ierem_, and as a
substantive, with [Greek: acharin] added. Cf. AEsch. Choeph. 44. Lucretius
uses a similar oxymoron respecting the same subject, i. 99. "Sed _casta
inceste_ nubendi tempore in ipso Hostia concideret mactatu maesta parentis."

[75] This passage is very corrupt. The Cambridge editor supposes something
lost respecting the fortunes of Orestes. Hermann reads [Greek: hen de
lypeisthai monon, ho t' ouk aphron on]. But I am very doubtful.

[76] These three lines are justly condemned as an absurd interpolation by
Dindorf and the Cambridge editor.

[77] This seems the easiest way of expressing [Greek: kai sy] after [Greek:
sy d'].

[78] I am partly indebted to Potter's happy version. The Cambridge editor
is as ingenious as usual, but he candidly allows that conjecture is
scarcely requisite.

[79] i.e. thou seemest reckless of life.

[80] [Greek: prostrope], this mode of offering supplication, i.e. this duty
of sacrifice.

[81] Diodorus, xx. 14. quotes this and the preceding line reading [Greek:
chthonos] for [Greek: petras]. He supposes that Euripides derived the
present account from the sacrifices offered to Saturn by the Carthaginians,
who caused their children to fall from the hands of the statue [Greek: eis
ti chasma pleres pyros]. Compare Porphyr. de Abst. ii. 27. Justin, xviii.
6. For similar human sacrifices among the Gauls, Caesar de B.G. vi. 16, with
the note of Vossius. Compare also Saxo Grammaticus, Hist. Dan. iii. p. 42,
and the passages of early historians quoted in Stephens' entertaining
notes, p. 92.

[82] Cf. Tibull. i. 3, 5. "Abstineas, mors atra, precor, non hic mihi
mater, Quae legat in maestos ossa perusta sinus; non soror, Assyrios cineri
quae dedat odores, et fleat effusis ante sepulchra comis."

[83] This must be what the poet _intends_ by [Greek: katasbeso], however
awkwardly expressed. See Hermann's note.

[84] Compare vs. 468 sq.

[85] This line is hopelessly corrupt.

[86] I read [Greek: men oun] with the Cambridge editor.

[87] [Greek: azela] is in opposition to the whole preceding clause.

[88] See the note of the Cambridge editor on Iph. Aul. 1372.

[89] I should prefer [Greek: esti de],"_she surely is._"

[90] We must evidently read either [Greek: dielthon] with Porson, or
[Greek: dielthe] with Jan., Le Fevre, and Markland.

[91] I almost agree with Dindorf in considering this line spurious.

[92] For this construction compare Ritterhus. ad Oppian, Cyn. i. 11.