Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus 1528

1528. mvp-comment-848-1 The order is ὥστε (τινα), έπισκοποῦντα ἐκείνην τὴν τελευταίαν ἡμέραν ἰδεῖν, ὀλβίζειν μηδένα ὄντα θνητόν. So that one waits to see that final day, not calling any mortal happy, before he have completed the term of his life, without any sorrow. Cp Pind. Nem. ΙΙ. 10, τέλος δωδεκάμηνον περάσαι σὺν ἀτρώτῳ κραδίᾳ. The lighter trochaic rhythm, here (1515 foll.) preparing for and hastening the exit of the chief actor, affords relief to the mind of the spectator after the long strain of excited feeling. The comparative tameness of the concluding lines (wrongly assigned to Oed. by the Schol., who was thinking of the Phoenissae) is in accordance with this. The lines in the Phoenissae read like an imitation of this passage, which, although beneath the general style of Sophocles, is not inferior in merit to the concluding words of the chorus in the other plays.