The idea that we watch a tragedy for moral instruction,
learning to avoid the mistakes made by the characters is probably inherited
from Sir Philip Sidney’s Defense of Poesie.
1ff. It
was virtually obligatory to begin an academic tragedy with the apparition of
a ghost or of some supernatural being. This portentious and attention-getting
first line is written after the model of the beginning of Seneca’s Agamemnon
5 The
Pactolus was noted for the gold that could be mined from its bed. As such,
it
was regarded as the basis for Lydia’s fabulous wealth.
9 - 35
As Coldewey and Copenhaver noted (p. 17),
this tale of Gyges’ invisibility-conferring ring, that allowed him to
commit crimes with impunity, does not come from Herodotus, but rather from
Plato, Republic pp. 359D - 360B.
36 -
40 Mease passes rapidly over the story told by Herodotus (I.8 - 12). King
Candaules, enamored of is wife and wishing to display her beauty, smuggled
his
courtier Gyges into the royal bedchamber so that he could behold her naked.
The consort found out about this and was so incensed that she informed Gyges
he must either kill Candaules and usurp his throne, or suffer death for having
seen her nakedness. Faced with the choice, Gyges, with the help of the queen,
murdered Candaules in his sleep. The omission of this tale allows Mease to
shift
most of the burden of guilt onto Gyges himself, and to minimize the queen’s
responsibility for the crime.
40 -
55 This account of Gyges’ guilt-pangs has no foundation in Herodotus.
At I.14 the historians enumerates the lavish gifts sent to Delphi by the king,
but attributes to him no such motive.
51 Phobetor
(“The Frightener”) is what mortals call Morpheus according to
Ovid, Metamorphoses XI.640.
59f.
For the Delphic oracle, cf. Herodotus I.13.
63 Surely
there is deliberate irony here: Gyges’ is eternally pent up in an underworldy
cave because his sin had its origin in a cave, where he discovered the magic
ring. Now he has become the corpse in the cave.
114
Candaules, not named in the Prologue, was Gyges’ victim (Gyges is
of course the iuvenis).
138
Aeglaea and the Nurse (a stock character in Greek and Senecan tragedy)
are characters invented by Mease; Herodotus (I.34 - 45) tells the story from
a purely
masculine standpoint, and in his version the only three characters are Croesus,
Atys, and Adrastus. Likewise, Herodotus describes Croesus’ prophetic dream
(I.34), but Aeglaea’s dream about the two lions, and Croesus’ overly
optimistic comparison of the two dreams, are Mease’s own contribution.
240
Mysia was a region of north-western Asia Minor, between Lydia and Bithynia.
A mountain called Mt. Olympus, not to be confused with the Greek one, was located
there (Pliny, Natural History XXVI.60).
249
- 52 The Mysian embassy is described by Herodotus I.36.
252
- 58 These lines summarizesthe protracted dialogue between Croesus and Atys
at Herodotus I.37 - 40.
266
- 272 Herodotus tells the story at I.35: Adrastus was the son of Gordias
and grandson of Midas, king of Phrygia, exiled by his father for killing his
brother.
274
- 79 The interview at which Croesus entrusted Atys to Adrastus’ care
is described by Herodotus I.41 - 42.
296
- 350 The sun is equated with Phoebus (as is seen by the fact that this
invocation is balanced by one to his sister Diana belpow). For some reason,
Adrastus Parentans is replete with mentions of, and prayers to, Phoebus.
Partially, one presumes, this is because Phoebus was the author of the oracle
predictingeventual doom for Gyges’ dynasty, but these are so frequent
that one wonders if Mease had some notion that the Lydians were sun-worshippers.
308f.
We are given a catalogue of famous boars in mythology. The first allusion
is to Hercules’ fourth labor, the killiing of the boar which inhabited
Mt. Erymanthus in Arcadia. Cf. Martial XI.lxix.9f.
310
- 318 Now the allusion is to the disastrous hunt for the
Calydonian boar. When Meleager’s maternal uncles took offense that
Meleager presented the slain boar’s hide to Atalanta, a fight broke
out and he killed them. His mother Althaea retaliated: there was a
prophecy that if a certain brand she kept preserved in a chest were
completely burned, Meleager would die. So she threw it in the fire to
gain revenge. Perhaps Mease devoted so much space to this tale
because it had been dramatized by William Gager of Oxford, as
described in the Introduction.
320f.
To hunt these boars, Meleager was taken away from Atalanta,
Hercules from the company of the , and Atys from the comforts of the
Lydian court.
327
- 33 Venus’ beloved Adonis was gored by Mars, wearing the guise
of a boar, while hunting on Mt. Lebanon.
