1186-1203.
mvp-comment-671-1
Man walketh in a vain shadow, he appears, and is not. What lot could seem more blest than Oedipus'? who slew the monster, saved our state and took the kingdom for his own? € ἰὼ CA. γενεαί] γεναὶ L. ἰὼὡς γενεαὶ C6. But now what woe is like to his; plunged by reverse of fortune in cruel misery? O glorious Oedipus! how art thou sunk into an abyss of infamy, too long concealed. Time that sees all hath found thee. And I, unblest in knowing thee, must weep thy fall. Yet thou wast he that gave me respite and repose.' The rhythms of this ode are less elaborate than those of the three former, and convey a more direct utterance of feeling. α'. β'. } } 5 } ICCICI IICCICI ICCICI IICCICI IにトCCICI にートCCICI UILCCICI ICCII CCしトC!CICI CCICーしー ILCICIC lulca LUICI いいーしに CCLCIC LUCICICLICCICICI LCCLCICIC. 5 10 The first strophe and antistrophe, expressing solemn regret, consist each of three regular glyconic logaoedic systems, the second, giving vent to a more passionate mournfulness, are iambic and trochaic, returning to the smoother logaoedic rhythm in the last three lines. Syncope of thesis' occurs in ll. 1, 4, 9, 10, of β'.
1187.
mvp-comment-672-1
ἴσα καὶ τὸ μηδέν Cp. Thuc. 3.14, ἴσα καὶ ἱκέται ἐσμέν.
1188.
mvp-comment-673-1
ζώσας While ye are in life,' with allusion to the common reflection attributed to Solon that none are to be called happy till after death. Cp. infr. 1528-1530.
1190.
mvp-comment-674-1
φέρει Cp. 590, νῦν μὲν γὰρ ἐκ σοῦ πάντ᾽ ἄνευ φόβου φέρω.
1191.
mvp-comment-675-1
δοκεῖν Sc. εὐδαίμων εἶναι.
1192.
mvp-comment-676-1
ἀποκλῖναι 'Το decline,' like the westering sun. Hdt. 3. 104-104. 181, ἀποκλινομένης δὲ τῆς ἡμέρης. Cp. Shak. Sonnet 90: 'Nativity, once in the main of light, Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crowned, | Crooked eclipses
gainst his glory fight, | And Time that gave doth now his gift confound. Also the words spoken of Xerxes by the Greeks in Hdt. 7. 203, ὀφείλειν . . ὡς ἐύντα θνητὸν ἀπὸ τῆς δύξης πεσέειν ἄν.
1193.
mvp-comment-677-1
τὸ σόν τοι παράδειγμ
Having thy example before me. Schol. τὸν σὸν βίον.. παράδειγμα ἔχων, οὐδένα μακαἐκράτησε Μ². ρίζω καὶ εὐδαιμονίζω. It is by no means clear from this, as Schndw. supposed, that the Scholiast read τὸν σόν. For he may have taken τὸ σόν substantively as = τὸν σὸν βίον. The reading in the text is simpler and more natural than τὸν σόν, although it requires παράδειγμα to be repeated in a different construction after τὸν σὸν δαίμονα.
1196.
mvp-comment-678-1
The conjecture of Hermann, οὐδὲν μακαρίζω, which avoids the unusual resolution of the arsis of a glyconic line, is otherwise probable. Cp. Fr. 652, Άρης γὰρ οὐδὲν τῶν κακῶν *λωτίζεται: Hom. Hymn to Aphrodite 34, οὔπερ τι πεφυγμένον ἔστ᾽ Ἀφροδίτην | οὔτε θεῶν μακάρων οὔτε θνητῶν ἀνθρώπων.
1197.
mvp-comment-679-1
ὅστις
Oedipus who.. The indefinite relative gives the ground of the preceding statement.
1197.
mvp-comment-679-2
καθ' ὑπερβολὰν τοξεύσας
Having shot with surpassing skill, i. e. Having hit the solution of the riddle which all others missed.
1198.
mvp-comment-680-1
ἐκράτησε . . ὄλβου
Became lord of all prosperity. The reading ἐκράτησε, required by the metre, is confirmed by ἀνέστα, which has the best authority. The transition from the 2nd to the 3rd person, in 1197, and again to the 2nd in 1202, has led to the confusion. Cp. Tr. 94-101. Heimsoeth conj. ἐκύρησε.
1200.
mvp-comment-681-1
χρησμῳδόν Because, though the songs of the Sphinx were not literally prophetic, their interpretation involved the fate of Thebes.
1200.
mvp-comment-681-2
θανάτων .. ἀνέστα
And to my country he arose as a tower of defence from death. For the dative, cp. Aj. 36, 7, φύλαξ ἔβην τῇ σῇ.. κυναγίᾳ, and for the gen. θανάτων, Essay on Language § 9. β. 2. p. 13. For the return to the indicative from the participle, see Essay on Language § 36. p. 64. Elmsley conjectured ἀναστάς.
1202.
mvp-comment-682-1
ἐξου
Whence, i. e. since and because of this.
1202.
mvp-comment-682-2
ἐμός Herm. for the metre ἀμός.
1204.
mvp-comment-683-1
ἀκούειν
To hear of thee; epexegetic infinitive. Cp. El. 664, πρέπει γὰρ ὡς τύραννος εἰσορᾶν.
1205.
mvp-comment-684-1
†τίς ἐν πόνοις, τίς ἄταις ἀγρίαις There is a want of perfect correspondence between the metre of strophe and antistrophe (しーしーーーー =C ?). The right mode of correction, if correction is necessary, is uncertain. The phrase ἄταις ἀγρίαις ξύνοικος (cp. Αj. 611, θείᾳ μανίᾳ ξύναυλος, supr. 337-338, ὁμοῦ ναίουσαν, and note) is at any rate much more expressive than the transposition adopted by some editors, τίς άταις ἀγρίαις, τίς ἐν πόνοις; The words as they stand may be rendered Who more in woe, who more associated with fierce calamities in life's reverse?' The comparative notion contained in ἀθλιώτερος is continued.
1207.
mvp-comment-685-1
κλεινόν Recalling l. 8, ὁ πᾶσι κλεινὸς Οἰδίπους καλούμενος.
1208.
mvp-comment-686-1
The Scholiast suggests two possible interpretations of which the former is preferable. (1) ᾧ ὑποδοχὴ εἰς τὸ ἄμφω δέξασθαι, σὲ καὶ τὸν πατέρα. (2) ἢ ὅτι μητὴρ ἦν καὶ γυνὴ ἡ Ἰοκάστη, ἣν λέγει λιμένα. (1)
In whose case the same wide harbour served for son and father to enter as a bridegroom. The natural construction, ᾧ.. καὶ πατρί, is modified for the sake of emphasizing the antithesis by the addition of παιδί, and the dative is left in a loose construction with the whole sentence, with an ethical' force, i. e.
to whose confusion.
1211.
mvp-comment-687-1
πατρῷαι.. ἄλοκες ‘The furrows of thy father's field.' Cp. infr. 1256-1257, 1497-1498; Aesch. S. c. Τ. 752, ματρὸς ἁγνὰν σπείρας ἄρουραν ἵν᾽ ἐτράφη: Ant. 569, ἀρώσιμοι γὰρ χἀτέρων εἰσὶν γύαι.
1213.
mvp-comment-688-1
ἐφεῦρέ σ᾽ ἄκονθ'
Has surprised thee with a discovery thou didst not intend. The result of the inquiry is contrasted with its outset, supr. 132.
1214.
mvp-comment-689-1
δικάζει Sc. σε.
Convicts thee. For the asyndeton, which may be explained by the intensity of the language, see Essay on Language p. 59. τόν is expressive.
1214.
mvp-comment-689-2
τὸν ἄγαμον, κ.τ.λ. (1)
Of all the while being son as well as husband in that unholy marriage. γάμον is cognate accusative (Essay on Language § 17. p. 24) after some word, such as ὀπυίοντα, for which the phrase τεκνοῦντα καὶ τεκνούμενον is substituted. As infr. 1403 ff., the concrete is intended under the abstract noun. When the marriage is spoken of, Jocasta is thought of. The expression is unusual, and yet γεννῶντα τὸν αὐτὸν γάμον ὃν ἐγεννήθης might be said even in prose. Cp. supr. 1210. Otherwise γάμον may be taken as accusative in regimen, and the participles either (2) as agreeing with σε and added in further explanation of γάμον:
Condemns the unholy marriage, condemns thee who art at once sire and son: or (3), the participles agreeing with γάμον,
Condemns the marriage in which father and son are one. For the use of the passive verb in this case, see Essay on Language § 31, 3, c. P. 54.
1216.
mvp-comment-690-1
There is a syllable wanting to correspond to the antistrophe. Herm. supplies ὦ before τέκνον. Bothe conj.
1216.
mvp-comment-690-2
Λαϊήϊον. 1217. There is no reasonable doubt as to the soundness of Wunder's emendation, although such repetitions are much less frequent in Sophocles than in Euripides.
1218.
mvp-comment-691-1
εἰδόμαν Essay on Language § 31. P. 52.
1219.
mvp-comment-692-1
δύρομαι γὰρ ὡς περίαλλ' ἰαχέων]
I mourn without measure, straining my voice with cries. For the quantity of ἰαχέων, cp. Eur. Or. 826, Med. 204, alib. With περίαλλος, cp. ὑπέραλλος in Pind. Nem. 3. 33, ὑπέραλλον αἰχμάν.
1219.
mvp-comment-692-2
ἐκ στομάτων, like ἐκ θυμοῦ,
with my whole power of utterance.
1219.
mvp-comment-692-3
τὸ δ᾽ ὀρθὸν εἰπεῖν
But to say the truth.
