[463] First
στάσιμον. Teiresias has just denounced Oedipus. Why do not the Chorus at once express their horror? This ode is the first since v. 215, and therefore, in accordance with the conception of the Chorus as personified reflection, it must comment on all that has been most stirring in the interval. Hence it has two leading themes: (1) “Who can be the murderer?”: 1st strophe and antistrophe, referring to vv. 216-315. (2) “I will not believe that it is Oedipus”: n)d strophe and antistrophe, referring to vv. 316-462.
1st strophe (463-472). Who is the murderer at whom the Delphic oracle hints? He should fly: Apollo and the Fates are upon him.
1st antistrophe (473-482). The word has gone forth to search for him. Doubtless he is hiding in waste places, but he cannot flee his doom.
2nd strophe (483-497). Teiresias troubles me with his charge against Oedipus: but I know nothing that confirms it.
2nd antistrophe (498-512). Only gods are infallible; a mortal, though a seer, may be wrong. Oedipus has given proof of worth. Without proof, I will not believe him guilty.
θεσπιέπεια
giving divine oracles(
ἔπη), fem. as if from
θεσπιεπής (not found): cp.
ἀρτιέπεια, ἡδυέπεια. Since
θέ‐σπ‐ι‐ς already involves the stem
σεπ (Curt.
E. sect. 632), the termination, from
vεπ(ib. 620), is pleonastic.
δελφὶς πέτρα
The town and temple of Delphi stood in a recess like an amphitheatre, on a high platform of rock which slopes out from the south face of the cliff: Strabo 9. 418
οἱ Δελφοί, πετρῶδες χωρίον, θεατροειδές, κατὰ κορυφὴν(i.e. at the upper part of the rocky platform, nearest the cliff)
ἔχον τὸ μαντεῖον καὶ τὴν πόλιν, σταδίων ἑκκαίδεκα κύκλον πληροῦσαν: i.e. the whole sweep of the curve extends nearly two miles.
HH Apoll. 283
ὕπερθεν | πέτρη ἐπικρέμαται
(the rocky platform overhangs the Crisaean plain)
κοίλη δ’ ὑποδέδρομε βῆσσα (the valley of the Pleistus).
εἶπε τελέσαντα
(for
εἶπε τελέσαι) is somewhat rare, but is not “a solecism” (as Kennedy calls it): cp.
Soph. OC 1580
λέξας Οἰδίπουν ὀλωλότα
:
Eur. Rhes. 755
αὐδᾷ ξυμμάχους ὀλωλότας
:
Plat. Gorg. 481c
πότερόν σε φῶμεν νυνὶ σπουδάζοντα ἢ παίζοντα;
ἄρρητ’ ἀρρήτων
Blaydes cp.
Soph. OC 1237
πρόπαντα | κακὰ κακῶν,
Soph. Phil. 65
ἔσχατ’ ἐσχάτων,
Aesch. Pers. 681
ὦ πιστὰ πιστῶν ἥλικές τ’ ἥβης ἐμῆς, | Πέρσαι γέροντες.
Cp. also 1301
μείζονα τῶν μακίστων. (But
Soph. El. 849
δειλαία δειλαίων [;κυρεῖς];,
cited by Blaydes, and by Jelf sect. 139, is not in point.)
ἀελλάδων
Soph. OC 1081
ἀελλαία ταχύρρωστος πελειάς
: fr. 621
ἀελλάδες φωναί. Not, “
daughters of the storm,” as if alluding to the mares impregnated by Boreas,
Hom. Il. 20.221
. For the form, cp.
θυστάδας λιτάς
Soph. Ant. 1019
.
ἵππων
instead of
ἵππων ποδός:
Hdt. 2.134
πυραμίδα δὲ καὶ οὗτος ἀπελίπετο πολλὸν ἐλάσσω τοῦ πατρός
:
Xen. Cyrop. 3.3.41
χώραν ἔχετε οὐδὲν ἧττον ἔντιμον τῶν πρωτοστατῶν.