374
- 6 The allusion is to the fact that Spartan girls
participated in sports, as described by Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus
13. Mt. Taygetus was the most
conspicuous landmark in Sparta.
403
Maeonia was the ancient name for the eastern portion of Lydia;
Mease uses it as an equivalent for the entire nation.
404
- 49 This scene is based on Solon’s admonitions to Croesus at
Herodotus I.30 - 32. For the edification of an academic audience,
Mease recasts the interview as a disputatio.
405f.
Mease makes it seem as if the Athenians had thrown Solon into
exile. According to Herodotus I.29, Solon had voluntarily left the
city because, after having recast the Athenian constitution, he
thought this would prevent his fellow citizens from changing what he
had done, and also because he wished to enjoy the broadening
experience of travel.
418
In his cleverness and his curiousity, Solon is being compared
with Ulysses.
424f.
According to Herodotus I.30, Tellus had died a glorious death,
distinguishing himself in a battle between Athens and neighboring
Eleusis.
438
In Herodotus (I.31) the missing animals were oxen. Mease
presumably substituted horses on the theory they sounded more
dignified.
459ff.
Croesus’ interrogation of Solon has the dialectic quality one
associates with an academic disputatio.
466
Astyages was king of the Medes (Herodotus I.107). He was destined
to be displaced by his maternal grandson, the Persian Cyrus, who
would also conquer the Lydians and make Croesus his prisoner,
although Mease gives no hint of Croesus eventual fate.
472f.
The peacock was sacred to Juno. Doves are mentioned
alongside peacocks because of the display of their irridescent
necks.
495
- 501 This story would appear to be a variant of the anecdote
told by Horace, Epistulae II.ii.128 - 40.
516
Evidently the image refers to bookkeeping: in her ledger
Fortune employs two columns for recording credits and debits.
525f.
In Herodotus (I.32) Solon also reckons the life of a man as
seventy years, but the five-year lustrum was of course a Roman means
of reckoning time, not a Greek one.
527
- 9 The sons are of course the months, half light and half dark
according to the phases of the moon.
533f.
Romans used white stones to mark lucky days on their calendars,
and black stones to mark unlucky ones.
555
- 76 This speech is suggesed by Herodotus’ description of
Croesus’ disappointed rejection of Solon’s philosophy (I.33).
576
Evidently he is a Phygian friend or attendant of Adrastus, but
see the commentary note on 591.
591
I have translated the line as if there were a comma after
civis (there is none in the ms.), on the theory that the
messenger is a Phyrgian follower of Adrastus, hence not a Lydian.
Without the comma one would more naturally construe non with
ignotus (“I am a citizen of Lydia, not unknown to you”). The
grounds for my repunctuation seem self-evident enough, but are
complicated by the problematic line 924; see the commentary
note on that line.
608
“Mt. Gargarus” is actually a range of mountains in the vicinity
of Mt. Ida, in Phyrgia (the Oxford Latin Dictionary s. v. Gargara quotes
some classical references - it also appears in the singular at Germanicus,Aratea
585).
610
Dindymene = the goddess of Mt. Dindymon in Phrygia, i. e.
Cybele.
697
- 716 Croesus’ recognition of the truth of this dream, while
standard enough fare for a tragedy, may also be suggested by his
equally belated realization of the truth of Solon’s philosophy at
Herodotus I.86.
718
That Jupiter himself is subject to fate is stated by Cicero,
de Divinatione II.xxv.3, with reference to Iliad
XVI.433 -8.
736
The Belides were the daughters of Danaus, consigned to the
Underworld for murdering their husbands on their wedding night.
847 -
927 This duet between Aglaea and the Chorus is cast in the form of a Greek
kommos, a highly ritualized lamentation featuring loosening of the hair
and breast-beating. The kommos is a stock scene-type in Attic tragedy.
924
So far, the distinction between Phyrgia and Lydia has been
correctly maintained: Adrastus has come to Lydia from the kingdom
next door. It is plausible enough that Croesus has some Phyrgian
tapestries in his palace, a foreign luxury commodity; the messenger
who informed Croesus of Atys’ death can be understood as a Phygian
follower of Croesus (see the commentary note on
591); and the chorus has spoken of Adrastus leading bands of
young men in or at least from his homeland. If this distinction is
maintained, then in the present line the Chorus is to be interpreted
as lamenting the deaths both of Adrastus (spes Phrygum) and
Atys (spes Maeoniae), but of course the Chorus is not yet
aware of Adrastus’ suicide. It would therefore appear that when
writing this single line Mease forgot himself, and described the
Lydians as both “Phrygians” and “Maeonians.” But I would
not care to
employ this line to cast doubt on the proposition that the two
nationalities are properly distinguished in the play as a whole.