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The Parodos of the Agamemnon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

M. L. West
M. L. West
Affiliation:
Bedford CollegeLondon
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Extract

In the long section of anapaests with which they make their entry, the old men of Argos methodically deliver three essential messages to the audience:

40–71. It is the tenth year of the Trojan War.

72–82. We are men who were too old to go and fight in it.

83–103. Some new situation seems to be indicated by the fact that Clytemnestra is organizing sacrifices throughout the town.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , May 1979 , pp. 1 - 6
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1979

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References

page 1 note 1 I do not see the need to alter Aeschylus’’ to accord precisely with Homer's .

page 1 note 2 Frr. 172–81 in my edition, with the testimonia; commentary in my Studies in Greek Elegy and Iambus, pp.132–4.

page 2 note 1 Further examples of of an animal's young may be found in a poet particularly given to describing the animal world in human terms, Oppian (Hal. 5.556, 558, 570, etc.).

page 2 note 2 Proclus’’ summary + Apollod. epit. 3.15. The episode was traditional, and already familiar to the poet of the Iliad (2.308 ff.).

page 2 note 3 Homeric models: Il. 8.247 f., 12.219 ff., Od. 15.160 f., 525 ff., 20.242 f.Google Scholar

page 2 note 4 126. In the line before read not There can be no justification for a long alpha. Few editors seem to have a firm grasp on the principles of word formation. Why, for example, do they change in 116 to which could only mean ‘shaking/shaken by spear’’?

page 3 note 1 Studies, p.133.

page 3 note 2 has been conjectured in Il. 21.252. See Fraenkel on Ag. 115.Google Scholar

page 3 note 3 In the Aesopic version of the fable it is a goat. We do not know whether it was a goat in Archilochus.

page 3 note 4 Likewiseunless Zenodotus’’ reading in Il. 1.5 is right,Aristarchus rejected it on the ground thatGoogle Scholar

page 3 note 5 A typical epic motif. Compare the boasts of Thamyris and Niobe, Il. 2.597 and 24.607 f.Google Scholar

page 4 note 1 The audience could not but think of Clytemnestra when he spoke of the sacrifice as

page 4 note 2 Elsewhere Clytemnestra is represented as paying Agamemnon back for his attention to Cassandra (1263, 1438 ff.).

page 4 note 3 I regard it as mistaken to see in these lines a reference to Uranos and Kronos. How can it be said of Uranos that he will cease to be spoken of (if is the right reading)?

page 4 note 4 He does not deny that the sacrifice of Iphigeneia was an unholy act, but he does all he can to persuade us that Agamemnon had no alternative and did it much against his will.

page 5 note 1 The text as given by M and V, with interrogative and adverbial is successfully vindicated by Pope, M. H. in JHS 94 (1974), 100 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar I am not persuaded by the counter-arguments of Booth, N. B. in CQ N.S. 26 (1976), 220 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar