Prologue. Athena confirms the surmise of Odysseus as to the guilt of Ajax; shows her favourite his afflicted foe; and points the moral.

ἀεὶ μέν , followed in 3 by καὶ νῦν : cp. 689-691 ἔχρισα μὲν...κἄθηκα (n.): Lucian 8 πάλαι μὲν τὸ τῆς Ἰνοῦς παιδίον ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰσθμὸν ἐκομίσατε..., καὶ νῦν σὺ τὸν κιθαρῳδὸν...ἀναλαβὼν ἐξενήξω. The passage in Aesch. 587—598 (ἀνωλόλυξα μὲν πάλαι...καὶ νῦν τὰ μάσσω μὲν τί δεῖ σ’ ἐμοὶ λέγειν;) is scarcely a true parallel,—the interval being so long. Plato has ἀεὶ μὲν followed by ἀτὰρ καὶ νῦν ( 335 D), ἀτὰρ οὖν καὶ τότε ( 367 E). Similarly I. 107 ff. αἰεὶ τοι...καὶ νῦν.

Λαρτίου , as in 380: but Λαερτίου in 101, and Λαέρτου in 1393. Λαέρτης is the only Homeric form ( 87 n.), but Eur. , like Soph. , uses all three. In Latin, or is usu. the adj. ( Plaut. 4. 9. 22 Ulixes Lartius ), but, acc. to Priscian (7. 5, p. 303), could be also the name. The writing Λἀρτίου appears in all the editions from the Aldine to Brunck's; the coronis was first omitted by Schaefer (ed. 1810), on the ground that crasis is not marked within a word.

πεῖράν τιν’ ἐχθρῶν ἁρπάσαι , to snatch (by vigilant and subtle craft) some means of attacking foes,—some moment when foes can be taken at a disadvantage. For the objective gen. ἐχθρῶν , cp. Diod. Sic. 14. 80 καιρὸν εὔθετον εἰς τὴν τῶν πολεμίων ἐπίθεσιν: for ἁρπάσαι , Plut. 15 ἁρπάσας τὸν καιρόν: Xen. 4. 6. 11 τοῦ ἐρήμου ὄρους..κλέψαι τι..καὶ ἁρπάσαι φθάσαντας. Like the verb (πειρᾶν τῆς πόλεως, Her. 6. 82), πεῖρα often denotes an enterprise against an enemy (Thuc. 3. 20, etc.).—Not, ‘to forestall (or baffle) some attempt by a foe.’ θηρώ‐ μενον with inf.: cp. Eur. 63 θηρᾷ γαμεῖν με: ib. 545 ὅς με θηρᾶται λαβεῖν .

Athena's words are illustrated by the action of Odysseus against Palamedes (Xen. 4. 2. 33),—by his capture of Helenus ( 606),—his designs on Philoctetes,—his theft of the Palladium (Ov. 13. 99),—and his nocturnal expedition with Diomedes ( 10).

σκηναῖς … ναυτικαῖς . Each chief has his quarters at the place on the shore of the bay where his own ships are drawn up. The plural here is probably poetical, denoting the tent of Ajax only, and not also those of his followers. We have the sing. of σκηνή at 218 and 796, the plur. at 754 and 985; and in 754 ὑπὸ σκηναῖσι is precisely equivalent to σκηνῆς ὕπαυλον in 796. So, too, the plur. of κλισία in 192, and the sing. in 1407.

The Homeric κλισία was a wooden hut ( 24. 448 ff.). By σκηνή, an Athenian in the poet's day would usually understand a tent of skins, such as was commonly used by soldiers (Xen. 1. 5. 10).

τάξιν ἐσχάτην . While Odysseus was stationed at the middle point of the Greek camp, the posts of danger and honour at the eastern and western ends respectively were held by Achilles and Ajax,—τοί ῥ) ἔσχατα νῆας ἐΐσας | εἴρυσαν, ἠνορέῃ πίσυνοι καὶ κάρτεϊ χειρῶν ( 11. 8 f.).

κυνηγετοῦντα : his keen scrutiny suggests a hunter; as his sagacity suggests a hound (8). We can speak of a dog ‘hunting,’ but a Greek would hardly have said κύων κυνηγετεῖ. The transition from one image to the other is natural and easy.

μετρούμενον , with the eyes. In Attic the midd. is rare, except as=‘to have measured out to one,’ [Dem.] or. 34 § 37: but it is frequent in later poetry, as Apoll. Rh. 1. 724, Mosch. 2. 157.Nauck holds that μετρούμενον could denote only literal measurement (as with a foot-rule). But its figurative sense—as denoting a mental process of examination and comparison— is exactly illustrated by the use of συμμετρεῖσθαι in the sense of ‘to compute’ ( Her. 4. 158, etc.). Cp. also Lat. metiri (oculis, auribus, etc.).

νεοχάρακτα , newly imprinted on the sandy soil. The tent was close to the sea (ἔφαλος, 192). Ajax had gone out in the past night, and come back at dawn. All the footprints are fresh; but Odysseus has to make out whether the more recent lead to or from the tent.

εἴτ’ ἔνδον εἴτ’ οὐκ ἔνδον . Either οὐ or μή can be used in an indirect question introduced by εἰ : Plat. 462 D ἐρωτᾷς εἰ οὐ καλή μοι δοκεῖ εἶναι: 163 D βουλόμενος ἐρέσθαι εἰ..μὴ οἶδεν. The same rule holds when the indirect question is alternative (‘whether...or not’), and the second part of it is introduced by εἴτε (as here), or by ἤ. Plat. 425 B εἴτε κατὰ τρόπον κεῖται εἴτε μή, οὕτω θεᾶσθαι : 451 D σκοπῶμεν εἰ ἡμῖν πρέπει ἢ οὔ. When a writer uses μή in one such question, and then οὐ in another, the motive of the change may be his wish to mark (by οὐ) a negative fact (or what he conceives as such): Antiphon or. 5 § 14 οὐ δεῖ ὑμᾶς ἐκ τῶν τοῦ κατηγόρου λόγων τοὺς νόμους καταμανθάνειν, εἰ καλῶς ὑμῖν κεῖνται ἢ μή, ἀλλ’ ἐκ τῶν νόμων τοὺς τοῦ κατηγόρου λόγους, εἰ ὀρθῶς καὶ νομίμως ὑμᾶς διδάσκει τὸ πρᾶγμα ἢ οὔ .

ἐκφέρει : schol. εἰς τέλος ἐξάγει: ‘brings out,’ as from a labyrinth, to the desired goal. Cp. 98 ἐξήγαγ’ εἰς τόδ’ ἄλσος , (your guidance) ‘hath led me home to this grove.’ Plat. p. 66 B κινδυνεύει τοι ὥσπερ ἀτραπός τις ἐκφέρειν ἡμᾶς .

κυνὸς Λακαίνης . According to Aristotle, the Laconian dogs were crossbred with foxes (ἐξ ἀλώπεκος καὶ κυνὸς οἱ Λακωνικοί, 8. 28, p. 607 a 3). He describes them as a small breed, with long nostrils and keen scent (ὅσων οἱ μυκτῆρες μακροί, οἷον τῶν Λακωνικῶν κυνιδίων, ὀσφραντικά: 5. 2, p. 781 b 9). They were the best hunting dogs, as Pindar testifies, fr. 106: ἀπὸ Ταϋγέτοιο μὲν Λάκαιναν | ἐπὶ θηρσὶ κύνα τρέφειν [ v.l. τρέχειν] πυκινώτατον ἑρπετόν. The Molossian dog is often associated with the Laconian ( Hor. 6. 5 3. 405 ); but Aristotle tells us that the Molossian breed had no special merit for sporting purposes; its best product was the large sheep-dog. The chief points common to the Laconian and Molossian breeds were courage and pertinacity (ἀνδρία and φιλοπονία, 9. 1, p. 608 a 31).

The use of the feminine gender by Sophocles here may be illustrated by Aristotle's remark,—αἱ Λάκαιναι κύνες αἱ θήλειαι εὐφυέστεραι τῶν ἀρρένων εἰσίν,— i.e., ‘of a finer intelligence’ (ib. p. 608 a 27).—Cp. Shakesp. 4. 1. 124, where Theseus says, My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind | ... A cry more tuneable | Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn, | In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.

εὔρινος is nom., not gen. (from εὔρις). It is true that εὔρις occurs in Aesch. 1093, and ἄρρινες in Xen. 3. 2; while εὔρινος (from ῥίς) occurs only in late Greek, as Babrius 43. 8 σκύλαξιν εὐρίνοις: Aelian 2. 15 δίκην εὐρίνου κυνός, etc. (In Apoll. Rh. 3. 1299 ἐΰρινοι is not from ῥίς, but from ῥινός,—‘of good leather.’) But the form is correct in itself; such alternatives were frequent (cp. σύζυγος by the side of σύζυξ, etc.); and three points here recommend the nominative. (1) The order of the words ὥς τις εὔρινος βάσις. (2) The idiom, consonant with tragic style, by which the epithet of the hound is transferred to βάσις: cp. Eur. 450 γραίας ὄσσων..πηγάς : 1351 λευκοπήχεις κτύπους χεροῖν. (3) The fact that βάσις, with no epithet, would be somewhat weak. Libanius (c. 350 A.D. ) took εὔρινος as nom., vol. 4. p. 1065 εὐρίνῳ βάσει τὸ λανθάνον ἀνιχνεύοντες. The genitive was understood by the schol. on v. 7, and by Manuel Palaeologus or. 6. 331 (λάκαιναι κύνες· εὔρινας ταύτας εἶπε Σοφοκλῆς ).

τυγχάνει : sc. ὤν: cp. 46 n.

στάζων ἱδρῶτι . Some think that ἱδρῶτι refers to κάρα only, and that στάζων χέρας ξιφοκτόνους is equivalent to στάζων αἵματι χέρας: cp. 1422 φοινία δὲ χεὶρ | στάζει θυηλῆς Ἄρεος: Aesch. 41 αἵματι | στάζοντα χεῖρας. Certainly ξιφοκτόνους suggests the blood upon his hands. But the integral phrase, στάζων ἱδρῶτι, must surely go with χέρας no less than with κάρα. The hands are bathed in sweat and in blood.

παπταίνειν , from meaning ‘to glance timidly’ around, passes into the sense of looking about anxiously for someone or something ( 17. 115 παπταίνων Αἴαντα), and so comes to denote restless search, as in Pind. 1. 114 μηκέτι πάπταινε πόρσιον, Pind. 3. 22 παπταίνει τὰ πόρσω. Here, the notion of moving forward in a wary quest is assisted by εἴσω .

ἔργον , opus est: 852: 1372 n.

ἐννέπειν δ’ : here δὲ =ἀλλά: 85 n.: 94.

ὅτου χάριν . Athena already knows his motive (36); but this touch of divine irony is dramatically useful by giving the cue for his statement.

σπουδὴν ἔθου τήνδ’ =ἐσπούδασας περὶ τούτου. This periphrasis, more elegant than that with ποιεῖσθαι, is much used by the poet; thus τίθεσθαι πρόνοιαν (536), ἐπιστροφήν ( 134), τάφον (ib. 1447), φόνον ( 542), μῆκος λόγων (ib. 1139), λησμοσύναν ( 151), συγγνωμοσύνην ( 1265).

ὦ φθέγμ’ Ἀθάνας : cp. 1225 ὦ φθέγμ’, ἀφίκου; (n.).

φιλτάτης ἐμοὶ θεῶν : as he says in 134, Νίκη τ’ Ἀθάνα Πολιάς, ἣ σῴζει μ’ ἀεί. In 20. 47 she says to him, αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ θεός εἰμι, διαμπερὲς ἥ σε φυλάσσω | ἐν πάντεσσι πόνοις.

κἂν ἄποπτος ᾖς ὅμως . The general sense of ἄποπτος here is, ‘far from my sight’; the question is whether this means, (1) ‘seen only at a distance,’ ‘dimly seen’; or (2) ‘unseen.’ I formerly preferred the first view, for which we may compare 467, πλοῦν μὴ )ξ ἀπόπτου μᾶλλον ἢ )γγύθεν σκοπεῖν, ‘to watch the weather near our ship, rather than from afar.’ But I now feel two difficulties which it involves. (1) The emphasis on voice and thought—φθέγμα, φώνημα, ξυναρπάζω φρενί—is so strong as to imply that he does not see her, even at a distance. (2) There can be no doubt that she was visible to the audience. She was probably on the θεολογεῖον,—a sort of platform, which projected from the wings, at the back of the proscenium, and close to its upper edge. If, then, Odysseus spoke of her as ‘seen only afar,’—a dim vision in the clouds,—the effect would be scarcely happy for the spectators, whose eyes could measure the actual distance between goddess and hero. On the other hand, there would seem nothing strange in her remaining invisible to him. In the , Aphroditè speaks the prologue, and was certainly visible to the spectators; but not to Hippolytus, who says, κλύων μὲν αὐδήν, ὄμμα δ’ οὐχ ὁρῶν τὸ σόν.

When Ajax comes forth, he, indeed, appears to see her (v. 91, ὦ χαῖρ’ Ἀθάνα, κ.τ.λ.); while to Tecmessa she is invisible (301). But this, again, would not be inconsistent with Greek belief. In 22. 277Athena restores the spear to Achilles, yet is unseen by Hector. In 1. 198 she appears to Achilles, but the others see her not.

For ἄποπτος as=‘out of sight,’ cp. 1488(of Aegisthus) πρόθες | ἄποπτον ἡμῶν: Dionys. Hal. 2. 54 ἐν ἀπόπτῳ τίθενται τὸν χάρακα (‘in a place out of sight’). It may be added that we might suppose Athena to be invisible to Odysseus now, without necessarily excluding the idea that she becomes visible to him at a later moment in the dialogue. Thus in Eur. 1391 the presence of Artemis is known to Hippolytus only by a divine fragrance, though to the spectators she is doubtless visible; but a little later he beholds her (1440).—See Appendix.

ξυναρπάζω φρενί expresses the thrill of instant recognition, as the voice falls distinctly (εὐμαθὲς) on his ear; it also suggests the emotion of joy. For the verb, cp. Simylus (a poet of the Middle Comedy) ap. Stobaeus 360. 4. 14 κριτὴν τὸ ῥηθὲν δυνάμενον ξυναρπάσαι.

κώδωνος … Τυρσηνικῆς . The trumpet meant here was in form like the Roman,—straight, gradually increasing in diameter, and ending in a bell-shaped aperture ( κώδων). ‘Tyrrhenian,’ a frequent epithet of the trumpet ( Aesch. 567, Eur. 1377, Verg. 8. 526, etc.), perhaps means no more than that the instrument was first brought to Europe by Tyrrhenian pirates,—the λῃστοσαλπιγκταί of Menander (frag.incert. 399). The Tyrrheni, according to a tradition for which Herodotus is the earliest witness (1. 94), were of Lydian origin; and the bronze trumpet may have been a Lydian invention (see ‘Tuba’). Homer mentions the trumpet only in similes, as when the voice of Achilles is likened to it ( 18. 219, etc.). But the Greeks must have had it as early at least as the time of the Dorian conquest, to judge from the legends heard by Pausanias at Argos (2. 21, § 3), where there was a shrine of Ἀθηνᾶ Σάλπιγξ.—See Appendix.

As to the gender of κώδων, 6 p. 446 b 22 has τῆς κώδωνος (bell). In Ar. 1078 the words χἡ κώδων ἀκαλανθίς are said to mean a kind of hound. But κώδων (bell) is masc. with Thuc. , Strabo, Plutarch, Diodorus and Lucian.

ἐπέγνως with partic. (κυκλοῦντ’) of the act observed, as Xen. 8. 1. 33 ἐπέγνως δ’ ἂν..οὐδένα οὔτε ὀργιζόμενον.. οὔτε χαίροντα. For slightly different uses of ἐπιγιγνώσκω, cp. Soph. 960, Soph. 1296. Remark εὖ as 2nd syll. of 3rd foot, referring to the word before it: cp. 95, 166, Ant. 723.

βάσιν κυκλοῦντ’ , moving round and round, going backwards and forwards in the attempt to make out the footprints,—like a hound questing about for the scent. Cp. 226 ὁδοῖς κυκλῶν ἐμαυτὸν εἰς ἀναστροφήν. Eur. 632 ποῖ σὸν πόδ’ ἐπὶ συννοίᾳ κυκλεῖς (‘pacing to and fro in meditation’), | διπλῆς μερίμνης διπτύχους ἰὼν ὁδούς;

τῷ σακεσφόρῳ : 7. 219 Αἴας δ’ ἐγγύθεν ἦλθε φέρων σάκος ἠΰτε πύργον, | χάλκεον, ἑπταβόειον,—i.e., made by stitching together seven layers of ox-hide, and then covering the outer face with plates of bronze. Cp. 576 : Ovid 13. 2 clypei dominus septemplicis Aiax.

ἄσκοπον , inconceivable,—of unimaginable horror: cp. 864 ἄσκοπος ἁ λώβα.

ἔχει περάνας =a perfect ( 577 n.): the double acc., as with δρᾶν, ποιεῖν, etc. (cp. 1324).

εἴργασται , instead of repeating ἔχει περάνας: cp. 54 ὡς εἴπερ ἄρξεις τῆσδε γῆς, ὥσπερ κρατεῖς (n.).

τρανές , ‘clear,’ like the cognate τορόν (rt. τερ, τρα, τε‐τραίνω, to pierce). The adj. τρανής is not elsewhere extant, but τρανῶς is used by Aesch. ( Aesch. 1371) and Eur. ( Eur. 758). The form τρανός was current in later Greek; the earliest instance seems to be Halic. Dionys. (c. 25 B.C.) c. 22 τρανὴν καὶ καθαρὰν δύναμιν.

ἀλώμεθα : this fig. sense, with ref. to uncertainty (‘to be at sea,’ as we say), belongs nowhere else to this verb, but often to πλανᾶσθαι ( Her. 6. 37, etc.; 304 C πλανῶμαι μὲν καὶ ἀπορῶ ἀεί).

)θελοντής . The form ἐθελοντής occurs in Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and the Orators, as ἐθελοντήρ does in 2. 292.On the other hand θελοντής is cited only from Porphyrius (c. 270 A.D. , see Lobeck, 7) and Hierocles (c. 450 A.D. ), ap. 75. 14 (p. 449. 20). Similarly ἐθελήμων is the form used by Plato ( 406 A), while the earliest authority for θελήμων is Apoll. Rhod. 2. 557. In tragic iambics θέλω was naturally preferred, on metrical grounds, to ἐθέλω, though the latter occurs in tragic anapaests (as 1303, 145). If θελοντής were found in a passage where metre required it, the rarity of the form would not justify its rejection. But where, as here, aphaeresis was available, it is surely more probable that the poet wrote ἐθελοντής.

ὑπεζύγην , as if the task were a yoke under which he placed himself: cp. 1025 κλοπῇ τε κἀνάγκῃ ζυγείς (n.): Aesch. 108 ἀνάγκαις ταῖσδ’ ὑπέζευγμαι.

κατηναρισμένας : for ἐναρίζω ‘to slay’ (properly with the further notion of ‘despoiling’) cp. 1733, 94.From the cognate form κατεναίρομαι we have κατήναρες in 871.

ἐκ χειρὸς , by a human hand. The military sense, ‘at close quarters’ ( 7. 2. 14 ἐνέβαλον καὶ ἐκ χειρὸς ἐμάχοντο), is less fitting here.

αὐτοῖς ποιμνίων ἐπιστάταις : cp. fr. 873 αὐτοῖσιν ὅπλοις. The idiom occurs in the (as 8. 24),—sometimes with σύν added (as 14. 498), a form of it found also, though not often, in later poetry ( Eur. 32 αὐτῷ ξὺν ἄγγει).

ἐπιστάταις , ‘overseers,’ ‘masters’ or ‘guardians’ of them; as a warrior is ὅπλων ἐπιστάτης ( Aesch. 379), and a rower, ἐρετμῶν ( 1267). Cp. Eur. fr. 188. 4 σκάπτων, ἀρῶν γῆν, ποιμνίοις ἐπιστατῶν. The herdsmen being dead, there was no one who could identify the assailant.

πᾶς τις . The deed was found out at dawn. Common rumour at once pointed to Ajax. Then the ὀπτήρ (29) informed Odysseus, who reached the tent of Ajax very soon after the latter's return; as is shown by 296—304 compared with 91—113.

νέμει : cp. Galen 7. 582 (Kühn) οὐκ ἴσην ἅπασι νέμει τὴν αἰτίαν.—The corrupt τρέπει may have come from the gloss on ἐκείνῳ..νέμει which occurs in some of the later MSS., εἰς αὐτὸν τρέπει. This is one of the few instances (like 386 and 831) where a true reading, lost in L, has been preserved in other MSS. Cp. crit. notes on 44, Ant. 61.

τις placed before its noun: 1163: 519.

ὀπτὴρ , a scout; cp. 14. 261 ὀπτῆρας δὲ κατὰ σκοπιὰς ὤτρυνα νέεσθαι: Aesch. 36 σκοποὺς δὲ κἀγὼ καὶ κατοπτῆρας στρατοῦ | ἔπεμψα. In 185, however, ὀπτῆρες are ‘eye-witnesses,’—the usual sense of the word in Attic prose.

πεδία is the acc. describing the ground traversed (as we can say, ‘to walk the earth’): cp. 845: Aesch. 708 στεῖχ’ ἀνηρότους γύας: 598 πᾶσαν πλανηθεὶς τήνδε βάρβαρον χθόνα: Callim. 193 ἐφοίτα | παίπαλά τε κρημνούς τε .

νεορράντῳ (as in 828), ‘newly sprinkled’ with blood: a compound suggested to the poet by the frequent use of ῥαίνω in that connection; as 12. 430 ἐπάλξιες αἵματι φωτῶν | ἐρράδατ’: Pind. 7. 50 ῥαίνων φόνῳ πεδίον.—When thus seen, Ajax was in the act of driving the animals that still lived to his tent: πηδῶντα describes his wild gestures of triumph.

φράζει τε κἀδήλωσεν : the first verb refers to the announcement, ‘I have seen Ajax,’—the second, to a statement with more detail,—as to the direction in which he was going, etc. For historic pres. followed by aor., cp. 406 καὶ πῶς ὁρᾶται κἀπίληπτος ᾑρέθη; (n.).

κατ’ ἴχνος : cp. Plat. p. 410 B κατὰ ταὐτὰ ἴχνη ταῦτα διώκων. Similarly κατὰ πόδας τινός, ‘at his heels’ ( Her. 9. 89, etc.).

σημαίνομαι , midd., assure myself about them, identify them, by the indications observed. Cp. Xen. 6. 22(of hounds): αἱ δ’ ἐπειδὰν λαμπρὰ ᾖ τὰ ἴχνη,...ἐνσημαινόμεναι, ὅρους τιθέμεναι ἑαυταῖς γνωρίμους, ταχὺ μεταθεύσονται. Appian 4. 19 σημηνάμενοι τὸ γιγνόμενον εἶναι σύμβολον ἐκ θεοῦ . Aelian 7. 48 ἄστροις αὐτὰς (the cities) ἐσημαίνετο. Oppian 1. 454 μυξωτῆρσι κύνες δὲ πανίχνια σημήναντο.

τὰ δ’ ἐκπέπληγμαι : ‘as to other tracks’—viz., those of the cattle which Ajax had driven to the tent—he is bewildered.

ὅτου , as the context shows, is right: he cannot imagine who had made these tracks. ὅπου (cr. n.) would mean that, in the line of footprints made by Ajax, some were missing, which Odysseus did not know where to find.

καιρὸν , adv., as 1316: 479 καιρὸν γὰρ οὐδέν’ ἦλθες: Ar. 23 ἀωρίαν ἥκοντες. But εἰς καιρὸν in 1168.

τά τ’ οὖν : for οὖν in the first of two such clauses, cp. 1049 εἴτ’ οὖν ἐπ’ ἀγρῶν εἴτε κἀνθάδ’ εἰσιδών.

ἔβην … εἰς ὁδόν , ‘came into the path,’—placed myself on the route by which Ajax must pass.

κυναγίᾳ . Though we may conveniently render, ‘A watcher friendly to thy chase,’ the dat. seems really to depend on the whole idea, φύλαξ πρόθυμος (a zealous watcher in the interest of thy chase), rather than on the adj. only; though in 2. 3. 40 we have οἱ πρόθυμοι τῇ πόλει γεγενημένοι. Cp. 355 φύλαξ δέ μοι (vulg. μουmou | πιστὴ κατέστης .—The Doric form of κυναγία is supported by L here, as by the MSS. generally in Eur. 109: while in Eur. 339 the MSS. favour κυνηγίαις, and the Doric form was restored by Matthiae. Attic Tragedy used κυναγός, κυναγία, κυνηγετεῖν, κυνηγέτης.

ἦ καί , in eager question: cp. 44, 48: 314 n.

πρὸς καιρὸν = καιρίως , 325 n.

ὡς , ‘know that’: 117 n.— σοι , ethic dat.

πρὸς τί , ‘wherefore?’ Cp. 766, 1027, 1144.

ᾖξεν , trans., as Eur. 1427 ff. παρὰ βόστρυχον αὔραν.. | .. κύκλῳ | πτερίνῳ...ᾄσσων, ‘agitating’ the air with a fan. Eur. Itis not impossible to take ᾖξεν as intrans. (‘broke forth in violence’); but it would be very harsh.

δυσλόγιστον is an epithet proper to the violence, transferred to the hand which wrought it; ‘reasoning amiss,’ i.e. ‘irrational,’ ‘insensate.’ Cp. 229 παραπλήκτῳ χερί. An exact parallel to this active sense is afforded by Arist. 2. 8. 4, where οἱ πεπαιδευμένοι are called εὐλόγιστοι, i.e., ‘reflecting,’ ‘prudent.’ In its passive sense, δυσλόγιστον would mean that the deed is ‘inexplicable’: cp. Anaximenes ap. 2. 8. 17 τὸ γὰρ δυσλόγιστον τοῦ βίου τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τύχην προσαγορεύομεν, ‘we give the name of chance to that element in life which men find hard to explain.’ But here the agent's frenzy is more in point than the observer's perplexity.—Some take δυσλόγιστον with τί : ‘for what unintelligible reason?’ But this enfeebles the sense and mars the rhythm.

βαρυνθεὶς , incensed, vexed, as 781: cp. βαρύς in 1017.

ὅπλων , causal gen.: cp. 269 ὧν ἔχων χόλον : 327 n. For the adj. Ἀχιλλείων , instead of Ἀχιλλέως, cp. 267 τῷ Λαβδακείῳ παιδί (n.).

τί δῆτα : i.e., why, in that case, did he attack cattle, rather than the men who had awarded the arms?

ἐπεμπίπτει : cp. 185 ἐν ποίμναις πίτνων, and 374 f.— τήνδε … βάσιν , a cognate acc. (as if the verb were ἐπεμβαίνει): cp. Aesch. 305 πήδημα κοῦφον ἐκ νεὼς ἀφήλατο. ( Soph. 339, τοῦ με τήνδ’ ἐφίστασαι βάσιν, is different: see n. there.)

ἐν ὑμῖν : so 366 ἐν ἀφόβοις με θηρσὶ δεινὸν χέρας: cp. 1092, 1315.

ἦ καὶ : cp. 38 n.

ὡς ἐπ’ Ἀργείοις : ὡς here marks the intention of Ajax (which was frustrated): cp. 58 πλεῖς δ’ ὡς πρὸς οἶκον (n.).

κἂν ἐξεπράξατ’ : schol. μὴ λέγε βούλευμα, φησίν· οὐ γὰρ ἦν βούλευμα ἀλλὰ πρᾶγμα, εἰ κατημέλησα ἐγώ. Cp. 555 κοὐ μόνον βουλεύματα, | ἀλλ’ ἔργα δρώμεν’. The answer is more forcible than if the poet had written κἂν ἐξέπραξέ γ’ : see on 105, Ph. 985 , 408.—The midd. ἐκπράσσομαι is rare; in Her. 7. 158 it means ‘to avenge’ (φόνον). Cp. 287 ἐπραξάμην (n.).

ποίαισι κ.τ.λ. The datives denote manner (or attendant circumstance), and refer to τὸ βούλευμ’...ἦν in 44. ‘What were these daring schemes, what was this rash confidence, with which he planned the attack?’—i.e., ‘How could he possibly have conceived such a mad enterprise?’ For ταῖσδε combined with ποίαισι , cp. 1204 ποῖον ἐρεῖς τόδ’ ἔπος;

νύκτωρ κ.τ.λ.: an answer to the last question:—he relied on darkness, and on craft; and none shared his secret.

ἦ καὶ : 38 n.

παρέστη , came close to us: cp. 748 ποῦ δ’ ἐμπελάζεις τἀνδρὶ καὶ παρίστασαι; 295 βοᾷ παραστᾶς .

καὶ δὴ , ‘already’: 31 n.— δισσαῖς … στρατηγίσιν πύλαις , the tentdoors of the two chiefs, Agamemnon and Menelaüs. (Cp. Paus. 4. 19. 2 τὴν σκηνὴν τὴν στρατηγίδα.) The phrase is equivalent, of course, to δισσῶν στρατηγῶν πύλαις. 721 στρατήγιον, n. But, since there were two tents and two entrances, δισσαῖς is strictly the epithet of πύλαις|: i.e., the literal sense is, ‘two doors of chiefs.’ If the two chiefs had shared the same tent, so that only one entrance could be meant by πύλαις, then, indeed, δισσαῖς could be explained only as referring to the subst. implied in στρατηγίσιν,—‘the tent-door of two chiefs,’= δισσοστρατηγίσιν πύλαις. But such a use of δισσαῖς seems impossible. Could δισσὰ ἀδελφῶν ἅρματα ( e.g.) mean, ‘a chariot belonging to two brothers’?

καὶ πῶς : for καὶ prefixed to interrogative words, see on 263.—Join ἐπέσχε with φόνου . The word μαιμῶσαν is Homeric: 13. 77 περὶ δούρατι χεῖρες ἄαπτοι | μαιμῶσιν. Cp. Lycophron 1171 μαιμῶν κορέσσαι χεῖρα διψῶσαν φόνου,—a reminiscence, partly of this v., and partly of one of an unknown poet (τῶν τραγικῶν τις, Athen. 10. p. 433 F), frag. adesp. 96, ἴσχειν κελεύω χεῖρα διψῶσαν φόνου .

ἐγώ , an expression of divine majesty and power; cp. 69, 85.

δυσφόρους , hard to bear up against: her hand is heavy upon him. Cp. 643 δύσφορον ἄταν: 87 τὰ δύσφοῤ, i.e., the woes of Thebes: 144 τῶν δυσφόρων, miseries. Besides this sense, the only other in which the word occurs is, ‘hard to carry about,’ ‘moving with difficulty,’ as Plat. p. 74 E ἵνα μὴ δύσφορα τὰ σώματα ἀπεργάζοιντο (‘unwieldy’). A scholiast wrongly took δυσφόρους here as=κακῶς φερομένας, παραφόρους, i.e. ‘led astray,’ ‘misguided.’

