1260.
mvp-comment-712-1
ὡς ὑφηγητοῦ τινός ‘As if he had some one leading him. Viz. τοῦ δαίμονος. ὑφηγητοῦ, sc. ὄντος: see Essay on Language § 9. §. a. p. 14.
1261.
mvp-comment-713-1
ἐκ δὲ πυθμένων ἔκλινε κοίλα κλήθρα
And he uprooted and forced down the yielding doors. κλῆθρα are probably the doors with their fastenings.
1261.
mvp-comment-713-2
ἐκ πυθμένων implies that the door was torn from its hinges or the bolts from their staples. κοῖλα,
hollowing in. is a
proleptic epithet suggesting the ease with which the obstruction gave way to Oedipus in his paroxysm. κοίλος is a favourite word with Sophocles, who extends the application of this as of some other epithets beyond the common use. Essay on Language p. 103. Cp. Tr. 901, κοίλα δέμνια: Il. 20.446, ἠέρα τύψε βαθείαν. For ἐκ πυθμένων, cp Aesch. Prom. 1047, χθόνα δ᾽ ἐκ πυθμένων | αὐταῖς ῥίζαις πνεῦμα κραδαίνοι. And for the use of κλίνω, cp. Hdt. 9. 9, μεγάλαι κλισιάδες ἀναπεπτέαται. The alliteration of κ, λ, is suggestive of the successful effort. on
1264.
mvp-comment-714-1
ἐμπεπλεγμένην The Laur. MS. reads πλεκταῖσ᾽ ἐώραις ἐμπεπληγμένην ὁ δὲ | ὅπωσδ', in which the form ἐώραις and the meaning of ἐμπεπληγμένην are doubtful, and the second dé in ὅπως δ' is manifestly wrong. Better with MM² πλεκταῖσιν αἰώραισιν ἐμπεπλεγμένην, and either ὁ δε omitted, or the words ὁ δὲ ὅπως δ᾽ ὁρᾷ νιν corrected into ὁ δ᾽ ὡς ὁρᾷ νιν. The tautology of πλεκταῖσιν αἰώραισιν ἐμπεπλεγμένην is not unlike Sophocles (Essay L. § 44. p. 83) and ἐμπεπληγμένην, which is the reading of LE Ven. 617 pr. Vat. 1363, Vat. be. K., although more expressive of the violence of the act,
where she had been dashed into the noose, seems hardly appropriate as a description not of Jocasta hanging herself, but of the dead body already hanging. But for ἐμπλήσσω in this connection, cp. Od. 22. 468 foll.
1264.
mvp-comment-714-2
ὡς δ᾽ ὅταν ἢ κίχλαι τανυσίπτεροι ἠὲ πέλειαι | ἕρκει ἐνιπλήξωσι: and see Hesych.
1264.
mvp-comment-714-3
ἐμπλῆξαι· ἐμπεσεῖν : and for the tense, Il. 16.660, ἐπεὶ βασιλῆα ἴδον βεβλαμμένον ἦτορ. ὁ δέ, with a pause following as well as preceding, cp. supr. 1252, makes a less suitable rhythm than the
end-stopt line. The gloss in Trin. shows the doubtfulness of ἐώρα: ἑώρα διὰ τοῦ ἐ ψιλοῦ, ὅθεν καὶ μετέωρος.
1265.
mvp-comment-715-1
ὁ δ᾽ *ὡς ὁρᾷ νιν Cp. El. 736: Ant. 1226, ὁ δ᾽ ὡς ὁρᾷ σφε.
1266.
mvp-comment-716-1
ἐπεὶ δὲ γῇ The reading ἐπί, ἐκειτ᾿ ἡ Pal. 6 ἐμπεπληγμένην Ε.
1266.
mvp-comment-716-2
ὅπωσ AV3 Trin.
1267.
mvp-comment-717-1
ἔκειτο ἔκειθ' ὁ LAEF. for which cp. supr. 258 (ἐπικυρῶ for ἐπεὶ κυρῶ), has arisen from not recognizing the dative of place.
1267.
mvp-comment-717-2
δεινὰ δ᾽ ἦν The δέ in apodosi adds emphasis. Then what followed was terrible to see.' Triclinius read γ'.
1268.
mvp-comment-718-1
foll. For when he had plucked away from her person the clasps of gold with which her robes were fastened, he lifted them and smote his eye-balls to the root, saying aloud, "That they should not see the evils of which he was the victim, and the cause, but in darkness henceforth should look upon those whom he ought never to have seen, and fail to know those whom he had desired to know."' Herm.'s conjecture, ὄψαιντο,
because they had not seen him, derives considerable plausibility (notwithstanding the doubtfulness of the form) from ἔπασχεν and ἔδρα. But these imperfects, as well as ἔδει and ἔχρηζεν, are to be explained by the implied reference to the past, when his eyes had seen his father in the triple way and his mother in Thebes, whom it would have been better for him never to have seen, and had failed to recognize them, whom he had so longed to know, when the recognition might have saved all. With sharp pathos he now says that in the future his eyes shall not do as in the past. They shall indeed look on those it were best not to have seen (his children, the citizens, his father and mother in Hades, 1371 foll.), but without having sight, and not know those whom he once desired to know (with a double reference to his desire to see his parents and the natural wish to see the faces of his children). For a similar oxymoron in threatening language, cp. Ant. 310 foll., ἵν᾽ εἰδότες τὸ κέρδος ἔνθεν οἰστέον | τὸ λοιπὸν ἁρπάζητε. And for the feeling in oὓς ἔχρηζε, cp. Εl. 1235, εἴδεθ᾽ οὓς ἐχρήζετε. The imperfects indicative in 1273-1274 are in the same construction as those in 1271, and they are not affected by the proposed emendation.
1270.
mvp-comment-719-1
ἄρας – 1276. ἐπαίρων (1)
Lifting the clasps in his hand (ἐπι = 'repeatedly'). Cp. II. 3. 362, πλῆξεν ἀνασχόμενος κόρυθος φάλον. According to others, (2) Lifting his eyes.'
1270.
mvp-comment-719-2
ἄρθρα.. κύκλων
The sockets of his eye-balls. For the periphrasis, cp. supr. 1032. And for κύκλων, Ant. 974, ὀμμάτων κύκλοις, Phil. 1354.
