1560.
mvp-comment-829-1
λίσσομαι This has been changed το λίσσωμαι for the sake of the metre. Such a use of the subjunctive in the 1st pers. sing. can scarcely be paralleled from Attic Greek. But besides securing the correspondence of metre, it agrees with the context, and is not contrary to analogy.
1561-1564.
mvp-comment-830-1
*ἐπιπόνῳ.. δόμον
That by no painful, by no greatly to be lamented doom, the stranger may reach the all-hiding nether region, and the Stygian home. 1561. The omission of the first μήτε, which Seidler proposed, restores the metre without disturbing the sense. Cp. Aesch. Ag. 532, Πάρις γάρ, οὔτε συντελὴς πόλις, ἐξεύχεται τὸ δρᾶμα τοῦ πάθους πλέον.
1561-1564.
mvp-comment-830-2
βαρυαχεῖ is treated by the Scholiast (see also v. rr.) as the Doric form of βαρυηχεῖ, a word which occurs several times, whereas there is only one doubtful instance, Aesch. Eum. 145, πάθος δυσαχές, of a compound derivative of ἄχος. The chorus, who have been frightened by the thunder, may be supposed to pray that the end of Oedipus may be neither painful nor alarming. In the report of the messenger they are reassured on this very point. Infra 1658, οὐ γάρ τις αὐτὸν οὔτε πυρφόρος θεοῦ | κεραυνὸς ἐξέπραξεν, οὔτε ποντία | θύελλα κινηθεῖσα τῷ τότ᾽ ἐν χρόνῳ. For a similar feeling about εὐθανασία, cp. Plat. Phaedo, 117 Ε, καὶ γὰρ ἀκήκοα, ὅτι ἐν εὐφημίᾳ χρὴ τελευτᾶν. (2) But the metre is in favour of βαρυἄχεῖ, which, to avoid tautology, must be explained to mean
causing severe sorrow. By no painful, by no lamentable doom.' Cp. infr. 1663, 4, οὐ στενακτὸς οὐδὲ . . ἀλγεινός. For the redundant ἐπί, see Essay on Language § 19. p. 27.
1562.
mvp-comment-831-1
A correction which presupposes corruption both in strophe and antistrophe must necessarily bedoubtful.
1562.
mvp-comment-831-2
ἄρα,
in accordance with his presentiment. Cp. 1585. For the metre, cp. El. 1384=1391. Others (with Musgr.) read ξένον ἐξανύσαι, and λόγος αἰὲν ἔχει, 1565 1568 1564-1566. Division of lines, νεκύων
1564.
mvp-comment-832-1
νεκρῶν νεκύων LA. Tricl. corr.
1564.
mvp-comment-832-2
ἀνικάτου ἀνικήτου Α. in the antistrophe.
1565-1567.
mvp-comment-833-1
For even although many sorrows have been coming on thee without bringing any good, it may be that a just Deity will again exalt thee.' For καί with a participle in the genitive absolute, having the force of καίπερ, cp. Εl. 657, τὰ δ᾽ ἄλλα πάντα καὶ σιωπώσης ἐμοῦ | ἐπαξιῶ σε δαίμον᾽ ὄντ᾿ ἐξειδέναι. ἱκνουμένων is in the imperfect tense, and the force of av extends to both parts of the sentence, as if it were πολλὰ μὲν ἂν πήματα μάταν ἱκνοῖτο, ὅμως δὲ κἂν αὔξοι σε δαίμων δίκαιος ὤν. The chorus now express their belief in the possibility of what Ismene had said, supra 394, νῦν γὰρ θεοί σ᾽ ὀρθοῦσι, πρόσθε δ' ἄλλυσαν. It is doubtful whether μάταν means (1) 'causelessly, as some have explained it, or (2)
without result, i. e. bringing no good after them. The latter is more probable; i.e. Though no such result has been produced as yet. σε has been unnecessarily changed to σφε. The apostrophe gives liveliness to what would otherwise be a frigid sentiment. The change from the 3rd person to the 2nd is not more violent than the change a few lines below from the 2nd to the 3rd, 1568, ὦ.. σῶμα θηρός,... 1574, ὅν, κ.τ.λ. Cp. also Ο. ΤT. 1202, ff.