στεροπαῖς
The oracular Apollo is
Διὸς προφήτης. As punisher of the crime which the oracle denounced, he is here armed with his father's lightnings, not merely with his own arrow (205).
γενέτας
, one concerned with
γένος, either passively, = “son,” as here (cp.
γηγενέτᾳ
Eur. Phoen. 128
), or actively, = “father.” Eur. has both senses. Cp.
γαμβρός, sonin-law, brother-in-law, or father-in-law: and so
κηδεστής or
πενθερός could have any one of these three senses.
Κῆρες
avenging spirits, identified with the Furies in
Aesch. Seven 1055
Κῆρες Ἐρινύες, αἵ τ’ Οἰδιπόδα | γένος ὠλέσατε.
Hes. Th. 217
(Νὺξ) καὶ Μοίρας καὶ Κῆρας ἐγείνατο νηλεοποίνους … | αἵ τ’ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε παραιβασίας ἐφέπουσαι | οὐδέποτε λήγουσι θεαὶ δεινοῖο χόλοιο, | πρίν γ’ ἀπὸ τῷ δώωσι κακὴν ὄπιν, ὅστις ἁμάρτῃ.
The
Μοῖραι decree, the
Κῆρες execute. In
Soph. Trach. 133
κῆρες
= calamities.
ἀναπλάκητοι
not
erring or
failing in pursuit: cp.
Soph. Trach. 120
ἀλλά τις θεῶν | αἰὲν ἀναμπλάκητον Ἅιδα σφε δόμων ἐρύκει,
some god
suffers not Heracles
to fail, but keeps him from death. Metre requires here the form without
μ. ἀμπλακεῖν is prob. a cognate of
πλάζω (from stem
πλαγ for
πλακ,
Curt. Etym. 367
), strengthened with an inserted
μ; cp.
ἄβροτος, ἄμβροτος.
ἔλαμψε
see on 186.
τοῦ νιφόεντος
the message flashed forth like a beacon from that snow-crowned range which the Thebans see to the west. I have elsewhere noted some features of the view from the Dryoscephalae pass over Mount Cithaeron:—“At a turn of the road the whole plain of Boeotia bursts upon the sight, stretched out far below us. There to the north-west soars up Helicon, and beyond it, Parnassus; and
though this is the middle of May, their higher cliffs are still crowned with dazzling snow. Just opposite, nearly due north, is Thebes, on a low eminence with a range of hills behind it, and the waters of Lake Copais to the north-west, gleaming in the afternoon sun.” (
Modern Greece, p. 75.)
Join
τὸν ἄδηλον ἄνδρα
, and take
πάντα
as neut. plur., “by all means.” The adverbial
πάντα is very freq. in Soph., esp. with adj., as
Soph. Aj. 911
ὁ πάντα κωφός, ὁ πάντ’ ἄϊδρις·
but also occurs with verb, as
Soph. Trach. 338
τούτων ἔχω γὰρ πάντ’ ἐπιστήμην ἐγώ
: Here, the emphasis on
πάντα
would partly warrant us in taking it as acc. sing. masc., subject to
ἰχνεύειν. But, though the masc. nominative
πᾶς sometimes =
πᾶς τις, it may be doubted whether Soph. would have thus used the ambiguous
πάντα alone for the acc. sing. masc. Ellendt compares 226, but there
πάντα is acc. plur. neut.
πέτρας ἰσόταυρος
is J. F. Martin's and E. L. Lushington's brilliant emendation of
πετραῖος ὁ ταῦρος, the reading of the first hand in L. It is at once closer to the letters, and more poetical, than
πέτρας ἅτε ταῦρος (Dorville, —where the use of
ἅτε is un-Attic),
πέτρας ἴσα ταύροις (M. Schmidt), or
πέτρας ὡς ταῦρος, which last looks like a prosaic correction. I suppose the corruption to have arisen thus. A transcriber who had before him
ΠΕΤΡΑΣΙΣΟΤΑΥΡΟΣ took the first O for the art., and then amended
ΠΕΤΡΑΣΙΣ into the familiar word
ΠΕΤΡΑΙΟΣ. With a cursive MS. this would have been still easier, since in
πετρασισοταυρος the first
ς might have been taken for
ο (not a rare mistake), and then a simple transposition of
ι and the supposed
ο would have given
πετραιος. It is true that such compounds with
ἰσο usu. mean, not merely “like,” but “as good as” or “no better than”: e.g.
