[38] Elmsley has [Greek:  anthepteto], which is the old reading:  this makes no difference in the construing or the construction, as, in the line before, he reads [Greek:  an helkon], where Porson has [Greek:  anelkon].

[39] The space of time elapsed is meant to be marked by this circumstance.  MUSGRAVE.  PORSON.  Thus we find in [Greek:  M] of the Odyssey, l. 439, the time of day expressed by the rising of the judges; in [Greek:  D] of the Iliad, l. 86, by the dining of the woodman.  When we recollect that the ancients had not the inventions that we have whereby to measure their time, we shall cease to consider the circumlocution as absurd or out of place.

[40] The same expression occurs in the Heraclidae, l. 168.  The Scholiast explains it thus; [Greek:  tymbogeronta, ton plesion thanatou honta:  tymbous de kalousi tous gerontas, paroson plesion eisi tou thanatou kai tou taphou].

[41] [Greek:  autophontais] may be taken as an adjective to agree with [Greek:  domois], or the construction may be [Greek:  ache pitnonta autophontais epi domois], in the same manner as [Greek:  lithos epese moi epi kephalei].  ELMSLEY.

[42] [Greek:  me me ti drasosi’] had been “lest they do me any injury.”  Elmsley conceives that [Greek:  nin] is the true reading, which might easily have been corrupted into [Greek:  moi].

[43] Here Medea appears above in a chariot drawn by dragons, bearing with her the bodies of her slaughtered sons.  SCHOL.  See Horace, Epod. 3.

  Hoc delibutis ulta donis pellicem,
  Serpente fugit alite.

[44] [Greek:  lyei] may also be interpreted, with the Scholiast, in the sense of [Greek:  lysitelei], “the grief delights me.”  The translation given in the text is proposed by Porson, and approved of by Elmsley.

[45] Elmsley has

  [Greek:  mene kai geras].

“Stay yet for old age.”  So also Dindorf.

* * * * * *

HIPPOLYTUS.

* * * *

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

  VENUS. 
  HIPPOLYTUS. 
  ATTENDANTS. 
  PHAEDRA. 
  NURSE. 
  THESEUS. 
  MESSENGER. 
  DIANA. 
  CHORUS OF TROEZENIAN DAMES.

* * * * *

THE ARGUMENT.

* * * *

Theseus was the son of Othra and Neptune, and king of the Athenians; and having married Hippolyta, one of the Amazons, he begat Hippolytus, who excelled in beauty and chastity.  When his wife died, he married, for his second wife, Phaedra, a Cretan, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and Pasiphae.  Theseus, in consequence of having slain Pallas, one of his kinsmen, goes into banishment, with his wife, to Troezene, where it happened that Hippolytus was being brought up by Pittheus:  but Phaedra having seen the youth was desperately enamored, not that she was incontinent, but in order to fulfill the anger of Venus, who, having