γνώμας , opinions, beliefs,—here, the fancies or illusions of madness. There is a certain irony in the word. Some editors strangely prefer the conjecture λήμας ,—as if the goddess had afflicted him with sore or weak eyes ( 581 Κρονικαῖς λήμαις...λημῶντες τὰς φρένας ).

Join τῆς ἀνηκέστου χαρᾶς with γνώμας : his eyes, under Athena's spell, see his human foes in the cattle whom he slays or torments; these fancies are the fancies of (or connected with) his baneful joy in his imaginary triumph. For the adj., cp. 888 θάλπει τῷδ’ ἀνηκέστῳ πυρί (n.).

Others take the gen. as depending on ἀπείργω , placing a comma after the verb, and another after βαλοῦσα ,—a punctuation which is found in the Aldine. But (1) the sense of χαρᾶς is then attenuated to that of ‘ hoped-for vengeance,’—whereas, as ἀνηκέστου shows, it clearly denotes the frantic joy which Ajax actually felt; and (2) the order of words is then less natural.

πρός τε ποίμνας =πρὸς ποίμνας τε: for τε misplaced, cp. 654: 258 n. As distinguished from herds of oxen, ποῖμναι are flocks of sheep and goats; cp. 63, 297, 374. But the word ποῖμναι is also used more vaguely to denote both herds and flocks (42, 300): and in 1061 we find even μῆλα καὶ ποίμνας, ‘sheep and cattle.’

σύμμικτά τε … φρουρήματα : confused, unshared, spoil-charges of herdsmen, i.e., ‘the confused droves, your unshared spoil, guarded by herdsmen.’ λείας is a defining gen., denoting that in which the φρουρήματα consisted; βουκόλων is a possessive gen. Cp. 681 Ἑλλάδος | πρόσχημ’ ἀγῶνος, the pride of Greece (possessive gen.), consisting in a festival (defining gen.): so Aesch. 183 καρδίας κλυδώνιον | χολῆς (defining gen.). Others prefer to take λείας as a partitive gen. (‘forming part of the spoil’),—less fitly, I think.

ἄδαστα : cp. 1. 125 ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν πολίων ἐξεπράθομεν, τὰ δέδασται. At v. 26 the word λείας is used to denote the slaughtered animals generally. Sheep and oxen were alike λεία in the large sense, as having been taken from the foe, but the oxen are more especially so-called, because they were to be shared among individual chiefs or others, while the flocks were kept for the public maintenance. With ἄδαστα here, cp. 146 λοιπή, and 175 πανδάμους (n.).

ἔκειρε … φόνον . κείρειν φόνον=to cause bloodshed by hewing; as τυφλοῦν ἕλκος=‘to inflict a blinding wound’ ( 972 n.), τρῶσαι φόνον=‘to deal a deathwound’ ( 1205).—Note the παρήχησις in ἔκειρε—πολύκερων: cp. 528, 1112: 370 n.

πολύκερων φόνον , a slaughter of many horned creatures, like χερόπλακτοι...δοῦποι (631 ff.), αὔχημα εὔιππον, a glory consisting in good horses ( 711 n.), ῥιμφάρματοι ἅμιλλαι, contests of swift chariots ( ib. 1062 f. n.).— The accent of πολύκερων (cp. 64 εὔκερων) is acc. to the rule that adjectives in ‐ως follow the Attic 2nd decl. of nouns in ‐ως or ‐ων, which can be proparoxytone if the ω in the last syll. is immediately preceded by ε, or separated from it only by a liquid: thus ἀξιόχρεως, βαθύγεως, ἵλεως, φιλόγελως .

ῥαχίζων , here in a general sense, ‘hewing down’; properly, to cut through the spine (ῥάχις), to cleave in twain; cp. 299: Aesch. 426 ἔπαιον, ἐρράχιζον.

κἀδόκει μὲν κ.τ.λ.: properly, κἀδόκει ἔστι μὲν ὅτε..., ἔστι δὲ ὅτε: but μὲν is misplaced (as in 279 ὁρῶντα μὲν ναῦς, and ib. 1136 ὁρῶν μὲν ἀπάτας); and ἔστι δὲ is omitted. Cp. 603 τοῦτο μέν, balanced in 605 by τοῦτ’ ἄλλο.

φοιτῶντ’ : cp. Aesch. 661(boasts) φλύοντα σὺν φοίτῳ φρενῶν. For the plur. νόσοις cp. 338 νοσήμασι : Eur. 270 μανιάσιν λυσσήμασι.

ὤτρυνον, εἰσέβαλλον . Hermann supported his conjecture, Ἐρινύων ὤτρυνον (cr. n.), by the remark that the asyndeton in the traditional text implies an agitation of mind unsuitable to the goddess. But it rather expresses the vehemence with which the frenzy sent by her drove Ajax onward. Cp. Aesch. 288 καὶ λύσσα καὶ μάταιος ἐκ νυκτῶν φόβος | κινεῖ, ταράσσει.

εἰς ἕρκη κακά . Cp. Aesch. 1611 τῆς Δίκης ἐν ἕρκεσιν. Here it is the epithet κακά which marks the figurative sense of ἕρκη: as dirges are ὕμνοι ἄλυροι ( Eur. 447), and the eagle of Zeus is πτηνὸς κύων ( Aesch. 1022). For the similar use of other words denoting nets or toils, see on 1476 ἀρκυστάτοις .

κἄπειτ’ ἐπειδὴ : this harsh combination of sounds (as we should think it) is not rare; thus Ar. 1100 κἄπειτ’ ἐπειδὰν τῆσδ’ ἀπαλλαγῶ: 1322 ἔπειτ’ ἐπειδὴ )μέθυεν : 695 ἔπειτ’ ἐπειδὴ μεστὸς ἦν: [Dem. ] or. 59 § 89 ἔπειτ’ ἐπειδὰν πεισθῇ. Similarly Eur. 238 ἕως ἐῶσί σ’: 1292 ἢν γυνὴ γένῃ: 1339 ἦμεν ἥμενοι.

ἐλώφησεν implies only respite or alleviation, not cure: cp. Thuc. 6. 12§ 1 ἀπὸ νόσου μεγάλης καὶ πολέμου βραχύ τι λελωφήκαμεν. Cp. Soph. 554 n.

πόνου : the simple gen. is usual with λωφᾶν: cp. 251 C λωφᾷ..τῆς ὀδύνης .

αὖ , ‘in their turn’: cp. 1088: 601.

ἄνδρας =ἀνθρώπους : cp. 243 δαίμων | κοὐδεὶς ἀνδρῶν.

εὔκερων , since the oxen were his most conspicuous prizes: there is a bitter irony in the epithet. For the accent, see on 55.

καὶ σοὶ , to thee also (as I myself have seen it): cp. Plat. 64 C ἐὰν ἄρα καὶ σοὶ ξυνδοκῇ ἅπερ καὶ ἐμοί. Seyffert writes καί σοι (as if the sense were, ‘I will further show thee’): but this is plainly wrong.

δείξω … περιφανῆ , ‘will show thee openly’ (instead of allowing it to remain hidden in the tent): cp. 1366 αἳ ταῦτά σοι δείξουσιν, Ἠλέκτρα, σαφῆ. Cp. 81 περιφανῶς..ἰδεῖν.—We might, indeed, take περιφανῆ as a mere epithet, ‘this signal, notable, frenzy’; but in the actual context the other view is preferable.

θροῇς , ‘proclaim’: cp. 785: 597 πᾶς τοῦτό γ’ Ἑλλήνων θροεῖ.

μηδὲ συμφορὰν δέχου τὸν ἄνδρα , lit., ‘do not receive (or take) the man as a calamity,’ i.e., ‘do not apprehend harm from his coming.’ There is a light touch of half-playful irony in the words with which the goddess reassures her favourite. Cp. Eur. 138 ἀλλ’ ἐμοὶ | τόνδ’ ἐξεγεῖραι ξυμφορὰ γενήσεται. Hdt. 6. 61 τοὺς γονέας συμφορὴν τὸ εἶδος αὐτῆς ποιευμένους. Similarly 21. 39 τῷ δ’ ἄρ’ ἀνώϊστον κακὸν ἤλυθε δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς: 379 Κρέων δέ σοι πῆμ’ οὐδέν. —Whitelaw (, p. 440) takes the constr. to be, μίμνε (μηδὲ συμφορὰν δέχου) τὸν ἄνδρα,—‘Bravely await, expecting no mischance, | His coming,’— διὰ μέσου construction ( 1279 f., n.). A difficulty in this view is that δέχου must then have definitely the sense of προσδέχου.

ἀποστρόφους , proleptic: cp. 791 σὺ καὶ δικαίων ἀδίκους φρένας παρασπᾷς. Here the adj. is equiv. to ἀποστρέψασα,— ‘I will avert, and (thereby) hinder.’— ἀπείρξω … εἰ<*>ιδεῖν , without μή: as εἴργω takes the simple inf. in 129, 1407, 1257.

These three verses have been rejected (cr. n.), on the ground that, after this promise from Athena, Odysseus had no cause to feel the alarm which he shows in vv. 74 ff., or to ask the question (v. 84) which elicits a renewal of that promise (85). But the poet wished to render the preparation for the hero's entrance as impressive as possible; and chose, therefore, to represent Odysseus—a brave man—as still uneasy, until the assurance given to him had been repeated in a yet more explicit and emphatic form.

οὗτος : cp. 89, 1047: 1627 ὦ οὗτος οὗτος Οἰδίπους, τί μέλλομεν;

σὲ τὸν κ.τ.λ.: in a peremptory call of this kind, the acc. regularly stands first; cp. 1228, and see on 441 σὲ δή, σὲ τὴν νεύουσαν κ.τ.λ.

αἰχμαλωτίδας , instead of αἰχμαλώτων: cp. Eur. 222 ἀδελφῇ χειρί (a sister's hand); 1306 εὐναῖς βασιλίσι (the bed of a king).

ἀπευθύνοντα , lit. ‘straightening out,’ here, binding behind the back: 1154 οὐχ ὡς τάχος τις τοῦδ’ ἀποστρέψει χέρας; 22. 189 σὺν δὲ πόδας χεῖράς τε δέον θυμαλγέϊ δεσμῷ | εὖ μάλ’ ἀποστρέψαντε διαμπερές. So Achilles deals with his captives, 21. 30 δῆσε δ’ ὀπίσσω χεῖρας ἐϋτμήτοισιν ἱμᾶσιν. Hom. 3. 5. 22 retorta tergo bracchia libero.

Cp. Eur. 719 ὧδ’, ὦ κάκιστε, τῆσδ’ ἐλυμήνω χέρας; | βοῦν ἢ λέοντ’ ἤλπιζες ἐντείνειν βρόχοις; (‘strain with cords’). Ajax fancies himself to be tying the hands of human prisoners behind them, when he fastens the fore feet of an ox or sheep to its hind feet. Cp. 299.

τί δρᾷς ..; Odysseus is brave, but reasonably reluctant to face a raging maniac who hates him (1336).

μηδαμῶς σφ’ ἔξω κάλει . The omission of σφ’ (cr. n.) seems undesirable here; though it could be defended (see 801 n.). Cp. 496 .

οὐ σῖγ’ ἀνέξει μηδὲ δειλίαν ἀρεῖ ; lit., ‘Wilt thou not be patient in silence, and forbear to win the name of coward?’ Cp. 1183 οὐ θᾶσσον οἴσεις μηδ’ ἀπιστήσεις ἐμοί; ‘Give me thy hand at once —disobey me not!’ 637 οὐκ εἶ σύ τ’ οἴκους σύ τε, Κρέον, κατὰ στέγας, | καὶ μὴ τὸ μηδὲν ἄλγος εἰς μέγ’ οἴσετε; ‘Come, go thou into the house...and forbear to make much of a petty grief.’ See Appendix.

σῖγ’ ἀνέξει : cp. fr. 618 σύγγνωτε κἀνάσχεσθε σιγῶσαι.

δειλίαν ἀρεῖ , ‘win,’ ‘acquire,’ the reputation of cowardice: cp. 924 τὴν δυσσέβειαν εὐσεβοῦσ’ ἐκτησάμην (n.): 676 καὶ δειλίαν γὰρ καὶ κάκην κεκτήσομαι. The fut. midd. ἀροῦμαι occurs in 460 σωτῆρ’ ἀρεῖσθε , and Pind. 1. 75 ἀρέομαι.. μισθόν. The fut. act. ἀρεῖς has better MS. authority here; but is (I am now convinced) wrong. It could mean only, ‘raise thy cowardice,’ in the sense, ‘allow thy coward fears to rise,’—a very forced one. Further, there is no other example of a fut. act. ἀρῶ with α^ . See note in Appendix on the Future and Aorist forms from ἀείρω, αἴρω, ἄρνυμαι .

ἔνδον ἀρκείτω μένων : for the personal constr. (instead of ἀρκείτω αὐτὸν ἔνδον μένειν ), cp. 635: 547 ἀρκέσω θνῄσκους ἐγώ: 1061 ἅλις νοσοῦσ’ ἐγώ.

τί μὴ γένηται ; ‘lest what happen?’ So 543 νεκροὺς δὲ ταρβεῖτ’ εἰ κρυβήσονται χθονί; | τί μὴ γένηται; μὴ κατασκάψωσι γῆν | ταφέντες ὑμῶν;

ἀνὴρ , emphatic, a man indeed; cp. 1238 οὐκ ἆρ’ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄνδρες εἰσὶ πλὴν ὅδε;

ἐχθρός γε . Odysseus refrains from replying that Ajax was then sane, but now is frenzied. ‘Yes,’ he answers, ‘my foeman,—as he is still.’ That enmity, he means, will now be more dangerous than ever.

οὔκουν γέλως ἥδιστος ..; The goddess suggests the vulgar sentiment of mankind, not as approving it, but, as it were, to test the disposition of Odysseus; who passes it by in silence, and afterwards repudiates it by his action.

ἐμοὶ μὲν : the particle merely throws a slight stress on the pronoun: 11 n.

φρονοῦντα γὰρ : ‘yes, for...’: the γὰρ of assent, 1117 n.

ἐξέστην with acc., as meaning ‘avoid’: Dem. or. 20 § 10 οὐδένα πώποτε κίνδυνον ἐξέστησαν (a phrase which occurs also in or. 23 § 76): Plat. p. 43 A ἀλλὰ γὰρ ὑπεκστῆναι τὸν λόγον ἐπιφερόμενον τοῦτον βούλομαι (‘to elude the brunt of this argument’). Cp. Thuc. 2. 88§ 2 μηδένα ὄχλον...ὑποχωρεῖν (‘to face any numbers’). But ἐξίστασθαι takes a dat. when it means to ‘make place for’ (672), or ‘give way to’ ( Soph. 1053 ).

οὐδὲ νῦν refers to οὐκ in 82: ‘even as it is (i.e. though he is insane) thou hast no reason to fear him, since he will not see thee.’

ὀφθαλμοῖς … τοῖς αὐτοῖς , i.e., with eyesight as good as ever. Odysseus forgets, or ignores, the promise of Athena that she would avert from him the eyes of Ajax (69 f.). She now renews the assurance in a stronger form. Ajax shall, in respect to him, be blind.

δεδορκότα properly implies keen , bright vision: 409 δεδορκὸς ὄμμα (with Tucker's note). Chrysippus ap. Gellius 14. 4 ἔντονον καὶ δεδορκὸς βλέπουσα (said of Justice), which Gellius renders, luminibus oculorum acribus.

γένοιτο κ.τ.λ.: cp. Her. 5. 9 γένοιτο δ’ ἂν πᾶν ἐν τῷ μακρῷ χρόνῳ.

μέντἂν , a crasis frequent in Attic prose ( Dem. or. 1 § 26, Plat. p. 375 D, etc.). Here μέντοι expresses reflective assent (‘well, certainly’), as so often in Plato (e.g., Plat. p. 245 B ἀληθέστατα μέντοι λέγεις).

θεοῦ , not θεᾶς,—the generalising masc.: Aesch. 297(ref. to Athena), ἔλθοι· κλύει δὲ καὶ πρόσωθεν ὢι θεός. So Soph. 463(ὅστις), Soph. 151(αὑτοῦ), Soph. 145(ὃς), Soph. El. 771( πάσχοντι), Soph. El. 1026(ἐγχειροῦντα), Soph. El. 1105(τὸν ἄγχιστον).

μένοιμ’ ἄν . Among its many shades of meaning, the opt. with ἄν sometimes expresses; as here, what the speaker feels that he must do; cp. 1108 ὧδ’ ὡς ἔχω στείχοιμ’ ἄν (n.). See below, Ant. 186.

ἤθελον δ’ ἂν , as 1278, and ib. 1239 ἂν..ἐβουλόμην: so ἠθέλησα with ἄν , ib. 427, 1348, and εἱλόμη<*> ἄν, 734.For ἤθελον without ἄν, see 1400.

ἐκτὸς ὢν τυχεῖν , to be clear of the peril: cp. 504 ἐκτὸς ὄντα πημάτων: ib. 1260 ἴσως ἂν ἐκτὸς κλαυμάτων ἔχοις πόδα: fr. 657. 3 ἐκτός εἰσι τῶν κακῶν.

οὗτος : 71.

Αἴας . When a proper name of the 3rd declension comes from a stem ending in αντ (as Αἰαντ), the Attic vocative ends in α—ς: so Θόας, ἄκουσον , 1436. The Homeric vocative of Αἴας is always Αἶαν (α^) —formed on the analogy of the voc from stems in οντ, as Κρέον (stem Κρεοντ). The vocatives Πουλυδάμα ( 12. 231), Λαοδάμα ( 8. 141) are exceptions, due perhaps to a sense that here the ending ‐αν might suggest an accusative.

τῆς συμμάχου : there is a terrible irony in this, since he had angered her by rejecting her aid in battle (774).

Ajax enters from the tent, carrying the heavy, blood-stained thong, with which he has been scourging the cattle (241 f.). Hence the title μαστιγοφόρος (see Argument to the Play).

Διογενὲς τέκνον : cp. Aesch. 127 ὦ Διογενὲς φιλόμαχον κράτος (Athena): Eur. 350 ὦ Παλλάς, ὦ δέσποινα, Διογενὲς θεά. Cp. Eur. 465 παῖς ἁ Λατογενής.

παρέστης : cp. 117 .

στέψω , ‘crown,’ in the fig. sense of ‘honouring with gifts’: cp. 457 ὅπως τὸ λοιπὸν αὐτὸν ἀφνεωτέραις | χερσὶ στέφωμεν ἢ τανῦν δωρούμεθα: 431 χοαῖσι..τὸν νέκυν στέφει. (In later Greek, στεφανοῦν is said of any honorarium; as Plut. 16 τὸν..ἄνθρωπον ἐστεφάνωσαν.. δέκα μναῖς.) Here, the word may refer more esp. to hanging up trophies in Athena's temple (Aesch. 278 λάφυρα δᾴων δουρίπηχθ’ ἁγνοῖς δόμοις | στέψω,— where, however, the text is doubtful: cp. 577 ff.).

λαφύροις (rt. λαβ), spoils taken from the enemy, a poetical word, used by Xenophon. The epithet παγχρύσοις suggests votive gifts (ἀναθήματα) of golden vessels.

ἐκεῖνο marks (better than τοῦτο would have done) the somewhat abrupt change of subject. Athena treats Ajax as one whose thoughts can be turned at pleasure in any new direction.

ἔγχος , ‘sword’; cp. 287, 658, 907, 1236; synonymous with ξίφος (10, Ant. 231 , Ant. 1034), and φάσγανον (834, Ant. 899).

εὖ : cp. 18 .— πρὸς Ἀργείων στρατῷ , ‘on’ them,—denoting an encounter at close quarters; cp. 97.

τὸ μή , where (after the negative) τὸ μὴ οὐ would be normal; so 1387 f., 443, 348 f.

ᾔχμασας χέρα ; The exact sense seems to be, ‘hast thou used an armed hand upon them?’ The acc. χέρα is analogous, though not precisely similar, to the cognate accusative in αἰχμάσαι τάδε ( 355, ‘to do those deeds of arms’), and αἰχμὰς αἰχμάσσουσι ( 4. 324), ‘they will wield spears.’ The fact that πρὸς stands with dat., and not with acc., shows that the phrase cannot mean, ‘hast thou armed thy hand against them?’ —Musgrave's ᾕμαξας , though specious, is coarser; there is a keen edge in the reference of ᾔχμασας to the prowess of a warrior.

ὥστ’ (‘so that’) is far better here than ὡς (‘know that..’, 39); and is the more forcible because γε is absent (cp. 45 n.).

Αἴαντ’ (instead of ἐμέ) adds a certain majesty to the vaunt; cp. 864: as when Achilles says ( 1. 240), ἧ ποτ’ Ἀχιλλῆος ποθὴ ἵξεται υἷας Ἀχαιῶν.

τὸ σὸν , ‘thy saying’; cp. 1401: but in 1313, ‘thy interest.’

θανόντες … ἀφαιρείσθων . The grim irony is like that of 1273 f. ἐν σκότῳ.. | ὀψοίαθ’: 1377(they are to die) ἵν’ ἀξιῶτον τοὺς φυτεύσαντας σέβειν: 310(after a like threat) ἵν’ εἰδότες τὸ κέρδος ἔνθεν οἰστέον | τὸ λοιπὸν ἁρπάζητε: 1110(Deianeira shall perish) ἵν’ ἐκδιδαχθῇ πᾶσιν ἀγγέλλειν κ.τ.λ.

τἄμ’ , emphatic: the arms which, when Achilles was dead, belonged by right to Ajax. Schol.: καλῶς τὰ ἐμὰ ἔφη, οὐχ ἃ δεῖ με λαβεῖν, ὡς ἰδίων ἀπεστερημένος.

εἶεν (‘so far so good’) marks that the speaker is about to pass to a new point; 1308, 534, 1308.

τί γὰρ δὴ : here γάρ (‘now’) merely prefaces the question; δή=‘then,’ ‘in the next place.’ Cp. 576 τί δ’ ἡμεῖς οἵ τ ἐμοὶ γεννήτορες; | ἆρ’ εἰσίν;

ποῦ σοι τύχης ἕστηκεν ; Cp. 314: 1442 ἵν’ ἕσταμεν | χρείας: 375 ποῦ ποτ’ εἰμὶ πράγματος; ib. 1145 ξυμφορᾶς ἵν’ ἕσταμεν.

σοι , ethic dat.: 81 ἦ βέβηκεν ἡμὶν ὁ ξένος; (i.e., ‘Do we find ourselves alone?’) For the double question, cp. 983 f.

τοὐπίτριπτον , ‘accursed’; cp. the imprecation, ἐπιτριβείης ( Ar. 1530, 557). Others explain it, from the sense ‘rubbed down,’ as ‘practised in trickery,’ ‘knavish’ (cp. περίτριμμα, ἄλημα, etc.). Ar. 275 ὡς σεμνὸς οὑπίτριπτος : Andoc. or. 1 § 99 ὦ συκοφάντα καὶ ἐπίτριπτον κίναδος. Ar. 430 πυκνότατον κίναδος, | σόφισμα, κύρμα, τρίμμα, παιπάλημ’ ὅλον. Here κίναδος is acc.: cp. 118, 444 n.

ἐξήρου μ’ ὅπου , sc. ἐστί: a frequent ellipse after ὅπου (890, 926, 318). Cp. 33 .

ἔγωγ’ . In favour of omitting the colon after ἔγωγ’, it has been urged that, if it remains, the goddess seems to accept the description just given of her favourite; and that it would better become her to reply merely, ‘I mean Odysseus, thy foe.’ But she is displaying the insanity of Ajax, and has already received his fierce vaunts with the irony of seeming approval.

Ὀδυσσέα , with synizesis: cp. Eur. 913 σφάξαι Μενοικέα τόνδε: [Eur. ] 977 ἔπειτ’ Ἀχιλλέα Θέτιδος κ.τ.λ. But synizesis is not applied by Sophocles to Ὀδυσσέα in 1220, to Ἀχιλλέα in 331 and 358, or to Θησέα in 1055 and 1630. Here Nauck writes Ὀδυσσῆ, a form found in 708; cp. Eur. 439 Ἀχιλῆ.

ἐνστάτην , ‘adversary’: a word not extant elsewhere. It comes from ἐνίστασθαι as=‘to stand in the way’ of a person or thing, ‘oppose,’ ‘resist.’ For the literal sense, see Lysias or. 3 § 8 εὐθύς με τύπτειν ἐπεχείρησεν· ἐπειδὴ δὲ αὐτὸν ἠμυνάμην ἐνστάς (‘when I stood up to him and repelled him’), ἔβαλλέ με λίθοις: for the fig. sense, Thuc. 8. 69§ 2 ἤν τις ἐνιστῆται τοῖς ποιουμένοις. Hence in logic, ἔνστασις , instantia, ‘objection’ (cp. Isocr. or. 5 § 39, ἐνστῆναι τοῖς εἰρημένοις). In p. 625. 25 ἐνστάτης (quoted from this passage) is loosely explained as=ἀντιστάτης.

ἥδιστος , most welcome; cp. 929 κατ’ οἶκον, ἡδὺς οὐδὲ μητρὶ δυσχερής.

κίον’ ἑρκείου στέγης , lit., ‘a pillar of the domestic roof.’ As Ζεὺς ἑρκεῖος is the god of the household ( 487 n.), ἑρκεῖος στέγη is a poetical phrase for the house. In such a phrase, στέγη could mean either (a) ‘ roof,’ or (b) generally, ‘building.’ Here, it probably means ‘roof’; as is suggested by the fact that, in Homer, ἕρκος sometimes denotes the enclosure of the αὐλή, open to the sky ( 22. 442, etc.): in using ἑρκεῖος, then, as=‘domestic,’ the poet may have felt that στέγη, tectum, would make the sense clearer. This is also suggested by κίον’ : see Eur. 1006, where the roof of the house falls in, breaking one of the κίονες (called also λάϊνοι ὀρθοστάται , ib. 979 f.) which supported it:—πρὸς κίονα | νῶτον πατάξας, ὃς πεσήμασι στέγης | διχορραγὴς ἔκειτο κρηπίδων ἔπι. Cp. also Aesch. 897 ὑψηλῆς στέγης | στῦλον ποδήρη (‘of a lofty roof | A strong-based pillar’; Kennedy).—I now prefer this view to that which takes ἑρκεῖος στέγη as=‘the building of an enclosure’; i.e. an αὐλή, open to the sky, within the house;—the κίων being then one of the columns of a peristyle surrounding this court, as in the ἀνδρωνῖτις of an ordinary Greek dwelling.

δεθεὶς πρὸς κίον’ : the regular preparation for a flogging: cp. Aeschin. or. 1 § 59 δήσαντες πρὸς τὸν κίονα αὐτὸν...ἐμαστίγουν . Lysias fr. 52 § 4 πάλιν πρὸς τὸν κίονα αὐτὸν μαστιγοῦν δήσαντας. Hypereides ap. Pollux 3. 80. So Plaut. 4. 7. 24 abducite hunc intro atque astringite ad columnam fortiter.

δεῖν πρὸς κίονα (properly, ‘to take and bind to a pillar’), not πρὸς κίονι , was thus the usual phrase; but Artemidorus (c. 160 A.D. ) 1. 78 has προσδεθεὶς κίονι ἔλαβε πληγὰς πολλάς. Cp. 240.—κίων is masc. in Herodotus Attic. uses it in both genders (fem. 1. 92, masc. 4. 184). With Pindar it is always fem.; and usually so in the , but not always; in 8. 66, πρὸς κίονα μακρὸν ἐρείσας, the masc. has a metrical motive, but not in 19. 38, κίονες ὑψόσ’ ἔχοντες.

ἐργάσει . In v. 107 she continued his sentence; here, feigning keener alarm, she interrupts it.—Nauck reads ἐργάσῃ (aor.), depending on πρὶν ἄν: which not only is weaker, but requires δήσας instead of δεθεὶς in 108.

πρὶν ἂν … φοινιχθεὶς θάνῃ . After θανεῖν γὰρ αὐτὸν οὔ τί πω θέλω (106), we should have had πρὶν ἂν φοινιχθῇ. But the emphasis on μάστιγι πρῶτον νῶτα φοινιχθεὶς serves to excuse the presence of θάνῃ,—added, for the sake of greater clearness, after the long interval. So in 1130Hyllus says of Deianeira, τέθνηκεν, and then in 1133 Heracles, οἴμοι· πρὶν ὡς χρῆν σφ’ ἐξ ἐμῆς θανεῖν χερός; where the stress on τῆς ἐμῆς similarly palliates the illogical form of the sentence.

φοινιχθεὶς : Eur. 153 φοινισσομένην αἵματι . Ar. 320 καταξαίνειν τὸν ἄνδρα τοῦτον εἰς φοινικίδα.

αἰκίσῃ : cp. 1153 μὴ δῆτα, πρὸς θεῶν, τὸν γέροντά μ’ αἰκίσῃ.

χαίρειν … σ’ ἐφίεμαι . It seems best to suppose that the constr. is ἐφίεμαι χαίρειν δε, ‘It is my injunction that thou have thy will in all else.’ Cp. 1054 f. ὅντιν’ ἀρτίως | μολεῖν ἐφιέμεσθα: where the acc. similarly belongs to the inf. There is no example of ἐφίεμαί τινα (instead of τινι) ποιεῖν τι: though we find in 1221 τοσοῦτον δή σ’ ἐπισκήπτω, like κελεύω τινά τι. Nor does the sense here require that σε should be the object of ἐφίεμαι.—Remark the objection to rendering ἐφίεμαι here ‘I desire’: when the verb has that sense, with an inf., its subject is the same as that of the inf.: e.g. 1315 ὧν δέ σου τυχεῖν ἐφίεμαι, | ἄκουσον. Further, the sense, ‘enjoin,’ ‘command,’ better suits the insane ὕβρις of Ajax.

χαίρειν … τἄλλα , to have her pleasure, i.e., to have her commands obeyed, in all other things: schol. ἐφίεμαί σε εἰς τὰ ἄλλα κελεύειν μοι καὶ χαίρειν ὡς πειθομένου μου.

σὺ σ’ οὖν : for this use of οὖν with pron. and imperat., cp. 961: 669 ὁ δ’ οὖν ἴτω : Ar. 185 οἱ δ’ ἐδίωκον κἀβόων. | ΔΙ. οἱ δ’ οὖν βοώντων.

τέρψις ἥδε σοι τὸ δρᾶν : the inf. (with art. added, as oft., 47 n.) is in apposition with τέρψις ἥδε: ‘since this is thy pleasure,—even to do (thus).’ Instead of τέρψις σοι τὸ δρᾶν τόδε, the defining pron. has been assimilated to τέρψις: cp. 483 ἥμαρτον, εἴ τι τήνδ’ (instead of τόδ’) ἁμαρτίαν λέγεις (n.).

χρῶ χειρί, φείδου κ.τ.λ.: the asyndeton adds vigour to the command: cp. 811 χωρῶμεν, ἐγκονῶμεν: 844 γεύεσθε, μὴ φείδεσθε: 988 ἴθ’, ἐγκόνει, σύγκαμνε: Eur. 1044 ἄρασσε, φείδου μηδέν.

