Three Passages in Persae

Extract

Pers. 165-9

166-7 obscuri Page | Lacunam statuit post 168 Merkel

The Medicean Scholiast on 168 paraphrases The Scholiast has apparently misunderstood the image, since it does not seem to be a question of the ‘poor enjoying the pleasure [or the power] of light’. Broadhead’s explanation of 166-7 seems plausible: ‘wealth, deprived of men, will not win respect, and … ἀναρχία may follow the news of a great disaster’ (The Persae of Aeschylus [Cambridge, 1960], p. 74). But how can this be got out of the Greek? R. D. Dawe’s Repertory of Conjectures on Aeschylus (Leiden, 1965) lists numerous attempts to emend 166, but the real trouble seems to lie in 167. After discussing various interpretations of 167 as it stands, Broadhead expresses some doubts (‘if the text is sound’). He notes Lawson’s suggestion of φωσίν ὅ for φς ὅσον. Dawe records Blaydes’ ὅσοις. Broadhead also reports a suggested transposition of 166 and 167 (A. ‘Ludwig and others’), which does not really affect the issue of how 167 is to be interpreted. Πάρα at the end of 167 = πάρεστι according to LSJ, of which I fail to make any acceptable sense; Broadhead gives the words the only meaning they will bear: ‘For those lacking in wealth what strength they possess does not shine as a light’ (p. 74 n. 1), but his paraphrase, ‘does not bring salvation, or success’, is hardly justified by the Greek.