Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 172

Robert Potter (Translator)

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Oedipus
521
What wou'dst thou ask?

Oedipus at Colonus. Sophocles. Robert Potter (Translator). London. 1820.

Current edition Experimental

English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) (English) (English (Robert Potter, 1788))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (2)
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 172 focus
εἴκοντας ἃ δεῖ κοὐκ ἄκοντας.
Greek (F. Storr, 1912) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. Storr, 1912)) — 117-253b focus
Translations (4)
English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 172 focus
CH
With tender wool ta’en from a young ewe-lamb.
475
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 176 focus
Nie soll aus diesen Bezirken, o Greis, 1
Jemand mit Gewalt dich entführen.
English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 172 focus
Oedipus
Once they refused me.
English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 118-250 focus

Commentary

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

mvp-comment-396-1 I read

ἤνεγκ’ οὖν κακότατ’,... ἤνεγκ’ ἀέκων . ἤνεγκον
was, indeed, the ordinary form of the aor. in the older Attic, as inscriptions show, in which
ἤνεγκα
occurs first about 360 B.C. (Meisterhans, p. 88); but
ἤνεγκα
is proved by metre in El. 13 and Eur. Ion 38 .
οὖν
is suitable, when he is reluctantly proceeding to unfold his story in answer to their pressing demand.

mvp-comment-396-2 ἤνεγκ’ 1

mvp-comment-396-3 κακότατ’ 2

mvp-comment-396-4 In the MS. reading,

ἤνεγκον—ἤνεγκον ἄκων μέν, ἄκων
is wrong, since metre requires u- (cp. 510). With Bothe's ἑκὼν the sense would be:—
"I have endured misery through acts which were my own, indeed: but not one of them was done knowingly."
The objections to this are insuperable. (1)

mvp-comment-396-5 θεὸς ἴστω 3

mvp-comment-396-6 It would be a subtlety foreign to Sophocles to make Oedipus say that he had acted

ἑκὼν
when he did not act
φρονῶν
(271),
εἰδώς
(273),
ξυνιείς
(976). Il. 4.43
καὶ γὰρ ἐγὼ σοὶ δῶκα ἑκὼν ἀέκοντί γε θυμῷ
is irrelevant:— Zeus there says to Hera
"I have given thee this (thy pleasure touching Troy) of my free will "
(since neither god nor man could compel Zeus),
"yet against mine own wish. "

mvp-comment-397-1 αὐθαίρετον 4

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

521. mvp-comment-288-1 ἤνεγκον κακότατα I was the victim of wretchedness. For the use of φέρω, cp. Ο. Τ. 1320, διπλά σε πενθεῖν καὶ διπλᾶ φέρειν κακά.

521. mvp-comment-288-2 ἤνεγκον *ἑκὼν μέν] If this reading is adopted, it must be acknowledged that we have here a trace of the philosophical ἀπορία (already suggested by the Epic oxymoron ἑκὼν ἀέκοντί γε θυμῷ) which is treated at length in Plato (Legg. 860, 867 A) and Aristotle (Eth. N. 3. 1), viz. whether a man acts voluntarily when he is ignorant of the circumstances. See Introd. p. 270. Oedipus must be supposed to mean that in killing Laius and in marrying Jocasta he had acted with a right good will (ср. О. Т. 422-423, τὸν ὑμέναιον ὃν δόμοις | ἄνορμον εἰσέπλευσας, εὐπλοίας τυχών), but that as he acted in ignorance, the actions were not his deliberate choice.

521. mvp-comment-288-3 ἄκων is certainly wrong and is due to some reminiscence of l. 694. Cp. Eur. Ι. Τ. 512, τρόπον γε δή τινα οὐχ ἑκὼν ἑκών. The expression is more forcible if, by a slight change. for θεὸς ἴστω, θεὸς ἴστωρ is read, as in the text.

523. mvp-comment-289-1 τούτων δ᾽ αὐθαίρετον οὐδέν For the transposition of the dactyl. in the glyconic line, see Christ's Metrik, § 119. P. 94. To avoid it here, ἐθελητόν, ἀκάθαρτον (G. Wolff), have been conjectured.