenomenon occurs whenever a metaphorical expression is used with allusive force, e.g. Homer's ‘A man cannot ward off the intent of Zeus’.

Level 1: ‘ward off’ in physical sense (literal).

Level 2: ‘ward off’ in sense of ‘stop it happening’ (metaphorical).

Level 3: ‘we cannot ward off the enemy, since Zeus is against us’ (allusive).

page 209 note 2 Scholars have sought to find a continuation of the hunting metaphor in lines 93–5, the image being that of a wild animal being hunted down in dark woodland places. But Aeschylus' imagery is of hawks chasing doves (P.V. 856–9, Supppl. 223–4), not of wild animals in the woods. Here I think that the scholiast's interpretation of is shrewd and very much to the point; I developed this idea in my earlier article. (The scholion reads: )

page 210 note 1 I have already discussed the emendation of line 86 and the general implication of the Strophe in my earlier article.