ἰσοδαίμων, ἰσόθεος, ἰσόνεκυς, ἰσόνειρος, ἰσόπαις, ἰσόπρεσβυς. Here, however,
ἰσόταυρος
can well mean “wild” or “fierce of heart” as a bull. And we know that in the lost
Κρέουσα Soph. used
ἰσοθάνατος in a way which seemed too bold to Pollux (6. 174
οὐ πάνυ ἀνεκτόν), —probably in the sense of “dread as death” (cp.
Soph. Aj. 215
θανάτῳ γὰρ ἴσον πάθος ἐκπεύσεἰ.
The bull is the type of a savage wanderer who avoids his fellows. Soph. in a lost play spoke of a bull “that shuns the herd,” Bekk.
Anecd. 459.31
ἀτιμαγέλης· ὁ ἀποστάτης τῆς ἀγέλης ταῦρος· οὕτω Σοφοκλῆς.
Verg. Georg. 3.225
(taurus)
Victus abit, longeque ignotis exulat oris.
Theocr. 14.43
αἶνός θην λέγεταί τις, ἔβα καὶ ταῦρος ἀν’ ὕλαν
: a proverb
ἐπὶ τῶν μὴ ἀναστρεφόντων(schol.). The image also suggests the fierce despair of the wretched outlaw:
Aesch. Lib. 275
ἀποχρημάτοισι ζημίαις ταυρούμενον,
“stung to fury by the wrongs that keep me from my heritage”:
Eur. Med. 92
ὄμμα ταυρουμένην
:
Aristoph. Frogs 804
ἔβλεψε γοῦν ταυρηδὸν ἐγκύψας κάτω
:
Plat. Phaedo 117b
ταυρηδὸν ὑποβλέψας πρὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον.
With regard to the reading
πετραῖος ὁ ταῦρος, see Appendix.
χηρεύων
solitary, as one who is
ἀφρήτωρ, ἀθέμιστος, ἀνέστιος(
Hom. Il. 9.63
): he knows the doom which cuts him off from all human fellowship (236 f.).
Aesch. Eum. 656
ποία δὲ χέρνιψ φρατέρων προσδέξεται;
τὰ μεσόμφαλα γᾶς μαντεῖα
=
τὰ ἀπὸ μέσου ὀμφαλοῦ γᾶς:
Soph. El. 1386
δωμάτων ὑπόστεγοι
=
ὑπὸ στέγῃ δωμάτων:
Eur. Phoen. 1351
λευκοπήχεις κτύπους χεροῖν.
The
ὀμφαλός in the Delphian temple (
Aesch. Eum. 40
), a large white stone in the form of a half globe, was held to mark the spot at which the eagles from east and west had met: hence Pindar calls Delphi itself
μέγαν ὀμφαλὸν εὐρυκόλπου | … χθονός(
Pind. N. 7.33
):
Liv. 38.48
Delphos, umbilicum orbis terrarum.
ἀπονοσφίζων
trying to put away (from himself): the midd. (cp. 691) would be more usual, but poetry admits the active: 894
ψυχᾶς ἀμύνειν:
Eur. Orest. 294
ἀνακάλυπτε … κάρα
:
Pind. P. 4.106
κομίζων
=
κομιζόμενος (seeking to recover):
Soph. OC 6
φέροντα
=
φερόμενον. In
Soph. Phil. 979
ἀπονοσφίζειν τινά τινος
= to rob one of a thing: but here we cannot render “frustrating.”
