60
and Sophocles in the _Electra_, from a celebration by Clytemnestra of the deaths of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Probably it was really some ordinary New Year and Old Year celebration to which the poets give a tragic touch. It seems to have had a woman's "Ololugmos" in it, perhaps uttered by men. See Kaibel's note, Soph. _Electra_ 277-281.
P. 26, l. 612, Bronze be dyed like wool.]--Impossible in the literal sense, but there is after all a way of dying a sword red!
P. 27, l. 617, Menelaus.]--This digression about Menelaus is due, as similar digressions generally are when they occur in Greek plays, to the poet feeling bound to follow the tradition. Homer begins his longest account of the slaying of Agamemnon by asking "Where was Menelaus?" (Od. iii. 249). Agamemnon could be safely attacked because he was alone. Menelaus was away, wrecked or wind-bound.
P. 28, l. 642, Two-fold scourge.]--Ares works his will when spear crosses spear, when man meets man. Hence "two-fold."
P. 29, CHORUS. The name HELENA.]--There was a controversy in Aeschylus' day whether language, including names, was a matter of Convention or of Nature. Was it mere accident, and could you change the name of anything at will? Or was language a thing rooted in nature and fixed by God from of old? Aeschylus adopts the latter view: Why was this being called Helena? If one had understood God's purpose one would have seen it was because she really _was_ "Helenâs"--_Ship-destroyer_. (The Herald's story of the shipwreck has suggested this particular idea.) Similarly, if a hero was called Aias, and came to great sorrow, one could see that he was so called from 'Aiai,' "Alas!"--The antistrophe seems to find a meaning in the name Paris or Alexandras, where the etymology is not so clear.
Pp. 33 ff.]--Entrance of Agamemnon. The metre of the Chorus indicates marching; so that apparently the procession takes some time to move across the orchestra and get into position. Cassandra would be dressed, as a prophetess, in a robe of wh