previous next

[1090] τὰν αὔριον πανσέληνον “the full-moon of to-morrow, ” acc. of αὔριον πανσέληνος (there is no adj. αὔριος), as Eur. Alc. 784τὴν αὔριον μέλλουσαν,” acc. of αὔριον μέλλουσα, Eur. Hipp. 1117τὸν αὔριον χρόνον.” At Athens the great Dionysia were immediately followed by the Πάνδι_α, a festival held at full-moon in the middle of the month Elaphebolion (at the beginning of April): cp. A. Mommsen Heortol. p. 389, and C. F. Hermann Ant. 2.59. Wolff remarks that, if this play was produced on the last day of the Dionysia, the poet would have known that arrangement long beforehand, and may have intended an allusion to the Πάνδια which his Athenian hearers would quickly seize. This would explain why precisely “to-morrow's fullmoon ” is named. —Nauck reads αὖρι(as = ταχέως, “the coming ” full-moon): Wecklein, ἦρι(dat. of ἦρ), “the vernal full-moon ” —that, namely, in Elaphebolion.

πανσέληνον (sc. ὥραν: Hdt. 2.47ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ πανσελήνῳ.” For the accus., cp. on 1138 χειμῶνα. The meaning is: “At the next full-moon we will hold a joyous παννυχίς, visiting the temples with χοροίSoph. Ant. 153), in honour of the discovery that Oedipus is of Theban birth; and thou, Cithaeron, shalt be a theme of our song. ” Cp. Eur. Ion 1078, where, in sympathy with the nocturnal worship of the gods, ἀστερωπὸς ἀνεχόρευσεν αἰθήρ, χορεύει δὲ Σελάνα. The rites of the Theban Dionysus were νύκτωρ τὰ πολλάEur. Ba. 486).

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: