1348.
mvp-comment-891-1
ὦ στυγνός αἰών] 'Ο hateful light of day!' As 'the life,'
αἰών, in Homer is said to leave the man, e. g. Il. 5. 685,
ἔπειτά με καὶ λίποι αἰών, so here it is said to refuse to let him go.
1350.
mvp-comment-892-1
πῶς ἀπιστήσω] 'How shall I refuse compliance?' I aor. conjunctive.
Cp. Trac 1240,
θεῶν ἀρὰ | μενεῖ σ' ἀπιστήσαντα τοῖς ἐμοῖς λόγοις.
1353.
mvp-comment-893-1
τῷ προσήγορος] 'Who is there that will speak to me?' The predication is continued from the previous sentence.
προσήγορος is elsewhere construed with the genitive. But for the dative, see
E. on L. § 13. p. 19, b.
1354-1355.
mvp-comment-894-1
'O eyes that have seen all that has been done concerning me!' It is doubted whether
κύκλοι means, (1) 'Eyes,' or (2) 'The orbs of day and night,' or (3) 'The heavenly bodies.' Philoctetes more than once appeals to the powers of Nature.
Cp. supr. 986-8. But such an invocation would be too hyperbolical here. The case is different in O. T. 1425-8, O. C. 1654, 5. On the other hand, it is characteristic of this lonely man that he has an exaggerated consciousness of what immediately belongs to him.
Cp. supr. 291, 533 8,757-9, 786, 795,807, 1004, 1085, 1130-9, 1187, 1348,
infr. 1377. Hence, instead of saying, 'How shall I bear to look upon the sons of Atreus?' (
cp. O. T. 1371 foll.), he cries out, 'O eyes! how will you endure that I should be with them?' It is also said that
ἀμφ᾿ ἐμοῦ requires the article. But this phrase has been attracted into construction with the nearer word, i. e.
τὰ πάντα ἰδόντες ἀμφ᾿ ἐμοῦ = ἰδόντες ἀμφ᾿ ἐμοῦ πάντα τὰ ἀμφ' ἐμοῦ (γεγενημένα). For the genitive,
cp. supr. 554.
1355.
mvp-comment-895-1
ἐξανασχήσεσθε] The compound with
ἐξ- marks that endurance will here reach its furthest point.
τοῖσιν.. παισίν] For this apposition of a clause to a demonstrative pronoun, see
Essay on L. § 33. p. 57, d.
1357.
mvp-comment-896-1
πῶς] Sc.
ἐξανασχήσεσθε ἐμὲ ξυνόντα.
1358.
mvp-comment-897-1
οὐ γάρ] Sc.
τοσοῦτον.
1360.
mvp-comment-898-1
οἷς .. κακά] 'For men's thoughts, when they have once brought forth an evil progeny, rear nothing but mischief afterwards.'
γνώμη, 'Thought,' or 'Mind,' is imagined as the mother of results for which man is responsible. The mind that has once had bad children will go on, and will bring up an evil brood. The figure is lost if
κακούς (Dobree) is read for
κακά. For
παιδεύει, cp. Fr. 443,
λευκὸν αὐτὴν ὧδ ἐπαίδευσεν γάλα: Plat. Theaet. p. 150 E,
τὰ ὑπ᾿ ἐμοῦ μαιευθέντα κακῶς τρέφοντες ἀπώλεσαν, ψευδῆ καὶ εἴδωλα περὶ πλείονος ποιησάμενοι τοῦ ἀληθοῦς.
1362.
mvp-comment-899-1
καὶ σοῦ δ᾽ ἔγωγε.. τόδε] 'Ay, and for my part I wonder too at thee for this.'
θαυμάζω often expresses gentle expostulation.
1364.
mvp-comment-900-1
οἵ * γε] The antecedent (of
ἐν Τροίᾳ) is to be supplied from
εἰς Τροίαν,
Essay on L. § 39. p. 72.
1365-1367.
mvp-comment-901-1
οἱ . . ἔκριναν] It must be admitted that this allusion to what Philoctetes could not know is unlike Sophocles. For, although some things that are necessary to the action may be here and there assumed without explicit statement, this observation cannot apply to such a striking fact as the repulse of Ajax, which is moreover irrelevant to the action. And, as Nauck observes, Philoctetes could not thus ignore the claim of Neoptolemus to have his father's arms. The clause was therefore rightly condemned by Brunck. But the interpolation is probably an ancient one, as is shown by the construction of
ὅπλων, which is a 'genitive of respect.'
Cp. Aj. 839 foll.
1366.
mvp-comment-902-1
τάδε] Sc.
ξυμμαχήσοντα ἰέναι.
1367.
mvp-comment-903-1
ἃ μοι ξυνώμοσας] The antecedent to
ἃ is accusative in opposition to the clause,
πέμψον πρὸς οἴκους. Hence the apparent ellipse of
ποιεῖν.
1368.
mvp-comment-904-1
ἐν Σκύρῳ μένων]
Cp. supr. 459, 60.
1369.
mvp-comment-905-1
κακῶς.. κακούς] For this common idiom,
cp. especially O. T. 261, Trach. 613. The line, which has no caesura, is perhaps intentionally harsh.
1370.
mvp-comment-906-1
διπλῆν] Both Philoctetes and his father would be doubly grateful to Neoptolemus, (a) for the return to Trachis, (b) for the desertion of the Atreidae, as an act of vengeance. (But the repetition of
διπλῆν may be simply emphatic. See
Essay on L. § 44. p. 83.
)
1374.
mvp-comment-907-1
πιστεύσαντα is (1) 'Believing.' (2) 'Obeying.' 'Believing the gods (who speak through Helenus) and yielding to my words."
1375.
mvp-comment-908-1
ἀνδρὸς τοῦδε = ἐμοῦ.
φίλου is strongly emphatic, as appears from its position in the line.
1377.
mvp-comment-909-1
τῷδε.. ποδί] The dative of accompanying circumstance, nearly =
σύν. ‘Do you mean that I, thus afflicted, am to go to Troy, to Agamemnon?'
