Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus 1513

mvp-comment-927-1 I prefer οὗ καιρὸς ἐᾷ ζῆν, τοῦ βίου κ.τ.λ. to οὗ καιρὸς ἀεὶ ζῆν, βίου ¹ τοῦ ² βίου ³ οὗ καιρός ⁴ εαι ⁵ αει ⁶

1513. mvp-comment-838-1 οὗ καιρὸς ἀεὶ ζῇν, κ.τ.λ. Dindorf's correction of this line, by substituting lâ for deí, while retaining τοῦ, is objectionable on many grounds: (1) The crasis of da, the third singular indicative or subjunctive, is not sufficiently supported in a conjectural reading by the single instance in Homer, Il. 5. 256, τρεῖν μ᾽ οὐκ ἐᾷ Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη: (2) καιρός (sc. ἐστιν) is a common idiom, and is good sense, while οὗ καιρὸς ἐᾷ is neither: (3) the insertion of the article is a more likely error than the corruption of a verb. Meineke's οὗ καιρὸς ή ζην is better. But the article τοῦ has no special force, and may have come either from a gloss or from immediately below; and the emphatic del suits well with the feeling of Oedipus, who is thinking of the unhappy circumstances of his own life. The pause at the middle of the line is not frequent. but there are several examples of such a division, after a strong monosyllable like ζῆν, in the present play. See esp. 11. 12, 110, 1066, 1155.