8
votes
Accepted
What does it mean when the chorus speaks "severally" in "Aias"?
The required sense of “severally” is:
severally, adv. 1.a. Separately, individually; each of a number of persons or things by himself or itself; each successively or in turn.
Oxford English ...
- 53.5k
5
votes
Accepted
What does it mean to "graze on the fizzy air"?
The part in bold appears in lines 558–559 of the Storr edition:
τέως δὲ κούφοις πνεύμασιν βόσκου, νέαν
ψυχὴν ἀτάλλων, μητρὶ τῇδε χαρμονήν.
Meanwhile let light airs feed thee; cherish thou
Thy tender ...
- 53.5k
5
votes
Accepted
On what basis are lines attributed to the whole chorus or just the chorus leader?
TL;DR: The assignment of lines to speakers comes down to the judgment of the editor or translator, based on their sense of what is dramatically most appropriate in a given case, and whether their goal ...
- 53.5k
5
votes
Accepted
Why are "doves" used in this simile from "Aias"?
The Greek text is:
μέγαν ὄκνον ἔχω καὶ πεφόβημαι
πτηνῆς ὡς ὄμμα πελείας.
Sophocles. Aias, lines 139–140. Perseus Digital Library.
ἔχω = I bear/carry
μέγαν ὄκνον = great fear
καὶ = and
πεφόβημαι = I ...
- 53.5k
4
votes
Accepted
How is Aias's initially informal reintroduction speech reflected in the original text?
I’m not convinced that the quoted speech lacks “normal capitalization or sentence structure” as suggested in the question. If we remove the line breaks and add a couple of commas (remembering that ...
- 53.5k
2
votes
Why are "doves" used in this simile from "Aias"?
Not all birds flock together, so "doves" echoes that they are in a group.
Not all birds are so easily startled as doves are -- geese for instance -- so "doves" narrows it down to ...
- 5,957
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible