Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 313

mvp-comment-974-1 οἴμοι ¹

mvp-comment-974-2 τῆς ἐμῆς ² κελεύθου ³

mvp-comment-975-1 οἷον … ὁδοῦ τέλος ⁴

mvp-comment-975-2 τάλας ⁵

mvp-comment-976-1 οἷον ⁶ φωνῆσαι ⁷

mvp-comment-976-2 ἀλλ’ ὄντ’ ⁸

mvp-comment-977-1 τοῦδ’ ⁹

mvp-comment-977-2 ἀλλ’ ¹⁰

mvp-comment-978-1 τὰ σκληρὰ ¹¹

mvp-comment-978-2 ταῦτ’ ¹²

mvp-comment-979-1 μή τοί με … μή μ’ ¹³

mvp-comment-980-1 θέσθε ἐν τάφοισι ¹⁴

mvp-comment-980-2 θέσθε ἐν κτερίσμασι ¹⁵

mvp-comment-980-3 κτερίσματα ¹⁶

mvp-comment-980-4 The poet's allusion to his own Antigone is lightly and happily made. Polyneices here naturally prays for regular funeral rites. That prayer was doomed to disappointment. And yet the

for which he asks are represented by the which, in the Antigone , his sister pours, after the symbolic rite of scattering dust on the unburied corpse ( Ant. 431 ).

mvp-comment-981-1 κομίζετον ¹⁷

mvp-comment-981-2 οἷς ¹⁸

mvp-comment-981-3 οἴσει ¹⁹

mvp-comment-981-4 τῆς ἐμῆς ὑπουργίας ²⁰

mvp-comment-982-1 — 1446 The dialogue between sister and brother illustrates her affection for him, and thus strengthens the link (1405 ff.) between this play and the Antigone. It has, however, a further dramatic purpose. The version of the paternal curse adopted by Sophocles tended to suggest this question to the spectator:—Why should Polyneices persevere in the war, when his defeat and death had been definitely foretold to him? For he plainly believes the prediction (cp. 1407, 1435), though he affects to think that there is a chance of escape (1444). The answer is furnished by the traits of his character which this dialogue brings out. They give the

for a course which might otherwise have seemed improbable.

mvp-comment-983-1 τὸ ποῖον ²¹

1399. mvp-comment-738-1 κελεύθου For my coming hither. For τῆς ἐμῆς only expressed in the second member of the clause, see Essay on Language § 21. p. 33. b.

1399. mvp-comment-738-2 δυσπραξίας refers especially to the failure of his present mission, in which he is worse than ἄπρακτος.

1400. mvp-comment-739-1 Cp. Pind. Isthm. 6. (7). 10, quoted on l. 1076. οἷον ἄρ᾽ ὁδοῦ τέλος | Ἄργους ἀφωρμήθημεν] The accusative τέλος may be accounted for in one of two ways: either (1) as the accusative of motion transferred to time, or (2) as an accusative in apposition with the action of the verb expressing the result of the action. The latter is probably right. We set forth from Argos, with what a consummation of our enterprise!' Essay on Language § 16. p. 22, § 17. p. 25.

1400. mvp-comment-739-2 ὁδοῦ ie. The whole march from Argos to Thebes. Cp. infr. 1439-1440.

1402. mvp-comment-740-1 The words τοιοῦτον, κ.τ.λ. are epexegetic of olov in l. 1400.

1403. mvp-comment-741-1 οὐδ᾽ ἀποστρέψαι πάλιν Cp. infr. 1416. The sentence has passed out of the construction with olov. The object of ἀποστρέψαι is easily supplied. Cp. Hdt. 4. 43, ἀποστρέψας ὀπίσω, ἀπέπλεε.

1404. mvp-comment-742-1 ἀλλ᾽ ὄντ᾿ ἄναυδον, κ.τ.λ. The positive notion is here elicited from the negative (see Essay on Language p. 64); i. e. these words depend on χρή implied in οὐκ ἔξεστι. Cp. esp. O. T. 816-818.

1405. mvp-comment-743-1 ὦ τοῦδ᾽ ὅμαιμοι παῖδες O my own sisters, daughters of this my father. Against explaining τοῦδε as = ἐμοῦ, it is enough to urge that there is no other instance in Sophocles in which this pronoun stands alone for the first person. In the only two places where it is so used substantively (Tr. 305, τῆσδε, 1012, τῷδε) it is immediately followed by a participle in agreement with it. In ὅμαιμοι there is no reference (as in ὦ σπέρμ᾽ ὅμαιμον, 331) to the incestuous birth, an allusion which, though in character with Oedipus, supr. 328, would not be in character with Polynices here. Cp. infr. 1772: Ant. 512-513.

1406. mvp-comment-744-1 κλύετε †τοῦδ᾽ ἀρωμένου τοῦδε occurs three times in these three lines, and ταῦτα seems to be required to complete τὰ σκληρά. It may seem justifiable therefore to read ταῦτ᾽ for τοῦδ' in this line. But it may be observed that a certain amount of iteration of the dominant thought is natural to the broken language of such an entreaty. See esp. ll. 1407-1409. and cp. Phil. 473 ff. The thought of his father has a terrible fascination for Polynices at this moment.

1407. mvp-comment-745-1 *ἐάν The a is long here and in Aristoph. Vesp. 228. It is strange that car should occur so seldom before a vowel.

1408. mvp-comment-746-1 Cp. infr. 1769 ff.

1410. mvp-comment-747-1 But yourselves lay me in the tomb, and afford me funeral rites.' ἐν κτερίσμασιν is placed in construction with θέσθε in a slightly different sense, = περιστείλατε κτερίσμασιν. See Essay on Language pp. 60, 65, 2. The middle voice in θέσθε is subjective, i. e. it emphasises the personal nature of the action: θέσθε, i. e. προθυμήθητε θεῖναι. Essay on Language § 31. P. 53.

1411. mvp-comment-748-1 And the praise you now receive from him for your labours in his behalf shall have added unto it another praise moreover for the service done to me.' For the turn of expression, cp. O.T. 666-667, τάδ᾽ εἰ κακοῖς κακὰ ἡ γῆ) προσάψει τοῖς πάλαι τὰ πρὸς σφῷν. And for the use of φέρω, Αj. 293, γυναιξὶ κόσμον ἡ σιγὴ φέρει.

1412. mvp-comment-749-1 τοῦδ᾽ ἀνδρός is, ist, genitive of origin, You receive from him:' but, 2nd, suggests the object of πονεῖτον, sc. τῷδε or ὑπὲρ τοῦδε. οἷς = τούτοις ἅ: By reason of your labours.'

1413. mvp-comment-750-1 ἔτ᾿ ἄλλον οἴσει Cp. Tr. 618-619, ὅπως ἂν ἡ χάρις κείνου τε σοι | κἀμοῦ ξυνελθοῦσ᾽, ἐξ ἁπλῆς διπλῆ φανῇ.

1413. mvp-comment-750-2 τῆς ἐμῆς ὑπουργίας ‘By reason of, etc. Essay on Language § 10. p. 15.

1414. mvp-comment-751-1 The two trisyllabic feet coming together at the beginning of the line produce a singular effect, corresponding to the trembling eagerness of Antigone.

1415. mvp-comment-752-1 Some MSS. have ὦ φιλτάτη μοι ποῖον, which Hermann admitted. But if Par. A. has preserved the true reading, μοι was not unlikely to be conjectured to supply the syllable which was lost in L. On the other hand, μοι expresses greater tenderness. But in a point of such uncertainty, even a slight MS. preponderance must be allowed to determine the text.