[160] 



SOME OBSEEYATIONS ON THE 

 PHILEBUS OF PLATO, 



THE POSITION OF THE ROWERS IN THE WAR-SHIPS OF 



THE ANCIENTS, &c. 



BY W. D. PEARMAN, M. A. 



Classical Tutor and Dean of Residence in University College, Toronto. 



Euripides, Iphigenia in Aid. v. 808. In this line, Dindorf and 

 others have taken exception to the word oKaidst; — ^for which some 

 read with Bothe sv-mda-:, while others adopt Musgrave's conjecture 

 xai ~ai8aq. Properly understood, d-aids<; seems to me preferable, 

 not only as being the MSS. reading, but also in point of sense. 



Achilles states that the men of the expedition, chafing at their 

 detention at Aiilis, are not all similarly situated : Some, like him- 

 self, d^uys:; yd/Kuv Ol'zuw: iprj/iouq ixXmuvzsi;, others e^ovreg euvidaq 

 '' A-;Tatdec;. Here he pauses in his enumeration — robiibv iikv ow x.r.X., 

 " others may speak for themselves, he will state his own case." As 

 I take it, h/ovre<; eu>tda<; x.t.L should be rendered "others, although 

 they have wives, have no children." These, then, would belong to 

 the class specially exempt from military service, under the Mosaic 

 dispensation (cp. Deuteronomy, ch. XX. v. 7; XXIV. v. 5). Hence 

 the force of the following parenthesis — oura> detvdg kfnzir-Kwx epioq x.rX, 

 " so constraining a desii-e for this service hath befallen Hellas." 



Ibid. v. 1143. 



Those who have adopted Person's alteration of xa/xvjjc into za/^jj'C, 

 seem to have overlooked the fact that the imperative force is neither 

 absoluteljr necessary nor, as I think, desirable. Agamemnon, dumb- 

 foundered at finding his designs discovered, lets falls the exclamation, 

 " I am lost ! my secret is betrayed !" While he is hesitating and 

 thinking what to say next, Clytemnestra sarcastically resumes, ''' I 

 know all ! your very silence amounts to a confession, so that yoti, need 

 not weary yourself with a long and idle story." Of course, if we 

 retain xdp.vrj<q, the period after noXM must be removed. 



