1123.
mvp-comment-638-1
ἀλλ᾽ οἴκοι τραφείς This helps to account for the confidence reposed in him by Jocasta, supr 756, 763.
1125.
mvp-comment-639-1
I was generally a herdsman.'
1126.
mvp-comment-640-1
ξύναυλος Sc. τοῖς ποιμνίοις.
1128.
mvp-comment-641-1
The indefinite που answers to the indefiniteness of the answer in 1127.
Are you then aware of having somewhere thereabouts made the acquaintance of this man? Cp. infr. 1142-1143. Q2
1130.
mvp-comment-642-1
ή ξυνήλλαξας τί πω
Had you ever anything to do with him? This is better than ἢ ξυναλλάξας, which requires a somewhat forced connection with l. 1128.
1134.
mvp-comment-643-1
τὸν Κιθαιρῶνος τόπον
As we ranged about Citheron. The accusative (of the sphere of motion) is governed by the general notion of traversing or occupying in what follows. Cp. Aj. 877,8, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ μὲν δὴ τὴν ἀφ᾿ ἡλίου βολῶν | κέλευθον ἁνὴρ οὐδαμοῦ δηλοῖ φανείς.
1136.
mvp-comment-644-1
ἐπλησίαζον The verb in the latter part of the sentence is adapted to the nearer subject. For instances of this
attraction, or
zeugma, see Essay on Language pp. 65-66.
1137.
mvp-comment-645-1
ἑκμήνους Cp. Plat. Legg. 11, 916 B. where ἐκμήνου for ἑκμήνου is in Par. A, Hes. Op. 566, 608. There can be no doubt that this is the true reading, though based on inferior MS. authority. It was adopted by Porson from the Trin. MS. and is confirmed by three others (including Ven. 617 pr.)
Three entire seasons of six months extending from spring to the rising of Arcturus. It has been proposed (by E. A. J. Ahrens in Philologus of 1876) to explain the Laurentian reading thus: τρεῖς ὅλους ἐμμήνους χρόνους,
three full months, being the time from spring to the rising of Arcturus: and it is urged in favour (a) χειμῶνι EV3 Vat. ac.
1137.
mvp-comment-645-2
τούτων CA. of this that spring is late in visiting the Boeotian Highlands. But the awkwardness of the parenthesis, coming between the numeral and the noun, and the unmeaning pleonasm, are fatal objections to this way of taking the words. The division of the year κατὰ θέρος καὶ χειμώνα, into equal periods of six months, is also more probable. And the imperfect ἤλαυνον shows that the shepherd is speaking of what he did not once but habitually.
1138.
mvp-comment-646-1
χειμώνα δ᾽ ἤδη
But for the winter season, when it came. The accusative of time, continued from χρόνους supr., is here proleptic; i.e.
I drove them to remain during winter. Cp. Thuc. 3. 21, τὰς οὖν νύκτας τὰς μὲν ἐπάλξεις ἀπέλειπον: Hdt. 7. 50, § 3, ὥρην τε τοῦ ἔτεος καλλίστην πορευόμεθα. The commencement of the action and its continuance are thought of together. χειμῶνα has the best authority, and is also the more difficult reading. According to a calculation made by Prof. Förster at the request of G. Wolff, the morning rising of Arcturus for Athens in 430 B. C. was on the 13th September of the Julian Calendar.
1140.
mvp-comment-647-1
πεπραγμένον
That has really happened. τι τούτων is supplemented by πεπραγμένον in the latter part of the sentence.
1145.
mvp-comment-648-1
ὦ τᾶν The familiar language of one servant addressing another.
1146.
mvp-comment-649-1
The οἰκέτης knew that he had been entrusted with the exposure of the child of Laius, and instead of executing his commission had given the infant to a herdsman from Corinth. - He knew also that Oedipus was the murderer of Laius-Faithful to Jocasta, he had hitherto kept both secrets; and this had occasioned his request to be allowed to remove as far as possible from the city. But until this moment the truth has never flashed upon his mind that the child of Jocasta and Laius is the husband of the one and the murderer of the other. The abruptness of the exclamation indicates the surprise, which now breaks upon his mind.