μηδὲν , adv.: ὧν =τούτων ἅ: so Eur. 400 φείδου μηδὲν ὧν ἐπίστασαι .

τοῦτο σοὶ δ’ ἐφίεμαι . The emphasis on τοῦτο warrants the place of δέ, which often, indeed, comes third in a sentence, or even later; cp. 169: 485 ὅ τι λέξω δ’ ἀπορῶ: Aesch. 399 δακρυσίστακτον ἀπ’ ὄσσων ῥαδινῶν δ’ εἰβομένα ῥέος: Eur. fr. 776 δεινόν γε, τοῖς πλουτοῦσι τοῦτο δ’ ἔμφυτον.

ὁρᾷς .. τὴν … ἰσχὺν ὅση : cp. 103.

τὴν θεῶν ἰσχὺν : for the absence of a second art., cp. 664 ἡ βροτῶν παροιμία: 10 τῶν ἐχθρῶν κακά (n.).

τίς ἂν ηὑρέθη , ‘who could have been found?’ the potential aor. indic. with ἄν: cp. 502 πόθεν κλέος γ’ ἂν εὐκλεέστερον | κατέσχον...; Dem. or. 37 § 57 πῶς ἂν..ἐγώ τί σε ἠδίκησα;

προνούστερος . The Homeric Ajax, though not subtle in thought or speech, has robust good sense: as Hector says ( 7. 288), Αἶαν, ἐπεί τοι δῶκε θεὸς μέγεθός τε βίην τε | καὶ πινυτήν.

δρᾶν … τὰ καίρια : cp. Shakesp. 1. 2. 26 He did look far | Into the service of the time, and was | Discipled of the bravest.

ἐγὼ μὲν : μὲν merely emphasizes the pron.: cp. 455, Xen. 1. 4. 12 ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ οἶδα. ἔμπας , followed by καίπερ and a participle; 24. 523 ἄλγεα δ’ ἔμπης | ἐν θυμῷ κατακεῖσθαι ἐάσομεν, ἀχνύμενοί περ. Cp. 563.

ἄτῃ συγκατέζευκται : the more ordinary word would have been συνέζευκται, but metre has prompted the double compound, which recurs only in later Greek. The κατά adds the idea of a constraining force: cp. Plutarch 2 τοὺς ἀγάμους λόγοις τε πείθοντα καὶ ζημίαις ἀπειλοῦντα συγκαταζεῦξαι (constrain into marriage with) ταῖς χηρευούσαις γυναιξί. Eur. 1389 οἵᾳ ξυμφορᾷ συνεζύγης. Eur. 98 στερρόν τε τὸν ἐμὸν δαίμον’ ᾧ συνεζύγην.

οὐδὲν τὸ τούτου κ.τ.λ. The σωφροσύνη of Odysseus finds similar expression at 1365 (καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸς ἐνθάδ’ ἵξομαι).

εἴδωλ’ … σκιάν . As unreal as phantoms; as unsubstantial as shadows. Cp. fr. 12 ἄνθρωπός ἐστι πνεῦμα καὶ σκιὰ μόνον, | εἴδωλον ἄλλως .

αὐτὸς : as Ajax had done more than once (766—775).

ὄγκον , ‘pomp,’ 817.Cp. Shakesp. 1. 1. 124 showing a more swelling port | Than my faint means would grant continuance.

ἄρῃ , ‘take upon thee,’ ‘assume’: subjunct. of 1st aor. ἠράμην (not of 2nd aor. ἠρόμην, which would have α^ ). The sense of ἠράμην is usu. ‘to take up’ or ‘take upon one,’ rarely ‘to win,’ which is the regular sense of ἠρόμην. See Appendix on 75.— ἄρῃς (from 1st aor. act. ἦρα) has inferior MS. authority, and is also less suitable in sense: it would mean, ‘lift up,’ ‘exalt.’

βρίθεις , ‘art weighty,’ i.e. ‘powerful’: cp. Pind. 3. 40 συγγενεῖ δέ τις εὐδοξίᾳ μέγα βρίθει.

μακροῦ , extensive, ‘large’: cp. 825: 1217 χάριν βραχεῖαν πρὸς μακροῖς ἄλλοις διδούς.

πλούτου βάθει : cp. Tyrtaeus fr. 12. 6 πλουτοίη δὲ Μίδεω καὶ Κινύρεω βάθιον (so Camerarius: μάλιον G. M. Schmidt): Pind. 13. 63 βαθὺν κλᾶρον (‘a rich domain’): 555 βαθύπλουτον χθόνα (referring to soil): Eur. fr. 453 Εἰρήνα βαθύπλουτε: Callim. 114 τὸν βαθὺν οἶκον (‘opulent’): Aelian 3. 18 ἐν εἰρήνῃ τε διάγειν καὶ πλούτῳ βαθεῖ. Indeed, βαθύς could be said (like παχύς) of a rich man: Xen. 11. 10 βαθεῖς τε καὶ ἐρρωμένους ἄνδρας, ‘men of substance and power.’—The feeble v.l. βάρει (cr. n.) was prompted by βρίθεις.

ἡμέρα : cp. 475 : Pind. 8. 95 ἐπάμεροι· τί δέ τις; τί δ’ οὔ τις; σκιᾶς ὄναρ | ἄνθρωπος.

κλίνει : the image is from depressing the scale of a balance: 19. 223 ἐπὴν κλίνῃσι τάλαντα | Ζεύς.

κἀνάγει : so 866 κἀνάγει κάρα. Cp. 1158 τύχη γὰρ ὀρθοῖ καὶ τύχη καταρρέπει | τὸν εὐτυχοῦντα τόν τε δυστυχοῦντ’ ἀεί. Eur. fr. 420 ὁρᾷς τυράννους διὰ μακρῶν ηὐξημένους | ὡς μικρὰ τὰ σφάλλοντα, καὶ μἴ ἡμέρα | τὰ μὲν καθεῖλεν ὑψόθεν, τὰ δ’ ἦρ’ ἄνω.

κακούς (which has needlessly been suspected, cr. n.) is interpreted by vv. 127 ff., and more immediately by the contrast with τοὺς σώφρονας: it means those who, like Ajax, are led into δυσσέβεια by overweening self-reliance or pride.

Τελαμώνιε παῖ : 13. 67 Τελαμώνιον υἱόν. The followers of Ajax call upon him to come forth from his tent, —where, for some days previously, he had remained in sullen seclusion (194 f.), —and to refute this dire rumour of his onslaught on the cattle. Surely it is a malignant slander. Or is it possible that some angry deity has driven him to such a deed? Assuredly it is abhorrent from his own nature.

Σαλαμῖνος (defining gen.).. βάθρον , the pedestal, or firm seat, consisting of Salamis. The island itself is the βάθρον: this is clear from 859 f. ὦ γῆς ἱρὸν οἰκείας πέδον | Σαλαμῖνος, ὦ πατρῷον ἑστίας βάθρον. Just so in 1000, ἕως ἂν ᾖ μοι γῆς τόδ’ αἰπεινὸν βάθρον, ‘while I have this craggy Lemnos beneath my feet.’

τῆς ἀμφιρύτου Σαλαμῖνος … ἀγχιάλου : for the place of the second epithet, see n. on 1199 τὰν γαμψώνυχα παρθένον | χρησμῳδόν. While τῆς ἀμφιρύτου would suggest to an Athenian the narrow strait, so familiar to his sight, which divides Salamis from the Attic mainland, the second epithet, ἀγχιάλου , would, as it were, turn his eyes seaward, inviting him to look forth from the shore of Salamis itself towards the Saronic Gulf. Each adjective lends a touch to the picture. This is thoroughly Greek. See, for instance, 164 ἔμολον ἀμφὶ παρακτίαν ψάμαθον Αὐλίδος ἐναλίας, the sandy sea-shore of Aulis by the waves: 400 ἐπ’ οἶδμα πόντιον γλαυκῆς ἁλός,—where the blue expanse, the surge, and the depths beneath it (πόντιον) are all suggested.

ἀγχίαλος was properly said of a place on the sea-coast ( 2. 640 Χαλκίδα τ’ ἀγχίαλον). In Aesch. 888 it is a mere general epithet for islands (Lemnos, Icaros, etc.). Here, in the Athenian poet's mind, it has its proper sense, for he is thinking of Salamis as a fringe of the Attic coast; and it is again the Athenian's point of view which interprets the true relation of ἀγχιάλου to ἀμφιρύτου.

ἔχων : cp. Pind. 4. 48 Αἴας Σαλαμῖν’ ἔχει πατρῴαν .

σὲ μὲν εὖ πράσσοντ’ ἐπιχαίρω : for the acc., expressing the object of joy, cp. 1314 ἥσθην πατέρα τὸν ἀμὸν εὐλογοῦντά σε: Eur. 1339 τοὺς γὰρ εὐσεβεῖς θεοὶ | θνῄσκοντας οὐ χαίρουσι: 390 χαίρω δέ σ’ εὐτυχοῦντα.

πληγὴ Διὸς (cp. 279), suggested by his long inaction (194 f.). Cp. 12. 37 Διὸς μάστιγι δαμέντες.

ζαμενὴς , ‘vehement’; a word not found in or , but which occurs in (307), and is frequent with Pindar; thus fr. 231 τόλμα..ζαμενής.

λόγος … κακόθρους , like 791 δυσπάρευνον λέκτρον, 518 βίου..τοῦ μακραίωνος: cp. 709.

ἐπιβῇ with acc. is rare; but cp. 1299 τίς ς’, ὦ τλῆμον, | προσέβη μανία; Eur. 491 ἔτι σε, πότνια, | μετατροπὰ τῶνδ’ ἔπεισιν ἔργων.

πεφόβημαι , a form found in 10. 510( πεφοβημένος), and often in Attic prose; it is emphatic (=‘thoroughly scared’).

πτηνῆς here suggests timorous flight; cp. 5. 778 τρήρωσι πελειάσιν ἴθμαθ’ ὁμοῖαι.

ὄμμα πελείας , since fear or anguish is seen in the eye; cp. 527 ἀμφινείκητον ὄμμα νύμφας (n.). 729 ὁρῶ τιν’ ὑμᾶς ὀμμάτων εἰληφότας | φόβον νεωρῆ.

τῆς νῦν φθιμένης νυκτὸς , thus placed at the beginning of the sentence, indicates the time to which the whole following statement refers. As the rumours began only at daylight, the reference is, in strictness, to the moment denoted by ἐπιβάντ’ — ὀλέσαι.

ἐπὶ δυσκλείᾳ , for, tending to, our disgrace; cp. Her. 1. 68 ἐπὶ κακῷ, Her. 4. 164 ἐπὶ διαφθορῇ.

τὸν ἱππομανῆ λειμῶν’ , the plain ‘wild with horses,’ i.e., on which great numbers of horses (out at pasture) disport themselves. In 20. 221Erichthonius, son of Dardanus, is described as keeping great droves of horses on the moist meadow-lands near the lower spurs of Ida: τοῦ τρισχίλιαι ἵπποι ἕλος κάτα βουκολέοντο. Sophocles used the word καρπομανής (fr. 591), doubtless in a sense parallel with that of ὑλομανής, i.e. ‘abounding in fruit’: and the sense which he attached to λειμὼν ἱππομανής was probably λειμὼν ὃς μαίνεται ἵπποις rather than ἐν ᾧ ἵπποι μαίνονται. But the idea of wild abundance would naturally, in this case, be blended with that of the horses frisking or galloping in freedom on the plain. Hence the difference made by the verbal analysis which we prefer is not one which much affects the picture. —See Appendix.

βοτὰ καὶ λείαν : a hendiadys, =βοτὰ δορίληπτα: cp. 36 ἀσπίδων τε καὶ στρατοῦ (=στρατοῦ ὡπλισμένου): Eur. 919 Θήβας καὶ πόλισμ’ ἑπτάστομον. We might, indeed, understand βοτὰ of the sheep, and λείαν of the oxen (cp. 53 n.): but that seems less fitting here. λοιπὴ =ἄδαστος . See on 53.

αἴθωνι σιδήρῳ , the Homeric phrase ( 4. 485, Il. 7. 473, Il. 20. 372). This epithet, ‘flashing,’ is given also to other objects of bright metal, as a λέβης or a τρίπους ( 9. 123, Il. 24. 233).

ψιθύρους : Pind. 2. 75 οἷα ψιθύρων παλάμαις (the arts of slanderers) ἕπετ’ αἰεὶ βροτῶν. ( i. 30 ψιθυριστάς, καταλάλους.)

πᾶσιν Ὀδυσσείς . L has πάντων ὀδυσσεύς, and it is possible that (as Nauck thinks) the poet wrote πάντων Ὀδυσεύς. (Euripides has that Homeric form in anapaests, 143 ἥξει δ’ Ὀδυσεὺς ὅσον οὐκ ἤδη.) But it seems improbable, seeing that the short form occurs nowhere else in Sophocles, though he uses the name some twenty-five times. On the other hand, a transcriber might easily have written the gen. πάντων after ὦτα, by mistake for the less usual dative.

εὔπειστα has the best authority here, but is otherwise known only from Aristotle. In 7. 10 (p. 1151 b 10) εὔπειστος, ὅταν τύχῃ, ἔσται ὁ ἐγκρατής, it means, ‘easy to persuade,’ as opp. to δύσπειστος. But in another place ( αριστ. περὶ ἀτόμων γραμμῶν, p. 969 b 22), the words εὔπειστον ὅτι ἀνάγκη κ.τ.λ. mean, ‘it is easy to show,’ etc. As we can say, πείθω τινά τι, it is natural that εὔπειστος should be capable of both senses. Here εὔπειστα will be, ‘things of which it is easy to persuade the hearer.’ It has more point than εὔπιστα , since it implies the skill of the calumniator. Cp. fr. 786 ταχεῖα πειθὼ τῶν κακῶν ὁδοιπορεῖ.

τοῦ λέξαντος , not, of course, Odysseus, but simply the man from whom ὁ κλύων heard the story. The slander mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo ( 4. 175) . As it spreads and gains in strength, the spiteful joy of each new hearer is greater than that of his informant.

ἄχεσιν καθυβρίζων : for the dat., cp. Her. 1. 212 τριτημορίδι τοῦ στρατοῦ κατυβρίσας: Paus. 4. 27. 3 καθυβρίσαντες τῶν Διοσκούρων τῇ θυσίᾳ. Similarly Her. 3. 37 τῷ ἀγάλματι κατεγέλασε.

τῶν … μεγάλων ψυχῶν , those διοτρεφεῖς βασιλεῖς like Ajax, who, in the true Homeric spirit, are conceived as μεγάθυμοι, μεγαλόψυχοι above common men.

ἱεὶς with gen., like other verbs of ‘aiming at’: 1034 τοξεύετ’ ἀνδρὸς τοῦδε: Eur. 51 ῥίψω πέτρον σου.

ἁμάρτοις (cr. n.), the original reading in L, seems better, as being simpler and clearer, than ἁμάρτοι , though τις could, of course, be easily supplied from the next clause.

κατὰ δ’ ἄν τις ἐμοῦ : for the separation of κατὰ from its case, cp. 969.

τὸν ἔχονθ’ , the rich or great: 240 οἱ δ’ οὐκ ἔχοντες καὶ σπανίζοντες βίου.. | ἐς τοὺς ἔχοντας κέντρ’ ἀφιᾶσιν κακά. So 57, etc.

ὁ φθόνος . Cp. Pind. 8. 22(of φθόνος ) ἅπτεται δ’ ἐσλῶν ἀεί, χειρόνεσσι δ’ οὐκ ἐρίζει. Trag.incert. frag. 547. 12 (ed. Nauck) πρὸς γὰρ τὸ λαμπρὸν ὁ φθόνος βιάζεται (λιάζεται Wecklein).

πύργου ῥῦμα , protection, garrison, for the city walls: 56 ὡς οὐδέν ἐστιν οὔτε πύργος οὔτεναῦς | ἔρημος ἀνδρῶν μὴ ξυνοικούντων ἔσω. For ῥύεσθαι, ‘to defend,’ said with ref. to a town, cp. 6. 403 ἐρύετο Ἴλιον Ἕκτωρ: 72 τήνδε ῥυσαίμην πόλιν.—Not, ‘tower of defence.’

μετὰ expresses alliance, and ὑπό , service; but there is no stress on the difference of relationships.

ὀρθοῖθ’ , have a fair course, be prosperous: cp. 675 τῶν δ’ ὀρθουμένων | σῴζει τὰ πολλὰ σώμαθ’ ἡ πειθαρχία (n.).—Some suppose an allusion to building. The small stones, filling the interstices, keep the large stones in their places: p. 902 E οὐδὲ γὰρ ἄνευ σμικρῶν τοὺς μεγάλους φασὶν οἱ λιθολόγοι λίθους εὖ κεῖσθαι. ‘Great without small Make a bad wall,’ Donaldson, § 455. The simple words do not warrant this fancy.

τούτων γνώμας , maxims, precepts, concerning these things. προδιδάσκειν properly implies gradual teaching ( Plat. p. 489 D, πραότερόν με προδίδασκε), and is fitting here because the truths are elementary.

τοιούτων , ‘so foolish,’ referring to τοὺς ἀνοήτους: cp. 218, 251, 562, 929.

ἀπαλέξασθαι : this form is quoted by Hesychius from the poet's lost ( Soph. fr. 282). In Soph. 171 ἀλέξεται is a fut.: which, like this aor., seems to come from a stem ἀλεκ rather than from ἀλεξ (whence the pres. ἀλέξω): see n. there.

ἀλλ’ ὅτε γὰρ δὴ … πτήξειαν ἄφωνοι . The most probable account of this passage is that δ’ should be inserted after αἰγυπιὸν in 169 (cr. n.). ‘We can do nothing without thee;—no (we are helpless), for, when they have escaped thine eye, they chatter like flocking birds; but (δέ) terrified by the mighty vulture, perchance they will suddenly cower,’ etc. Note these points:—

(1) ἀλλὰ prefaces a confirmation of the statement just made in a negative form (165 οὐδὲν σθένομεν): cp. 307 ἐν οὖν τοιούτοις οὔτε σωφρονεῖν, φίλαι, | οὔτ’ εὐσεβεῖν πάρεστιν, ἀλλ’ ἔν τοι κακοῖς | πολλή )στ’ ἀνάγκη κἀπιτηδεύειν κακά .

(2) ἀλλὰ … γὰρ is elliptical; ‘No (we can do nothing), for’ etc.: cp. 223 ἀλλ’ ἐν γὰρ δεινοῖς οὐ σχήσω κ.τ.λ., ‘but (ye speak in vain), for’ etc.: 155 ἀλλ’ ὅδε γὰρ δὴ.. | χωρεῖ, ‘but (let us cease), for’ etc.

(3) The reading μέγαν αἰγυπιὸν δ’ ὑποδείσαντες , which allows the words μέγαν αἰγυπιὸν to begin the clause describing the sudden discomfiture of the foes, gives those words a signal force and spirit. They become much tamer, if, deleting ὑποδείσαντες and the stop after ἀγέλαι, we place a comma after αἰγυπιόν, and govern it by ἀποδρᾶσαι supplied from ἀπέδραν .

(4) This reading is confirmed by the fact that since ὑποδείσαντες refers to the foes of Ajax (and not, as the schol. took it, to the birds), there is a change from simile to metaphor: the ‘vulture’ is Ajax. This is quite in the manner of Sophoclean imagery: cp. n. on 117 ff.— For other views, see Appendix.

ὅτε … δὴ , epic, ‘when now,’ ‘when at length,’ 2. 314 νῦν δ’ ὅτε δὴ μέγας εἰμί.

ἀπέδραν , for ἀπέδρασαν ( Thuc. 1. 128), like the poetical ἔβαν, ἔσταν, ἔτλαν, etc.

αἰγυπιὸν , an Homeric image: 22. 302 οἱ δ’, ὥς τ’ αἰγυπιοὶ γαμψώνυχες ἀγκυλοχεῖλαι | ἐξ ὀρέων ἐλθόντες ἐπ’ ὀρνίθεσσι θόρωσι.

τάχ’ ἂν can mean only ‘perchance’: we cannot take τάχα separately, as=‘swiftly’; ἐξαίφνης should be taken with πτήξειαν , notwithstanding Alcaeus fr. 27, which the poet clearly had in mind, ἔπταζον ὥστ’ ὄρνιθες ὦκυν | αἴετον ἐξαπίνας φάνεντα.

σιγῇ πτήξειαν ἄφωνοι : σιγῇ implies motionless awe; cp. Pind. 4. 57 ἔπταξαν δ’ ἀκίνητοι σιωπᾷ. Cp. too the Homeric ἀκὴν ἐγένοντο σιωπῇ.

The Chorus being now drawn up in the orchestra (134 n.), the lyric part of the Parodos begins. Strophe 172—182=antistr. 183—193: epode 194 —200. For metres, see Metrical Analysis.

ἦ ῥά σε ..; The Homeric ἦ ῥα is sometimes interrogative ( 7. 446), but occurs also where there is no question (12. 164 ἦ ῥά νυ). ἦ ῥα is interrogative in Pind. 9. 40, Pind. 7. 3: but not in Pind. 11. 38.This ἦ is not the contracted form of the disjunctive ἠέ ( 6. 378 f. ἠέ ...ἦ), which was not used in direct question.

The sailors ask whether Artemis or Ares can have driven Ajax to such a deed. In connection with their chief, the deities of hunting and war naturally occur to them. They do not think of Athena.

Ταυροπόλα = Ταυροπόλος: for the form, cp. Pind. 3. 26 Λατοῦς ἱπποσόα θυγάτηρ : Eur. 1478 Γοργοφόνα. There were two cults of Artemis, originally quite distinct. (1) The Ταυροπόλος was a goddess who rules over bulls,—one of the numerous attributes of Artemis in her relation to wild animals: cp. αἰπόλος, ἱπποπόλος, οἰοπόλος. A Macedonian silver coin (from Amphipolis) shows her riding on a prancing bull, and carrying a torch in either hand. On another coin she appears (with the inscr. ΤΑΥΡΟΠΟΛΟΣ) carrying two torches, and with the horns of a bull growing out of her shoulders: these horns were meant to suggest the crescent moon. The cult of the Tauropolos was purely Greek, and had nothing fierce or cruel about it. (2) The cult of Artemis Ταυρική (or Ταυρώ) had orgiastic elements; it was of Asiatic origin, and belonged to a primitive stage of natureworship. The ritual was a bloody one, and in early times involved human sacrifice. This was the Artemis whose cult was said to have been brought to Brauron in Attica, from the Tauric Chersonese, by Iphigeneia and Orestes.

It is possible that Sophocles here was thinking only of the Ταυροπόλος proper, and names her simply because bulls had been among the victims of Ajax. On the other hand, the savage nature of the bloody onslaught might suggest that she was associated in his thought with the Ταυρική. Such an association occurs as early as 1457 where the Brauronian Artemis (ἐπώνυμον γῆς Ταυρικῆς, 1454) is called Ταυροπόλος. The dithyrambic poet Timotheus of Miletus (c. 400 B.C.) addressed the Ephesian Artemis as μαινάδα, θυιάδα, φοιβάδα, λυσσάδα (Bergk fr. 1). See Appendix.

Διὸς , (daughter) of Zeus: cp. 1302 Λαομέδοντος. But the art. (ἡ) is prefixed to Διὸς in 401, 450.

μεγάλα refers primarily to the strength and loudness of the popular rumour (198 f.); but also suggests dread or horror, as when impious words are called μεγάλοι λόγοι ( 1350). Cp. 226 ὁ μέγας μῦθος.

μᾶτερ αἰσχύνας ἐμᾶς : as πειθαρχία is τῆς εὐπραξίας μήτηρ ( Aesch. 224), etc. The boldness is somewhat like that of Soph. 157, ὦ χρυσέας τέκνον Ἐλπίδος, ἄμβροτε Φάμα.

πανδάμους … βοῦς , because they were still common property, λεία ἄδαστος: see on 54.

ἦ που , ‘I ween’: a phrase frequent in this play; cp. 382, 622, 850, 1008: 846.

νίκας τινὸς ἀκάρπωτον χάριν , on account of some victory (given by her to Ajax) which brought her no καρπός, no reward; ἤ ῥα … ψευσθεῖσα ἐνάρων , either, it may be, because she was disappointed of spoils; εἴτ’ ἀδώροις ἐλαφαβολίαις , or by reason of deer-slaying after which he made no δῶρα to her. The general cause, denoted by νίκας.. χάριν, is divided into two special cases; (1) a victory in war; (2) a victory in hunting. [This is simpler than to suppose that νίκας..χάριν refers to the withholding of a public offering,—which Ajax ought to have made on behalf of those who fought under his command; and that ἐνάρων refers to a private vow, which he had made on his own account. On this view, three different causes would be indicated; and ἦ που in 176 would be disjunctive,—‘ either, I ween,’—as it is in 13. 234.]

νίκας ἀκάρπωτον χάριν =νίκας..ἀκαρπώτου χάριν ( 793 f. νεῖκος ἀνδρῶν ξύναιμον): cp. 566 κακῆς γυναικὸς χάριν ἄχαριν ἀπώλετο. p. 853 D ὧν δὴ χάριν οὐκ ἐπίχαριν λέγοιμ ἂν..νόμον. (Others take χάριν as acc. of respect with ψευσθεῖσα: ‘disappointed as to the tribute,’ etc.)

ἤ ῥα : the disjunctive ἢ (or ἦ=ἠέ) is rarely thus followed by ῥα. (Cp. 172 n.) For ἢ … εἴτε , cp. Eur. 114 ἢ Λυκίας | εἴτ’ ἐπὶ τὰς ἀνύδρους | Ἀμμωνίδας ἕδρας.

κλυτῶν : cp. the Homeric κλυτὰ τεύχεα.

ψευσθεῖσα with gen.: cp. 1382: 712 εἴ τι μὴ ψευσθήσομαι | γνώμης.

ἀδώροις … ἐλαφαβολίαις : for the causal dat., cp. 1127 τοῖς γε πρόσθεν ἡμαρτημένοις (n.). Those who retain the MS. reading δώροις understand: ‘deceived either by gifts of spoils (promised, but not given), or in regard to slaying of deer.’ (Nauck, reading the genitive ἐλαφαβολίας, take δώροις with that also.) But this is awkward. And, in support of ἀδώροις , it should be noted that Sophocles elsewhere also has co-ordinated a causal dat. with a partic. (or adj.) of causal force, like ψευσθεῖσα here. See 239 ΔΗ. εὐκταῖα φαίνων, ἢ )πὸ μαντείας τινός; ΛΙ. εὐχαῖς (‘for a vow’). 333 ΟΙ. πότερα πόθοισι; ΙΣ. καὶ λόγων γ’ αὐτάγγελος.

ἐλαφαβολίαις : Artemis the huntress (Ἀγροτέρα) was especially Ἐλαφηβόλος: see on 1092 f., and cp. 213 Ἄρτεμιν Ὀρτυγίαν ἐλαφαβόλον.

The causes here conjectured for her wrath remind us of her anger with Oeneus, who had failed to render firstfruits at harvest-tide ( 9. 534 χωσαμένη, ὅ οἱ οὔ τι θαλύσια γουνῷ ἀλωῆς | Οἰνεὺς ῥέξ’). Cp. Eur. 147 where the Chorus suggest that the Cretan Dictynna may be wroth with Phaedra, as ἀνίερος ἀθύτων πελάνων (for having failed to make holy offerings of honey-cakes).

ἢ ..* μὴ ..; The reading of the MSS., ἢ χαλκοθώραξ ἤ τιν’ Ἐνυάλιος, was explained by supposing that χαλκοθώραξ meant Ares, as distinguished from Enyalios (so the schol. here). How the second ἤ should be corrected, is uncertain. (1) In favour of μή , it may be noted that the interrogative μή is often followed, as here, by τις, and that its tone of tentative suggestion is just in place. Cp. 9. 405 f. ἦ μή τίς σεο μῆλα βροτῶν ἀέκοντος ἐλαύνει; ἦ μή τίς σ’ αὐτὸν κτείνει δόλῳ ἠὲ βίηφι; 1502 μή τις Διὸς κεραυνός, ἤ τις ὀμβρία | χάλαζ’ ἐπιρράξασα; (2) Another possibility is δή , as=‘then’ (to make a last guess). (3) σοί would be fitting, indeed, but would require us to suppose that the second ἤ in the MSS. is an inadvertent repetition of the first, not a corruption of some word like itself. (4) εἴ has also been suggested. But the implied construction, μομφὰν ἔχων, εἴ τιν’ (εἶχεν), would be too harsh. (5) ἦ is condemned by the fact that with Sophocles this interrogative ἦ regularly stands first in its clause; only a vocative sometimes precedes it: see on 1281.

Ἐνυάλιος is in the either the War-god (2. 651), seemingly identical with Ares, or an epithet of Ares (17. 211 Ἄρης | δεινὸς ἐνυάλιος). Like Ἐνυώ, the word is of uncertain (possibly Thracian) origin. The mention of this deity has a two-fold fitness here; (1) on account of the reference in 178 to Artemis Agrotera; for, acc. to Pollux 8. 91, the Athenian Polemarch made annual offerings Ἀρτέμιδἰ Αγροτέρᾳ καὶ τῷ Ἐνυαλίῳ: (2) because in the island-home of Ajax there was a ἱερόν of Enyalios, founded by Solon to commemorate the victory by which Athens wrested Salamis from the Megarians ( Plut. 9). Further, Enyalios is here supposed to have helped Ajax; whereas Ares usually favoured the Trojans (cp. 20. 38). As to the Attic relationship between the two deities, see Appendix.

μομφὰν ἔχων = μεμφόμενος: Eur. 1069 ἓν μὲν πρῶτά σοι μομφὴν ἔχω: so Aesch. 445 μέμψιν οὔτιν’ ἀνθρώποις ἔχων.

ξυνοῦ δορὸς , causal gen.: cp. 41 n., and 1. 93 οὔτ’ ἄρ’ ὅ γ’ εὐχωλῆς ἐπιμέμφεται οὔθ’ ἑκατόμβης. ξυνοῦ here=‘making common cause with him,’ ‘allied’; cp. Eur. 58 πρὸς σὴν ἀφῖγμαι δύναμιν, ὡς κοινὴν λάβω. (The word may have been suggested by 18. 309 ξυνὸς Ἐνυάλιος, though there the sense is, ‘The war-god is impartial.’)

ἐννυχίοις μαχαναῖς , by devices against Ajax in the night,—i.e., by impelling him to the nocturnal onslaught.—This seems to be the only instance in Tragedy (except Aesch. 132 μαχανᾷ) where the Doric form of a word from the st. μηχαν has good support from our MSS. But this fact does not warrant G. Wolff's view that the form in η was alone used by the tragic dramatists.

ἐτείσατο , not ἐτίσατο, was the Attic spelling in the poet's age: see Meisterhans, , § 43.

φρενόθεν γ’ , by the prompting of thine own mind,—if it had not been deranged by some god. Schol. οἴκοθεν (=in virtue of thine own qualities), ἀπὸ οἰκείας γνώσεως. The emphasis given by γε shows that this is the meaning.—Not ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ φρενόθεν (as=φρενῶν), ‘to the leftward of thy mind’: nor, ‘went from good sense (=ἀπὸ φρενῶν) into folly.’

ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ … ἔβας , deviating from the right course: Aesch. 883 ἔξω δὲ δρόμου φέρομαι λύσσης | πνεύματι μάργῳ. Theognetus (a poet of the New Comedy), Φάσμα fr. 1. 7 ἐπαρίστερ’ ἔμαθες, ὦ πονηρέ, γράμματα (i.e., ‘to your misfortune’). Schneid. cp. Ennius 208 Quo vobis mentes, rectae quae stare solebant | Antehac, dementes sese flexere viai?

τόσσον : the only example, except Aesch. 140, of this form in Tragedy.

πίτνων , instead of ὥστε πίτνειν: cp. 752 ἦ κἀπαπειλῶν ὧδ’ ἐπεξέρχει θρασύς; (‘doth thy boldness run to open threats?’)

ἥκοι γὰρ ἂν , ‘will’ (or ‘must’) ‘come’: cp. 88 μένοιμ’ ἄν. The γὰρ here refers to a thought implied in the last sentence:—‘You would never have done this thing of your own nature; (and if you have done it in madness, that proves nothing against your nature,) for heavensent madness cannot be helped; only, may the gods avert the evil rumour!’— i.e., ‘may it prove to be false.’

From verse 172 down to this point, the Chorus have been asking whether the rumour can be true. Now they pass to the alternative:—‘But if it is untrue, then up and refute it.’

Ζεὺς … Φοῖβος . Both gods are averters of evil, ἀλεξίκακοι, ἀποτρόπαιοι. But Zeus is invoked with especial fitness as being the source of mysterious voices and rumours ( 8. 250 ἔνθα πανομφαίῳ Ζηνὶ ῥέζεσκον Ἀχαιοί).

ὑποβαλλόμενοι . The midd. ὑποβάλλεσθαι ( παισίον) was said of a woman who ‘secretly put to her breast’ the child of another, and passed it off as her own: 564 τῆς δούλης τεκούσης ἄρρεν, εἶτα σαυτῇ | τοῦθ’ ὑπεβάλου, τὸ σὸν δὲ θυγάτριον παρῆκας αὐτῇ. Cp. below, 481. Hence the metaphor here,—‘falsely suggesting’ stories, laying to thy charge things which thou hast not done.

κλέπτουσι μύθους , tell crafty tales: cp. 1137: 57 τόδ’ οὐχὶ κλεπτέον, ‘this must not be represented falsely’: 37 κλέψαι..σφαγάς , i.e. to effect by stealth. Also ib. 56 λόγῳ κλέπτοντες. The participle ὑποβαλλόμενοι closely coheres with κλέπτουσι , and μύθους depends on both.

οἱ μεγάλοι βασιλῆς , the Atreidae. For the nom. in ‐ῆς, cp. 690 βραβῆς (n.).

ἢ τᾶς κ.τ.λ.: supply βασιλῆς (or ‐εὺς) from the last clause.

ἀσώτου , profligate, worthless.

Σισυφιδᾶν . Anticleia, the mother of Odysseus, was said to have been with child by Sisyphus when she married Laertes: hence 417 οὑμπολητὸς Σισύφου Λαερτίῳ, the son of Sisyphus, bought (with ἕδνα) by Laertes: see n. there, and on 625.

μή, μή μ’, ἄναξ . If μ’ be sound, it can be only the acc.: an elision of μοι is impossible (see 1436, n. in Appendix). And με could be explained only as depending on the phrase κακὰν φάτιν ἄρῃ , as meaning, ‘win an evil repute, to my injury’ (μή με διαβάλῃς, αὐτὸς διαβαλλόμενος): cp. 123 ff. τάκεις..οἰμωγὰν ..Ἀγαμέμνονα. But this is certainly forced; and, though the Chorus afterwards speak of themselves as involved in their chief's peril (252 ff.), that thought is less fitting here.

The simplest remedy is that which is proposed by Prof. v. Wilamowitz-Möllendorff (cr. n.), who, referring to the hiatus after ἄνα in 193, would here omit μ’ . The syllables μή, μή μ’ answer metrically to μομφὰν in 180, and we should thus have to suppose that μή, μή, ἄναξ represents --u-. Such an hiatus seems a very doubtful one for tragic lyrics: otherwise the suggestion would be welcome, as μή, μή is supported by 210 μή, μή μ’ ἀνέρῃ. Morstadt's remedy, μὴ μηκέτ’, ὦναξ , (instead of μή, μή μ’, ἄναξ, ἔθ’,) has found much favour, and is satisfactory in itself; but it does not account for the origin of the vulgate.

κλισίαις ὄμμ’ ἔχων . The sense required is, ‘keeping thy face hidden in the tent’: so that κλισίαις is a locative dat. The adv. ὧδ’ helps to suggest the idea of ‘hidden.’ The objections to the version, ‘keeping thine eyes fixed on the tents,’ are, (1) that ἔχων could not well stand for ἐπέχων, and (2) that the seclusion of Ajax within his tent is not then expressed.— ἄρῃ with α (=λώβαν in 181), from ἠράμην: cp. 129, and see Appendix on 75.

ἄνα , the prep., with anastrophe, as=ἀνάστηθι: the hiatus as in 9. 247 ἀλλ’ ἄνα, εἰ μέμονάς γε.

ὅπου … ποτέ , ‘wheresoever,’ i.e. in whatever spot within the dwelling. The change of ποτὲ to ποτὶ (on which see 1214 n.) introduces a strange phrase, στηρίζει πρὸς σχολῇ. The simple dat. (of circumstance) is clearly right.

ἀγωνίῳ σχολᾷ seems to mean, ‘battlepause,’ i.e., rest from battle. Other explanations are: (1) σχολή which causes an ἀγών (discrimen); because, while Ajax rests, his foes are perilously active. Now, if the Chorus assumed that , while absent from battle, had been employed in other effort, then, indeed, they might call his rest ἀγώνιος σχολή, ‘a strenuous rest,’ like otium negotiosum. But it seems impossible that ἀγώνιος σχολή should mean merely, his ‘perilous’ or ‘critical’ rest,—made so by the acts of others.

ἄταν οὐρανίαν φλέγων , ‘kindling a flame of ruin high as heaven,’ Whitelaw. Cp. 808 ἴϋζε δ’ ὀμφὰν οὐρανίαν= οὐρανομήκη: and see n. on 418.This is more forcible here than, ‘inflaming the heaven-sent plague’ (= θείαν: cp. 186).

ἀτάρβητα , neut. pl. as adverb. I keep this, the reading of the MSS., as Wecklein and Bellermann do. Dindorf strikes out ὧδ’ (unwarrantably), and writes ἀτάρβητος . In an epode, the strophic test is absent, and the logaoedic metre admits of Dindorf's reading. There is, however, a point in favour of ἀτάρβητα which deserves to be noted; viz., that the adverbial neut. pl., though it has no special relation to verbs of motion, is, in fact, very often joined with such verbs; and that the phrase ἀτάρβητα ὁρμᾶται is therefore thoroughly consonant with poetical usage. See (e.g. ) 883 ὑπέροπτα πορεύεται: 1695 οὔτοι κατάμεμπτ’ ἔβητον: 17. 75 ἀκίχητα διώκων | ἵππους: Pind. 7. 45 βαίνει..ἀτέκμαρτα: Soph. 1740 ἀπαρθένευτ’ ἀλωμένα: Eur. 435 οὐδ’ ἄκρανθ’ ὡρμήσαμεν. For the hiatus at the end of the verse, cp. 425 χθονὸς μολόντ’ ἀπὸ | Ἑλλανίδος.

εὐανέμοις , with α^ (not α— , as if Doric for εὐηνέμοις): so probably in fr. 342 εὐανέμου λίμνας. Cp. 19. 432 πτύχας ἠνεμοέσσας.

βάσσαις : 673 χλωραῖς ὑπὸ βάσσαις (n.): 21. 449 Ἴδης ἐν κνημοῖσι πολυπτύχου ὑληέσσης.

καγχαζόντων . Dindorf writes καχαζόντων , on the ground that the form καγχάζω was not Attic. (His further change of πάντων into ἁπάντων is merely for the sake of equalising this v. with 197 f.) The main facts are these. 1. Aristophanes uses καχάζων once ( 849), and also the noun καχασμῶν ( 1073). 2. It is true that καγχάζω cannot be proved by metre from any verse earlier than that of Babrius (100. 8 καγχάσας), and Paulus Silentiarius (6th cent.) in 6. 74. 3 ( καγχάζουσα). 3. On the other hand the MSS. have ἀνεκάγχασε in Plat. 337 A, and ἀνακαγχάσας in 300 D; forms, be it noted, which carry their own commendation, since, in the compound with ἀνά, the nasal (γ before χ) makes pronunciation easier. 4. Lastly, there is the analogy of the Homeric καγχαλάω. Surely, then, there is no reason to doubt that Sophocles could have used καγχάζω if he found it metrically convenient.

βαρυάλγητα . I follow the MSS. in leaving the hiatus (cp. 196), which here has the special justification of a pause, making it needless to write βαρυαλγήτως with Dindorf. That the scholiast in L, like the MSS., had the neut. pl., appears from his paraphrase, βαρέα καὶ ἀλγεινά. Some editors prefer to write βαρυάλγητ’ , which is also metrically possible. The sense is, ‘fraught with heavy pain’ to us; the ἄλγος is not the bitter indignation felt by the Greeks. The word occurs only here: and βαρυαλγής is post-classical.

ἕστακεν , ‘stands fixed’: cp. 1084.

vαὸς ἀρωγοὶ , i.e., rendering service in it; Ajax addresses them as γένος ναΐας ἀρωγὸν τέχνας (356). The (2. 557) assigns twelve ships to Ajax.

γενεᾶς : for the gen., cp. Plat. 316B Ἀπολλοδώρου υἱός, οἰκίας μεγάλης.

χθονίων ἀπ’ Ἐρεχθειδᾶν : for ἀπὸ with ref. to descent, cp. 193 παίδων τῶν ἀπ’ Οἰδίπου.

Erechtheus, ὁ γηγενής ( Her. 8. 55), ‘whom Earth, the grain-giver, brought forth, and Athena, daughter of Zeus, fostered’ ( 2. 547), is representative of the Athenian claim to be αὐτόχθονες. It was in his reign, acc. to Her. 8. 44, that the folk once called Κραναοί, and then Κεκροπίδαι, were first named Ἀθηναῖοι. For Ἐρεχθεῖδαι as=Ἀθηναῖοι, cp. Pind. 2. 19 κλειναῖς Ἐρεχθειδᾶν χαρίτεσσιν ἀραρὼς | ταῖς λιπαραῖς ἐν Ἀθάναις, ‘having attained to the glorious honours given by the Erechtheidae in shining Athens.’ (In Soph. 981 f., however, the patronymic has a narrower sense, denoting merely the family of Erechtheus.) So, again, the Athenians are Θησεῖδαι ( Soph. 1066), the Thebans Καδμεῖοι, the Trojans or Romans and an unknown poet (frag. adesp. 274) calls the Argives χθονίους Ἰναχίδας, where Hesychius explains the adj. by αὐτόχθονας καὶ οὐκ ἐπήλυδας,— the sense of χθονίων here. (Cp. 948 n.)

Salamis is in this play a kingdom independent of Athens, but the Salaminians are of Athenian stock, and revere ‘sacred Athens’ (1222) as the metropolis of their race. See Introduction, § 4.

τηλόθεν instead of τηλοῦ: cp. 315 γέννημα τῶν ἐκεῖθεν (n.). It goes with τοῦ..οἴκου, not with κηδόμενοι.

ὠμοκρατὴς denotes the rugged, massive, untamed strength of Ajax, and is meant to suggest a contrast with his present affliction; so 548 ὠμοῖς..νόμοις, 885 ὠμόθυμος, 931 ὠμόφρων. (The word was absurdly taken by some to mean, ‘with strong shoulders,’—as the mentions his εὐρέας ὤμους, 3. 227.)

θολερῷ (θολός, ὁ, mud), ‘turbid,’ with ref. to his clouded mind: cp. Her. 4. 53(of a river) ῥέει τε καθαρὸς παρὰ θολεροῖσι. So Aesch. 885 θολεροὶ δὲ λόγοι παίουδ’ εἰκῇ | στυγνῆς πρὸς κύμασιν ἄτης,—words turbid with passion.— χειμῶνι : cp. Soph. 1194 ἀλύοντα χειμερίῳ | λύπᾳ : ib. 1460 χειμαζομένῳ.

νοσήσας , ‘stricken’: this aor., in the ‘ingressive’ sense (‘fell ill’), is frequent in Attic: e.g. Thuc. 1. 138§ 4 νοσήσας τελευτᾷ τὸν βίον: Plat. p. 84 C ὅταν..νοσήσῃ.

τί δὲ βάρος ἐνήλλακται νὺξ ἥδε τῆς ἡμερίας ; ‘And what heaviness (heavy trouble) has the past night received in exchange for the (already grievous) fortune of the day?’ ἐνήλλακται in a midd. sense; cp. Diod. frag. 60 ἐγένετο βασίλισσα ἰδιωτικῆς ἑστίας ἐξηλλαγμένη ἡγεμονίαν. The fact that ἤλλαγμαι has more often a passive sense in Attic is quite compatible with such an exceptional use; thus Antiphon can say, τὸν πλοῦν πεποιημένος (or. 5 § 21), and τετιμωρημένος ἑαυτόν ( β. β. § 8). But it is more doubtful whether such a notion as μοίρας, πράξεως, or καταστάσεως can here be supplied with τῆς ἡμερίας. The parallels adduced are such as ἡ ἑῴα, ἡ ἑωθινή, ἡ ὀψία, ἡ πρωΐα, τὴν θερείην (‘in summer,’ Her. 1. 189), τὴν χειμερινήν (id. 1. 202). There was indeed a tendency in Greek idiom to make substantives out of fem. adjectives; i.e. to use the fem. adj. alone, whenever the subst. (such as γῆ, ὁδός, ὥρα, μοῖρα, δίκη) could readily be understood. And that tendency must be considered here.

No tolerable emendation has been made. ἠρεμίας , ‘stillness,’ though possible, is very feeble. εὐμαρίας (=εὐμαρείας), which Nauck adopts, is directly contrary to the sense; for, even before the dread rumour arose, the Chorus had been disquieted by the long seclusion and inaction of Ajax (194 f.). ἀμμορίας , without some further definition (such as τῆς πρὶν), would be too vague. And the words νὺξ ἥδε suggest that there was some mention of day. On the whole, the traditional reading, though difficult, is less open to objection than any remedy which has been proposed.

The schol. in L has: γρ. δὲ ἀημερίας ἀντὶ τῆς ἀηδοῦς φορᾶς (‘unpleasant course’), καὶ ἔσται ὁ νοῦς, ποῖον βάρος ἔλαβεν αὕτη ἡ νὺξ ἀπὸ τῆς προτέρας ἀηδίας; This explanation of ἀημερίας by ἀηδοῦς φορᾶς and ἀηδίας indicates (I think) a reference, not to ἡμέρα—as if ἀημερία could mean δυσημερία—but to ἥμερος: the original scholium may have had ἀνημερίας (meant as ‘unkindly fortune’).

Φρυγίου Τελεύταντος . Cp. 331: 488. Similar examples confirm this reading: fr. 796 Ἀλφεσίβοιαν ἣν ὁ γεννήσας πατήρ (it is improbable that Sophocles wrote Ἀλφησίβοιαν ): Aesch. 488 Ἱππομέδοντος σχῆμα: 889 Παρθενοπαῖος, εἶδος ἐξοχώτατος. ( Aesch. 547, Παρθενοπαῖος Ἀρκάς, is rejected by many critics.) Indeed, such license was not strictly confined to proper names, to judge by Aesch. 1049 φαιοχίτωνες.

Lobeck remarks that the father of Tecmessa is called by Malela and others, by Cedrenus, and by Tzetzes.

λέχος , concubine, ὁμευνέτις (501): being δουριάλωτος, she is δούλη (489). Cp. 360 κρύφιον ὡς ἔχοι λέχος (Iolè).

σε … στέρξας ἀνέχει : lit., ‘having conceived a love for thee, he upholds thee,’—i.e., ‘he is constant in his affection for thee’: so Eur. 123 βάκχης ἀνέχων λέκτρ’ Ἀγαμέμνων, ‘constant to’ her bed. (In Soph. 674, where τὸν οἰνῶπ’ ἀνέχουσα κισσὸν is the common reading, we should probably read τὸν οἰνωπὸν ἔχουσα κισσόν.)

ὑπείποις , ‘hint,’ ‘give a clue’: they do not yet surmise, from her words in 205—207, with what terrible fulness of detail she can speak.

λέγω , subjunct.

θανάτῳ … ἴσον : 529 θάνατος μὲν τάδ’ ἀκούειν. In the , fr. 332, Sophocles used ἰσοθάνατον as=οὐ πάνυ ἀνεκτόν, acc. to Pollux 6. 174.

μανίᾳ γὰρ : notice the γάρ in two successive clauses ( 180 n.): here it prefaces the statement ( 277 n.).— ἡμὶν , ethic dat.: 272.

νύκτερος , adverbial: cp. 930 πάννυχα καὶ φαέθοντ’ ἀνεστέναζες. 1. 497 ἠερίη δ’ ἀνέβη. The word is irregularly placed, as if the speaker had meant to designate Ajax by ὁ κλεινὸς only, and had then added Αἴας: for similar irregularities, cp. 693 f., n.

ἀπελωβήθη , a somewhat rare pass. aor.: 330 ἐξελωβήθην : Plat. 473 C λώβας..λωβηθείς .

τοιαῦτ’ , introducing the ground for the statement; cp. 164 n.— αἱμοβαφῆ : cp. 95 ἔβαψας ἔγχος εὖ..;

χρηστήρια , with tragic pathos, since the word denoted holy sacrifices to the gods (properly, before consulting an oracle): Aesch. 230 σφάγια καὶ χρηστήρια | θεοῖσιν ἔρδειν. Cp. Aesch. 645 παιᾶνα τόνδ’ Ερινύων.

A strophe, to which vv. 245—256 form the antistrophe. For the metres, see Metrical Analysis.

ἀνέρος … ἀγγελίαν : for the objective gen., cp. 998: 11 μῦθος.. φίλων (n.).

αἴθονος , ‘fiery’; cp. 1088: Aesch. 448 αἴθων..λῆμα: in v. 147 the word is applied to a bright sword. This inflexion (instead of αἴθωνος) occurs elsewhere only in Hes. 361 αἴθονα λιμόν (Bergk's correction of the MS. αἴθοπα), a reading which is made certain by Aeschin. or. 3 § 184 λιμόν τ’ αἴθωνα κρατερόν τ’ ἐπάγοντες Ἄρηα , and Callim. 68 ἔμβαλε λιμόν, | αἴθωνα, κρατερόν : where the fig. sense of the epithet is ‘fierce.’

The v.l. αἴθοπος is impossible here, as in the verse of Hesiod; it could refer only to complexion. Cp. Eustathius p. 862. 10 φέρεται αἴθων βοῦς καὶ σίδηρος καὶ ἄνθρωπος καὶ λέων· αἴθοψ δὲ οὐδεὶς αὐτῶν λέγοιτ’ ἄν, ἀλλὰ τοὔνομα οἴνῳ μέλανι ἐπιτίθεται. The variant was doubtless due, in both passages, to the rarity, for αἴθων, of the inflexion with ο : which is illustrated by the dat. pl. νήφοσι in Theognis 481, and by such alternative forms of the gen. as Αἴσονος, Ἀκταίονος, etc.

ἄτλατον οὐδὲ φευκτάν , unendurable, and yet one from which there is no escape: for οὐδέ as=ἀλλ’ οὐ, cp. 132, El. 1034.

τῶν μεγάλων Δαναῶν are clearly not the Greek chiefs (οἱ μεγάλοι βασιλῆς, 189), but the Greek army at large. It is the popular fury that the Salaminians are now thinking of: in 228 περίφαντος..θανεῖται alludes to public stoning, the λιθόλευστον Ἄρη of v. 253.

κλῃζομέναν , noised abroad by them: cp. 659 κλῄζεται θυτήρ, he is rumoured to be sacrificing; and ib. 1268 κλῃζόμενοι | πατέρες.

ὁ μέγας μῦθος : cp. 173 ὦ μεγάλα φάτις (n.).

ἀέξει , αὔξει, increases by diffusing it. (Not, ‘exaggerates.’)

περίφαντος : cp. 1311 θανεῖν προδήλως.

παραπλάκτῳ , frantic: Eur. 935 γέλωτι παραπεπληγμένῳ. The adj. is more usually παραπλήξ. Cp. 40 δυσλόγιστον..χέρα.

συγκατακτὰς , slain in a confused heap, cattle and men together. (In Eur. 1089 συγκατέκτανον =‘ helped to slay.’) For the nonthematic aor., cp. Soph. 38 ἔκτα (n.).— κελαινοῖς here suggests both the dark, gleaming metal, and the dark stains of blood upon it. Cp. Soph. 856 κελαινὰ λόγχα (n.).

ξίφεσιν , poet. plur.: cp. Pind. 4. 242 Φρίξου μάχαιραι : Eur. 192 ἅρπαις (the scimitar of Perseus). The dat. ξίφεσιν, following χερί, defines the instrument used (slain by the hand with the sword): cp. 310 ὄνυξι συλλαβὼν χερί. Eur. 373 ὄνυχι..γένυν | ἔδευσε φοινίαισι πλαγαῖς .

ἱππονώμας , ‘guiding horses,’ refers to riding in both the other places where it occurs ( Eur. 1399, of Hippolytus; 571, of Poseidon Hippius). Here, βοτῆρας , closely following βοτά , must mean the herdsmen who tended the sheep and oxen (=ποιμνίων ἐπιστάταις, 27). It would be forced, then, to suppose that ἱππονώμας means ‘tending horses,’—with ref. to the horses of the Greeks on the λειμὼν ἱππομανής (143 f.). That would be as if one said, ‘the cattle, and their herdsmen, who also tended horses.’ Herdsmen in charge of great flocks and herds, on a wide plain, and near a watchful foe, might well be mounted. It is no objection— and least of all, in an Attic tragedy— that the Homeric warrior does not ride. —The reading ἱππονώμας, instead of ἱππονόμους (‘horse-feeding’), is made certain by metre (v. 245), and is confirmed by the first hand in L (cr. n.).

ἄρα , ‘then,’ marks her new perception: cp. 927, 934, 1026: 1172, etc.

ἤλυθε . This form, not used by Aesch. , occurs only here in Soph. ; Eur. has it not only in lyrics ( Eur. 813, etc.), but also in dialogue ( Eur. 598 , Eur. 374 ).

ὧν (neut.), instead of ἧς, since ποίμνην is a ‘noun of multitude’; cp. 1070 ἄμβασις, οἳ κ.τ.λ. (n.). Then τὴν μὲν (sc. ποίμνην) follows ὧν, as it might have followed ἧς: cp. Thuc. 1. 2§ 3 τῆς γῆς ἡ ἀρίστη, ib. 5 § 1 τὸν πλεῖστον τοῦ βίου. Finally, τὰ δὲ (sc. βοτὰ) refers to ὧν.—The antithesis to τὴν μὲν is given by τὰ δέ , not (as some have thought) by δύο δ’ .

ἔσω , ‘within the house,’ refers to all the incidents that followed his arrival (ἤλυθε). Schneidewin wrongly joins ἔσω σφάζε (‘stach tot’), comparing Aesch. 1343 πέπληγμαι καιρίαν πληγὴν ἔσω. But σφάζε denotes ‘cutting the throat,’ not ‘stabbing’; cp. 298.

ἐπὶ γαίας , where they stood upon the floor; as distinguished from those animals which he caught up and rent asunder.

πλευροκοπῶν , slashing at their sides with his sword: a compound like θαλαττοκοπεῖν ( Ar. 830), μετεωροκοπεῖν ( Ar. 92).

ἀργίποδας : for the rt. ARG, denoting ‘brightness,’ and its derivatives, cp. 670 n. As Ajax purposed to flog Odysseus (110), the ram which suffers that fate here might naturally be identified with him. The first ram, which is beheaded at once, might then represent Agamemnon; and Menelaüs would here be ignored. On this view, however, there is a discrepancy with verses 97—110, since both the Atreidae are there supposed to be dead, while Odysseus has still to suffer. Here one ram (Agamemnon) is slain, and the other (Odysseus) flogged, in rapid succession.

If the two rams are the two Atreidae, then Odysseus is ignored here. This would be consistent both with vv. 97— 110 and with 298—306. The flogging of the second ram here would correspond with the words τοὺς δὲ δεσμίους | ᾐκίζεθ’ in 299 f. Then came the colloquy of Ajax with Athena (301); after which, he slowly regained his sanity,—before he had inflicted the lash upon Odysseus. That the ‘two rams’ are here the royal brethren might be suggested by the analogy of the two eagles in 115.On the other hand, the special ferocity with which Ajax treats the second ram rather indicates that it represents Odysseus. There would be no point in so distinguishing Menelaüs from Agamemnon. On the whole, it seems most probable that the poet meant Agamemnon and Odysseus, but was careless of strict consistency with vv. 97—110.

κεφαλὴν καὶ γλῶσσαν ἄκραν . He first shears off the head; then, still holding it, while the carcass drops to the ground, cuts off the end of the tongue; and next hurls both head and tongue from him. ἄκρα γλῶσσα can mean the extremity, the tip, of the tongue, as in Theocr. 9. 30 ἐπὶ γλώσσας ἄκρας : so in 748 ἄκρον πόδα is the heel. It could not mean, ‘the tongue from the roots,’ γλῶσσαν πρυμνήν ( 5. 292).—It was customary to cut out the tongues of animals slain for sacrifice, and to offer them separately ( 3. 332: Ar. 1060). But I doubt whether there is any reference here to the sacrificial custom; the act of Ajax rather expresses merely fierce hatred of a slanderer.

ῥιπτεῖ has the support of the MSS., not only here, but also in 131, 780.In the latter place, it is confirmed by Athenaeus p. 65 F, for he has ῥιπτοῦντα in his paraphrase. ῥιπτεῖν, used only in pres. and impf., was current in Attic ( Ar. 507 ῥιπτεῖτε χλαίνας). It has good authority in Thuc. 5. 103§ 1 (ἀναρριπτοῦσι), and 9. 20 (ῥιπτοῦσι). In Tragedy it is nowhere required by metre; and Elmsley (on Eur. 150) supposes that the tragic poets used only ῥίπτω. No difference of sense between ῥιπτέω and ῥίπτω can be clearly shown; though it has been fancied that ῥιπτέω implies the frequency or vehemence of the act (iacto as compared with iacio).

ὀρθὸν ἄνω … δήσας : i.e., making the animal stand on its hind legs, with its forefeet lashed up to the pillar—as if they were the hands of a human prisoner.

κίονι , lit., ‘at a pillar,’ a dat. of place (cp. 174 n.); not, ‘to a pillar’ (πρὸς κίονα, El. 108 ).

ἱπποδέτην ῥυτῆρα , a leathern strap or thong, belonging to the harness of a horse,—such as the reins of a bridle ( 900 σπεύδειν ἀπὸ ῥυτῆρος), or driving-reins ( 16. 475, where see Leaf). Hesiod 308 ῥυτὰ χαλαίνοντες, ‘slackening the reins.’ Ajax makes a διπλῆ μάστιξ, a whip with two thongs, by doubling the strap. Cp. Aeschin. or. 2 § 157 λαβὼν ῥυτῆρα μαστιγοίην αἰχμάλωτον.

λιγυρᾷ , Homeric: 11. 532 μάστιγι λιγυρῇ.

κακὰ δεννάζων ῥήμαθ’ , like ὀνειδίζων ὀνείδη: see on 759 δεννάσεις.

δαίμων : cp. 1258 λυσσῶντι δ’ αὐτῷ δαιμόνων δείκνυσί τις· | οὐδεὶς γὰρ ἀνδρῶν οἳ παρῆμεν ἐγγύθεν .

ἤδη τοι κρᾶτα . The reading of the best MSS., both here and in the strophe (221 f.), can be retained, if in the strophe we make the slight change of ἀνδρὸς to ἀνέρος . If, on the other hand, we strike out τοι here, then we must also change κρᾶτα to κάρα , or else, keeping κρᾶτα, change ἐδήλωσας in 221 to ἔδειξας or ἔφηνας . (The impf. ἐδήλους would be unsuitable.) Here τοι is quite in place, as introducing the comment. ἤτοι , as a correction of ἤδη τοι, is doubly impro bable, since ἤδη is emphatic, and ἤτοι would be somewhat weak. See Appendix.

κρᾶτα … κρυψάμενον , in token of grief and shame. Plat. p. 117 C ἐγκαλυψάμενος ἀπέκλαιον ἐμαυτόν: Aeschin. or. 2 § 111 τά γε δὴ καταγέλαστα παντελῶς, ἐφ’ οἷς οἱ συμπρέσβεις ἐνεκαλύψαντο. Liv. 4. 12 Multi ex plebe spe amissa..capitibus obvolutis se in Tiberim praecipitaverunt.

ποδοῖν κλοπὰν ἀρέσθαι : cp. Aesch. 481 οὐκ εὔκοσμον αἴρονται φυγήν: [Eur. ] 54 (νυκτέρῳ πλάτῃ) αἴρεσθαι φυγήν. The verb here means, ‘to take up,’ ‘betake oneself to’; not ‘to win,’ ‘secure’: see Appendix on 75. For κλοπὰν , cp. Eur. 1499 ἐξέκλεπτον ἐκ δόμων πόδα.

θοὸν , properly the epithet of εἰρεσίας , is transferred to ζυγὸν (cp. 794 n.): ζυγὸν ἕζομαι, as Aesch. 183 σέλμα..ἡμένων, Eur. 956 τρίποδα καθίζων.

ναῒ μεθεῖναι , ‘to let the ship go,’— ἡνίας, or the like, being understood. Cp. Eur. fr. 779 κρούσας δὲ πλευρὰ πτεροφόρων ὀχημάτων | μεθῆκεν (‘he let his horses go’)· αἱ δ’ ἔπταντ’ ἐπ’ αἰθέρος πτυχάς. The elliptical use of μεθιέναι, with dat., in this sense, seems to be rare: but it is parallel with that of ἐφιέναι as=indulgere ( e.g. Plat. 388E ὅταν τις ἐφιῇ..γέλωτι).

τοίας : 164 n.

ἐρέσσουσιν , ‘ply,’—properly, to ply the oar; then, to put anything in lively motion; 158 μῆτιν ἐρέσσων, ‘revolving’ thoughts in the mind. Cp. the elegiac poet Dionysius ap. Athen. p. 669 A εἰρεσίῃ γλώσσης ἀποπέμψομεν εἰς μέγαν αἶνον (‘by our swift strains will we waft him to the haven of fame’).

δικρατεῖς Ἀτρεῖδαι , the two princely Atreidae: cp. 390 τούς τε δισσάρχας..βασιλῆς: 1055 τὰς διστόλους | ...ἀδελφὰς, i.e., the two journeying sisters; and ib. 17 n.

