AiKaviKoq A0709 tu Euripides. 27 



says not a word in direct reply to 7. 1030-1034 and e. 1041- 

 1048. However, it must be said that the pr]ai<i as a whole is 

 an answer to that of Klytaimnestra, because other arguments 

 are advanced to account for the crime committed by the 

 defendant. So indirectly Elektra answers 7. 1030-1034 and 

 S. 1 03 5- 1 040 by stating- (1069 fg.) that her mother was false 

 to Agamemnon long before he brought Kassandra to his 

 palace. The e7rt\oyo<i is a peculiar one. It is the decision 

 of a judge rather than the conclusion of a prjaa. Elektra 

 has tried her mother, as it were, and found her guilty of 

 murder. She therefore renders judgment against her and 

 sentence of death. 



Vv. 1051-1056, generally given to Elektra, have caused 

 the commentators much trouble. Nauck's change — hUriv 

 eXsfa?- o-?; hiKr] for hUai eXe|a?, r] Slkt] (1051) — helps US 

 but little, and we had better retain the reading of the MSS. 

 Wilamowitz, Anal. Eur. p. 71, after quoting these verses, 

 says : 



"Ab Electra iu.sta protulisse Clytaemnestram dici non 

 posse intellexerunt, correxerunt igitur, varium et inproba- 

 bilem in modum. 1054 et 55 cohaerere non docuerunt. 

 * Ces vers ont ete mal divises, puis mal corriges ' dicit Wei- 

 lius inprobabilia molitus, vere, at alio quam voluit sensu. 

 1051-1 o§4, chori sunt. 1055, 1056, Elect rae.'''' 



This is a satisfactory explanation of a very troublesome 

 passage. Besides the objection given by Wilamowitz, it can- 

 not be explained why the poet should make the second 

 speaker give her opinion of the arguments of her opponent 

 at the very beginning, then check herself after four verses, 

 and remind her mother of the last words of the previous 

 /3^a-t9. There is not a parallel to this in all the rhetorical 

 p;o-ei? of Euripides. There is no doubt that vv. 1051-1054 

 are far better adapted to the chorus, as reflecting the opinion 

 of the audience, than they are to Elektra, and it is the gen- 

 eral rule for the chorus to have two or more verses between 

 such pi]cr6L<^. 



393 



