ὡς ἐγὼ κλύω: implying the possibility of other accounts. Aeschylus does not define the offence which had angered Artemis ( Ag. 132). According to Euripides, Agamemnon had rashly vowed that he would sacrifice to her the fairest creature that the year should bring forth (I.T. 20). θεᾶς … κατ᾽ ἄλσος, a sacred precinct near the temple of Artemis at Aulis, mentioned in Eur. I.A. 1544, “Ἀρτέμιδος ἄλσος λείμακάς τ᾽ ἀνθεσφόρους”, and called “πολύθυτον”, ib. 185. At many places on the eastern coasts of Greece Artemis was worshipped, esp. as “λιμενοσκόπος” (see on Soph. Tr. 637). παίζων, ‘amusing himself,’ ‘taking his pleasure.’ The allusion is to the pursuit of game, though “παίζω” had no definitely technical sense like that of our word ‘sport.’ We find the verb associated with hunting in Od. 6. 104 ff. (Artemis) “τερπομένη κάπροισι καὶ ὠκείῃς ἐλάφοισι:” | “τῇ δέ θ᾽ ἅμα νύμφαι, κοῦραι Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο”, | “ἀγρονόμοι παίζουσι”. Dindorf quotes Plut. Alex. 23“πολλάκις δὲ παίζων καὶ ἀλώπεκας ἐθήρευε καὶ ὄρνιθας”. Tzetzes, in telling the story, says, “ἐξελθὼν ἐπὶ κυνηγέσιον” (on Lycophr. 183). ποδοῖν: i.e., by the sound of his feet; not by their touch.
This text is part of:
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part VI: The Electra. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1894.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
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.