πεφόβημαι : 139 n.

λιθόλευστον Ἄρη , a violent death by stoning; cp. 36 φόνον..δημόλευστον. Aesch. 1616 δημορριφεῖς..λευσίμους ἀράς. When, as here, Ἄρης stands for the notion of a ‘violent death,’ it always, of course, implies an onslaught; as in Soph. 1679 ὅτῳ μήτ’ Ἄρης | μήτε πόντος ἀντέκυρσεν (death in battle, or by drowning): Aesch. 860 θηλυκτόνῳ | Ἄρει δαμέντων, i.e., by the onslaught of murderous women. (In Pind. 11. 36 χρονίῳ σὺν Ἄρει is best taken, with Gildersleeve, as =‘by tardy help of Ares.’) The initial A is long here (answering to the penult. of συγκατακτὰς in 230), as in 614, Soph. 139, Soph. 96.

The accus. is, in the first place, object to πεφόβημαι , but is felt also as a cognate acc. to ξυναλγεῖν (like ἄλγος ἀλγῶ), and could be, further, an acc. of the inner object with τυπείς ( 24. 420 ἕλκεα... ὅσσ’ ἐτύπη): it is one of those cumulative constructions which Greek idiom (esp. in poetry) favours. Note that a simple inf. after φοβοῦμαι usu. denotes what one is afraid to do ( Aesch. 46 φοβοῦμαι δ’ ἔπος τόδ’ ἐκβαλεῖν), but can also denote what one fears to suffer: Plat. p. 68 E φοβούμενοι..ἡδονῶν στερηθῆναι.

αἶσ’ ἄπλατος , a fate such that no one can approach him, or stand at his side, without being involved in his doom. The Nemean lion is ἄπλατον θρέμμα, 1093.

The words λαμπρᾶς ἄτερ στεροπῆς go with λήγει , not with ᾄξας : they stand first, because they express the foremost thought,—viz., that the violence of his frenzy is past. ‘Attended by the lightning-flash no more, the storm in his soul is subsiding, after a sharp outburst (ᾄξας ὀξύς), like the wind of the south.’ A key to these much-discussed verses may be found, I think, in a passage which seems to have been overlooked. The Greeks had observed that, when the Νότος was a stormy wind, it was accompanied by clouds; but, when gentler, by a clear sky: 26. 20 (p. 942 a 34) ὁ νότος, ὅταν μὲν ἐλάττων ᾖ, αἴθριός ἐστιν, ὅταν δὲ μέγας, νεφώδης. The mood of Ajax is now once more becoming αἴθριος, like the milder south-wind; lately it was like a fierce storm from the south, and νεφώδης, dark with the clouds from which the στεροπή of his madness was flashing. Compare the description of the mad Ajax by Arctînus in the (ap. Eustath. p. 859. 47), ὄμματά τ’ ἀστράπτοντα βαρυνόμενόν τε νόημα.— For other views of this passage, and the attempts to amend it, see Appendix.

οἰκεῖα πάθη , those which one brings on himself: so 215 οἰκείας εἰς ἄτας | ἐμπίπτεις.

παραπράξαντος , having acted ‘at the side,’ i.e., ‘having had a hand in the matter,’—‘having contributed to the result.’ This sense nowhere else belongs to παραπράσσω (which in Her. 5. 45 means ‘to do something beyond’ one's proper task, and in Plut. 16‘to exact unjustly’); but for the force of the prep., cp. παραίτιος ( Aesch. 910, etc.), as=‘partly the cause.’— Not, ‘having done amiss’ (=παραβάντος).

ὑποτείνει : lit., ‘lays to’ (or ‘beneath’) the mind: [Dem. ] or. 13 § 19 τὰς ἐλπίδας ὑμῖν ὑποτείνων.

πέπαυται , sc. ὁ Αἴας τῆς νόσου: cp. 279. The subject to εὐτυχεῖν is rather ἡμᾶς than αὐτόν: the thought is, δοκῶ ὅτι εὐτυχοῖμεν ἄν. Cp. 87 λέγω γὰρ καὶ τὰ δύσφοῤ, εἰ τύχοι | κατ’ ὀρθὸν ἐξελθόντα, πάντ’ ἂν εὐτυχεῖν. In the omission of the subject to the inf., as in πέπαυται and in τοῦ κακοῦ, there is a shade of reticence which suits the recent sense of horror in the speaker's mind.

φρούδου γὰρ κ.τ.λ.: the gen. is not absol., but depends on λόγος . Cp. fr. 346 μύχθου γὰρ οὐδεὶς τοῦ παρελθόντος λόγος. Their thought is that, if he is himself again, his value to the Greeks will plead for pardon of his frenzy.

πότερα is used, instead of πότερον, to avoid an anapaest, as in 460, and 333.

The words κοινὸς ἐν κοινοῖσι mean strictly, ‘a partner among partners,’ =κοινωνὸς ἐν κοινωνοῖς: cp. 239 μήτ’ ἐν θεῶν εὐχαῖσι μήτε θύμασιν | κοινὸν ποεῖσθαι. Similarly kinsfolk can be termed κοινοί, as sharers in a common lineage ( 261 n.). The iteration, κοινὸς ἐν κοινοῖς, emphasises the idea of mutual sympathy: cp. 467 μόνος μόνοις (and 1283 μόνος μόνου), 620 ἄφιλα παρ’ ἀφίλοις, and n. on 613.

τὸ … διπλάζον , intrans., ‘that which is double’ (cp. ἰσάζω, ‘to be equal’): but the verb is trans. in Andoc. or. 4 § 11 τὸν φόρον..διπλάσειεν, unless we should there read διπλασιάσειεν.

Though οὐ νοσοῦντος (gen. abs.) is an easy and specious conjecture, yet οὐ νοσοῦντες is better; because (1) it gives a rhetorical antithesis to ἀτώμεσθα which suits her point; and (2) it suggests the identity of their interest with that of Ajax. The figurative sense of νοσεῖν is often found in juxtaposition with the literal, as in 60 νοσεῖτε πάντες, καὶ νοσοῦντες, ὡς ἐγὼ | οὐκ ἔστιν ὑμῶν ὅστις ἐξ ἴσου νοσεῖ .

ἀτώμεσθα , i.e. we are worse off than before: the word is a forcible one (cp. 384), but occurs elsewhere also where the sense is only comparative: 17 οὔτ’ εὐτυχοῦσα μᾶλλον οὔτ’ ἀτωμένη: cp. ib. 314.

πῶς … ὅπως . The language here, to which groundless exception has been taken (cr. n.), expresses the musing wonder of simple minds.

οἷσιν εἴχετ’ ἐν κακοῖς =κακοῖς ἐν οἷς εἴχετο: cp. 1144: Her. 9. 37 ἐν τούτῳ τῷ κακῷ ἐχόμενος. The antecedent κακοῖς is drawn into the relative clause, though here its case is not thereby affected: cp. 404 θάπτουσαν ὃν σὺ τὸν νεκρὸν | ἀπεῖπας.

φρονοῦντας is far better than the v.l. βλέποντας : it hints what is meant by the vague κακοῖς .

κἀνέπνευσε : after the actual cessation ( ἔληξε ), a brief space is still needed to permit ἀναπνοή. Cp. 11. 382 ἀνέπνευσαν κακότητος: and n. on 1113 f.

Instead of κεῖνος , we might have looked for αὐτός: but the former has been preferred, because it better marks the antithesis between Ajax and his friends.

πᾶς , adverbial: 386 πόλις γάρ ἐστι πᾶσα τῶν ἡγουμένων.

ἐλήλαται : 1045(συμφορὰς ) οἵαις.. ἐλαύνεται (n.). For the emphatic perf., cp. 64.Here it expresses that complete prostration has at once followed the return of sanity: cp. Plat. p. 80 D ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ..ἀπαλλαττομένη τοῦ σώματος εὐθὺς διαπεφύσηται καὶ ἀπόλωλεν .

ἆῤ =ἆρ’ οὐ; 822 ἆρ’ ἔφυν κακός; 614.

δὶς τός’ =διπλᾶ. Cp. 1. 213 τρὶς τόσσα..δῶρα: Eur. 1092 δὶς τόσως (‘in double measure’).— ἐξ ἁπλῶν : Soph. 619(χάρις ) ἐξ ἁπλῆς διπλῆ .

δέδοικα μὴ … ἥκῃ . Though ἥκει is tenable (‘I fear that it certainly has come’), ἥκῃ seems better, since there is still a real uncertainty and anxiety in their minds. See on 580.( ἥκοι , which was the common reading, is of course impossible here.)

πῶς γάρ , sc. ἄλλως ἔχει; Normally, πῶς γάρ follows a negative statement, as in 911 οὐδ’ αὖ σύ· πῶς γάρ; (sc. ἔδρασας): while πῶς γὰρ οὔ follows an affirmative, as ib. 1307 οἶσθα μὲν τἀνθένδε, πῶς γὰρ οὔ; The use of πῶς γάρ here is thus peculiar, though the sense is clear.

εἰ πεπαυμένος κ.τ.λ. The fact that despair has succeeded to frenzy argues that he is under the spell of some angry god. When the malady passed away, his mind ought to have recovered a healthy tone. They had already hinted at a θεία νόσος as a possibility (186).

μηδέν τι : Eur. 1234 μηδέν τι λίαν : Eur. 522 οὐδέν τι μᾶλλον οἶδα.

ὡς ὧδ’ ἐχόντων κ.τ.λ. : ὡς marks the point of view to be taken: the gen. abs. presents the state of the facts as the condition under which one's opinion must be formed. Cp. Aesch. 760 ὡς τοίνυν ὄντων τῶνδέ σοι μαθεῖν πάρα. Eur. 1311 ὡς οὐκέτ’ ὄντων σῶν τέκνων φρόντιζε δή . Thuc. 7. 15§ 1 ὡς..τῶν στρατιωτῶν..μὴ μεμπτῶν γεγενημένων οὕτω τὴν γνώμην ἔχετε . Xen. 1. 3. 6 ὡς ἐμοῦ οὖν ἰόντος ὅπῃ ἂν καὶ ὑμεῖς, οὕτω τὴν γνώμην ἔχετε. See also below, 904, 981.

τίς γάρ : for γάρ in question, cp. 161, Ph. 327 , Ph. 651.

προσέπτατο , as if winged to its aim by the god; Aesch. 644(the heaven-sent trouble) ὅθεν μοι σχετλίᾳ προσέπτατο : Eur. 420 κοὐκ ἄφνω κακὸν τόδε | προσέπτατ’ .

From the Homeric ἔπτατο ( 13. 592, etc.) Tragedy borrows this non-thematic aor. (of which the active form would be ἔπτην): cp. 693. The aor. of πέτομαι in Attic Comedy and prose is usu. ἐπτόμην (see Veitch, , 2nd ed., p. 530): and of this we have the inf. πτέσθαι in 17,—again in accord with Homeric precedent ( 4. 126 ἐπιπτέσθαι ).

τύχας depends on δήλωσον . The change to τύχαις , dependent on ξυναλγοῦσιν (cr. n.), is not only groundless, but injures the rhythm of the verse.

κεῖνος γὰρ : here γὰρ merely prefaces the narrative ( 277 n.).

ἄκρας νυκτός , as the context shows, means here, ‘at dead of night.’ The only other instance of ἄκρος so used (natural though the use is) seems to be Theocr. II. 36 τυρὸς δ’ οὐ λείπει μ’ οὔτ’ ἐν θέρει οὔτ’ ἐν ὀπώρῃ οὐ χειμῶνος ἄκρω (‘depth of winter’). Elsewhere ἄκρα νύξ means either (1) the beginning of night, nightfall, as in Aratus 775 ἄκρῃ νυκτί: or (2) the verge between night and dawn, as ib. 308 ἀκρόθι νυκτός. In Theophrastus 1. § 2 (p. 389 ed. Wimmer) the ἀκρόνυχοι ἀνατολαί of stars are their risings ὅταν ἅμα δυομένῳ ἀνατέλλῃ (τὰ ἄστρα ), i.e. soon after sunset, at nightfall. The sense of ἀκρέσπερος varies like that of ἄκρα νύξ. In Hippocr. 7. 653 ἀκρέσπερος φρίκη is a chill at the approach of evening (as Galen p. 418 explains); while in Nicander 25 ἀκρέσπερος is explained by the schol. as=‘at the close of evening,’ ‘at nightfall.’ The latter is the sense of ἄκρᾳ σὺν ἑσπέρᾳ in Pindar 11. 10. [In 9. 34, p. 619 b 21, the words ἄχρις ἑσπερίου have been conjecturally changed to τὴν ἀρχέσπερον, from Athen. p. 353 B; or to τὴν ἀκρέσπερον: the sense required is ‘at nightfall.’]

λαμπτῆρες . These were braziers, raised on stands, in which pine-wood was burned, at once for light and for heat ( 19. 64 φόως ἐμὲν ἠδὲ θέρεσθαι). 18. 307 αὐτίκα λαμπτῆρας τρεῖς ἵστασαν ἐν μεγάροισιν, | ὄφρα φαείνοιεν· περὶ δὲ ξύλα κάγκανα θῆκαν, | .. καὶ δαΐδας μετέμισγον. As Helbig remarks ( p. 78), the smoke thus caused explains why the Homeric μέγαρον is sometimes called αἰθαλόεν ( 2. 414, 22. 239).

For this mode of indicating the time, cp. Her. 7. 215 περὶ λύχνων ἁφάς: Propert. 3. 8. 1 ad extremas..lucernas : Aul. Gellius 3. 2 post primam facem.

ἔγχος : cp. 95 .

ἐξόδους ἕρπειν : cp. Thuc. 1. 15§ 2 ἐκδήμους στρατείας .. οὐκ ἐξῄεσαν.

κενάς , i.e., with no apparent object; cp. 1054 θηρᾶσθαι κενά .

The general word, ἄκλητος , is defined by the two clauses in apposition with it, οὔθ’ ὑπ’ ἀγγέλων κληθείς, οὔτε σάλπιγγός του κλύων. Here the double οὔτε is more emphatic than a double οὐδέ: with the latter, the sense would be, ‘uncalled, and not summoned,’ etc. Cp. 391 οὐκ ἐμῶν ὑπ’ ἀγγέλων | ἀλλ’ αὐτόκλητος. Aesch. 838 ἥκω μὲν οὐκ ἄκλητος, ἀλλ’ ὑπάγγελος.

ἀφορμᾷς , intrans., as in Thuc. 4. 78§ 5 ἐκ τῆς Μελιτίας ἀφώρμησεν (‘he started’): πεῖραν is cogn. acc.; cp. Plat. p. 135 D ἡ ὁρμὴ ἣν ὁρμᾷς.

σάλπιγγος : a non-Homeric trait; see on 17. Cp. fr. 357 ἀσάλπιγκτον ὥραν = μέσην νύκτα.

πᾶς εὕδει στρατός . Cp. the phrases περὶ πρῶτον ὕπνον ( Thuc. 2. 2§ 1), nocte concubia ( Liv. 25. 9§ 8).

ὑμνούμενα , decantata. Schol. ἀεὶ θρυλούμενα ὑπὸ πάντων ἀνθρώπων καὶ κοινά. Plat. p. 549 D καὶ ἄλλα δὴ ὅσα καὶ οἷα φιλοῦσιν αἱ γυναῖκες περὶ τῶν τοιούτων ὑμνεῖν. 3. 2. 10 cantilenam eandem canis.

γυναιξὶ κ.τ.λ.: cp. Eur. 476 γυναικὶ γὰρ σιγή τε καὶ τὸ σωφρονεῖν | κάλλιστον. In Ar. 514 f. the Attic wife describes a like incident: τί δέ σοι ταῦτ’ ; ἦ δ’ ὃς ἂν ἁνήρ· | οὐ σιγήσει; κἀγὼ )σίγων.

κόσμον : cp. fr. 61. 4 αἷς κόσμος ἡ σιγή τε καὶ τὰ παῦρ’ ἔπη.

μαθοῦς’ , literally, ‘having perceived’ hismood.

ἐσσύθη =ἐσύθη, an epic license allowed in narrative. Cp. 183 ἀπέσσυθεν (3rd pl.). συθείς occurs in 119, and συθῶμεν ib. 1724: ἐσύθη in 1302 (lyr.).

τὰς ἐκεῖ … πάθας : briefly described by Athena, 55—60. The Chorus knew no details (230 f.). τύχας (cr. n.) is a weaker v.l. The fem. πάθη occurs also in 979 and 7.

κύνας βοτῆρας : schol. τοὺς ποιμενικοὺς κύνας· οὐ γὰρ ἀναιρεῖ κατὰ τὴν σκηνὴν ἄνθρωπον.

εὔερον is a certain emendation of εύκερων , which was doubtless due to a reminiscence of v. 64. (Bellermann, who retains εὔκερων, refers it to the horns of the rams; while Prof. Campbell, who also keeps it, says, ‘The word describes all the cattle, small and great, excepting the bulls, which have been mentioned separately.’) The form εὔερος (Attic for εὔειρος). from εἶρος, ‘wool,’ occurs in 675(οἰὸς εὐέρου) and is proved by metre in Ar. 121.The mention of the shepherd's dogs is naturally followed by that of the sheep.

ηὐχένιζε (a word not elsewhere found in classical Greek) means here, ‘beheaded,’ by a blow on the αὐχήν (cervix), or hinder part of the neck. (Cp. Pind. 2. 93 ἐπαυχένιον .. ζυγόν.) The Homeric δειρορομεῖν ( 21. 89, etc.) may have suggested αὐχενίζειν.

ἄνω τρέπων , turning the heads of the victims upwards, so as to expose the throats to the sword. Cp. 1. 459 αὐέρυσαν μὲν πρῶτα καὶ ἔσφαξαν καὶ ἔδειραν: where αὐέρυσαν is now explained as = ἀv‐vέρυσαν, by assimilation for ἀν‐vερ, ‘they lifted up’ the heads of the victims (not αὐ ἔρυσαν, ‘drew back,’ as it was formerly taken): see Leaf ad loc.

ἔσφαζε (235), cut the σφαγή, iugulum. The whole neck is τράχηλος, collum.

κἀρράχιζε : see on 56 .

δεσμίους : cp. 239 ff.

ὥστε =ὡς, an epic use frequent with Aesch. and Soph. : Soph. 343, etc.

φῶτας , here opposed, as ἄνδρας is in 64, to θῆρας: sometimes φώς is opp. to θεός ( 17. 98 etc.).

ὑπᾴξας is not a certain reading here; but (despite the fact that the first hand in L wrote ἀπᾶξας) it has, on the whole, at least as good authority as ἀπᾴξας . The latter makes good sense enough, ‘rushing away from me’; but ὑπᾴξας, expressing the sudden rush forward, as if towards something which had suddenly caught his attention, adds a picturesque touch which is absent from the other reading. For this sense of ὑπό in comp., cp. ὑπάγω, etc. The third possibility, ἐπᾴξας , would properly denote a rush onwards in a direction which had already been taken; and is thus less fitting here.

σκιᾷ τινὶ : Tecmessa, of course, followed Ajax to the door, but Athena was invisible to her: see on 15. Ajax seemed to speak with some phantom,—some creature of his brain.

λόγους ἀνέσπα ; the phrase denotes the abrupt, spasmodic manner in which his words were jerked forth. They were wild and incoherent (21—116). Cp. Plat. p. 180 A ὥσπερ ἐκ φαρέτρας ῥηματίσκια αἰνιγματώδη ἀνασπῶντες ἀποτοξεύουσι. Menander *(παπιζομένης fr. 7 πόθεν τούτους ἀνεσπάκασιν οὗτοι τοὺς λόγους; Ar. 903 τὸν δ’ (Aeschylus) ἀνασπῶντ’ αὐτοπρέμνοις (‐ους?) | τοῖς λόγοισιν κ.τ.λ., (where the idea is that of tearing up trees by the roots; but the use of ἀνασπᾶν in ref. to a bold style is suggestive). Eustathius p. 679. 61 οὐ μόνον ἐπὶ φυτῶν τὸ ἀνασπᾶν λέγεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ ἀλαζονείας, ὡς δηλοῖ τὸ παρὰ Σοφοκλεῖ λόγους ἀνέσπα .

Ἀτρειδῶν κάτα : for κατά placed after its case, cp. 969 .

ἀμφ’ Ὀδυσσεῖ : for ἀμφί with dat. in this sense, cp. 340, 684: 1180 ἀμφ’ ἐμοὶ στένεις.

συντιθεὶς γέλων πολύν , ‘combining,’ ‘mingling,’ much laughter with the vaunts: cp. 65 ξυντίθησι δὲ παιδὸς μόρον, blends that theme with her lament.—Not, ‘fabricating,’ with reference to the unreality of the triumph.

γέλων , as in 647: but γέλωτ’ below, Ant. 382, Ant. 958. Eur. too uses γέλων where it is metrically convenient ( Eur. 1172). The form implies an Attic declension, like that of νεώς. In Hom. 18. 350 and 20. 346 γέλον should prob. be read; in the former place the MSS. give also γέλω and γέλων. Stems in τ are post-Homeric, as Monro observes ( § 107 n.).

ὕβριν is plainly that which he inflicts, not that which he punishes; though the latter would be suggested by the usual sense of ἐκτίνεσθαι, as in Eur. 547 μή ποτε Κρέοντος θάνατον ἐκτεισαίατο (‘avenge’). Here the verb means, ‘inflict in vengeance.’

ἐκτείσαιτο (for the spelling, see on 180 f.), not ἐκτείσοιτο : the latter would be tenable only if αὐτοῦ could replace αὐτῶν . When he spoke with Athena, he fancied that he had already slain the Atreidae (100); and Odysseus, though reserved for further chastisement, was already δεσμώτης (105).

ἰών (=ὅτε ᾔει) adds animation; see on 768 δράτω, φρονείτω μεῖζον ἢ κατ’ ἄνδρ’ ἰών.

ἐπᾴξας is better here than ἀπᾴξας . The regular sense of ἐπᾴσσειν is ‘to rush at,’ or ‘ against’; here it denotes that he rushes in again as if to renew the attack. ἀπᾴξας, on the other hand, would be somewhat awkward, since he was coming towards the speaker; and certainly cannot be defended by 693 εἴσω δ’ ἀποστείχουσα, where Deianeira means, ‘as I was going away from you into the house.’ It is quite needless to write ἐσᾴξας.

αὖθις … πάλιν : 1418 n.

μόλις πως , by some slow and painful process, which she cannot analyse. Plat. p. 328 D μόγις πως ἐμαυτὸν ὡσπερεὶ ουναγείρας. So μόλις ποτέ 896. For πως thus used, cp. also 14. 104 μάλα πώς με καθίκεο θυμὸν ἐνιπῇ, ‘thou hast strangely moved me.’

ἄτης , the havoc made by him; cp. 1260(alluding to the corpse of Haemon), οὐκ ἀλλοτρίαν | ἄτην, ‘the work of no stranger's madness.’

)θώϋξεν . In 1624 this word begins a trimeter, the augment being omitted, as often in ῥήσεις (see 1249 n.): here, however, it is better to suppose aphaeresis. Cp. 1337 )κράτησα.

ἐρειπίοις is defined by νεκρῶν , wrecks consisting of corpses; and this phrase, again, by ἀρνείου φόνου , corpsewrecks of slain sheep. Thus both the genitives here serve to define; while in λείας..βουκόλων φρουρήματα (54), the first gen. defines, and the second is possessive. Cp. 465, 616 f. The phrase νεκρῶν ἐρείπια occurs also in Eur. fr. 266. 2; and χλανιδίων ἐρειπίοις (which seems to verge on bathos) in frag. incert. 7 (ed. Nauck).

ἐρειφθεὶς : the pres. pass. ἐρείπεται (‘crashes down’) occurs in 1462; this aor., in Arrian 1. 21. 4(of a tower) οὐδὲ..χαλεπῶς ἂν ἠρείφθη. 2. 47 has ἐριπέντι. The old v.l. ἐρεισθεὶς would mean, ‘supported on,’ but is wretchedly weak. The very fact that ἐρειφθεὶς follows ἐρειπίοις —that the slayer is prostrate among the slain—gives the word a singular force and pathos.

ἀπρὶξ … συλλαβὼν , tightly clutching: Plat. 155 E οὗ ἂν δύνωνται ἀπρὶξ τοῖν χεροῖν λαβέσθαι . Cp. fr. 328. 3 τοῦ γε κερδαίνειν ὅμως | ἀπρὶξ ἔχονται. The word is from the rt. of πρίω, as=‘to grip’ (1030 n.), with euphonic a: Aesch. uses ἄπριγδα ( Aesch. 1057). Cp. the Latin phrase mordicus tenere.

ὄνυξι … χερί , with the hand, by the nails; both datives are instrumental, but one (ὄνυξι) more closely defines the other; see on 230 f. ( χερὶ..ξίφεσιν).

καὶ τὸν μὲν ἧστο πλεῖστον κ.τ.λ. The bold order of words is explained by ἔπειτα in 312: i.e., the thought is; ‘for one part of the time—the longest —he sat mute; then,’ etc. By separating τὸν from πλεῖστον, the writer obtains the same effect as if he had said, καὶ πρῶτον μὲν καὶ τὸν πλεῖστον χρόνον κ.τ.λ.

τὰ δείν’ … ἔπη , ‘those dread threats’ (which still haunt my memory): cp. 650, 1226: Soph. 180 ποῦ δ’, ὃς τὰ δεινὰ τῇδ’ ἐφυβρίζει πόλει | Καπανεύς; ‘those dread vaunts’ (of which we have heard). See Soph. 476, and Appendix there, p. 192.

φανοίην . The optat. of the fut. φανέω is formed with the modal suffix ιη , like the pres. optat. of contracted verbs, δρα‐ο‐ιη‐ν, δρῴην. Cp. Xen. 3. 1. 14 ἐροίη (opt. of fut. ἐρέω): Platonic 7. p. 339 D διαβαλοίην.

ἐν τῷ πράγματος : cp. 1229 ἐν τῷ συμφορᾶς διεφθάρης; 174 ἐπὶ παντί τῳ χρείας .

The words κἀγώ, φίλοι, δείσασα are apologetic; she would gladly have spared him the details which his threats constrained her to relate.

πρὸς γὰρ κακοῦ τε : for the prep., cp. 581, 1071. He always set forth, laid down as a rule, τοιούσδε γόους ἔχειν πρὸς ἀνδρὸς κακοῦ, pertain to him, are characteristic of him. The words, πρὸς ἀνδρὸς κακοῦ κ.τ.λ., are equiv. to an adverb with the intrans. ἔχειν : i.e., as we can say, γόοι ἀνάνδρως ἔχουσι, so γόοι ἔχουσι πρὸς κακοῦ ἀνδρός. This intrans. use of ἔχειν with phrases of an adverbial kind is frequent with Herodotus; e.g. 2. 91 ἀγῶνα γυμνικὸν <*>ιὰ πάσης ἀγωνίης ἔχοντα, ‘consisting in every sort of contest’: see other examples on 709.—The alternative explanation is, ‘he taught that it (was) the part of a craven ἔχειν γόους τοιούσδε, to indulge in such laments.’ ἔχειν would then be used as in 24. 515 δῆριν ἔχουσι. But this implies an impossible ellipse of ἐ=ναι after ἐξηγεῖτο.

βαρυψύχου , ‘heavy-hearted,’ lacking the buoyant spirit which quickly rallies itself from despondency. Ajax was emphatically a soldier. (The schol.'s paraphrase, μικροψύχου, conveys a different idea.) The word occurs nowhere else, βαρυθυμος being the usual term; but cp. βαρύφρων, and the post-classical βαρυκάρδιος. Plutarch illustrates the poet's meaning when he speaks ( p. 477 E) of men ἐν ὀδυρμοῖς τὰ πολλὰ καὶ βαρυθυμίαις καὶ μερίμναις..διατρίβοντας. So Heracles says, 1074, ἀλλ’ ἀστένακτος αἰὲν εἱπόμην κακοῖς.

ἐξηγεῖτ’ : the word implies authoritative exposition (as of the sacred law by the ἐξηγηταί), and suggests the submissive reverence with which Tecmessa listened to her lord.

ἀψόφητος … κωκυμάτων : cp. 677 ἀνήνεμον..χειμώνων (n.).— ὑπεστέναζε , groaned low; cp. 79 ὑποστενούσης.

ὀξέων : 423 πικρᾶς | ὄρνιθος ὀξὺν φθόγγον.

ταῦρος ὣς βρυχώμενος : 832 ταῦρος ἐριβρύχης. The word expresses deep, sullen tones, such as might come from a bull in pain: it usually implies a sound of anger or anguish, whereas μυκᾶσθαι can denote the mere lowing of oxen; hence Nonnus 29. 311 βρυχηδὸν ἐμυκήσαντο. The unhappy conjecture βριμώμενος (‘snorting’) was prompted by a supposed inconsistency between βρυχώμενος and ὑπεστέναζε: but there is no reason why deep tones should not be also muffled.

νῦν δ’ contrasts his present behaviour with that described in 317. The contrast is not with ὑπεστέναζε (322), as though he were now wholly silent.

ἄσιτος . 4. 788(Penelope in her anxiety for Telemachus) κεῖτ’ ἄρ’ ἄσιτος ἄπαστος ἐδητύος ἠδὲ ποτῆτος.

σιδηροκμῆσιν : as the dead are οἱ καμόντες, οἱ κεκμηκότες, so σιδηροκμής is one who has died by the sword: cp. Aesch. 365 δουρικμῆτι λαῷ: ib. 889 ἀνδροκμῆτα πέλεκυν (an axe by which men die).

ὥς τι δρασείων , instead of δρασείων τι simply: cp. 630 ὡς τελῶν ἐφαίνετο : Xen. 1. 5. 9 δῆλος ἦν Κῦρος ὡς σπεύδων: Lys. or. 12 § 90 δῆλοι ἔσεσθε ὡς ὀργιζόμενοι.

δρασείων : cp. 1001 ἐργασείεις (n.). 168 ἄνθρωπος οὗτος μέγα τι δρασείει κακόν.

τοιαῦτα is qualified by πως : something in his utterances, which she cannot define, suggests this. Cp. Xen. 3. 3. 7 ἔλεξεν ὧδέ πως εἰς τὸ μέσον.

καὶ λέγει κὠδύρεται . The word ἥσυχος in 325 does not imply silence; it contrasts the quietness of his present demeanour with his former frenzy, and with the first vehemence (317) of his grief. His occasional words, or laments (such as ἰώ μοί μοι, 333), are in a tone which foreshadows the worst.

The verse is rejected by Nauck and others as though it were inconsistent with v. 325, and had been patched up from v. 383. There is no ground for this view. On the other hand, after ἥσυχος in 325, the fear expressed in 326 would be unintelligible, if no reason were subjoined. Bergk, who joins in condemning the verse, allows that Sophocles is usually careful of logical coherence in drama (‘pflegt .. sorgfältig zu motiviren’); but suggests that here the neglect of it might be ‘a mark of the archaic style’ ( 97. 378).

ἐστάλην , her (self-imposed) errand; cp. 404 οἷπερ ἐστάλην ὁδοῦ: 20 προὐστάλης .

