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ἐν τοῖς πρόσθεν. II 378 B, 380 C. ἄρα: II 358 C note οἱ -- δαιμόνων. From Aeschylus' Niobe: see Dindorf Fr. 155. The passage is also quoted in part by Strabo (XII 8. 21), from whom it appears that Niobe is the speaker, and that οἱ θεῶν ἀγχίσποροι are her father Tantalus and his kindred (οἱ περὶ Τάνταλον). ὧν—αἰθέρι means ‘whose is the altar to ancestral Zeus on Mount Ida high in heaven,’ i.e. their θεὸς πατρῷος is Zeus (who was Tantalus' father), and they worship him on the heights of Ida. Tantalus' territory extended to Ida: see Strabo l.c. ὁ Τάνταλος λέγει σπείρω δ᾽ ἄρουραν δώδεχ᾽ ἡμερῶν ὁδόν, | Βερέκυντα χῶρον, ἔνθ᾽ Ἀδραστείας ἕδος | Ἴδη τε μυκηθμοῖσι καὶ βρυχήμασιν | πρέπουσι μήλων. For ὧν κατ᾽ Ἰδαῖον πάγον Strabo has οἷς ἐν Ἰδαίῳ πάγῳ, a much inferior reading. καί before οὔπω may be Plato's (so Stallbaum and others),—in which case the last line is from a different part of the play,—but is much more likely to come from Aeschylus, the resolution of κοὔπω being due to Plato. The line follows naturally on the others, and is not sufficiently important to have been selected from a different context. The verses are complete in themselves, and present a stately picture of the sons of the gods, which is the only reason why they are cited here.
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