1568.
mvp-comment-834-1
ὦ χθόνιαι θεαί These words, elsewhere applied to Demeter and Proserpine, seem here to be addressed to the Erinyes, to whom, as daughters of Earth and Darkness, they are properly applicable.
Invocat Furias et Cerberum, hunc, ut ne teneat animam mortui in limine Ditis; illas, ut propitiae sint, nec puniant quae ille sine mala mente commisit.
(Herm.) That Prosperine has been already invoked, is not, however, a conclusive reason against her being here again addressed with Demeter. Cp. O. T. 190, foll., 206, foll., where Artemis is twice invoked.
1568-1569.
mvp-comment-835-1
σῶμα.. θηρός
And thou huge unconquered beast.
1569.
mvp-comment-836-1
ὃν .. Ἀΐδᾳ
Of whom they say that thou hast thy lair in the I olished gateway, and whom rumour ever declares to be snarling from thy den, a guardian invincible of Hades hall.'
1570.
mvp-comment-837-1
πολυξέστοις The conjecture πολυξένοις is more convenient for the metre, and gives an apt enough sense. On the other hand, πολυξέστοις, ' Burnished, is a picturesque epithet for a gateway: and the tendency to spondaic endings in this antistrophe has been already noticed.
1573.
mvp-comment-838-1
λόγος * ἐσαιὲν ἀνέχει
Report constantly avers of thee. As the metre is doubtful (the corresponding verse in the strophe being corrupt), it appears unsafe to follow Tricilinius in altering ἀνέχει which looks idiomatic, to ἔχει: for which, however, cp. supra 674, and note, Hdt. 7. 26, τὸν ὑπὸ Φρυγῶν λόγος ἔχει ὑπὸ Ἀπόλλωνος ἀνακρεμασθῆναι. For the similar use of a compound of ἔχω, cp. Pind. Pyth. 1.96, ἐχθρὰ Φάλαριν κατέχει φάτις. And for ἀνέχω, cp. Pind. Nem. 7.89, εἰ δ᾽ αὐτὸ καὶ θεὸς ἀνέχοι. The correspondence of metre is kept by reading εὖ κατανύσαι in the strophe.
1574.
mvp-comment-839-1
ὦ Γᾶς παῖ καὶ Ταρτάρου These words are addressed not to Cerberus, but in all probability to Death, who is invoked as a person more than once in Sophocles (Phil. 797, Aj. 854), cp. infr. 1578 and note. In what sense could Cerberus be called the child of Earth? In Hes. Theog. 211, foll., Death is the Child of Night, without a father, and Cerberus, ib. 310, is the son of Echidna and Typhon. But in these genealogies the poets used considerable freedom. And in the same spirit in which Sophocles calls the Erinyes daughters of Earth and Darkness, Death may be apostrophized as the son of Earth, who receives the bodies of the Dead, and Tartarus, which (cp. supra 1389), like
Olympus, has less of a special and local meaning in Sophocles than in Homer. The name of Death is omitted, like that of Persephone, the Erinyes, and Cerberus, while the kingly title 'Αϊδωνεύς is given to Hades. Cp. supra 1548, and note.
1575.
mvp-comment-840-1
ἐν καθαρῷ βῆναι (1) • To move in a clear space,' i. e. to leave the way clear: μὴ ἐμποδὼν βῆναι. A marked instance of oxymoron: cp. ἐκτὸς ὁμιλεῖ, Aj. 640, and see Essay on Language § 37. p. 70. Or (2) taking βῆναι in the sense of
departing as in Ant. 120, ἔβα, κ.τ.λ., and ἐν καθαρῷ as proleptic,
To go away and leave the coast clear =ἐκποδὼν βῆναι.
