1478.
mvp-comment-822-1
τῆσδε τῆς ὁδοῦ
In requital for thus bringing them. Genitive of the reason. See Essay on Language § 10. p. 15. For ὁδός, see Essay on Language p. 96; and cp. El 1314. μια σε τῆδ᾽ ὁδῷ θανόντα τε | καὶ ζῶντ᾽ ἐσεῖδον: Ο. C. 1506, τῆσδε τῆς ὁδοῦ,
1481.
mvp-comment-823-1
Come to these hands of mine, that own one mother with you. Cp. Ο. C. 535, κοιναί γε πατρὸς ἀδελφεαί.
1482-1483.
mvp-comment-824-1
.'Which have provided for you this sad spectacle of your father's once bright eyes.'
1482-1483.
mvp-comment-824-2
On προξενέω, see Essay on Language p. 98, init.; and on the construction of ὧδ' ὁρᾶν (1. 1482), ibid. § 33. p. 57. The use of προὐξένησαν is occasioned by ὁρᾶν, which, though epexegetic, is first in the order of words, and suggests προξενεῖν θεωρίαν. ὧδε, sc ἔχοντα. See Essay on Language § 39. 1. p. 72.
1484.
mvp-comment-825-1
οὔθ᾽ ὁρῶν οὔθ᾽ ἱστορῶν
Blind and uninquiring, i. e. unconscious. Cp. supr. 413, κού βλέπεις ἵν᾽ εἶ κακοῦ: 530, ἃ γὰρ δρῶσ᾽ οἱ κρατοῦντες οὐχ ὁρῶ.
1485.
mvp-comment-826-1
ἐφάνθην
Became, with the additional meaning
was discovered to be. 1486. i.e.
My eyes, that see you not, shed tears for you.
1487.
mvp-comment-827-1
νοούμενος
Thinking sadly of.' The rare middle voice expresses deep personal feeling. Essay on Language § 31. p. 53.
1488.
mvp-comment-828-1
βιῶναι . . πρὸς ἀνθρώπων For πρός, cp. Αj. 511, σοῦ διοίσεται μόνος | ὑπ᾿ ὀρφανιστῶν μὴ φίλων.
1490-1491.
mvp-comment-829-1
Bathed in tears instead of enjoying the solemnity. θεωρίας combines the notion of
assisting at contests or exhibitions of various kinds, with that of performing a religious function.
1490.
mvp-comment-830-1
For the perfect tense of κεκλαυμέναι, cp. Il. 16.7, τίπτε δεδάκρυσαι, Πατρόκλεις : Aesch. Cho. 731, τρόφον δ' Ὀρέστου τήνδ᾽ ὁρῶ κεκλαυμένην.
1493.
mvp-comment-831-1
Who will be the man? Who will run the risk of incurring such reproaches as will fall upon my parents, and will also be your bane?
1495.
mvp-comment-832-1
γονεῦσιν, though including the misfortune of Laius, who brought calamity on himself and his race, refers more particularly to Jocasta. This dat. is to be joined with ἔσται, δηλήματα being added with σφών, which is an ethical dative.
1498.
mvp-comment-833-1
ὅθεν . . ἐσπάρη For ὅθεν, cp. supr. 1485, ἔνθεν. ἐσπάρη = σπαρεὶς ἐγένετο, 1500. And who then will marry you?' 1505-1507. Do not suffer them, being your kinswomen, to wander poor and unhusbanded, nor make their woes to be like mine.' On ἐξισώσῃς, see Essay on Language p. 96; and for the order of words, ib. § 41. P. 77.
1506.
mvp-comment-834-1
ἐγγενεῖς Sc. οὔσας. Essay on Language § 23. p. 38. The conjectural emendaions, ἐκγενεῖς, ἀστέγους, ἀξένους, etc., are unnecessary. Cp. Eur. Phoen. 761, 2 (Eteocles to Creon), μητρὸς δ' ἀδελφὸς εἶ· τί δεῖ μακρηγορεῖν; | τρέφ᾽ ἀξίως νιν σοῦ τε τὴν τ᾿ ἐμὴν χάριν.
1507.
mvp-comment-835-1
i. e.
Let not my fall be their ruin. Cp. supr. 425. Essay on Language p. 96.
1510.
mvp-comment-836-1
ψαύσας Sc. αὐταῖν. Oedipus holds the children forward, that Creon may put his hand upon them in token of acknowledging his duty to them as a kinsman.
1512.
mvp-comment-837-1
νῦν δὲ τοῦτ᾽ εὔχεσθέ μοι
But now I would have you pray. The mistake of the Scholiast, who suggested that εὔχεσθε was passive ('be the object of this prayer of mine'), arose from not observing the idiomatic use of μοι: i. e.
Instead of giving you advice which you cannot understand. I will put into your mouths this simple prayer. Ср. О. С. 1116, ταῖς τηλικαῖσδε σμικρὸς ἐξαρκεῖ λόγος.
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.
1514.
mvp-comment-839-1
ὑμᾶς is added to strengthen the antithesis. The accusative, in the epexegesis, presents no difficulty. See .. Essay on Language § 16. 3. p. 24.
1515.
mvp-comment-840-1
Thou hast gone far enough in weeping.' Creon here assumes the tone of one who is henceforth to be regent of the land. Supr. 1418. The humanity shown by him supr. 1476-1477, now gives way to reasons of state. Cp. Ant. 182-183. Schndw., in Die Sage von Ödipus,' 1852, suggested, without laying any stress on the conjecture,' that the Oedipus Rex may have originally ended with the voluntary departure of Oedipus, as in the play of Seneca, and that the exodos may have been subsequently altered by Sophocles in order to adapt it to the Oedipus Coloneus.