εἰσελθόντες . Dramatic effect required that, instead of the Chorus literally complying with this request, the interior of the tent should be disclosed to them (346).

λόγοις . The φίλοι of the MSS. was doubtless in its origin a mere oversight, but may have been helped to keep its place in the text by the construction in 1353, κρατεῖς τοι τῶν φίλων νικώμενος.

Τελεύταντος : 210 n.

ἡμῖν could be joined with λέγεις : for we sometimes find a word devoid of emphasis standing first in a trimeter, though a slight pause follows; e.g. 847 ἴδῃς : Aesch. 1130 οὐ κομπάσαιμ’ ἂν θεσφάτων γνώμων ἄκρος | εἶναι, κακῷ δέ τῳ προσεικάζω τάδε: Aesch. 673 διάστροφοι | ἦσαν, κεραστὶς δ’ κ.τ.λ. But on the whole it seems better to have a comma after λέγεις, and to take ἡμῖν as ethic dat. (‘to our sorrow’): though this, too, is slightly harsh; for such an ethic dat. ought not to stand first, but to follow some significant word, as in 216 μανίᾳ γὰρ ἁλοὺς ἡμὶν ὁ κλεινός: 272 τὸν αὐτοέντην ἡμίν.

διαπεφοιβάσθαι : the compound occurs only here. φοιβάζω, from Φοῖβος, meant ‘to inspire,’ as Apollo inspires the divine frenzy of μάντις or of poet; 9. 525. 22 Φοῖβον, φοιβάζοντα, φιλοστέφανον, φιλογηθῆ: Longinus 8 § 4 πάθος φοιβάζον τοὺς λόγους. (The word could mean also ‘to utter prophetically,’ as in Lycophron 6 δαφνηφάγων φοίβαζεν ἐκ λαιμῶν ὄπα.) Tecmessa has just described both the recent frenzy of Ajax—which she had already pictured in vv. 233 ff.—and his present despair. By διαπεφοιβάσθαι the Chorus mean that a malign power has taken permanent possession of his mind. The mental trouble outlasts the frenzy (279 f.). Both διά, and the perfect tense, serve to mark this. By κακοῖς they mean his troubles in regard to the arms of Achilles.

ἰώ μοί μοι . Cp. 77, where a similar cry (behind the scenes) is a prelude to the heroine's entrance.

μᾶλλον : we understand νοσήσει, or the like.

ἢ οὐκ : the same crasis as in 555, O. T. 993 , O. T. 1140.

Αἴαντος, οἵαν κ.τ.λ.: cp. 785 ὅρα..τόνδ’ ὁποἶ ἔπη θροεῖ. As in 308 )θώϋξεν marked the first pangs of his despair, θωΰσσει here denotes a fresh access.

τοῖς πάλαι νοσήμασι ξυνοῦσι =τοῖς πάλαι ξυνοῦσι ν.: for the irregular order, cp. 1316 τὰς..ἐκ θεῶν | τύχας δοθείσας (n.). The sense is τοῖς ν. ἃ πάλαι ξυνῆν. If the order of words were normal, ξυνοῦσι would be predicate; ‘vexed by his former maladies, as they haunt him,’ ὅτε ξύνεστιν. But then (1) the alternative to ἢ νοσεῖν is less clearly marked, since the old νοσήματα are, in a sense, still with him; and (2) ξυνοῦσι, as referring merely to a memory of them, is somewhat forced.

παρών , being, as he is, in the presence of his own handiwork. The implied antithesis is with what he might feel if told of things which he had done elsewhere, but which he could not see. Cp. 1131, 1156.

ἰὼ παῖ παῖ . One of the signs that he is resolved to die is the way in which his thoughts dwell upon his son; he cannot rest till he sees him (530—544). The child is the heir of his fame, and may live to clear it of the stain (556 f.). As Eurysaces is not at once brought to him, he next cries (342), Τεῦκρον καλῶ : Teucer is his second thought, for to Teucer he will commit the care of his son (562).

Prof. Campbell understands ἰὼ παῖ παῖ as meaning Teucer, whom an elder brother might so address. Tecmessa, at least, did not so take the words.

ὤμοι τάλαιν’ : the nom. as in 800, 788, and oft.

Εὐρύσακες , so named from the shield of Ajax (19): cp. 574 n. The first syll. of a dactyl in the third foot is usually either the last syllable of a word, or else a monosyllable; but proper names are exempt from the rule.

ἀμφὶ σοὶ : for the prep., cp. 303: in 562 the sense is different.

ποῦ ποτ’ εἶ ; She had sent the child out of the tent, in charge of servants (531—539), and now fears that he has not been removed to a sufficient distance.

Τεῦκρον : the son of Telamon by Hesionè (1302), and half-brother of Ajax, whose mother was Eriboea (569).

τὸν εἰσαεὶ … χρόνον : the phrase τὸν ἀεὶ χρόνον is frequent. The separation of τὸν εἰσαεὶ from χρόνον deserves notice, as suggesting the possibility that τὸν ἀεὶ may sometimes have been used (without χρόνον) as=‘for ever’: a usage which, however, lacks proof: see on 1075.— λεηλατήσει : he had gone to the uplands of Mysia (720), ‘in pursuit of foes’ (564) to be despoiled. Cp. Thuc. 1. 11§ 1 (the Greeks at Troy) φαίνονται...πρὸς γεωργίαν τῆς Χερσονήσου τραπόμενοι καὶ λῃστείαν τῆς τροφῆς ἀπορίᾳ. The glances at such predatory expeditions (e.g. 1. 366; 9. 328).—Note the light touch with which the poet accounts for the absence of Teucer—a necessity of the plot, since Teucer might have averted his brother's suicide.

ἀνοίγετε : a usual form of summons, addressed to no particular person, but to the inmates of the house generally; Aesch. 877 ἀλλ’ ἀνοίξατε: 4. 4. 26 aperite, aliquis. Ajax had πρόσπολοι, though they were not at this time in the house (539).—We should not explain the plur. as addressed by the choregus to the choreutae and Tecmessa.

αἰδῶ … λάβοι : cp. 1078 φρόνησιν.. λάβοι : 669 f. προθυμίαν | ... λαβεῖν.

κἀπ’ ἐμοὶ : for this modest καί, cp. 192 εἴπερ κἀγώ τι φρονῶ, and n. on 719. βλέψας should naturally go with κἀπ’ ἐμοί, though βλέπειν ἐπί τινι seems to occur nowhere else, and ἐπιβλέπειν τινί only in Lucian 20 καὶ σφίσι γινομένοισι τῷ μὲν ἡ Ἀφροδίτη τῷ δὲ ὁ Ζεὺς...ἐπέβλεψαν (‘looked with favour’). The alternative is to take ἐπ’ ἐμοί as= ‘in my case,’ and βλέψας as epexegetic; but this is certainly harsh.

διοίγω : cp. 1287 διοίγειν κλῇθρα, and ib. 1295.

πράγη , deeds: cp. 21.

The ἐκκύκλημα is now pushed on through the central door. It was a small stage, but large enough to allow of Ajax being shown surrounded by some of the slaughtered animals. The word πράγη in 347, and the language of vv. 351 ff., show that the carnage was represented. The other plays in which Soph <*>es has used the eccyclema are the (1294, where see n.), and the (1464 f., n.).

Ajax, sitting among his victims, and meditating his own destruction, was the subject of a famous picture by Timomachus of Byzantium. Philostratus ( 2. 22 § 5) thus describes it: τὸν Αἴαντα τὸν Τιμομάχου..ἀπεκτονότα τἀν τῇ Τροίᾳ βουκόλια καθῆσθαι ἀπειρηκότα [cp. v. 325 ἥσυχος θακεῖ], βουλὴν ποιούμενον καὶ ἑαυτὸν διαφθεῖραι. The picture was at Cyzicus in 70 B.C. ( Cic. 2. 4. 60), but was afterwards bought by Julius Caesar for the Temple of Venus Genetrix in Rome ( 7. 38 § 126). See Introduction § 20.

This kommos serves, like the last (201—262), as a lyric expression of tragic pathos; after which the situation is further developed, as in the former case, by iambic dialogue. But in one respect this kommos differs from its predecessor. In order to bring the mind of Ajax into fuller relief, the lyrics are given to him alone, while the Chorus and Tecmessa speak only trimeters.

The structure is as follows:—1st strophe 348—355=1st antistr. 356—363: 2nd str. 364—378=2nd ant. 379—393: 3rd str. 394—411=3rd ant. 412—429. For the metres see Metrical Analysis.

ἰὼ φίλοι ναυβάται : his first words mark the affection which was so deep in the rugged nature.

ἐμμένοντες : Cp. 351(τῷ κηρύγματι ) ἐμμένειν.

ὀρθῷ νόμῳ , the right, sound rule of loyalty to friendship—which the Greek chiefs have forsaken.

ἴδεσθέ μ’ : for this midd. aor., cp. 351 n. The constr. is as in Aesch. 92 ἴδεσθέ μ’ οἷα πρὸς θεῶν πάσχω θεός.

κῦμα is the bloodshed; ζάλης , the storm of frenzy by which it was caused: cp. Pind. 12. 11 οἱ δ’ ἀνιαραῖς | ἀντικύρσαντες ζάλαις ἐσλὸν βαθὺ πήματος ἐν μικρῷ πεδάμειψαν χρόνῳ. The epithet φοινίας , denoting the effect of the ζάλη ( i.e., really belonging, in sense, to κῦμα), has a more vivid fitness than in Soph. 24, where by βυθῶν..φοινίου σάλου is meant the pestilence.

ἀμφίδρομον , ‘running around’ me.— κυκλεῖται : this rare midd. is read in Her. 8. 16, μηνοειδὲς ποιήσαντες τῶν νεῶν ἐκυκλεῦντο ὡς περιλάβοιεν αὐτούς. But in fr. 787. 2 κυκλεῖται is pass.; and so Ellendt would take it here (‘is rolled around me’),—needlessly, I think. κυκλοῦται would be the more usual midd. form ( Her. 3. 157, and oft.).

οἴμ’ : this elision occurs in 587; 320, Ant. 1270 ; Ar. 590.Though it breaks the rule of Tragedy against eliding diphthongs, it was doubtless too familiar to offend the ear. The οἲ ἐμὲ δειλήν in 9. 408 does not warrant us in supposing that οἴμ’=οἴ με.

ἀφροντίστως ἔχει . Cp. 366 πέμπων οὐκ ἀφροντίστως: Xen. 1. 6. 42 μηδέποτ’ οὖν ἀφροντίστως ἔχε, ‘never be heedless.’ For the pass. form of the word, cp. δυσλόγιστον (40 n.). It is not easy to decide whether the subject to ἔχει is Ajax, or τοὔργον: but the usage of the adverb rather favours the view that it is Ajax. The phrase is designedly euphemistic and reticent.

ναΐας ἀρωγὸν τέχνας , helpful of the seaman's art, i.e., its ministers: the gen., as in Aesch. 486 ἀρωγὰ τῆς δίκης ὁρκώματα . Cp. 201.

ἅλιον ὃς ἐπέβας is the best correction of ἁλίαν ὃς ἐπέβας . The two short syllables ὃς ἐπ‐ then correspond with a long syllable (the first of ἐμμένοντες) in v. 350; as the dochmiac metre allows. Hermann's later emendation, ὃς ἁλίαν ἔβας , avoids, indeed, resolving the long syllable, but unwarrantably alters ἐπέβας: nor is there much force in his reason for preferring it, viz., that the gloss ἐπέβας τῶν νεῶν points to ἁλιᾶν.. πλατᾶν, and this to ἁλίαν (rather than ἅλιον) πλάταν. Cp. Eur. 82 ἁλίῳ πλάτᾳ.

ὃς follows γένος , as in 760 ὅστις refers to σώματα in 758, and in 707 ff. ὅστις is resumed by οὗτοι.

ἐπέβας , absol., ‘embarked’ (as in Thuc. 7. 62§ 2 ἐπιβήσονται),—recalling the moment when they set forth from Salamis together; a point which is lost if ἐπέβας be taken as =‘thou hast come hither.’

ἐλίσσων : cp. Eur. 171 πόδα σὸν εἱλίξεις, i.e., ‘move swiftly.’

πημονὰν ἐπαρκέσοντ’ : cp. 2. 873 οὐδέ τί οἱ τό γ’ ἐπήρκεσε λυγρὸν ὄλεθρον: 17. 568 οὔτε τι Τηλέμαχος τό γ’ ἐπήρκεσεν οὔτε τις ἄλλος. Thus, though ἐπαρκεῖν could not mean literally ‘to ward off,’ epic precedent warranted its use in an equivalent sense, which was strictly that of bringing one help against a danger. In lyrics, at least, where epic associations have a large scope, it seems needless to write ἀπαρκέσοντ’ .

The traditional reading ποιμένων is explained by the schol. in L, τῶν ἐμὲ ποιμαινόντων καὶ θαλπόντων: i.e., the sense was taken to be, ‘I see that thou, alone of my shepherds (=of those who care for me), canst help.’ But ποιμένων, in such a context, would suggest rather the idea of chieftainship (cp. ποιμένα λαῶν, ναῶν ποιμένες in 767): and there can be little doubt that πημονὰν is right.

ἀλλά , appealing: cp. 14, etc.: Pind. 6. 22 ὦ Φίντις, ἀλλὰ ζεῦξον ἤδη μοι σθένος ἡμιόνων (‘come, yoke’).— For the enclitic με before its verb, cp. 1359 ἀλλά με | λόγοις ἀπώλλυς.

συνδάϊξον : ἅμα τοῖς βοτοῖς.

εὔφημα φώνει : cp. 591.— κακὸν κακῷ διδοὺς ἄκος : so fr. 74 ἐνταῦθα μέντοι πάντα τἀνθρῶπων νοσεῖ, | κακοῖς ὅταν θέλωσιν ἰᾶσθαι κακά. Her. 3. 53 μὴ τῷ κακῷ τὸ κακὸν ἰῶ: Thuc. 5. 65§ 2 διανοεῖται κακὸν κακῷ ἰᾶσθαι: Plat. p. 340 E ἰώμενος μεῖζον τὸ νόσημα ποιῶ.— τὸ πῆμα τῆς ἄτης : cp. Soph. 765 τὸ πῆμα.. τῆς νόσου: Hom. 3. 152 ἐπὶ γὰρ Ζεὺς ἤρτυε πήμα κακοῖο.—Not, ‘make the present woe worse than the ( original) plague’: τῆς ἄτης would then need further definition.

θρασύν , bold, enterprising; εὐκάρδιον , stout-hearted in facing danger; ἄτρεστον , intrepid in the critical stress of fight. The good sense of θρασύς is frequent in poetry from Homer onwards, though in Attic prose the bad sense predominates.

ἀφόβοις , fearing no harm from man;—a pathetic epithet, which is marred by taking it as=‘not formidable’ to man. ἀφόβοις..θηρσὶ is not an oxymoron (as if it meant, ‘wild creatures which are not wild,’ ‘tame beasts’): θηρσί is a generic term; he attacked beasts instead of men: cp. fr. 855. 12 ἐν θηρσίν, ἐν βροτοῖσιν, ἐν θεοῖς ἄνω.

δεινὸν χέρας : cp. 7. 457 ἀφαυρότερος χεῖράς τε μένος τε.

οἴμοι γέλωτος : for the gen., cp. 908 ὤμοι ἐμᾶς ἄτας : 1399 οἴμοι κελεύθου κ.τ.λ.

δέσποτ’ , as in 485: she is a δούλη (489).

οὐκ ἐκτός; οὐκ ἄψορρον κ.τ.λ. It seems more probable that in v. 384 the MSS. have lost a syllable (as μήν) than that here we should omit the second οὐκ. Cp. 430 f.: οὐκ εἰς ὄλεθρον; οὐχὶ θᾶσσον; οὐ πάλιν | ἄψορρος οἴκων τῶνδ’ ἀποστραφεὶς ἄπει; If here we read, οὐκ ἐκτὸς ἄψορρον ἐκνεμεῖ πόδα ; the verse becomes much tamer; while ἐκτὸς, taken with ἄψορρον ἐκνεμεῖ, is positively weak. It may be added that the first syllable of ἄψορρον here, and of καίπερ in 384, must then be treated as having the time-value of -u: whereas all the other trimeters in this kommos are normal.

For ἐκτὸς cp. 676 οὔκουν μ’ ἐάσεις κἀκτὸς εἶ;

ἄψορρον is probably the adv., as in 902 ὅπως ἄψορρον ἀντῴη πατρί, 53 ἄψορρον ἥξομεν.

ἐκνεμεῖ here gives the notion, ‘take forth into other pastures.’ This rare compound occurs in Theophr. 9. 16 § 1 ὀλίγος ὁ τόπος ὁ φέρων, καὶ τοῦτον αἱ αἶγες ἐκνέμονται, depascunt, ‘the region which bears (the plant dictamnum) is small, and is stripped of it by the browsing goats.’ The analogy of Pind. 6. 15, ἴχνεσιν ἐν Πραξιδάμαντος ἑὸν πόδα νέμων, would certainly point to ἐκνεμεῖς , but we must allow for the poetical use of the middle voice, so frequent with Sophocles. Of the midd. fut., Thuc. 4. 64§ 5 has νεμούμεθα, Dem. or. 21 § 203 νεμεῖσθαι.

ὦ πρὸς θεῶν κ.τ.λ. The MSS. seem right in giving this verse to the Chorus. Just after so violent a rebuke, the timid Tecmessa would scarcely venture on praying her ‘master’ to be ‘sane’; while the intercession of the Chorus is natural enough.

ὢ δύσμορος : cp. 1319 ὢ μέλεος, where ὢ is exclamatory, and stronger than the mere sign of the vocative (ὦ ).

ὃς , with causal force; 160 n.

χερὶ μὲν μεθῆκα , instead of χερὶ μεθῆκα μὲν: for the irregular place of μέν, cp. 279 ὁρῶντα μὲν ναῦς.. | ..βεβώσας, ἄνδρα δ’ οὐδέν’ ἔντοπον (instead of ὁρῶντα ναῦς μὲν ). χερὶ belongs in sense to ἔδευσα no less than to μεθῆκα.

τοὺς ἀλάστορας : in 788 and 1235 the word denotes ‘avenging spirits’; here, ‘accursed wretches,’ as the polluted Orestes calls himself ἀλάστορα ( Aesch. 236): cp. Dem. or. 18 § 296 ἄνθρωποι μιαροὶ καὶ κόλακες καὶ ἀλάστορες, ἠκρωτηριασμένοι τὰς ἑαυτῶν ἕκαστοι πατρίδας (‘who have crippled their respective cities’),—a passage which suggests that ἀλάστωρ, as said of a man, meant rather one who is a ‘curse’ or ‘plague’ to his neighbours, than one who is driven by an avenging spirit; indeed, such a passive sense is not easily conceived.

κλυτοῖς : from the Homeric κλυτὰ μῆλα ( 9. 308).

αἰπολίοις : 11. 679 αἰπόλια πλατἔ αἰγῶν. This is the only express mention of goats among his victims; but there is no reason to think that αἰπόλιον could be used as merely = ποίμνιον.

ἐρεμνὸν : suggested doubtless by Aesch. 1390 ἐρεμνῇ ψακάδι φοινίας δρόσου.

αἷμ’ ἔδευσα : cp. 848 τέγγει δακρύων ἄχναν (n.).

ἐπ’ ἐξειργασμένοις : ἐπὶ denotes the condition: Aesch. 1379 ἕστηκα δ’ ἔνθ’ ἔπαισ’ ἐπ’ ἐξειργασμένοις. (The phrase occurs also in Aesch. 525.) Cp. Soph. 556 ἐπ’ ἀρρήτοις..τοῖς ἐμοῖς λόγοις (n.).

οὐ γὰρ γένοιτ’ ἂν κ.τ.λ. Two modes of expression are here mixed: (1) οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο τοῦτο οὐχ ὧδ’ ἔχειν, it could not come to pass that this should not be thus. (2) οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο ὅπως τοῦτο οὐχ ὧδ’ ἕξει,—with the same meaning: cp. 1058f. οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο τοῦθ’, ὅπως ἐγὼ … | … οὐ φανῶ τοὐμὸν γένος . In other words, the constr. would be plain if ὅπως were struck out. The irregular presence of ὅπως is due to its association with statements of impossibility in the formula οὐκ ἔστιν ὅπως οὐ ( 97, 1479): its place is explained by the analogy of such a sentence as 1058 οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο τοῦθ’, ὅπως κ.τ.λ., where τοῦτο is subject to γένοιτο. The declension of οὐδεὶς‐ὅστισοὐ, as an integral equivalent for πᾶς τις, similarly illustrates the manner in which the associations of idiom could sometimes generate anomalies in grammar.

For the sentiment, cp. 742 τὸ γὰρ | φανθὲν τίς ἂν δύναιτ’ ἂν ἀγένητον ποεῖν; (n.).

πάνθ’ ὁρῶν : as Philoctetes says to Odysseus, 1013 ἀλλ’ ἡ κακὴ σὴ διὰ μυχῶν βλέπουσ’ ἀεὶ | ψυχή κ.τ.λ., ‘thy base soul, ever peering from some ambush.’ The conjecture πάντα δρῶν is not only weak, but incorrect, since the sense would require πᾶν δρῶν.

ἁπάντων τ’ . It is needless to change τ’ to δ’ : though δέ often occurs thus in ‘epanaphora,’ as 806 τὰν νεάταν ὁδὸν | στείχουσαν, νέατον δὲ φέγγος λεύσσουσαν (n.). Here the case for δ’ would be stronger if ἅπανθ’ (and not πάνθ’) had preceded.

κακῶν ὄργανον : cp. 407(of Odysseus) ἔξοιδα γάρ νιν παντὸς ἂν λόγου κακοῦ | γλώσσῃ θιγόντα καὶ πανουργίας .

ἄλημα , ‘fine meal’ ( ἀλέω), hence, ‘a subtle knave,’—a word found only here and in 389. παιπάλη (reduplicated from πάλη) had the same senses, literal and figurative; and παιπάλημα was a current term ( Ar. 430, Aeschin. or. 2 § 40). In fr. 827 Odysseus is called πάνσοφον κρότημα, as in 927 πανουργίας | δεινῆς τέχνημ’ ἔχθιστον.—For the early repetition of ἄλημα, in 389, cp. that of κείσομαι in 76(n.).

ἦ που : cp. 176 .

ἄγεις . The phrase ἄγειν γέλωτα denotes frequent or continued derision, as ἄγειν κτύπον=‘to keep up a noise’: Eur. 182 κτύπον ἠγάγετ)· οὐχὶ σῖγα κ.τ.λ. So νεῖκος ἄγειν, to sustain a conflict ( Pind. 9. 33): σχολὴν ἄγειν, etc.

ξὺν τῷ θεῷ . Those who write ξύν τοι θεῷ here do so on the ground that σὺν θεῷ, not σὺν τῷ θεῷ, is the regular phrase when the sense is general, ‘with the divine aid’; whereas in 146 σὺν τῷ θεῷ refers to a particular god (Apollo). But there is an arbitrary rigour in this doctrine. ὁ θεός often means ‘the divine power’ generally: e.g. frag. adesp. 471 ὁ γὰρ θεὸς μέγιστος ἀνθρώποις νόμος: and 496. 2 πόρρω γὰρ ἑστὼς ὁ θεὸς ἐγγύθεν βλέπει. And this very phrase, σὺν τῷ θεῷ, occurs once, at least, in a passage where the context plainly indicates that the sense is general, viz. Eur. fr. 490 σὺν τῷ θεῷ χρὴ τοὺς σοφοὺς ἀναστρέφειν | βουλεύματ’ ἀεί. There, indeed, as here, Nauck changes τῷ to τοι, but without any warrant.

ἵδοιμι κ.τ.λ. The question whether the MSS. have lost a syllable here depends on the view taken of 369. I have given reasons for thinking that the second οὐκ in that verse is genuine; from which it would follow that there is a defect here. Bellermann, indeed, is content to hold that Sophocles neglected an exact correspondence; but this seems very unlikely. L. Dindorf's remedy ἴδοιμι < μήν> νιν, has this advantage over the others (cr. n.), that it gives a light adversative force, and so fitly responds to v. 383, ξὺν τῷ θεῷ κ.τ.λ. ‘Triumph, like defeat, is the gift of heaven.’—‘ would that I could see him,’ etc. The next best conjecture is perhaps that of Apitz, ἴδοιμί νύν νιν.

μηδὲν· μέγ’ εἴπῃς : cp. 830 μηδὲν μέγ’ ἀΰσῃς (n.).

προπάτωρ , a word used by Pindar, Eur. , and Herodotus. The reading πάτερ (requiring χεροῖν instead of χερὶ μὲν in 372) had an obvious and prosaic motive; viz., that Aeacus, the grandfather of Ajax, was the son of Zeus ( 21. 189), so that Zeus could not properly be called an ‘ancestor’ of the hero's ‘ancestors.’ But when the poet wrote προγόνων προπάτωρ, it was enough for him that it expressed the thought, ‘author of my line’; he did not trouble himself with this subtlety.—It was the nymph Aegina who bore Aeacus to Zeus ( Plat. p. 526 E: τὸν δικαστὴν τὸν τῆς Αἰγίνης υἱόν ).

πῶς ἂν … θάνοιμι : cp. 531 f. πῶς ἂν ὑμὶν ἐμφανὴς | ἔργῳ γενοίμην (n.).

δισσάρχας (found only here): see on 251 δικρατεῖς.

ὀλέσσας : cp. 1163 πέλασσον. (Below, in 927, some edd. read ἐξανύσσειν: see n. there.) This epic licence in tragic lyrics is illustrated by their toleration of such forms as τόσσον (185), μέσσος, ζώειν ( 157, 1213), πνείειν ( 1146), etc.

βασιλῆς is the form which the grammarians Draco and Herodian read here (cr. n.). But, so far as Attic inscrr. are available, they indicate that the acc. plur. from ευ stems ended in ‐έα—ς, always uncontracted; while the contraction in ‐εῖς (not ‐ῆς) was the rule from the Macedonian age onwards. (The earliest example of τοὺς βασιλεῖς quoted by Meisterhans, § 39, belongs to 318—311 B.C.) We must regard the acc. βασιλῆς here, then, not as an old Attic, but as a poetical form. On the other hand, βασιλῆς was the form of the nom. plur. in the older Attic (cp. 189). Herodian (l. c., cr. n.) cites νομῆς from Xenophon, as if it were an acc. pl. like βασιλῆς here: but in the place to which he apparently refers ( I. 1§ 2) it is nom., and the best recent edd. give νομεῖς.

θάνοιμι καὐτός : cp. Aesch. 438 ἔπειτ’ ἐγὼ νοσφίσας ὀλοίμαν.

σκότος , the darkness of death, as the gates of Hades are σκότου πύλαι ( Eur. 1): ἔρεβος , as in Soph. 1389 τὸ Ταρτάρου | στυγνὸν...ἔρεβος. So, too, in 8. 368 it is merely a term for ‘the nether gloom’ (ἐξ ἐρέβευς ἄξοντα), not a definitely named region, Erebos.

ὡς ἐμοί : for this limiting force of ὡς, cp. 20 μακρὰν...ὡς γέροντι: Plat. p. 226 C ταχεῖαν, ὡς ἐμοί, σκέψιν.

ἕλεσθ’ ἕλεσθέ μ’ : the most probable reading; see on 414. Here the midd. means, ‘take to yourselves’ (and not, as normally, ‘choose’): it is thus more expressive than ἕλετε: cp. 887 κακά νιν ἕλοιτο μοῖρα. Conversely we find εὑρεῖν where εὑρέσθαι would be normal ( 1061).

γένος , as well as ὄνασιν , is governed by εἰς : cp. 734 Δελφῶν κἀπὸ Δαυλίας: ib. 1205 τίς ἄταις ἀγρίαις, τίς ἐν πόνοις: 780 οὔτε νυκτὸς..οὔτ’ ἐξ ἡμέρας.

ἄξιος . For the ellipse of εἰμί, cp. 813 n.

βλέπειν , to look for help; cp. 958 ἐς τίν’ ἐλπίδων | βλέψασ’ ἔτ’ ὀρθήν;

ἁ Διὸς … θεὸς : cp. 450: 623 χὡ Διὸς Φοῖβος.

ὀλέθριον should answer metrically to εὔφρονες in 420. If it be sound, the first syllable must represent the anacrusis, which is omitted before εὔφρονες: and the ε is long, as it is in 799 (ὀλεθρίαν), 1341(ὀλέθριον), and 1683(ὀλεθρία): though we find ε^ in 845(ὀλεθρίαισι), and ib. 878 ( ὀλεθρία). The neatest emendation is οὔλιον (cr. n.).

φύγῃ … μενῶ . For the delib. subjunct. combined with fut. indic., cp. 973 τί πάθω; τί δὲ μήσομαι;

εἰ τὰ μὲν φθίνει κ.τ.λ. The conjectures of various critics are recorded and classified in the Appendix. Here I will briefly state what seem the main points of the problem.

(1) The antistrophic verses, 423—427 ( ἐξερῶ...πρόκειμαι), appear sound. The changes which have been proposed in them have all been designed to suit some emendation in 405 ff., and would have no probability if verses 423 ff. were considered simply on their own merits.

(2) There is only one real discrepancy of metre between the traditional text here and that of the antistrophe; viz., that τοῖσδ’ in 406 answers to the τινα of οὔτινα in 424, where the α, being the last syllable of a verse, could be either long or short, and is here long. (Some, indeed, read οὔτιν’ ἁ: cr. n.) That is, instead of τοῖσδ’, we require u-. As to ἐξερέω in 423, answering to εἰ τὰ μὲν in 405, we should write ἐξερῶ. With regard to the diction of 405 ff., the most suspicious point is the redundancy ὁμοῦ πέλας , suggesting that one of the words was a gloss upon the other.

(3) If, then, we assume that the antistrophe is sound, we may conclude that the fault in the strophe lies within the words εἰ τὰ μὲν φθίνει, φίλοι, τοῖσδ’ ὁμοῦ πέλας. A very slight change will restore the metre, viz. τοιοῖσδ’ for τοῖσδ’ : cp. the words of Ajax in 453 ὥστ’ ἐν τοιοῖσδε χεῖρας αἱμάξαι βοτοῖς. There he points to the slain cattle around him; and so he probably does here also. We could then understand the sense to be: ‘If those things (τὰ μὲν, his glories in the past) perish, my friends, ὁμοῦ τοιοῖσδε , along with (i.e., by the slaughter of) such creatures, πέλας, near me there.’ But πέλας may have been a marginal gloss (on ὁμοῦ), which has displaced some other word: e.g., the poet may have written τοιοῖσδ’ ὁμοῦ βοτοῖς (cp. v. 453).

(4) Whatever may have been the original form of the words εἰ τὰ μὲν φθίνει, φίλοι, τοῖσδ’ ὁμοῦ πέλας, it is at least highly probable that their general sense was, ‘If my old renown is perishing.’ This is suggested by the other passages where we find the same sequence of ideas,—i.e., the thought of his past glory closely followed by that of his present disgrace; see (1) 421—427: (2) 437—456: (3) 612—621.

