52 CLASSICAL NOTES. 



canerem, &c. Virgil says that lie would have sung of other things, 

 if he had not been (as he still was) furling his sails and hastening to 

 turn his prow to the shore. Next, Tibull. i. 4, 63 : Carmina ni sint, 

 Ex humero Pelopis non nituisset ebur. The ivory shoulder shone 

 forth as soon as the songs were made, but those songs still exist. 



Ibid i. 8, 22 : Cantus et e curru Lunam deducere tentat, et faceret 

 si non sera repulsa sonent. In this case we have the present tense, 

 because the troubles of the moon are still healed, as often as they 

 occur, by the same process : whereas she would have been drawn 

 down by the first incantation. 



Catull. vi. : Flavi, delicias tuas Catullo ni sint illepidse atque 

 inelegantes Velles dicere nee tacere posses. Flavins would have 

 spoken of her long ago, if she had not been (as she still was) unlady- 

 like, &c. 



In all these cases we see that while the state or action, described 

 in the conditional clause, may be considered as still existing or going 

 on as much now as it ever did, that in the other clause might have 

 taken place indefinitely at any time past. 



Sophocles' Antig., 250 foil., and ^schylus Sept. c. Tlieb., 1042. 

 It is generally believed that Sophocles, in his Antigone, intended to 

 take up the fortunes of the CEdipodee at that point where ^schylus 

 leaves them, in his play of " The Seven against Thebes ;" and it has 

 been remarked that we have the character and conduct of his heroine, 

 Antigone, plainly foreshadowed in the last speech which the Anti- 

 gone of ^schylus utters as she quits the stage. One point, however, 

 which I have not seen noticed by any of the commentators, struck 

 m.e as proving, in a remarkable manner, that Sophocles must have 

 intentionally shaped his play, so as to make it accord with the 

 circumstances as presented by ^Eschylus ; and that is the minuteness 

 of detail with which he makes the guard, who had been set to watch 

 the dead Polynices and to prevent any a,ttempt to bury him (as a 

 punishment for his unnatural conduct towards his native city), 

 inform us that, though dust has been sprinkled on the dead body, so 

 as to satisfy the bare ceremonial requirements of burial, the ground 

 round about is hard and unbroken, and there is no earth thrown up 

 by the spade, but the doer of the deed has been one who has left no 

 sign. I cannot help thinking that Sophocles must have had v. 1042 

 of the Sept. c. Theb. in view when he wrote these lines, for there 

 Antigone says that her brother shall be buried, even if she has to do 

 it herself, carrying the dust in the bosom of her robe. The whole 



