1672.
mvp-comment-893-1
αἷμα is here primarily
Bloodrelationship, with perhaps a secondary association (pointed by the word ἄλαστον) from the other meaning of Blood-guiltiness.' Cp. O. Τ. 1400, αἱ τοὐμὸν αἷμα τῶν ἐμῶν χειρῶν ἄπο | ἐπίετε πατρός.
1673.
mvp-comment-894-1
The form ᾧτινι (= ὅτῳ) is rare, and Badham has conjectured ὥτινε. But the dative properly expresses the connection between the two parts of the sentence. Essay on Language § 12. p. 18. And Elmsley has quoted Eur. Hipp. 903, τὸ μέντοι πρᾶγμ᾽, ἐφ᾽ ᾧτινι στένεις | οὐκ οἶδα: Arist. Pax 1278, σὺ γὰρ εἰπέ μοι VOL. I. οἷστισι χαίρεις.
1675.
mvp-comment-895-1
For παροίσομεν, cp. Hdt. 9. 26, καινὰ καὶ παλαιὰ παραφέροντες ἔργα,
1676.
mvp-comment-896-1
παθούσα Το avoid the discrepancy of terminations several critics read παθόντε. But there does not seem to be sufficient ground for deserting the MSS. Hermann rightly says, 'Nesciebat Brunckius harum formarum usum ad sonorum suavitatem attemperari, quum putavit Sophoclem scripsisse ἰδόντε καὶ πάθοντε.
1677.
mvp-comment-897-1
Although οὐκ ἔστιν (see v. rr.) may be explained with reference to the manner of the end, which was inconceivable, it is more natural that Antigone should say here,
You may guess what has happened, i. e. the main fact that he is gone. By merely omitting οὐκ with Hermann, we obtain a line like Aj. 951 (which conveys a similar feeling), ἄγαν ὑπερβριθὲς ἄχθος ἤνυσαν, CICL|卜(ICICI. L. 1704 in the antistrophe, as it appears in the Ff MSS. may be so scanned (see v. rr. on p. 436): but not without too great a stress upon the augment before πρ in ἔπραξεν. It is on the whole more likely that οὐκ in 1677 is a corruption of if, and that if has dropped out in 1704. Another conjecture, which secures a pure iambic line, is Χ. τί δ' ἔστιν; Α.
1677.
mvp-comment-897-2
ἔστιν *εὖ μὲν εἰκάσαι, φίλοι. Cp. also O. T. 1308, foll. 1678 ff. 'Cho. He is gone? Ant. Even as heart could wish. What more could be desired for him, whom neither war nor the sea hath smitten, but viewless regions carried off and rapt in some mysterious doom? While on our helpless eyes a horror of night is fallen. For how shall we maintain our life in misery unendurable? Wandering in some far (or southern) land or (roaming) over ocean's billow?' ὡς .. λάβοις] i. e. ὡς μάλιστ᾽ ἂν λάβοις τὸ βῆναι, εἰ πόθῳ λάβοις.
As you would above all choose the mode of your departure if you could choose by desire. For the use of λάβοις, cp. Αj. 265, πότερα δ' ἄν, εἰ νέμοι τις αἵρεσιν, λάβοις ; For πόθῳ, cp. supra 1106, σὺν πόθῳ γὰρ ἡ χάρις. Canter's conjecture ἐν πόθῳ is very plausible, but not necessary.
1680.
mvp-comment-898-1
πόντος Cp. 1659, οὔτε ποντία θύελλα κινηθεῖσα τῷ τότ᾽ ἐν χρόνῳ. Allusions to the elements are characteristic of the language of this period. Essay on Language § 52. p. 98.
1682.
mvp-comment-899-1
*φερόμεναι
Carrying him away, is adopted as the simplest alteration of the text which satisfies the metre, while giving a recognized form. The middle voice, for which see Essay on Language § 31, b. p. 53, is better than the passive φερόμενον.
1685.
mvp-comment-900-1
ἀπίαν Either (1)
Distant, the word being here used in a different sense from that in l. 1303, γῆς ὅσοιπερ Απίας | πρῶτοι καλοῦνται, although the quantity is the same, whereas it is short in Hom. Od. 7. 25, τηλόθεν ἐξ ἀπίης γαίης. Οι (2) τιν᾿ Ἀπίαν γᾶν may mean
somewhere in the Peloponnese, Antigone thinking of Argos as a possible refuge.
1686.
mvp-comment-901-1
κλυδώνα Accusative of the space travelled over. Essay on Language § 16, P. 23. 1687,8. βίου.. τροφάνisa periphrasis for βίον. Cp. 1736, αἰῶνα τλάμον᾿ ἕξω: Εl. 1183, φεῦ τῆς ἀνύμφου δυσμόρου τε σῆς τροφῆς. 1689 ff. Modern editors rightly give these, and also the corresponding verses, 1715 ff. to Ismene, with whose character they agree. Cp. Ant. 544-545, 548. A new movement commences, which serves as ἐπῳδός to the preceding. The same doubt occurs here as in supr. 182 ff., 197 ff., whether the two sets of lines, 1689-1695, 1715-1722, like those which precede and follow them, are to be regarded as strictly antistrophic. That the doubt occurs in two places so nearly similar, is of itself a ground for caution. And both rὸ φέρον ἐκ θεοῦ in 1693 and ἄγαν οὕτω in 1694 are idiomatic Greek.
1690.
mvp-comment-902-1
πατρὶ ξυνθανεῖν γεραίῳ
Το lie in death with my aged father.' Cp. Phil. 1443, ἡ γὰρ εὐσέβεια συνθνήσκει βροτοῖς. By changing ἕλοι τo ἕλοιτο (cp. О. Т. 887, Aj. 397), we obtain an Ionic rhythm, not unsuited to the person of Ismene.
1692.
mvp-comment-903-1
Tricl. and several editors read διδύμα . . ἀρίστα. This is the slightest of at least six changes which have been made in 11. 1689-1695, 1715-1722, to secure a metrical correspondence which remains defective.
1693.
mvp-comment-904-1
τὸ φέρον ἐκ θεοῦ καλῶς φέρειν χρή]
You must bear with fortitude the lot whose direction is from heaven. φέρειν, as in the frequent φέρειν εἰς, expresses tendency or intention. φέρειν ἐκ occurs only here; but cp. Eur. Ι. Α. 69, ὅτου πνοαὶ φέροιεν Ἀφροδίτης φίλα: Hdt. 1. 159, φωνὴν ἐκ τοῦ ἀδύτου γενέσθαι φέρουσαν πρὸς τὸν Ἀριστόδικον. For the rare form of verse, troch. trim. brachycat., cp. Aesch. 977, 790, supr. 1240, and Eur. Hel. 243, H. F. 120, where the 1st arsis is resolved, as here.
1695.
mvp-comment-905-1
οὗ τοι κατάμεμπτ᾽ ἔβητον
You have no cause to complain of your lot. More literally,
The point at which you have arrived is not to be found fault with. The chorus mean to say,
You, and your father's memory, are safe in the hands of Theseus. Cp. infr. 1737-1740. For the transference of the verb of motion, more frequent, however, with the adjective than the adverb, see Essay on Language p. 97, and cp. El. 979, εὖ βεβηκόσιν.