(5) Those who believe that the antistrophic verses 423—427 are corrupt have a freer hand for emendation here; and, as will be seen in the Appendix, some of the proposed restorations have been very bold. But such remedies pass into the region of pure guess-work.

προσκείμεθα , ‘addicted’ to them. Her. 3. 34 φιλοινίῃ...προσκέεσθαι. The word can also denote, in a good sense, that to which the attention is given, as Thuc. (1. 93 § 7) says of Themistocles, ταῖς γὰρ ναυσὶ μάλιστα προσέκειτο.

μώραις . L has μωραῖς (as it has μωρὰν in 890), that being the later accent, according to the general rule that adjectives in ‐ρος are oxytone. But the grammarians attest that the Attic accent was μῶρος. See, e.g., Eustath. p. 245. 17 μῶρος παρ’ Ἀττικοῖς, ὁ παρὰ τοῖς ὕστερον μωρός: and Chandler, , § 404 (2nd ed.).

δίπαλτος , in active sense (cp. ἄψαυστος ἔγχους, 969 n.), wielding their swords with both hands, i.e., with their utmost force. 323 ὡς δ’ εἴδομεν δίπαλτα πολεμίων ξίφη. That the word had passed into a figurative sense (in which δι‐ was merely equiv. to ‘fiercely’), is indicated by τριπάλτων πημάτων in Aesch. 985, woes hurled on one with crushing force. δίπαλτος should not be explained with ref. to the two spears of the Homeric warrior ( 5. 495 πάλλων δ’ ὀξέα δοῦρε).

φωνεῖν , exclamatory: Aesch. 837 ἐμὲ παθεῖν τάδε. It was common in colloquial Attic; see e.g. 835 βάλλ’ ἐς κόρακας· τοιουτονὶ τρέφειν κύνα. For this inf. with the article added, see 234 φεῦ τὸ καὶ λαβεῖν (n.).

ἔτλη , of what one brings oneself to do; here, ‘deigned.’ Cp. 528, 158.

πόροι ἁλίρροθοι : probably ‘paths or straits of the sounding sea,’ as in Aesch. 367 ἔκπλους φυλάσσειν καὶ πόρους ἁλιρρόθους: meaning here the waters of the Hellespont. His thought passes from those waters to the πάραλα ἄντρα beside them, and thence to the neighbouring woodlands. For the form of the phrase, cp. Soph. 1062 ῥιμφαρμάτοις...ἁμίλλαις.—The other version, ‘paths by the sounding sea,’ is possible, but less probable.

νέμος , properly pasture simply; but associated with trees in 11. 480 ἐν νέμεϊ σκιερῷ (a phrase repeated in 7. 55). In the Lat. nemus the notion of ‘woodland’ is seen dominant.

As I have noted in writing on the Troad elsewhere, ‘nearly all the plains and hills are more or less well-wooded. Besides the valonia oak, the elm, willow, cypress and tamarisk shrub abound. Lotus, galingale, and reeds are still plentiful, as in Homeric days, about the streams in the Trojan plain.’ (, art. ‘Troad,’ vol. XXIII. p. 578.)

πολὺν πολύν με κ.τ.λ. This order of words has the best authority, and is confirmed by the metre. Cp. 396.

δὴ merely emphasises δαρόν .

ἀμπνοὰς ἔχοντα =ἔμπνουν ὄντα. The proper sense of ἀναπνοή is (1) ‘recovery of breath’; or (2) =εἰσπνοή as opp. to ἐκπνοή, the drawing in of breath. Here, however, it means merely πνοή, as=‘the breath of life.’ Cp. Eur. 421 μητρὸς οἴχονται πνοαί .

Σκαμάνδριοι … ῥοαί : cp. 2. 467 ἐν λειμῶνι Σκαμανδρίῳ ἀνθεμόεντι. The Scamander, still called the , is the most important river of the Troad. Rising in Ida, it flows through the central plain which now bears the name of the town Bairamitch, and thence passes northward into the plain of Troy. On the confines between the two plains, where the river winds in large curves through deep gorges in limestone rocks, its scenery is striking. From the south border of the Trojan plain to the Hellespont, the Mendere has a course of between seven and eight miles.

εὔφρονες Ἀργείοις : as supplying them with water. So in 863 the ποταμοί of the plain are called τροφῆς.— Not: ‘friendly to my Greek foes, but hostile to me.’ Nor should the words be taken adverbially with οὐκέτ’ ἄνδρα μὴ τόνδ’ ἴδητ’, as meaning, ‘No longer, allies of the Greeks, will ye see me,’— i.e., ‘You will no longer see me victorious beside your favouring stream.’

οὐκέτ’ ἄνδρα μὴ τόνδ’ ἴδητ’ : οὐ μὴ with subjunct. gives a strong emphasis; cp. 83, 560.

ἐξερῶ gives an exact correspondence with εἰ τὰ μὲν in 405. The ἐξερέω of the MSS. might, indeed, be compared with 178 ὑπεράχθεο , 227 ὑπέσχεο , ib. 1244 κλονέουσιν. (In 639 καλέονται should be κλέονται.) But ἐξερέω was so familiar as the Homeric form that it could easily have displaced ἐξερῶ here. It is not likely that the poet would have written ἐξερέω if he had meant the word to be scanned -u- by synizesis.

Join οὔτινα with στρατοῦ : cp. 1175 κεἴ τινα στρατοῦ.

χθονὸς μολόντ’ ἀπὸ | Ἑλλανίδος : for the place of ἀπό, and for the hiatus, cp. 510 Βακχίας ἀπὸ | ἦλθε...Θήβας.

This vaunt of Ajax (modified only by the half-apologetic ἔπος ἐξερῶ μέγα) is epic in tone; thus Achilles says of himself ( 18. 105), τοῖος ἐὼν οἷος οὔτις Αχαιῶν χαλκοχιτώνων : Odysseus, ( 9. 19,) ὃς πᾶσι δόλοισιν ἀνθρώποισι μέλω, καί μευ κλέος οὐρανὸν ἵκει . Such a tone is better suited, indeed, to epos (in which speech is sometimes little more than audible thought) than to drama. But here, at least, as in the case of Heracles ( 1101 f.), it has the excuse of being prompted by the anguish of a sudden overthrow. (Cp. n. on 8, where Oedipus speaks of himself as ὁ πᾶσι κλεινός.)

πρόκειμαι : lie prostrate (323 ff.): cp. 1059.—The v.l. πρόκειται was caused by ἄνδρα … τόνδε : but cp. 1329, where τῷδ’ ἀνδρὶ (=ἐμοὶ) is immediately followed by τοὐμοῦ, as in 534 τοῦδε τἀνδρὸς by τῆς ἐμῆς. See also below, O. T. 865.

οὔτοι … οὐδ’ . There can be little doubt that the οὔθ’ of the MSS. should be οὐδ’ here. In 1197 and 1412 L has οὔθ’, where οὐδ’ is right; as in 496 μήθ’ instead of μηδ’. As to the conditions under which οὐ … οὔτε was admitted in Attic poetry, see on 1058 f.

ὅπως ἐῶ (subjunct.), the indirect form of the ‘deliberative’ πῶς ἐῶ; (‘how am I to allow..?’) Cp. 1367 οὐκ οἶδ’ ὅπως σε φῶ βεβουλεῦσθαι καλῶς: Dem. or. 9 § 54 οὐκ ἔχω τί λέγω.

ἂν … ᾤεθ’ , ‘could have thought’; cp. 119 τίς ἂν..ηὑρέθη;

ἐπώνυμον here goes closely with ξυνοίσειν , ‘would agree so significantly’ with my woes. Hence in 914 he is called δυσώνυμος. For the verb, cp. Ar. 1232 καὶ μήν σ’ ἐλέγξαι βούλομαι τεκμηρίῳ, | εἴ τι ξυνοίσεις τοῦ θεοῦ τοῖς θεσφάτοις, i.e., ‘agree’ with the description of the person mentioned in them. For the adj., cp. Hom. 7. 54 Ἀρήτη δ’ ὄνομ’ ἐστὶν ἐπώνυμον: ib. 19. 409 τῷ δ’ Ὀδυσεὺς ὄνομ’ ἔστω ἐπώνυμον: where in each case ἐπώνυμον means that the name is significant (the queen was the ‘desired one’; the child was to be ‘a man of wrath’). This usage of ἐπώνυμος, with ref. to the aptness of a name (or surname), is different from that in which a person or thing is said to be ἐπώνυμός τινος, either as (1) being named from it, or (2) giving a name to it. Cp. 574 .

Pindar adopts the derivation of Αἴας from αἰετός: 5. 53 καί νιν ὄρνιχος φανέντος κέκλετ’ ἐπώνυμον εὐρυβίαν Αἴαντα. This was the popular etymology (schol. Apoll. Rh. 1. 1289; schol. Theocr. 13. 37: Apollod. 3. 12 § 7). But the association of Αἴας with αἶ αἶ appears in the legend that a hyacinth (on whose petals the letters AI were supposed to be legible, Moschus 3. 6) sprang from the blood of Ajax, as it had sprung from that of Hyacinthus: Ov. 13. 397: Littera communis mediis pueroque viroque | Inscripta est foliis; haec nominis (Ajax), illa querelae (the wail of Hyacinthus).

So Odysseus was associated with ὀδύσσομαι ( 1. 62 τί νύ οἱ τόσον ὠδύσαο, Ζεῦ; imitated by Soph. , fr. 880): Pentheus, with πένθος ( Eur. 507): Polyneices, with νεῖκος ( Aesch. 577, etc., Soph. 110 f.): Meleager, with μελέα ἄγρα ( Eur. fr. 517): Sidêro with σίδηρος ( Soph. fr. 597): and Helen is ἐλέναυς, etc. ( Aesch. 689).

Such play on names did not seem to the Greeks unworthy of grave poetry, because to them the omens conveyed by words (ὀμφαί, κληδόνες) were so serious. In modern poetry, too, it has sometimes been used with tragic pathos. Thus Dante XIII. 109 Savia non fui, avvegna che Sapía Fossi chiamata: and Shakesp. act 2 sc. 1. 73 (Gaunt) O how that name befits my composition! | Old Gaunt indeed; and gaunt in being old etc. The king asks, Can sick men play so nicely with their names? No, is the reply, misery makes sport to mock itself.

The real etymology of Αἴας is uncertain. Vase-inscriptions show that the original form was Αἴvας, and Sonne (in Kuhn's 10 p. 126) compares Indog. aiva, Skr. eva (‘course’)—a derivation which Brugmann approves ( 4. 180). The sense, ‘swift runner,’ would suit Οἰλῆος ταχὺς Αἴας better than the son of Telamon: and it is not improbable (as Fleischer suggests in Roscher's p. 139) that the names of the two heroes, though identical in form, were of distinct origin.

καὶ δὶς … καὶ τρίς : cp. 1238 δὶς ταὐτὰ βούλει καὶ τρὶς ἀναπολεῖν μ’ ἔπη;

τοιούτοις γὰρ : for γάρ in two successive sentences, cp. 186 .

πατὴρ : Telamon, whom Heracles brought with him to the war at Troy, as Pindar relates ( 5. 27 ff.), and rewarded with the hand of Hesionè (1300 ff.).

τὰ πρῶτα καλλιστεἶ ἀριστεύσας , a free poetical mode of saying, ‘having won by prowess the first meed of honour.’ The word καλλιστεῖα (properly ‘prize for beauty’) may have been chosen because the prize was Hesionè. Cp. 1300 στρατοῦ τὰ πρῶτ’ ἀριστεύσας.

τόπον Τροίας , i.e. Τροίαν: a periphrasis like τὸν Κιθαιρῶνος τόπον ( 1134). Here Τροία is used in the Homeric manner, to denote not only the city but the country; ἡ Τρῳάς, as=‘the Troad,’ occurs first in Herodotus (5. 122).

ἐπελθὼν , after Telamon; cp. ἐπιγίγνομαι.

ἀρκέσας has here (though not elsewhere) a sense which ἐπαρκεῖν with acc. often bears, viz., ‘to furnish at need’: Aesch. 1170 ἄκος δ’ οὐδὲν ἐπήρκεσαν. The strict meaning is then, ‘having rendered no less service by the deeds of my hand.’

441—

τοσοῦτόν γ’ ἐξεπίστασθαι : cp. 1455 καίτοι τοσοῦτόν γ’ οἶδα (and 332). Her. 7. 152 ἐπίσταμαι δὲ τοσοῦτο, ὅτι κ.τ.λ. Here the omission of ὅτι adds vigour to εἰ ζῶν κ.τ.λ.

εἰ … κρίνειν ἔμελλε , ‘if he had been going to award,’ ‘if it had devolved upon him to award.’ The imperfect (here referring to an unreal condition in past, not in present, time) is rightly used, because it expresses the constraint of a supposed situation. But in the apodosis, the aor., οὐκ ἄν τις ἔμαρψεν , is used, because the taking of the prize is an act done at a given moment.

ὅπλων τῶν ὧν πέρι , i.e. in a case where they were the prize. Sophocles has ὅς, suus, (epic ἑός,) in 1248(οἷσιν ), 1639 and 266(ὧν), ib. 525 (ὅν). Here it is emphatic: ‘his own arms,’—of which he could dispose with the best right.

κρίνειν … κράτος ἀριστείας , to award the first place for prowess; cp. Pind. 7. 5 ἀέθλων..κράτος, victory in them. For the pres. inf. κρίνειν with ἔμελλε, cp. Soph. 1774 n.

ἔμαρψεν , praeripuisset; the prize due to Ajax was snatched from him.

ἀντ’ ἐμοῦ : so Aesch. 467 οὔτις ἄλλος ἀντ’ ἐμοῦ.

νῦν δ’ , with ref. to a past moment (‘but as it was’); so in 450, 88, 1334.

παντουργῷ occurs only here as=πανούργῳ: cp. παντότολμος as=πάντολμος. Cp. Aesch. 671 φωτὶ παντόλμῳ φρένας.

ἔπραξαν . Though πράσσειν oft. denotes intrigue ( 125), the phrase πράσσειν τί τινι (‘to procure a thing for one by intrigue’) is peculiar. Cp. Plut. 51 πράττειν μὲν ἑαυτοῖς ἐπαρχιῶν καὶ στρατοπέδων ἡγεμονίας.

ἀπώσαντες , ‘having thrust out of account,’=ἀτιμάσαντες. The midd. is usual as=‘to reject’ ( 216); but the act. here is not a mere equivalent for it.

κράτη : cp. 689 οὐκ οἶδα τοιοῦδ’ ἀνδρὸς ἔργα καὶ κράτη.

τόδ’ ὄμμα : some force and pathos are lost by reading τό τ’ ὄμμα (with χαἱ). Cp. Athena's words (51) δυσφόρους ἐπ’ ὄμμασι | γνώμας βαλοῦσα.— διάστροφοι : Aesch. 673(Io speaking of herself) εὐθὺς δὲ μορφὴ καὶ φρένες διάστροφοι | ἦσαν.

τῆς ἐμῆς is emphatic: my true purpose: so 100 τἄμ’: 442 τῶν ὧν .

οὐκ ἄν ποτε … ἐψήφισαν : i.e., they would have died before they could repeat such a villainy. See on v. 100, θανόντες ..ἀφαιρείσθων. The midd. ψηφίζομαι δίκην means ‘to decide a cause by one's vote’; Isae. or. 3 § 7 τοῖς περὶ αὐτοῦ τούτου τὴν δίκην μέλλουσι ψηφιεῖσθαι. And for κατ’ ἄλλου φωτὸς cp. Plat. p. 515 E οὐδεμίαν αἰσχρὰν δίκην κατεψηφίσαντο αὐτοῦ. The act. ψηφίζω usu.=‘to count’ (as Polyb. 5. 26 κατὰ τὴν τοῦ ψηφίζοντος βούλησιν, ‘at the reckoner's will’). Here, δίκην ἐψήφισαν has the general sense of δίκην ἐψηφίσαντο: but it is not directly modelled on that prose idiom: rather it is a new poetical phrase, meaning strictly, ‘get a cause decided by ψῆφοι.’ It implies that the votes against Ajax were secured by the intrigues of the chiefs: cp. Pind. 8. 26 f. κρυφίαισι γὰρ ἐν ψάφοις Ὀδυσσῆ Δαναοὶ θεράπευσαν· | χρυσέων δ’ Αἴας στερηθεὶς ὅπλων φόνῳ πάλαισεν. [ἐψήφισαν certainly has not the technical sense of ἐπεψήφισαν, as if the Atreidae were the ἡγεμόνες δικαστηρίου, who put the issue to the vote. Even if the simple ψηφίζω could be so used, this would be too technical and prosaic.]

ἡ Διὸς … θεὰ : cp. 401.

γοργῶπις , as in fr. 760. 2 the poet calls her τὴν Διὸς γοργῶπιν Ἐργάνην. Cp. 1. 199, where Athena appears to Achilles: αὐτίκα δ’ ἔγνω | Παλλάδ’ Ἀθηναίην· δεινὼ δέ οἱ ὄσσε φάανθεν.

ἀδάματος is the form required by metre in 205, O. T. 1315, and 1572; though in all three passages L gives the epic form ἀδάμαστος.

ἐπεντύνον<*> ‘making ready’: schol. εὐτρεπίζοντα. 8. 374 ἀλλὰ σὺ μὲν νῦν νῶιν ἐπέντυε μώνυχας ἵππους. Oppian 5. 562 ἤδη γὰρ δελφῖσιν ἐπεντύνουσιν Ἄρηα.—The reading ἐπευθύνοντ’ seems less fitting in reference to the purpose which the goddess foiled. It rather pictures him as already in the act of stretching forth his hand against his foes. But Athena had not suffered him to arrive in their presence; he had only reached their doors (49). If, however, ἐπευθύνοντ’ is to mean merely, ‘preparing for use against them,’ then it is decidedly less vivid than ἐπεντύνοντ’. The chief recommendation of ἐπευθύνοντ’ is the fact that it was first written by the scribe of L, though corrected either by him or by an early hand. But (since εὐθύνω was so familiar) it may easily have been a mere slip for the rarer and more exquisite word ἐπεντύνοντ’ .

λυσσώδη νόσον : cp. 59: fr. 855. 4 λύσσα μαινάς. In 13. 53Hector is λυσσώδης, φλογὶ εἴκελος.

ἐπεγγελῶσιν . A compound used in Attic prose, but otherwise peculiar to this play; it recurs in vv. 969, 989.

ἐμοῦ μὲν : the particle merely emphasises the pron.: cp. 121 n.

βλάπτοι : cp. 696 ὅταν δέ τις θεῶν | βλάπτῃ, δύναιτ’ ἂν οὐδ’ ἂν ἰσχύων φυγεῖν (n.).

ὅστις , causal. It is needless to read δρᾶν μ’ . See on 263 κἄμοιγε ποῦ ταῦτ’ ἐστίν; οἵτινες κ.τ.λ. (i.e. ἐπεὶ ὑμεῖς).

μισεῖ δέ μ’ : the relative clause passes into an independent sentence; see appendix on 424.— πεδία : for the tribrach in the 5th foot, consisting of a single word, cp. 719 ἄβατον ὄρος (n.), ib. 1496 πατέρα πατήρ.

πότερα : cp. 265 n.

ναυλόχους … ἕδρας . Cp. Eur. 1015 Ἀχαιῶν ναύλοχοι περιπτυχαί (the Greek camp at the ships, with its τεῖχος).

μόνους τ’ Ἀτρείδας ( λιπών), i.e., leaving them bereft of my aid. Eur. 52 πῶς σοῦ μόνη Μήδεια λείπεσθαι θέλει; Cp. 9. 437, where Phoenix imagines himself remaining with the army at Troy after Achilles has gone home,—πῶς ἂν ἔπειτ’ ἀπὸ σεῖο, φίλον τέκος, αὖθι λιποίμην | οἶος;

καὶ ποῖον ..; for καί in questions, cp. 263(n.), 236.

ὄμμα : so 1371 ἐγὼ γὰρ οὐκ οἶδ’ ὄμμασιν ποίοις βλέπων | πατέρα ποτ’ ἂν προσεῖδον: 110 πῶς οὖν βλέπων τις ταῦτα τολμήσει λακεῖν;

γυμνὸν is defined by τῶν ἀριστείων ἄτερ: cp. 31 κενὴν οἴκησιν ἀνθρώπων δίχα: 57 ἔρημος ἀνδρῶν μὴ ξυνοικούντων ἔσω: 445 ἔξω βαρείας αἰτίας ἐλεύθερον.

ὧν … εὐκλείας στέφανον (‘a glory-crown of which’..): both genitives define the quality of the στέφανος, but εὐκλείας goes more closely with it: cp. 308 f. ἐρειπίοις | νεκρῶν...ἀρνείου φόνου.

ἀλλὰ δῆτ’ , introducing another alternative, as in 537(n.).

ἔρυμα , their city-wall; cp. Her. 7. 223 τὸ ἔρυμα τοῦ τείχεος.

μόνος μόνοις : for the doubled adj., see on 267. The point of μόνοις is that the Trojans will not have their attention distracted by any other Greek foe. The phrase is thus an expression of the warrior's proud self-reliance (cp. 423 f.): it is marred by reading πολλοῖς μόνος (cr. n.).

δρῶν τι χρηστόν : for the order of words, cp. Ar. 128 ἀλλ’ ἐργάσομαί τι δεινὸν ἔργον καὶ μέγα. The sense of δρᾶν τι alone is often similar: 305n. The pres. part., not δράσας, because he would die in the act.—There was a legend, which the poet glances at here, that Ajax, in his madness, attacked the Trojans with success; manu restituit praelium insaniens ( Cic. 4. 23); and that his death was caused by an arrow from the bow of Paris: see n. on the Argument to the play, line 33.

Ἀτρείδας … εὐφράναιμί που . Verg. 2. 104 Hoc Ithacus velit et magno mercentur Atreidae.

οὐκ ἔστι ταῦτα , as in 449: but οὐκ ἔστι simply, ib. 709, 289, 448.

δηλώσω … γεγώς : cp. Thuc. 1. 21§ 2 δηλώσει...μείζων γεγενημένος: Andoc. or. 4 § 14 ἐδήλωσε τῶν νόμων καταφρονῶν.

μή τοι φύσιν γ’ : for μή τοι...γε, see on 518. τοι (‘at any rate,’ Lat. sane) limits, while γε emphasises the word which it follows. Note that οὔ τοι could be used here, if the result were viewed simply as a fact; 1353(ἀκούσας ) τοιαῦθ’ ἃ τὸν τοῦδ’ οὔ ποτ’ εὐφρανεῖ βίον. But μή τοι is used, because the result is viewed as an aim; i.e., the relative clause is virtually a final clause: cp. Isocr. or. 11 § 49 τοιαῦτα ζητήσεις λέγειν, ἐξ ὧν μήτ’ αὐτὸς χείρων εἶναι δόξεις μήτε τοὺς μιμουμένους λυμανεῖ μήτε τὴν περὶ τοὺς λόγους παίδευσιν διαβαλεῖς.

ἄσπλαγχνος , only here in this sense; but cp. κακόσπλαγχνος ( Aesch. 237), θρασύσπλαγχνος: and εὐσπλαγχνία [Eur. ] 192.

τοῦ μακροῦ … βίου , i.e., the normal span of life; cp. 518 οὔτοι βίου μοι τοῦ μακραίωνος πόθος.

κακοῖσιν … μηδὲν ἐξαλλάσσεται , finds no variation in respect to his woes; for the dat. cp. 25 φθίνουσα μὲν κάλυξιν: Xen. 4. 1. 8 διεφθάρθαι..ταῖς γνώμαις. The generic negative μηδὲν is used, because ὅστις refers to a class or type. (Cp. Soph. 178 f. ὅστις..μὴ..ἅπτεται.) For the sentiment, cp. Soph. 463 ὅστις γὰρ ἐν πολλοῖσιν, ὡς ἐγώ, κακοῖς | ζῇ, πῶς ὅδ’ οὐχὶ κατθανὼν κέρδος φέρει; fr. 866 ὅστις γὰρ ἐν κακοῖσιν ἱμείρει βίου, | ἢ δειλός ἐστιν ἢ δυσάλγητος φρένας.

παρ’ ἦμαρ ἡμέρα , ‘the successive’ (not, ‘alternate’) ‘days’: the series formed by placing each new day at the side of its predecessors, as ἀνὴρ παρ’ ἄνδρα could be said of forming men in rank. The sense is: ‘When a man's miseries are unbroken, τί τέρπειν ἔχει ἡμέρα παρ’ ἦμαρ, what power to please him has each successive day, προσθεῖσα (αὐτὸν ) τῷ κατθανεῖν, when it has brought him close up to death, κἀναθεῖσα τοῦ κατθανεῖν, and then again moved him back from death?’ Death is the boundary-line ( γραμμή) on the field of life: Eur. 955 πρὶν ἂν πέλας | γραμμῆς ἵκηται καὶ τέλος κάμψῃ βίου (mors ultima linea rerum). The man who is captive to evil fortune is like a πεσσός on the draughtboard, at one moment moved close up to the line, and then again withdrawn from it a little; but it is death, after all,—death and nothing else,—that awaits him (τοῦ γε κατθανεῖν). This is not the platitude, ‘all men must die’, but a thought sug gested by the case of the man ‘whose woes are unvarying.’ has nothing in store for him; the question is merely whether he is to die at once, or to have a short and wretched reprieve. This is brought out by v. 479: καλῶς ζῆν is denied to him; and that being so, the next best thing is to die honourably and quickly—καλῶς τεθνηκέναι.

προσθεῖσα : cp. 540 πρὶν Ἅιδῃ παῖδ’ ἐμὴν προσθῶ λαβών: 368 Ἅιδῃ προστιθεῖσ’ ἐμὸν δέμας. The dat. τῷ κατθανεῖν is easily supplied from the genitive, which is adapted to the nearer participle.

κἀναθεῖσα . Cp. ἀνατίθεσθαι, to ‘take back’ a move, to ‘retract’ an opinion ( Xen. 1. 2§ 44, etc.).

πριαίμην : cp. Eur. fr. 934 φίλον πρίασθαι χρημάτων πολλῶν σαφῆ.

λόγου here=‘estimate,’ ‘rate of value’: cp. 1225 μὴ φῦναι τὸν ἅπαντα νικᾷ λόγον (n.).

τεθνηκέναι : for the perf., cp. 275 n.: for the sentiment, 1320, ἢ γὰρ ἂν καλῶς | ἔσωσ’ ἐμαυτήν, ἢ καλῶς ἀπωλόμην.

πάντ’ ἀκήκοας λόγον : cp. 876 πάντ’ ἀκήκοας : 241 οἶσθα δὴ τὸ πᾶν : Aesch. 582 πάντ’ ἔχεις λόγον.

ὑπόβλητον : see on 188 ὑποβαλλόμενοι. Eustath. p. 106. 7 Σοφοκλῆς ὑποβολιμαίους εἶπε λόγους τοὺς μὴ γνησίους. (In 794, ὑπόβλητον στόμα, the sense is, ‘suborned.’)

γε μέντοι : 442 n.— κρατῆσαι , aor., as the sense is, ‘to gain a victory.’ Cp. 1353.

τῆς ἀναγκαίας τύχης . The phrase means simply, ‘a fortune imposed by ἀνάγκη,’—by necessity, fate; but it has different shades of meaning according to the context. Here, it is the fortune by which ἀνάγκη has doomed her to be a slave; but there is no direct reference to slavery in the words. Cp. 803. In 48 ἀναγκαίας τύχης is the ‘fatal chance’ by which Orestes was killed. In 16. 836 ἦμαρ ἀναγκαῖον is ‘the day of doom’ hanging over Troy.

εἴπερ τινὸς σθένοντος ,=σθένοντος, εἴ τις ἔσθενε: cp. 733 πρὸς πόλιν δ’ ἐπίσταμαι | σθένουσαν ἥκων, εἴ τιν’ Ἑλλάδος, μέγα (n.).

ἐν πλούτῳ , lit., amid wealth; i.e., the phrase = ‘strong and rich,’ rather than, ‘strong in riches.’ Cp. Aesch. 996 χαίρετ’ ἐν αἰσιμίαισι πλούτου.

θεοῖς : for the synizesis, cp. 1129: 1264 n.

μάλιστα : i.e., as the immediate and visible agent of the gods.

τοιγαροῦν , ‘So then’—marking that she turns away from the mournful past.

τὸ σὸν λέχος ξυνῆλθον : λέχος is acc., as after a verb of motion: Eur. 817 ἡ δὲ ξύναιμον λέχος ἦλθεν. (In Soph. 28 λέχος is rather nom., ‘as bride.’)

τὰ σά , acc. of respect, instead of σοι.

ἐφεστίου Διὸς , the god of the domestic ἑστία. In Her. 1. 44 the Ἐπίστιος Ζεύς is the god who punishes a wrong done to the hearth by an abuse of hospitality. Cp. Eustath. p. 1930. 28 ἐν τῇ κατ’ οἶκον ἑστίᾳ Δΐ ἐγίνοντο θυσίαι, ὃν οἱ μὲν ἄλλοι ἐφέστιον, Ἡρόδοτος δὲ Ἰωνικῶς λέγει ἐπίστιον .

συνηλλάχθης : cp. Eur. 1245 Ἑλένῳ συναλλαχθεῖσαν εὐναίοις γάμοις,—where, as here, the bride became such by the fortune of war.

βάξιν λαβεῖν … ὑπ’ ἐχθρῶν : cp. Her. 9. 78 ἔπαινον ἕξεις..ὑπὸ πάντων: Eur. 576 κλέος | τοιόνδε..ὑφ’ Ἑλλήνων λαβεῖν.

χειρίαν = ὑποχείριον : Eur. 177 ἐλάβετε Τροίαν τὴν Ἑλένην τε χειρίαν.

ἐφεὶς , having yielded up: Thuc. 1. 95§ 6 οἷς οὐκέτι ἐφίεσαν οἱ ξύμμαχοι τὴν ἡγεμονίαν.

ᾗ γὰρ θάνῃς σὺ κ.τ.λ. The reason for preferring Bothe's ᾗ to εἰ is that it brings out her thought with greater force: the last day of his life will be the first of her misery. There is no objection to εἰ with the subjunctive, even in trimeters; cp. 1443 εἴ σου στερηθῶ, and see 198 n. Either εἰ or ᾗ would have been written EI by Sophocles.

ἀφῇς , sc. με: but it is needless to write μ’ ἀφῇς with Brunck. For the omission of the pron. in acc., cp. 801 ἔμπρησον (‘burn me’): ib. 769 ἕκηλον εὕδειν ( sc. αὐτόν): ib. 1368 πέμψον (sc. με ): 461 κἂν λάβῃς ἐψευσμένον.—For the sense of ἀφῇς, cp. 887 ἄφετε μόνην, ἔρημον: Her. 8. 70 ἀπέντες τὴν ἑωυτῶν ἀφύλακτον.

