Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 542

ed. Francis Storr

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Oedipus at Colonus. Sophocles. ed. Francis Storr. London. 1912.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Experimental

Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ (Greek) (Sophocles, Volume 1. Storr, Francis, editor. London; New York: William Heinemann Ltd.; The Macmillan Company, 1912.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 542 focus
δύστανε, τί γάρ; ἔθου φόνον
Translations (5)
English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 542 focus
But how?
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 542 focus
Unseliger, und du gabst den Tod
540
English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 542 focus
And art thou not a murderer too ?
Thou sayst ?
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 542 focus
How not thy deeds?
English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 542 focus

Commentary

Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))

mvp-comment-408-1 τί γάρ 1

mvp-comment-409-1 δευτέραν 2

mvp-comment-410-1 ἔχει δέ μοι … πρὸς δίκας τι 3

mvp-comment-410-2 τί γάρ 4

mvp-comment-411-1 The MSS. give

καὶ γὰρ ἄλλους ἐφόνευσα κ.τ.λ.
Hermann's ἁλοὺς (for
ἄλλους
) must mean either (1)
"caught,"
as in a net, by fate , or (2)
"caught"
by Laïus and his men, in the sense of,
"driven to fight for life."
Neither sense is tolerable. Campbell suggests,
"I murdered, and was convicted of the murder,"
saying that
ἁλοὺς ἐφόνευσα
=
ἑάλων φονεύσας
. This is as if one said in English,
"Having been hanged, he did the murder."
To ἀγνώς the short
α^
would be a grave objection: Soph. has the first
α
long thrice in
ἄγνοια
, twice in
ἀγνοεῖν
, once in
ἀγνώς
( O. T. 681 ), and short never: even in
αὐτόγνωτος
( Ant. 875 ) the
ο
is long. Porson's ἄνους could hardly mean,
"without understanding"
merely in the sense of
" unwittingly. "
The word means
"silly,"
"foolish"
( Ant. 281 ), and should here mean,
"in folly,"
which is not an apt sense.

mvp-comment-411-2 And all these corrections, confined to ἄλλους , leave a blot. After ἐφόνευσα, καὶ ὤλεσα is intolerably weak. Mekler's καὶ γὰρ ἄν, οὓς ἐφόνευς), ἔμ’ ἀπώλεσαν brings out the point on which Oed. insists, and to which the words

νόμῳ καθαρός
(548) refer,—viz. that, in slaying, he was defending his own life. Cp. 271. After he had returned the blow of Laïus, the attendants set on him (see on O. T. 804 —812). The change of
ἐφόνευσ’ ἔμ’ ἀπώλεσαν
into
ἐφόνευσα καὶ ἀπώλεσα
(or
κἀπώλεσα
) would have been easy if
ἐφόνευσά μ’ ἀπώλεσα
had once been written. In Ai. 794 L has
ὥστε κ’ ὠδίνειν
instead of
ὥστε μ’ ὠδίνειν
. Cp. Her. 1.11 (Gyges was forced)
ἢ τὸν δεσπότεα ἀπολλύναι ἢ αὐτὸν ὑπ’ ἄλλων ἀπόλλυσθαι
.

mvp-comment-412-1 νόμῳ … καθαρός 5

mvp-comment-412-2 ἐς τόδ’ ἦλθον 6

Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus

544. mvp-comment-301-1 παπαῖ Properly an exclamation of pain; here transferred to mental suffering, in accordance with the metaphor in έπαισας. The punctuation of the line is uncertain, i. e. it is uncertain whether δευτέραν is an epithet of νόσον, οι πληγήν is to be supplied with δεντέραν, and ἐπὶ νόσῳ νόσον is in apposition to the sentence. For ἐπὶ νόσῳ νόσον, cp. Hom. Il. 14.130, μή που τις ἐφ᾽ ἕλκεῖ ἕλκος ἄρηται.

545-546. mvp-comment-302-1 ἔχει.. πρὸς δίκας τι i. e. τὸ ἐμὸν ἔχει τι πρὸς δίκας. My case has some defence, something to be urged on the ground of justice. Cp. Ant. 598, οὐδ᾽ ἔχει λύσιν. Eur. Suppl. 64, ἔχομεν δ᾽ ἔνδικα.

546. mvp-comment-303-1 τί γάρ reiterates the expostulation of the chorus. τί γάρ has a different shade of meaning in each of the three lines, 538, 542.546: (1) Why, what then? (2) But what of this? γάρ implying that excuse will not stand. (3) Why, what is that?' 547. The MS. reading ἄλλους is condemned both by sense and metre, but the correction is uncertain. ἁλούς, adopted in the text. may be explained in two ways, (1) ἁλοὺς ἐφόνευσα = ἑάλων φονεύσας, manifesto occidi, I murdered, and was convicted of the murder:' ἁλούς proleptic. Essay on Language § 38. p. 70. Cp. Ο. Τ. 1213. ἐφεῦρέ σ᾽ ἄκονθ᾽ ὁ πάνθ᾽ ὁρῶν χρόνος. (2) Being overtaken (by destiny) I did commit the murder. The former meaning gives rather a better force to καί, and is on the whole preferable, although the construction of the participle is more natural in the latter interpretation. Porson conjectured ἄνους, (3) being infatuated. but this implies a degree of self-accusation, from which Oedipus in the Oed. Col. is wholly free.

546. mvp-comment-303-2 καὶ ὤλεσα The pleonastic expression has the solemnity of a legal indictment. Oedipus, while pleading innocence of intention, will not soften the actual crime.

548. mvp-comment-304-1 νόμῳ δὲ καθαρός The construction of these words is absorbed in the remaining clause. The word καθαρός was specially applicable to one who had been acquitted of the crime of homicide. Cp. Plato, Rep. 5. 451 Β, ἀλλὰ μέντοι, εἶπον, καθαρός γε καὶ ἐκεῖ ὁ ἀφεθείς, ὡς ὁ νόμος λέγει: Legg. 9. 865 Β, ἰατρῶν δὲ περὶ πάντων, ἂν ὁ θεραπευόμενος ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν ἀκόντων τελευτᾷ, καθαρὸς ἔστω κατὰ νόμον. ὡς ὁ νόμος λέγει and κατὰ νόμον in these passages answer to νόμῳ here. Essay on Language § 14. p. 20.