[22] In Elmsley this line is omitted, and instead of it is inserted

  “[Greek:  nymphei pherontas, tende me pheugein chthona].”

“offering them to the bride, that they may not be banished from this country,” which Dindorf retains, and brackets the other.

[23] Although the Scholiast reprobates this interpretation, it seems to be the best, nor is it any objection, that [Greek:  Mnemosyne] is elsewhere represented as the Mother of the Muses; so much at variance is the poetry of Euripides with the received mythology of the ancients.  ELMSLEY.

[24] The construction is [Greek:  polis hieron potamon]; thus Thebes, Phoenis. l. 831, is called [Greek:  pyrgos didymon potamon].  A like expression occurs in 2 Sam. xii. 27.  I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken the city of waters, [Greek:  polin ton hydaton] in the Septuagint version.

[25] Elmsley reads [Greek:  pantes], “we all entreat thee.”  So Dindorf.

[26] Elmsley reads [Greek:  he dynasei] with the note of interrogation after [Greek:  thymoi]; “or how wilt thou be able,” etc.

[27] An allusion to that well-known saying in Plato, de Repub. 1. 3. [Greek:  Dora theous peithei, dor’ aidoious basileas].  Ovid. de Arte Am. iii. 635.

  Munera, crede mini, capiunt hominesque deosque.

[28] Vertit Portus, O infelix quantam calamitatem ignoras.  Mihi sensus videtur esse, quantum a pristina fortuna excidisti.  ELMSLEY.

[29] Medea here makes use of the ambiguous word [Greek:  kataxo], which may be understood by the Tutor in the sense of “bringing back to their country,” but implies also the horrid purpose of destroying her children:  [Greek:  tode ‘kataxo’ anti tou pempso eis ton Aiden], as the Scholiast explains it.

[30] It was the custom for mothers to bear lighted torches at their children’s nuptials.  See Iphig.  Aul. l. 372.

[31] [Greek:  hotoi de phesin ouk eusebes phainetai pareinai toi phonoi, kai dechesthai toiautas thysias, houtos apoto.—­toi de autoi melesei synapteon to me pareinai].  SCHOL.

[32] But there; that is, in the regions below.

[33] Ovid.  Metamorph. vii. 20.

      Video meliora proboque,
  Deteriora sequor.

[34] Elmsley reads

  [Greek:  pauron de genos (mian en pollais]
  [Greek:  heurois an isos)]
  [Greek:  ouk, k.t.l.]

“But a small number of the race of women (you may perchance find one among many) not ungifted with the muse.”

[35] A similar expression is found in Iphig.  Taur, v. 410. [Greek:  naion ochema].  A ship is frequently called [Greek:  Herma thalasses]:  so Virgil, AEn. vi.  Classique immittit habenas.

[36] Elmsley is of opinion that the instep and not the neck is meant by [Greek:  tenon].

[37] The ancients attributed all sudden terrors, and sudden sicknesses, such as epilepsies, for which no cause appeared, to Pan, or to some other Deity.  The anger of the God they endeavored to avert by a hymn, which had the nature of a charm.