Page:Eumenides (Murray 1925).djvu/72

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

NOTES

The Scene is conceived as different in different parts of the play, but probably no actual change was made. A stage with the usual "House" background, representing a Temple or Castle, with a round orchestra (dancing floor) on a lower level in front, will suit all the needs of the action. A statue of Athena in place of the Omphalos Altar will turn the "House" from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi to that of Athena in Athens. A semi-circle of seats, or something similar, will symbolize the Areopagus. Compare the change of scene in the Choëphoroe, where Agamemnon's Grave seems to be in the centre of the orchestra while the "House" represents the palace of Aigisthos, and the action of the play is now at one, now at the other.

P. 1, l. 1. The priestess first praises the Holders of the Throne of prophecy at Delphi—Earth, Themis, Phoebe, Apollo; then the other divine beings in the neighbourhood, including the River Pleistos, and ending suitably with Zeus the Perfector or Accomplisher (Teleios). The ordinary legend told of Apollo's battle with a dragon, born of Earth, and the anger of Earth thereafter; Aeschylus insists that there was never any strife among the gods at Delphi.

P. 1, l. 9. Apollo was at Delos, his rocky isle with the "orbèd mere" in it, when he heard of the

52