irontigran / plato_the-dialogues-of-plato_benjamin_jowett

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Cryptic reference to Aeschylus #14

Closed irontigran closed 3 years ago

irontigran commented 3 years ago

In the introduction to Symposium, Jowett makes a reference Aeschylus that I haven't been able to track down.

The specific note is "Aesch. Frag. Dan. 38." The context is talking about how the ancient Greeks viewed love, Aeschylus is cited as providing support for "elective affinities between the elements, marriages of earth and heaven."

I think the "Dan." abbreviation references the Danaids. Unfortunately, the "Danaids" can mean either the entire tetralogy of plays (only one of which we have in its entirety) or one of the lost plays.

"Frag." is short for fragment, probably. So we're looking for a fragment of one of the Danaid plays that references the "marriage of earth and heaven".

irontigran commented 3 years ago

Probably found it here

On the linked page, it's listed as Fragment 25:

The holy heaven yearns to wound the earth, and yearning layeth hold on the earth to join in wedlock; the rain, fallen from the amorous heaven, impregnates the earth, and it bringeth forth for mankind the food of flocks and herds and Demeter’s gifts; and from that moist marriage-rite the woods put on their bloom. Of all these things I am the cause.

Finally, Dan. should be expanded to Danaïds