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[209] 209-10 = 8.69-70, 212 = 8.72, where see notes. “ὅτι ἐντεῦθεν ἡ Ψυχοστασία Αἰσχύλου πέπλασται, ὡς τοῦ Διὸς τὰς ψυχὰς ἱστάντος, οὐ θανατηφόρους μοίρας”, Compare Plutarch de aud. poet. (p. 17 B) “τραγωιδίαν ὁ Αἰσχύλος ὅλην τῶι μύθωι περιέθηκεν, ἐπιγράψας Ψυχοστασίαν, καὶ παραστήσας ταῖς πλάστιγξι τοῦ Διὸς ἔνθεν μὲν τὴν Θέτιν ἔνθεν δὲ τὴν Ἠῶ, δεομένας ὑπὲρ τῶν υἱέων μαχομένων”. The latter passage, like the schol. quoted on 8.70, shews that the “Ψυχοστασία” dealt with the death of Memnon, not of Hector. Apparently Aischylos took the idea of the weighing and transferred the scene, with the characteristic determination of the Greek artist to have a free hand with his materials, which has led to the general avoidance by the tragedians of the few opportunities offered by the Iliad and Odyssey for dramatic treatment. The weighing of souls after death is a familiar symbol in Egyptian religion, and may also have had its influence on Aischylos. Virgil has a well-known imitation of the passage in Aen. xii. 723 ff. The rise and fall of the scales, too, is a natural metaphor to express the vicissitudes of battle; it is but a step from the metaphor itself to the belief that there is in heaven a pair of scales which move up and down in a sort of magic sympathy as the fortunes of war change. In other words — for primitive man confounds cause and metaphor — the scales guide the war and so become a material expression for the will of fate.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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