ζῶντα
“ living,” i.e. operative, effectual; see on 45
ζώσας.
περιποτᾶται
the doom pronounced by Apollo hovers around the murderer as the
οἷστρος around some tormented animal: he cannot shake off its pursuit. The haunting thoughts of guilt are objectively imaged as terrible words ever sounding in the wanderer's ears.
The Chorus have described the unknown murderer as they imagine him—a fugitive in remote places. They now touch on the charge laid against Oedipus, —but only to say that it lacks all evidence.
δεινὰ μὲν οὖν
.
οὖν marks the turning to a new topic, with something of concessive force: “
it is true that the murderer is said to be here”:
μὲν is answered by
δὲ
after
λέξω
. For
μὲν οὖν with this distributed force, cp.
Soph. OC 664
,
Soph. Ant. 65
: for the composite
μὲν οὖν( = “nay rather”), below, 705.
δεινὰ
is adverbial: for (1)
ταράσσει
could not mean
κινεῖ, stirs up, raises, dread questions: (2)
δοκοῦντα, ἀποφάσκοντα
are acc. sing. masc., referring to
με understood. The schol.,
οὔτε πιστὰ οὔτε ἄπιστα, has favoured the attempt to take the participles as acc. neut. plur.,
ἀποφάσκοντα
being explained as “negative” in the sense of “admitting of negation,”
ἀπόφασιν καὶ ἀπιστίαν δεχόμενα (Triclinius). This is fruitless torture of language. Nor will the conj.
ἀπαρέσκοντ’ (Blaydes) serve: for, even if the Chorus found the charge credible, they would not find it
pleasing.
δοκοῦντα
is not “believing,” but “
approving.” Cp.
Soph. Ant. 1102
καὶ ταῦτ’ ἐπαινεῖς καὶ δοκεῖς παρεικαθεῖν;
“and you recommend this course, and approve of yielding?” The pregnant force of
δοκοῦντα
is here brought out by the direct contrast with
ἀποφάσκοντα
. In gauging the rarer uses of particular words by an artist in language so subtle and so bold as Soph. we must never neglect the context.
λέξω
probably deliberative aor. subj.: though it might be fut. indic. (cp. 1419, and n. on
Soph. OC 310
).
ἐνθάδε
the actual situation, implies the known facts of the past;
ὀπίσω
refers to the seer's hint of the future (v. 453
φανήσεται κ.τ.λ.): cp.
Hom. Od. 2.482
σεῖο δ’, Ἀχιλλεῦ, | οὔτις ἀνὴρ προπάροιθε μακάρτατος, οὔτ’ ἄρ’ ὀπίσσω
(nor will be hereafter).
ἢ Λαβδακίδαις ἢ τῷ Πολύβου
A quarrel might have originated with either house. This is what the disjunctive statement marks: since
ἔκειτο
, “had been made,” implies “had been provoked.” But we see the same Greek tendency as in the use of
τε καί where
καί alone would be more natural:
Aesch. PB 927
τό τ’ ἄρχειν καὶ τὸ δουλεύειν δίχα
: cp.
Hor. Ep. 1.2.12
Inter Hectora Priamiden animosum atque inter Achillen.
