Ending with--brother, son, and all are dead.
--OLD TRANSL.

[166] This is a good example of the figure chiasmus, the
force of which I have expressed by the bracketed words
repeated from the two infinities. See Latin examples in
the notes of Arntzenius on Mamertin. Geneth. 8, p. 27;
Pang. Vett. t. i.

[167] The Messenger retires to dress for the Herald's
part.

Horace's rule, "Nec quarta loqui persona laboret," seems
to have been drawn from the practice of the Greek stage.
Only three actors were allowed to each of the
competitor-dramatists, and these were assigned to them by
lot. (Hesychius, [Greek: Nemesis hypokriton].) Thus, for
instance, as is remarked by a writer in the Quarterly
Review, in the OEdipus at Colonus, v. 509, Ismene goes
to offer sacrifice, and, after about forty lines, returns
in the character of Theseus. Soon afterward, v. 847,
Antigone is carried off by Creon's attendants, and returns
as Theseus after about the same interval as before.--OLD
TRANSLATION. The translator had misquoted the gloss of
Hesychius.

[168] This is the tragic account. See Soph. Antig. 170,
sqq.; Eurip. Phaen. 757, sqq. But other authors mention
descendants of both.

[169] Another pun on [Greek: Polyneikes].

[170] Cf. Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, sec. 3:

"I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins."

[171] This passage is confessedly corrupt. Paley seems to
have rightly restored [Greek: astolon] from the [Greek:
astolon theorida] in Robertelli's edition. This ship, as
he remarks, would truly be [Greek: astolos], in opposition
to the one sent to Delphi, which was properly said [Greek:
stellesthai epi theorian]. The words [Greek: astibe
Apolloni] confirm this opinion. In regard to the allusions,
see Stanley and Blomfield, also Wyttenbach on Plato
Phaedon. sub. init.

[172] This repetition of [Greek: di' hon] is not altogether
otiose. Their contention for estate was the cause both of
their being [Greek: ainomoroi] and of the [Greek: neikos]
that ensued.

[173] _I.e._ the sword. Cf. v. 885.

[174] This epithet applied to their ancestral tombs
doubtless alludes to the violent deaths of Laius and
OEdipus.

[175] On the enallage [Greek: somati] for [Greek: somasi]
see Griffiths. The poet means to say that this will be all
their possession after death. Still Blomfield's reading,
[Greek: chomati], seems more e