CHOR.  How delighted am I at hearing this from the messenger; but he says that thy daughter living abides among the Gods.

CLY.  O daughter, of whom of the Gods art thou the theft?  How shall I address thee?  What shall I say that these words do not offer me a vain comfort, that I may cease from my mournful grief on thy account?

CHOR.  And truly king Agamemnon draws hither, having this same story to tell thee.

[Enter AGAMEMNON.]

AG.  Lady, as far as thy daughter is concerned, we may be happy, for she really possesses a companionship with the Gods.  But it behooves thee, taking this young child [Orestes,] to go home, for the army is looking toward setting sail.  And fare thee well, long hence will be my addresses to thee from Troy, and may it be well with thee.

CHOR.  Atrides, rejoicing go thou to the land of the Phrygians, and rejoicing return, having obtained for me most glorious spoils from Troy.

* * * * *

NOTES ON IPHIGENIA IN AULIS

* * * *

[1] From the answer of the old man, Porson’s conjecture, [Greek:  speude], seems very probable.

[2] See Hermann’s note.  The passage has been thus rendered by Ennius: 

  AG.  “Quid nocti” videtur in altisono
          Coeli clupeo? 
  SEN.  Temo superat stellas, cogens
      Sublime etiam atque etiam noctis
      Itiner.

See Scaliger on Varr. de L.L. vi. p.143, and on Festus s.v.  Septemtriones.  All the editors have overlooked the following passage of Apuleius de Deo Socr. p. 42, ed.  Elm.  “Suspicientes in hoc perfectissimo mundi, ut ait Ennius, clypeo,” whence, as I have already observed in my notes on the passage, there is little doubt that Ennius wrote “in altisono mundi clypeo,” of which coeli was a gloss, naturally introduced by those who were ignorant of the use of mundus in the same sense.  The same error has taken place in some of the MSS. of Virg.  Georg. i. 5, 6.  Compare the commentators on Pompon.  Mela. i. 1, ed.  Gronov.

[3] Such seems the force of [Greek:  epi pasin agathois].  The Cambridge editor aptly compares Hipp. 461. [Greek:  chren s’ epi rhetois ara Patera phyteuein].

[4] The [Greek:  synnymphokomos] was probably a kind of gentleman usher, but we have no correlative either to the custom or the word.

[5] Hermann rightly regards this as a hendiadys.

[6] [Greek:  dromoi] for [Greek:  moroi] is Markland’s, and, doubtless, the correct, reading. [Greek:  monos] is merely a correction of the Aldine edition.

[7] But read [Greek:  tas—­deltous] with the Cambridge editor, = “in relation to my former dispatches.”

[8] [Greek:  tan] should probably be erased before [Greek:  kolpode], with the Cambridge editor.  He remarks, “the sea-port, although separated from the island by the narrow strait of Euripus, is styled its wing.”  On the metrical difficulties and corruptions throughout this chorus, I must refer the reader to the same critic.