πρὸς ὅτου
In the antistr., 509, the words
γὰρ ἐπ’ αὐτῷ
are undoubtedly sound: here then we need to supply
¯¯ ˘˘ or
˘ ¯¯ ˘. I incline to believe that the loss has been that of a participle going with
βασάνῳ. Had this been
βασανίζων
, the iteration would help to account for the loss. Reading
πρὸς ὅτου δὴ βασανίζων βασάνῳ
, I should take
πρὸς
with
βασάνῳ
: “testing
on the touchstone whereof” —“using which(
νεῖκος) as a test.” [;Receiving my
βασανίζων, Kennedy (ed. 1885) replaces the word
βασάνῳ by
πιθανῶς.]; To Brunck's
βασάνῳ χρησάμενος (
Plat. Laws 946c
βασάνοις χρώμενοι
) the objections are (1) the aorist part. where we need the pres., (2) the tame and prosaic phrase. Wolff writes,
πρὸς ὅτου δή, βασάνῳ <πίστιν ἔχων>: Wecklein and Mekler (in his recension of Dindorf's ed., Teubner, 1885) indicate a lacuna,
¯˘˘¯, after
βασάνῳ. Two other courses of emendation are possible: (i) To supply after
ἔμαθον something to express the informant, as
τινος ἀστῶν or,
προφέροντος, when
πρὸς ὅτου would mean “at whose suggestion.” This remedy seems to me improbable. (ii) To supply
σύν and an adj. for
βασάνῳ, as
σὺν ἀληθεῖ β., or
β. σὺν φανερᾷ. As the mutilated verse stands in the MSS., it cannot, I think, be translated without some violence to Greek idiom. The most tolerable version would be this: —“setting out from which(
πρὸς ὅτου neut., referring to
νεῖκος), I can with good warrant(
βασάνῳ) assail the public fame of Oed.” Then
βασάνῳ would be an instrumental dative equivalent to
βάσανον ἔχων: and
πρὸς ὅτου would be like 1236
πρὸς τίνος ποτ’ αἰτίας;
Soph. Ant. 51
πρὸς αὐτοφώρων ἀμπλακημάτων· πρός
denoting the source back to which the act can be traced.
ἐπὶ φάτιν εἶμι
a phrase from war: it is unnecessary to suppose tmesis:
Hdt. 1.157
στρατὸν ἐπ’ ἑωυτὸν ἰόντα
:
Eur. IA 349
ταῦτα μέν σε πρῶτ’ ἐπῆλθον, ἵνα σε πρῶθ’ ηὗρον κακόν,
censured thee:
Eur. Andr. 688
ταῦτ’ εὖ φρονῶν σ’ ἐπῆλθον, οὐκ ὀργῆς χάριν.
The gen.
θανάτων
after
ἐπίκουρος
is not objective, “against” (as
Xen. Mem. 4.3.7
πῦρ … ἐπίκουρον … ψύχους
), but causal, “on account of”; being softened by the approximation of
ἐπίκουρος to the sense of
τιμωρός:
Eur. El. 135
ἔλθοις τῶνδε πόνων ἐμοὶ τᾷ μελέᾳ λυτήρ, | … πατρί θ’ αἱμάτων | ἐχθίστων ἐπίκουρος
(= “avenger”). The allusive plur.
Θανάτων
is like
αἱμάτων there, and
δεσποτῶν θανάτοισι
Aesch. Lib. 52
: cp. above 366,
τοῖς φιλτάτοις.It is true (
οὖν
, cp. 483) that
gods indeed (
μέν
) have perfect knowledge. But there is no way of deciding in a strict sense (
ἀληθής
) that any
mortal who essays to read the future attains to more than I do— i.e. to more than
conjecture: though I admit that one man may excel another in the art of interpreting omens according to the general rules of augural lore (
σοφίᾳ
: cp.
σοφὸς οἰωνοθέτας 484). The disquieted speaker clings to the negative argument: “Teiresias is more likely to be right than a common man: still it is not
certain that he is right.”
πλέον φέρεται
achieves a better result, —deserves to be ranked above me:
Hdt. 1.31
δοκέων πάγχυ δευτερεῖα γῶν οἴσεσθαι,
“thinking that he was sure of the second place at least.”
παραμείψειεν
Eur. IA 145
μή τίς σε λάθῃ | τροχαλοῖσιν ὅχοις παραμειψαμένη | … ἀπήνη.
πρὶν ἴδοιμ’
After an optative of wish or hypothesis in the principal clause,
πρίν regularly takes optat.:
Soph. Phil. 961
ὄλοιο μήπω πρὶν μάθοιμ’ εἰ καὶ πάλιν | γνώμην μετοίσεις.
