Sophocles Trachiniae 79

mvp-comment-45-1 τελευτὴν … τελεῖν ¹

mvp-comment-46-1 ἄρας ²

mvp-comment-46-2 εἰς τό γ’ ὕστερον ³ εἰς τὸν ὕστερον ⁴ βίοτον εὐαίων’ ⁵

mvp-comment-47-1 ἐν οὖν ῥοπῇ … κειμένῳ ⁶

mvp-comment-47-2 83—

mvp-comment-48-1 ἡνίκ’ ἢ σεσώσμεθα … οἰχόμεσθ’ ἅμα ⁷

mvp-comment-48-2 This view of the original text may be supported by a consideration which does not seem to have been noticed. The very circumstance which prompted the interpolation—viz., the absence of the condition for

—is an admirable dramatic touch. For, while Deianeira and her hearers would understand as meaning, , her death is really to be linked with his victory.

mvp-comment-48-3 For a similar piece of textual history, cp. Eur. Andr.6 , where the true text is

: but there was another reading, which made two verses of it:— (or ) | . Of the second v., the schol. there says, . See Appendix.

mvp-comment-48-4 The synizesis in ἢ οἰχόμεσθ’ ⁸ ἢ κείμεσθ’ ⁹

mvp-comment-49-1 νῦν δ’ ὁ ξυνήθης ¹⁰ εἴα ¹¹

mvp-comment-49-2 For other instances of

with a past tense, cp. O. C.273 , Ai.445 Ai., 1060.

mvp-comment-50-1 τὸ μὴ ¹²

mvp-comment-51-1 καὶ γὰρ ὑστέρῳ ¹³

mvp-comment-51-2 τό γ’ εὖ ¹⁴ πράσσειν ¹⁵

mvp-comment-51-3 ἐμπολᾷ ¹⁶

79. mvp-comment-71-1 ὡς ἢ τελευτὴν . . τελεῖν] • That he is either to accomplish the ending of his life.' Cp. 1255, 6, παῦλά τοι κακῶν αὕτη, τελευτὴ τοῦδε τἀνδρὸς ὑστάτη. Το which Hyllus replies, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲν εἴργει σοὶ τελειοῦσθαι τάδε. The expression, though unusual, is not more so than O. C. 1551, 2, τὸν τελευταῖον βίον | κρύψων: ib. 1720, ὀλβίως γ᾽ ἔλυσεν | τὸ τέλος βίου. For the pleonasm, cp. esp. infr. 1171, λύσιν τελεῖσθαι.

80-81. mvp-comment-72-1 These lines have been much suspected, but if τὸν ἀεὶ= τὸν ἀεὶ χρόνον, in El. 1076, O. C. 1701, which there is no good reason for doubting, εἰς τὸν ὕστερον = εἰς τὸν ὕστερον χρόνον, may be allowed. ἄρας] 'When he has carried away,' i.e. Performed successfully. The notion is partly that of lifting a weight, partly of removing an obstacle (between emolitus and amolitus).

82. mvp-comment-73-1 ἐν . . κειμένῳ] 'When he is at such a critical point;' lit. such a turning of the scale. ῥοπή is commonly the preponderance or determination of the balance one way; here it is the moment or crisis of a determination which is still uncertain. For κειμένῳ, cp. Aj. 323, ἐν τοιᾷδε κείμενος . . τύχῃ, where, however, there is the additional notion of being 'laid prostrate.'

83. mvp-comment-74-1 ἡνίκα] ‘At a moment when.'

84-85. mvp-comment-75-1 Canter ingeniously defended l. 84 by placing it after 85 and reading καί for ἤ. But the line is still unnecessary and falls flat. Some editors, with strange judgment, have rejected 85. 84 is most probably spurious. It looks like an attempt to fill up the lacuna, when 85 had been lost. The only other considerable interpolation to which we can point with any confidence is in lines 898, 899, which look like a players' addition. These three lines make but a slight foundation for the theory of two editions of the Trachiniae, even if we add ll. 88, 9, and the v. rr. in lines 12, 13, supr. See Introduction.

85. mvp-comment-76-1 βίον is the safety of Heracles with all that depends on it, including the happiness of Deianira and her children. Cp. El. 768, εἰ τοῖς ἐμαυτῆς τὸν βίον σώζω κακοῖς, where, as Ellendt remarks, Clytemnestra is not thinking only of her life, but of the prosperity attending it.

87. mvp-comment-77-1 βάξις in Greek tragedy is generally a striking utterance, either of an oracle or of common rumour, and often conveys some unpleasant association.

88. mvp-comment-78-1 The corrections of Vauvillers (ela for ą) and Wakefield (πρὶν for νῦν) remove all suspicion from this line. The sons of Heracles could not be apprehensive or greatly fearful for him who was perpetually contending with dangers and hitherto always with success. The sense of fear in them was partly lost through familiarity, partly disarmed by habitual good fortune. For πότμος in this indifferent sense (fortune ane whether good or bad), cp. Fr. 786. 1, 2, ἀλλ᾿ οὑμὸς ἀεὶ πότμος ἐν πυκνῷ θεοῦ τροχῷ κυκλεῖται καὶ μεταλλάσσει φύσιν.

90. mvp-comment-79-1 τὸ μή] For the absence of oὐ here in reference to prospective action, cp. Ο. Τ. 77, μὴ δρῶν, and see Essay on L. § 29. p. 50. The whole question of the Greek negatives is still too indeterminate to justify the admission of such conjectural emendations as the insertion of οὐ after μή in this place, proposed by Brunck and others.

92-93. mvp-comment-80-1 τό γ᾽ εὐ | πράσσειν] γε emphasizes ev: Wise action, even though late.' The emphatic position of πράσσειν at the beginning of another line, and the addition of ἐπεὶ πύθοιτο, may justify the singular use of τὸ εὐ πράσσειν in an active sense (= 'Doing right,' not, 'Faring well'), which is required by the context. For the omission of τίς, τινί (the subject of πύθοιτο and the dative after ἐμπολᾷ), see Essay on L. § 39. P. 72, 3, and cp. O. Τ. 314, 5, ἀφ᾽ ὧν ἔχοι τε καὶ δύναιτο.