κυναγὸν: the Doric form, as in “λοχαγός, ὁδαγός”, etc. ( Ant. 715 n.): but “κυνηγετεῖν” ( Ai. 5), “κυνηγία, κυνηγέτης.” ποινὰς, acc. in appos. with the sentence; cp. 129 n., P.V. 563 “τίνος ἀμπλακίας ποινὰς ὀλέκει”; Eur. Alc. 6“καί με θητεύειν πατὴρ” | “θνητῷ παρ᾽ ἀνδρὶ τῶνδ᾽ ἄποιν᾽ ἠνάγκασεν”. τὰ πολλὰ πνεύματ᾽ ἔσχ̓, ‘she stayed those frequent winds,’ which ordinarily blow from the coast of Greece,—causing a calm of unusual length. For τὰ πολλὰ, cp. 931: O.C. 87 “τὰ πόλλ᾽ ἐκεῖν᾽ ὅτ᾽ ἐξέχρη κακά”: Aesch. Ag. 1456“μία τὰς πολλάς, τὰς πάνυ πολλὰς” | “ψυχὰς ὀλέσας᾿”. For ἔσχε as=‘stopped,’ cp. O.C. 888 “βουθυτοῦντά μ̓...ἔσχετ̓”. Acc. to Aesch. ( Aesch. Ag. 149 f., Aesch. Ag. 192), the Greeks were detained by adverse winds, blowing from the N.E. : and this seems to have been the account given in the Cypria (c. 776 B.C.), Proclus Chrest. p. 455: “ἐπέσχεν αὐτοὺς τοῦ πλοῦ χειμῶνας ἐπιπέμπουσα”. But other authorities speak of a calm. Thus I. A. 9 ff. “οὔκουν φθόγγος γ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ὀρνίθων” | “οὔτε θαλάσσης: σιγαὶ δ᾽ ἀνέμων” | “τόνδε κατ᾽ Εὔριπον ἔχουσιν”. Schol. Eur. Or. 647“ἐπειράθη τῆς θεοῦ ὀργιζομένης καὶ κατεχούσης τοὺς ἀνέμους”. Tzetzes on Lycophron 183 “χολωθεῖσα δ᾽ ἐπὶ τούτῳ ἡ θεὸς τοὺς ἀνέμους κατέσχεν”. Ovid ( Met. 13. 183) combines both versions: “exspectata diu, nulla aut contraria classi | Flamina sunt.” It has been objected that vessels provided with oars need not have been detained by a calm. But the ships of the Greek fleet were not light craft. Each carried from 50 to 120 armed men, besides “σκεύη πολεμικά”: and the warriors were also the rowers (cp. Thuc. 1. 10). It is intelligible, then, that they should await the aid of wind before attempting the passage of the Aegaean. We must remember, too, the strong and shifting currents in the Euripus (“στονόεντα πορθμόν”, Soph. Ant. 1145: “παλιρρόχθοις ἐν Αὐλίδος τόποις”, Aesch. Ag. 191). We cannot well render:—(1)‘He suffered those tedious winds,’—supplying “ὁ πατήρ” from v. 558. Nor: (2) ‘She directed those tedious winds at Aulis,’—a version which would at least require “ἐπ̓ Αὐλίδι”. Cp. Ph. 1119“ἔχε” | “δύσποτμον ἀρὰν ἐπ᾽ ἄλλοις”. The conjecture πλοῖα for “πολλὰ” (cr. n.) would be an attractive remedy, if the idea of a calm were not admissible. It may be noticed, however, that the word “πλοῖον”, admitted by Aesch. as a synonym for “ναῦς” ( Aesch. Ag. 625), occurs in Soph. only once (fr. 127), and is not extant in Αὐλίδι. Aulis was so named from the channel (“αὐλός”), as other towns were named from “αὐλών” ‘a valley.’ It stood on the Boeotian coast, in the territory of Tanagra, about three miles s. of the point where, at Chalcis in Euboea, the Euripus is narrowest. The site was a rocky peninsula (hence “Αὐλίδα πετρήεσσαν”, Il. 2. 496), having on the south of it a large basin, known as the “βαθὺς λιμήν” (Strabo 3. p. 403). Pausanias saw at Aulis an ancient temple of Artemis, with two statues of the goddess (9. 19. 6).
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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.
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