So after
ὅπως, ὅστις, ἵνα, etc.:
Aesch. Eum. 297
ἕλθοι … | ὅπως γένοιτο
:
Eur. Hel. 435
τίς ἂν … μόλοι | ὄστις διαγγείλειε … ;
ὀρθὀν
the notion is not “upright,” established, but “straight,” —
justified by proof, as by the application of a rule: cp.
Aristoph. Birds 1004
ὀρθῷ μετρήσω κανόνι προστιθείς
: so below, 853,
Soph. Ant. 1178
τοὔπος ὡς ἄρ’ ὀρθὸν ἤνυσας.
Hartung (whom Wolff follows) places the comma ofter
ὀρθόν
, not after
ἔπος
: “ until I see (it) established, I will not approve the word of censurers”: but the acc.
ἔπος could not be governed by
καταφαίην in this sense.
καταφαίην
Aristot. Met. 3.6
ἀδύνατον ἅμα καταφάναι καὶ ἀποφάναι ἀληθῶς.
Plat. Def. 413c
ἀλήθεια ἕξις ἐν καταφάσει καὶ ἀποφάσει.
ἐπ’ αὐτῷ
against him: cp.
Soph. OC 1472
.
πτερόεσσα … κόρα
the Sphinx having the face of a maiden, and the winged body of a lion:
Eur. Phoen. 1042
ἁ πτεροῦσσα παρθένος.
See Appendix, n. on v. 508.
Βασάνῳ
with
ἁδύπολις
only, which, as a dat. of manner, it qualifies with nearly adverbial force: commending himself to the city under a practical test. — i.e.
ἔργῳ καὶ οὐ λόγῳ.
Pind. P. 10.67
πειρῶντι δὲ καὶ χρυσὸς ἐν βασάνῳ πρέπει | καὶ νόος ὀρθός
: “an upright mind, like gold, is shown by the touchstone, when one assays it”: as base metal
τρίβῳ τε καὶ προσβολαῖς | μελαμπαγὴς πέλει | δικαιωθείς
Aesch. Ag. 391
.
ἁδύπολις
in the sense of
ἁνδάνων τῇ πόλει (cp.
Pind. N. 8.38
ἀστοῖς ἀδών
): boldly formed on the analogy of compounds in which the adj. represents a verb governing the
accus., as
φιλόπολις =
φιλῶν τὴν πόλιν, ὀρθόπολις (epithet of a good dynasty) =
ὀρθῶν τὴν πόλιν (
Pind. O. 2.7
). In
Soph. Ant. 370
ὑψίπολις
is analogous, though not exactly similar, if it means
ὑψηλὸς ἐν πόλει, and not
ὑψηλὴν πόλιν ἔχων (like
δικαιόπολις =
δικαίας πόλεις ἔχουσα, of Aegina,
Pind. P. 8.22
).
τῷ
“therefore,” as
Hom. Il. 1.418
etc.; joined with
νύ,
Hom. Il. 7.352
etc.:
Plat. Theaet. 179d
τῷ τοι, ὦ φλἜ Θεόδωρε, μᾶλλον σκεπτέον ἐξ ἀρχῆς.
ἀπ’
on the part of:
Soph. Trach. 471
κἀπ’ ἐμοῦ κτήσει χάριν.
The hiatus after
τῷ is an epic trait, occasionally allowed in tragic lyrics, as in the case of interjections (cp.
Soph. Phil. 832
n.). Here the stress on
τῷ, and the caesura, both excuse it. Cp.
Soph. Aj. 194
ἀλλ’ ἄνα ἐξ ἑδράνων
:
Soph. El. 148
ἃ Ἴτυν
:
Soph. El. 157
οἵα Χρυσόθεμις ζώει καὶ Ἰφιάνασσα
(cp.
Hom. Il. 9.145
). Neither
πρὸς (Elmsley) nor
παρ’ (Wolff) is desirable. Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge, UK. 1885.
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