Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus 440

mvp-comment-935-1 See critical note. These verses are spoken by the Chorus, as Creon turns with Oedipus to enter the house. The calm close which the tragedy requires would be wanting if they were spoken by the chief sufferer himself. Of extant Greek tragedies, the Prometheus and the Agamemnon are the only ones which end with words spoken by one of the actors; and in each case this is justified by the scheme of the trilogy to which the play belonged.

mvp-comment-936-1 Here, as elsewhere, the MSS. fluctuate between ᾔδει and ᾔδη. The Attic ᾔδη, as first pers. sing., is contracted from ᾔδεα: in the third, the classical form was not ᾔδη but ᾔδει, or, before a vowel, ᾔδειν (as it must be in Eur. Ion 1187 , Aristoph. Peace 1182 etc.). No 3rd sing. in εα, from which η could come, is said, or can be supposed, to have existed. Aristarchus, indeed, is quoted by the schol. on Hom. Il. 5.64 in favour of the η. But the Doric 3rd sing. ἀπολώλη in Tab. Heracl. 1.39 is the only such form which is beyond question. Curtius ( Curt. Verb 11.237 , Eng. tr. 431 ff.) therefore agrees with those textual critics who, like La Roche, Cobet, and Kontos (Λόγιος Ἑρμῆς p. 61) would always write the 3rd sing. ᾔδει (or ᾔδειν). ᾔδει αἰνίγματα ¹

mvp-comment-937-1 οὖ τίς οὐ ζήλῳ … ταῖς τύχαις ἐπέβλ., ² τίς ³ ἐπέβλεπεν ⁴ ἐπιβλέπων ⁵ καί ⁶ ταῖς ⁷

mvp-comment-938-1 The use of ἐπισκοποῦντα ⁸ ὀλβίζειν ⁹ μηδέν’ ὀλβίζειν ¹⁰

1526. mvp-comment-847-1 The unintelligible reading of this line, which appears in most MSS, †ὅστις οὐ ζήλῳ πολιτῶν καὶ τύχαις ἐπιβλέπων†, has been changed to ov τις οὐ ζηλῶν πολιτῶν καὶ τύχαις ἐπιβλέπων = Whom which of the citizens did not envy, and gaze on his fortunes?' and to ὃν τις οὐ ζήλῳ πολιτῶν τῆς τύχης ἐπέβλεπεν; Another solution of the difficulty is to suppose that a line following this one has been lost. Who did not' (after the manner of tyrants) [maintain his power] 'by envy of the citizens and by keeping an eye upon their fortunes; i. e. Oedipus was a wise and popular ruler, not like Thrasybulus or Periander, who cut off the tallest heads of grain. Cp Pind. Pyth. 3. 71, πραὺς ἀστοῖς, οὐ φθονέων ἀγαθοῖς. But the transition from the dative to the participle is harsh; and ζῆλοs is not φθόνος. The reading of VM, ἐν for οὐ, and the gloss ἐπαιρόμενοs in ME, suggest a different line of conjecture, viz. that some other verb is concealed in ἐπιβλέπων. ἐπιφλέγων would harmonize well with κλύδωνα in the following line, both together suggesting an image of brightness quenched. Cp. Aesch. S. c. Τ. 772, τίν᾿ ἀνδρῶν γὰρ τοσόνδ᾽ ἐθαύμασαν θεοὶ καὶ ξυνέστιοι πόλεος, κ τ.λ.: Ib. 758, κακῶν δ᾽ ὥσπερ θάλασσα κῦμ᾿ ἄγει: Pind. P. 11. 45, δύξ᾽ ἐπιφλέγει. The Naples MS. No. 291 (II. F. 34), (quoted by Elmsley as Farn.'), has τ/ἐπιβλέπων. There still remains the awkwardness of ὅστις with the participle. The emendation above attempted removes this: but is no doubt only one of several possible expedients. IP may have been lost after ἀνήρ (ΗΡΠΡ); and the remaining letters of πρῶτος, ΟΤΟΣ, might then be changed to ὅστις; cp. supr. 478 (ὁτ.-ώστ.), Ο. C. 775 (τισ τοσ). For ζῆλος πολιτῶν as equivalent τo εὐδαιμονία, cp. esp. Aj. 503, οίας λατρείας ἀνθ᾽ ὅσου ζήλου τρέφει: Thuc. 2. 64, ὅστις δ᾽ ἐπὶ μεγίστοις τὸ ἐπίφθονον λαμβάνει, ὀρθῶς βουλεύεται: Pind. 1. 85, κρέσσων γὰρ οἰκτιρμοῦ φθόνος.

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.