ξυναρπασθεῖσαν . Ajax being now viewed as a public enemy (1132), his property, including the δούλη and her son, would be seized by the Greek chiefs.— δουλίαν : the comparative rarity of the fem. form led to δούλιν displacing it in some MSS. (cr. n.); but cp. Aesch. 1084 δουλίᾳ..φρενί: Her. 3. 14 ἐσθῆτι δουλίῃ (or δουληίῃ). The Attic prose word would be δουλικήν.

τροφή , mode of life; 1183 δυσμόρου..τροφῆς : 1687 δύσοιστον ἕξομεν τροφάν .

καί τις κ.τ.λ. A reminiscence of 6. 459 ff. (where Hector forebodes the fate of Andromachè) καί ποτέ τις εἴπῃσιν, ἰδὼν κατὰ δάκρυ χέουσαν· | ‘Ἕκτορος ἥδε γυνή, ὃς ἀριστεύεσκε μάχεσθαι | Τρώων ἱπποδάμων, ὅτε Ἴλιον ἀμφεμάχοντο.’

πικρὸν πρόσφθεγμα … ἐρεῖ describes what will be said, not to her, but of her; cp. p. 287 E ἀγγεῖον ὃ δὴ μιᾷ κλήσει προσφθεγγόμεθα (call by that name). Cp. 1213 οὔ σοι προσήκει τήνδε προσφωνεῖν φάτιν (sc. αὐτόν), i.e., to speak of him as dead. The reference of πικρὸν is not only to the scornful word ὁμευνέτιν, but also to οἵας λατρείας κ.τ.λ.

λόγοις ἰάπτων , lit. ‘shooting with words,’—launching taunts like missiles. The instrum. dat. λόγοις marks the figurative sense of ἰάπτων , just as τόξοις defines its literal sense in Aesch. 510(τόξοις ἰάπτων μηκέτ’ εἰς ἡμᾶς βέλη): the object answering to the literal βέλη (such as ὀνείδη) is left to be understood. Cp. Rhianus (3rd cent. B.C.) ap. Stobaeus 4. 34. 9 μακάρεσσιν ἐπὶ ψόγον αἰνὸν ἰάπτει (by tmesis for ἐπιάπτει). This seems truer than to suppose that the constr. is λόγοις ἰάπτων (με), ‘assailing me with taunts,’ though the latter view might be supported by the rare use of ἰάλλω in 13. 142 πρεσβύτατον καὶ ἄριστον ἀτι‐ μίῃσιν ἰάλλειν. As to the root of ἰάπτω, Curtius holds that ἰα‐π is expanded from ἰα (=Skt. jA, ‘go’), in a causative sense, by the determinative π, just as the Lat. <*>a-c is by k. (, p. 167 Eng. ed.) Cp. 700 .

ἵσχυσε would usu. be an ‘ingressive’ aor. (‘became powerful’), like ἐνόσησε etc. Here, however, it refers to the past period of his pre-eminence; as the reign of a king is summed up in retrospect by ἦρξε, ἐβασίλευσε. Cp. the aor. in 1144(τροφῆς ) τὴν ἐγὼ θάμ’ ἀμφὶ σοὶ | πόνῳ γλυκεῖ παρέσχον: where Electra looks back on a closed chapter of her life.

οἵας … ὅσου : for this double relative in contrasts, cp. 923, 751, 1045, etc.; Thuc. 5. 7§ 2, Thuc. 7. 75§ 6.

ζήλου , enviable happiness; cp. Dem. or. 23 § 64 ἃ καὶ ζῆλόν τινα καὶ τιμὴν φέρει τῇ πόλει.

τρέφει , only a stronger ἔχει,—has around her in her daily life. Cp. 503: 817 ὄγκον..ὀνόματος..τρέφειν: 795 τρέφοιτε..νόσον .

κἀμὲ μὲν κ.τ.λ. The chief emphasis is on the clause σοὶ δ’ αἰσχρὰ κ.τ.λ.: she merely glances at the results to herself; ‘while I shall suffer, thou and thine will be disgraced.’ ἐλᾷ , vexabit, as in 756; cp. also 275.

αἰσχρὰ : Ajax had said that it was αἰσχρόν, in such a case as his, to go on living (473). Tecmessa wishes him to feel that it would be αἰσχρόν to die. But Ajax believes that Teucer's care will avert the evils which she fears (562).

αἴδεσαι … προλείπων . The participle, when used with αἰσχύνομαι or αἰδοῦμαι, implies that the person is doing, or has done, the act which causes shame. The infinitive implies that he has not yet done it. Cp. Xen. 5. 1§ 21 καὶ τοῦτο μὲν οὐκ αἰσχύνομαι λέγων· τὸ δ’ ‘ἐὰν μένητε παρ’ ἐμοί, ἀποδώσω,’.. αἰσχυνοίμην ἂν εἰπεῖν: (‘I am not ashamed of saying this; but I should be ashamed to say that.’) Here, προλείπων is more forcible than an infinitive. Since his words pointed to a fixed resolve (479 f.), she speaks as if he were already engaged in the deed.

κληροῦχον is not elsewhere thus used, but the fact that a word had a technical (and prosaic) sense was no bar to its figurative use in Attic poetry; cp. πράκτωρ and εὔθυνος ( 953 n.). Isocr. or. 5 § 136 has the phrase εὐνοίας..κληρονόμους (‘heirs’).

ἀρᾶται , in a good sense, as in 1445, where see n.

οἴκτιρε .. εἰ κ.τ.λ. A clause with εἰ and fut. indic. often denotes an object of pity or indignation ( 1210, 988). Cp. Lys. or. 13 § 15 οὐκ ἐλεοῦντες..τὰ τείχη, εἰ πεσεῖται, οὐδὲ κηδόμενοι τῶν νεῶν, εἰ..παραδοθήσονται.— νέας τροφῆς , the nurture suitable to the young: 345 ἐξ ὅτου νέας | τροφῆς ἔληξε (n.).

διοίσεται , sc. βίον, ‘pass his life’: schol. διάξει, βιώσεται. The midd. has this absolute sense in Hippocr. p. 823 ὑγιηροὶ τἄλλα..διαφέρονται (‘they pass through life’): Xen. 2. 1. 24 σκοπούμενος διοίσει (a correction of διέσῃ). We find also διαφέρειν βίον or αἰῶνα ( Her. 3. 40, 10), or διαφέρειν only ([Eur. ] 982).—Others explain διοίσεται as pass., diripietur, ‘(if) he shall be plundered.’ In this sense the usual word is διαφορεῖν, though Eur. 754 has διέφερον in a kindred sense, and Arist. 8§ 4 the pass. διαφέρεσθαι: but such a meaning, which would fix attention on the boy's property, is utterly out of place here. [Lobeck, and Blaydes after him, cite Dion or. 41 p. 506 C ὑπ’ ὀρφανιστῶν διασπασθήσεται: but the correct reference is or. 43 p. 506 C, and the words, ὑπὸ τῶν συγγενῶν καὶ ἐπιτρόπων διασπασθῆναι .]— σοῦ … μόνος : cp. Soph. 1250 ἀνδρῶν γε μοῦνος: Eur. 52 σοῦ μόνη.

ὑπ’ ὀρφανιστῶν ( διοίσεται), if he shall have his life controlled by them: cp. ὑπό with the midd. πορεύεται in 1253 f.: 681 θἁλλει δ’..ὑπ’ ἄχνας. The sense is not merely, ‘live under them,’ as if ὑπό with the genitive here took the sense of ὑπό with the dative (subditus illorum imperio, Ellendt).

The word ὀρφανιστής (found only here) =ἐπίτροπος, ‘guardian.’ Eustathius (p. 533. 30), on 5. 158 χηρωσταὶ δὲ διὰ κτῆσιν δατέοντο, explains χηρωσταί as those who administered the property of persons who left no direct heirs (τοὺς χηρεύοντας διαδόχων); adding, οἵτινες κατὰ λόγον ἄλλον καὶ ὀρφανισταὶ ἐκαλοῦντο, ὡς ὀρφανῶν ὑπεριστάμενοι, καθὰ καὶ Σοφοκλῆς δηλοῖ. Apparently, then, he knew the word only from this verse. (The verb ὀρφανίζω usu.=to make ὀρφανός.)

μὴ φίλων (the generic μή), of no friendly kind; for the order, cp. Aesch. 903 ὁποῖα νίκης μὴ κακῆς ἐπίσκοπα. [The μὴ could also be explained by εἰ in 510: but this is less simple.]

Compare Andromachè's description, in her lament over Hector, of the lot in store for her child, ἦμαρ δ’ ὀρφανικὸν παναφήλικα παῖδα τίθησιν, ‘the day of orphanhood makes a child companionless,’ etc.: 22. 490—498.

βλέπω , pres. subjunct.: this is the indirect form of εἰς τί βλέπω; Cp. 428 ἐῶ (n.).

ᾔστωσας . There is no other certain instance of ᾀστόω for ἀϊστόω. (In fr. 493, κόρον ἀϊστώσας πυρί, Kuster's conjecture κηρὸν, if right, would point to ᾀστώσας.) The ordinary form occurs in 881 αὑτὴν διηΐστωσε.

δορί . As to this form versus δόρει , see on 1304.

ἄλλη μοῖρα . Destiny, working through Ajax, ravaged her country. Destiny in some other form brought her father and mother to the grave. The poet did not wish to represent Tecmessa as living with the man who had slain her parents; and so followed, or invented, a legend which ascribed their deaths to a different agency. Throughout this speech, the Homeric scene between Hector and Andromachè is present to the mind of Sophocles. Andromachè's father had been slain by Achilles; her mother, by the visitation of Artemis ( 6. 414—428).

καθεῖλεν … οἰκήτορας (proleptic), brought them low, so that they should be dwellers, etc. After Ἅιδου, θανασίμους is redundant; but cp. 1161 ἀλλ’ ὅστις Ἅιδου φθίμενος οἰκήτωρ πέλοι: though ib. 282 we have simply, Ἅιδου πάντες εἴσ’ οἰκήτορες. For θανάσιμος said of the dead, cp. 959, 819.

πατρίς : Cp. Xen. 1. 3§ 6 νομίζω γὰρ ὑμᾶς ἐμοὶ εἶναι καὶ πατρίδα καὶ φίλους καὶ συμμάχους.

ἐν σοὶ … σῴζομαι : cp. 314 ἐν σοὶ γὰρ ἐσμέν (n.). The prep. expresses that her safety is in his power,—depends on him. πᾶς’ , adverbial: cp. 275.

κἀμοῦ : as well as of his parents and his son.

προσεῖναι , of a quality or attribute; cp. 1079, 720.

τερπνὸν εἴ τί που πάθοι : cp. Dido's words to Aeneas ( 4. 316 ff.) Per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos, | Si bene quid de te merui, fuit aut tibi quicquam | Dulce meum, miserere. For the optat., marking the generality of the statement, cp. 1344: 666 ἀλλ’ δ\ν πόλις στήσειε, τοῦδε χρὴ κλύειν (n.).

χάρις χάριν γάρ : 1234 χάρις γὰρ ἀντὶ χάριτος ἐλθέτω. For the place of γάρ, cp. Aesch. 29 θεὸς θεῶν γάρ κ.τ.λ.: for that of the art., Soph. 139 ἐκεῖνον ὁ κτανών.

τίκτους’ : cp. the proverb in Zenobius 3. 328 δίκη δίκην ἔτικτε καὶ βλάβη βλάβην .

ἀπορρεῖ : cp. 1267 : 1000 n.

γένοιτ’ , cannot ‘become’ such, in the sense, ‘cannot finally be ranked as such.’ Whatever his other merits may be, their sum will not amount to true nobleness.

ἔχειν σ’ ἂν … θέλοιμ’ ἄν : the first ἄν, as well as the second, belongs to θέλοιμι: cp. 537 : 339 n.

ὡς κἀγὼ , sc. ἔχω. Cp. 6. 476 δότε δὴ καὶ τόνδε γενέσθαι | παῖδ’ ἐμόν, ὡς καὶ ἐγώ περ, ἀριπρεπέα Τρώεσσιν: this also illustrates the use of καί, on which see 53 ὅσ’ οἶδα κἀγώ (n.).

καὶ κάρτ’ . Here καὶ=‘and.’ But where καὶ κάρτα replies to a question ( 65 and 301), the verb being understood, καὶ merely emphasises (‘Yea, surely’), and καὶ κάρτα is then equiv. to ἦ κάρτα ( 312). Similarly in καὶ μάλα, καὶ sometimes=‘and,’ but sometimes merely strengthens the adv. (vel maxime): 1178 n.

τὸ ταχθὲν =ὃ ἂν ταχθῇ: he has not yet given his command. Cp. 1187 ἦ μὴν ἐμοὶ τὸ λεχθὲν ἔργον ἐκτελεῖν, i.e. ὃ ἂν λεχθῇ.

τολμᾷ , bring herself to do it: cp. 411: 481 τόλμησον, ‘make the effort.’ Instead of agreeing to take her advice (ἔπη), Ajax replies that he will be ready to praise her obedience.

For the alliteration (παρήχησις) cp. 1112: 371 τυφλὸς τά τ’ ὦτα τόν τε νοῦν τά τ’ ὄμματ’ εἶ (n.).

ἀλλ’ , in assent; cp. 48 n.

ὡς ἴδω : cp. 538. The words express his impatient yearning.

καὶ μὴν φόβοισί γ’ . The formula καὶ μήν (lit. ‘and verily’) introduces a new fact or thought; as in Tragedy it often announces a new comer (1168). When this new fact or thought raises a difficulty in the way of something proposed by the last speaker, then καὶ μήν acquires an adversative force. Thus here, its literal sense, ‘and verily,’ ‘indeed,’ is tinged by the context with the sense, ‘oh, but,’ or ‘nay, but.’ The effect of γε is to place a slight stress on φόβοισι . The combination καὶ μήν … γε is very frequent with Sophocles: cp. 539: 290, O. T. 345 , O. T. 836, O. T. 987, O. T. 1004, O. T. 1066: 396: 221: 660: 1045, El. 1188.In all these passages the effect of γε is the same; i.e., it does not modify the sense of καὶ μήν, but emphasises the word or phrase with which it is immediately connected.

φόβοισι , causal dat.: the plur. as in 585 ξὺν φόβοισι. Her fears were indicated at v. 340.

ἐξελυσάμην , lit. ‘released’: i.e., allowed him to leave the tent. The midd. ἐκλύομαι means to ‘release,’ ‘set free,’ in 1003, 1112, 21: 7. 1. 25 ἐξελύσαντο τοὺς Ἀργείους. The choice of the word seems to be prompted by a wish not to say more than is implied in φόβοισι, or to imply that she had rescued the child from a danger. She speaks merely as if (in her undefined ‘fears’) she had left the care of the child to others. Then the blunt and impatient question of Ajax—ἐν τοῖσδε τοῖς κακοῖσιν κ.τ.λ.—startles her into speaking plainly,—μὴ σοί γέ που δύστηνος κ.τ.λ.

The conjecture ἐξερρυσάμην (cr. n.), ‘rescued,’ would efface this trait of reticence. It is inferred from the scholiast's phrase, τῶν φόβων χάριν ῥύσασθαι θέλουσα ἐξήγαγον. But ἐξήγαγον is there the important word, while the words ῥύσασθαι θέλουσα are merely the scholiast's expansion of the motive implied in φόβοισι.

κακοῖσιν : a half-euphemistic phrase, as in 272, 431, 433.

μὴ σοί γε κ.τ.λ. Here γε replies to his question (‘, lest..’), and qualifies the whole sentence (cp. 648 n.): but it also adds to the emphasis on σοί .

πρέπον γέ τἂν ἦν . For γέ τοι cp. 823 n.

δαίμονος , fortune: 1306 τῷ παρόντι δαίμονι. A gen. after πρέπων is very rare, but analogous to the gen. after ἄξιος: Plat. p. 239 C πρεπόντως τῶν πραξάντων. [In Plat. p. 400 B ὕβρεως ἢ μανίας καὶ ἄλλης κακίας πρέπουσαι βάσεις, the gen. seems to depend on πρέπουσαι: but might be possessive.]

ἀλλ’ οὖν (‘well, at any rate’), followed by γε (emphasising the word before it), occurs also in 84, 1305, 233, El. 1035, etc.

)φύλαξα : cp. 308 )θώϋξεν.

ἀρκέσαι , infin. of purpose: cp. 198 n. For the sense, defendere, cp. 20. 289 ἢ κόρυθ’ ἠὲ σάκος, τό οἱ ἤρκεσε λυγρὸν ὄλεθρον: Eur. 1300(πῶς) οὐκ ἠρκέσατον κῆρας μελάθροις;

ἐπῄνες’ : for the aor., cp. 668 n.

ἔθου : cp. 13 n.

ὡς ἐκ τῶνδ’ : i.e., seeing that the child has been sent away, and that Ajax approves of her precaution (536). She wishes to divert him from the desire of seeing his son. But he instantly recurs to it.—For ἐκτῶνδε , ‘under these conditions,’ cp. 1109(n.). ὡς gives a limiting force (as in ὡς ἐμοί, Tr. 395): Eur. 1184 οὗτός τ’ ἂν ὡς ἐκ τῶνδ’ ἐτιμᾶτ’ ἄν, γέρον, | θανών . Thuc. 4. 17§ 1 ὡς ἐκ τῶν παρόντων. There is a verbal likeness to Soph. 552 τί δῆτ’ ἂν ἀλλὰ νῦν σ’ ἔτ’ ὠφελοῖμ’ ἐγώ;

καὶ μὴν here announces a fact which favours the last speaker's wish, and not, as in 531, a fact opposed to it; here, therefore, it becomes an expression of assent.

γε emphasises πέλας.

προσπόλοις , dat. of agent; rare, except with the perf. pass.; but cp. 1218 θεοῖσι κλέπτομαι, and ib. 504 f. (n.).

μὴ οὐ , since τί μέλλει is equiv. to μὴ μελλέτω: cp. Aesch. 627 τί δῆτα μέλλεις μὴ οὐ γεγωνίσκειν τὸ πᾶν;

παρουσίαν ἔχειν = παρεῖναι: a periphrasis like θήραν ἔχων (564), ἔχει στίβον ( 157).

εὐθύνων : cp. Eur. 728 εὐθύνων πόδα .

ἕρποντι φωνεῖς ...; the partic. expresses the leading idea; cp. 1038 χωρῶν ἀπείλει νῦν (n.).

λελειμμένῳλόγων , unable to catch the sound of thy words; schol. in L, οὐκ ἀκούοντι. Cp. Eur. 1085 ἦ πολὺ λέλειψαι τῶν ἐμῶν βουλευμάτων (‘laggest far behind them,’—failest to comprehend them): 1246 λέλειμμαι τῶν ἐν Ἕλλησιν νόμων (‘am not versed in them’).

καὶ δὴ , ‘already’: 31 n.

αἶρε δεῦρο . The child is led in by an attendant: Ajax means, ‘lift him’ (from the ground) ‘to my arms.’ Some take αἶρε as=‘bring,’ comparing 6. 264 μή μοι οἶνον ἄειρε, Ar. 1 αἶρ’ αἶρε μᾶζαν ὡς τάχιστα κανθάρῳ: but this is less simple, and less fitting.

ταρβήσει γὰρ οὒ : for οὐ placed after the verb, see on 96.This passage recalls 6. 466—470, where Hector is about to take his little son from the nurse's arms, but the child shrinks back, frightened by the helmet,— ταρβήσας χαλκόν τε ἰδὲ λόφον ἱππιοχαίτην.

νεοσφαγῆ … φόνον , the adj. compounded with a word akin in sense to the subst.; cp. 1283 νεοτόμοισι πλήγμασιν.—There is no reason to doubt the genuineness of που , which gives a touch of grim irony. L's reading, τοῦ , certainly points to τοῦτόν γε : but this is very in ferior to the vulgate. Wecklein, reading του , thinks that Ajax wishes to avoid saying μου.

δικαίως , in a full and true sense: cp. 852 οὔτοι ποτ’, ὦναξ, τόν γε Λαΐου φόνον | φανεῖ δικαίως ὀρθόν, i.e. ‘properly fulfilled.’

τὰ πατρόθεν is re dundant, but not pointless; the qualities derived from the father will prevail over any weaker qualities derived μητρόθεν.

ὠμοῖς … ἐν νόμοις , the rugged usages of a warrior inured to the sight of bloodshed. For the adj., cp. 205 ὠμοκρατής, n. In saying νόμοις rather than τρόποις, he speaks with a certain heroic grandeur (μεγαλοφρονῶν, as the schol. remarks). Cp. 2. 15. 11 non ita Romuli | Praescriptum et intonsi Catonis | Auspiciis veterumque norma.

πωλοδαμνεῖν , to break him in like a colt. The word was familiar in Attic ( Xen. 3. 10, etc.). Cp. Plut. 13E οὕτω σκιρτῶσα νεότης πωλοδαμνεῖται. Lucian 45 τὴν νεότητα πωλοδαμνήσας. For the metaphor implicit in the compound verb, cp. 994 ἐναυκλήρεις πόλιν.

κἀξομοιοῦσθαι is passive, and αὐτόν (the object of πωλοδαμνεῖν) is its subject, φύσιν being acc. of respect. For the infinitives, linked by καί, yet having different subjects, cp. Plat. p. 359 E (λέγουσιν) αὐτὸν ἀφανῆ γενέσθαι τοῖς παρακαθημένοις, καὶ διαλέγεσθαι [sc. αὐτοὺς] ὡς περὶ οἰχομένου.

ὦ παῖ κ.τ.λ. Paraphrased by Attius, fr. 10, , dispar fortunis patris: and imitated by Verg. 12. 435(Aeneas to Ascanius), , puer , virtutem ex me verumque laborem, |

τὰ δ’ ἄλλ’ ὅμοιος : so Hector prays for Astyanax that he may be like his father, —ὧδε βίην τ’ ἀγαθὸν καὶ Ἰλίου ἶφι ἀνάσσειν: but adds the nobler prayer that men may say, πατρός γ’ ὅδε πολλὸν ἀμείνων. ( 6. 476 ff.)

καίτοι … καὶ νῦν : nay, even now—while that prayer still awaits fulfilment—the child is happier than his father, in unconsciousness of evil.

σε is better here than σὲ (which L has), though the emphasis could be defended (‘I, the man, might envy thee, the child’).

τοῦτό γε : this acc. of respect (instead of the ordinary genitive) with ζηλοῦν is unusual; but the same constr. sometimes occurs with words of a like sense, e.g. 588 τουτὶ γάρ τοί σε μόνον..μακαρίζω.

οὐδὲν is best taken as acc. governed by ἐπαισθάνει : cp. 996 : 424 ἄλλων δὲ πλῆθος οὐκ ἐπαισθάνει κακῶν. It might, however, be adv. (cp. 1183 τῶν λόγων ἐπῃσθόμην).

ἐν τῷ φρονεῖν μηδὲν : i.e., before there is any intelligent consciousness of joy or sorrow (555).

554 b [τὸ μὴ φρονεῖν γὰρ κ.τ.λ.] Such an unconsciousness is an ‘evil,’ as excluding τὸ χαίρειν, but ‘painless,’ as exempt from τὸ λυπεῖσθαι. This verse was probably written in the margin, as a parallel passage to v. 554, and then crept into the text. It may come (as Valckenär thought) from some other play of Sophocles; its tone seems less suggestive of Euripides. That it was a familiar quotation, may be seen from the way in which it is brought in by the novelist Eustathius (or Eumathius), in τὸ καθ’ Ὑσμίνην καὶ Ὑσμινίαν σρᾶμα (c. 1100 A.D. ?), ch. 2 § 7 ( vol. II. p. 174 ed. Hercher), τοῦ ἔπους ἐμνήσθην ὡς τὸ μὴ φρονεῖν κάρτ’ ἀνώδυνον κακόν. It is translated, along with v. 553, in the sentences of Publilius Syrus (c. 45 B.C.), 876 f., Suavissima haec est vita, si sapias nihil: | Nam sapere nil doloris expers est malum. But those two verses are doubtless later interpolations in the text of Publilius: they are wanting in the best MS. (Monac. lat. 6292).

ἕως , without ἄν: so 764, 148.

ἵκῃ πρὸς τοῦτο , i.e. πρὸς τὸ μαθεῖν. Cp. 1365.

δεῖ σ’ ὅπως … δείξεις : see on 54 f. τὴν Φιλοκτήτου σε δεῖ | ψυχὴν ὅπως λόγοισιν ἐκκλέψεις λέγων.— )τράφης suggests the inbred qualities of the race; cp. 3 κρατίστου πατρὸς Ἑλλήνων τραφείς. For the prodelision of the augment in the 6th foot of the v., cp. 457 )φάνη : 263 (εἴθε) αἴσχιον εἶδος ἀντὶ τοῦ καλοῦ )λαβον.

τέως , ‘meanwhile,’ referring to the limit of time marked by v. 556. So in 15. 127, τῆος δὲ φίλῃ παρὰ μητρὶ | κείσθω, the ref. is to the limit marked by ἐς γάμου ὥρην just before. And ib. 230 εἰς ἐνιαυτὸν | εἶχε βίῃ· ὁ δὲ τῆος...δέδετο. Other usages of τέως are: (1) when it answers to ἕως: Ar. 32 τέως ἕως λάθοις σαυτὸν διαρραγείς: and (2) when it means, ‘for a time’ (or, ‘hitherto’), and is followed by a clause with δέ or ἀλλά: Her. 1. 82 τέως μὲν δὴ..τέλος δέ κ.τ.λ.

κούφοις πνεύμασιν , light airs, gentle breezes, such as nourish young plants. Lobeck quotes Dion Chrysostomus or. 12 p. 202 B τρεφόμενοι τῇ διηνεκεῖ τοῦ πνεύματος ἐπιρροῇ ἀέρα ὑγρὸν ἕλκοντες ὥσπερ νήπιοι παῖδες. Pliny 18. 34 Lucian § 1 τοὺς ἀνέμους φυτουργοῦντας. We might add Catull. 62. 39 ut flos.. | , firmat sol, educat imber.

νέαν ψυχὴν ἀτάλλων . Cp. 144 τὸ γὰρ νεάζον ἐν τοιοῖσδε βόσκεται | χώροισιν αὑτοῦ etc. (n.). The word ἀτάλλω (which in 13. 27 means ‘to gambol’) bears the sense of ‘cherishing’ in 4. 2 νήπιον αἰδοίης ἐπὶ γούνασι μητρὸς ἀτάλλων, and Pind. fr. 214 γλυκεῖά οἱ καρδίαν ἀτάλλοισα... | ἐλπίς. The Homeric form in this sense is ἀτιτάλλω, Hom. 18. 323 παῖδα δὲ ὣς ἀτίταλλε .

The word ἀτάλλω may have been suggested to Sophocles by a trait in the scene between Hector and Andromachè: 6. 400 παῖδ’ ἐπὶ κόλπῳ ἔχουσ’ ἀταλάφρονα, νήπιον αὔτως.

χαρμονήν might be acc. in appos. with ψυχὴν only; but is better taken as acc. in appos. with the whole sentence (see on 130 ἥκετ’ ἐμῶν καμάτων παραμύθιον).—The conjecture χαρμονή is no gain.

560 It is strange that exception should have been taken to the parenthetic οἶδα , which is not rare; cp. 938, 1615, |354.

οὔτοι … μή : cp. 83, 421.

τοῖον : cp. 164, 218, 251.

πυλωρὸν , warder, guardian; Eur. 956(πύργων), 1227 (ναῶν).

τροφῆς ἄοκνον : any adj. compounded with a privativum can take a genitive; and here the gen. is the more natural since ἅοκνος suggests the notion of ἀφειδής.

ἔμπα : this form occurs in Pind. 4. 36, and Callim. 13 (καί σφιν ἀνιηρὸν μὲν ἐρεῖς ἔπος, ἔμπα δὲ λέξον). A Doric form ἔμπα—ν is used by Pind. 5. 51.In 122 and 1338, as in Soph. 845, we have ἔμπας. (The form ἔμπακ’, once read here, was a mere blunder: see cr. n.)— κεἰ stands here (as in 692 and 962) where εἰ καί would be normal, since the reference is to an actual fact: cp. Soph. appendix on v. 305, p. 224.

τηλωπὸς , properly ‘of distant aspect’ (ὤψ), here merely ‘distant,’ as in 216 βοᾷ τηλωπὸν ἰωάν.

οἰχνεῖ : cp. 165 n.

θήραν ἔχων : for the periphrasis, cp. 540: 839 θήραν | τήνδ’ ἁλίως ἔχομεν. He had gone on a foray (343) in the highlands of Mysia (720).

ἀσπιστῆρες . The Salaminian followers of Ajax are at once seamen and warriors; as Thuc. (1. 10 § 4) says of the Greeks who went against Troy, αὐτερέται.. ἦσαν καὶ μάχιμοι πάντες.

χάριν , this act of kindness; viz., care for the child.

ὅπως … δείξει is the object clause to ἀγγείλατ’ ἐντολήν. A final clause, ὅπως..δείξῃ, would be less fitting here.

Ἐριβοίᾳ λέγω . The dat. is more forcible than the acc. would be, as it keeps the command, ὅπως δείξει μητρί, before the mind; cp. Aesch. fr. 175 τῆς Ἀντικλείας ἆσσον ἦλθε Σίσυφος, | τῆς σῆς λέγω τσι μητρός. Dem. or. 19 § 152 περὶ ..μειζόνων, λέγω δὲ Φωκέων καὶ Πυλῶν. Ajax adds these words to show that he does not mean Teucer's mother, Hesionè (1300). Eriboea was the daughter of Alcathoüs, king of Megara: Pindar mentions her as the mother of Ajax ( 5. 45). She is called Periboea by Apollodorus (3. 12 § 7) and Pausanias (1. 42. 1).

μέχρις οὗ . This verse is doubtless due to an interpolator who wished to limit εἰσαεί. It has three marks of spuriousness. (1) μέχρι, not μέχρις, is the Attic form. (2) The anapaest in the first foot is a needless harshness, when either ἕως or ἔστ’ ἂν was available. (3) The division of an anapaest (in the first foot) between two words has no Sophoclean parallel except in 795 τὸν ἴσον χρόνον τρέφοιτε τήνδε τὴν νόσον : and the was one of the latest plays (409 B.C.).—It might be added that μυχοὺς κίχωσι is a somewhat strange phrase; though we may compare 21. 128 ἄστυ κιχείομεν. The use of κίχω in 657 is slightly different.

μήτ’ … θήσους’ : depending on ὅπως in 567. Cp. 11. 546(referring to the contest from the arms), ἔθηκε δὲ πότνια μήτηρ (Thetis), ‘offered them as a prize.’

ἀγωνάρχαι (a word found only here)=ἀγωνοθέται, the presidents of the games, such as the Amphictyons were at the Pythian festival. The presidents appointed the ἐπιμεληταί who actually supervised the contests, such as the Ἑλλανοδίκαι at Olympia. (Cp. 690 n.)

μήθ’ ὁ λυμεὼν ἐμός . Only two parallels for the place of ἐμός are brought from classical Greek literature. (1) Eur. 683 Ζεύς σ’ ὁ γεννήτωρ ἐμός: where G. Wolff would omit ὁ. (2) Theocr. 27. 58 τὠμπέχονον ποίησας ἐμὸν ῥάκος : where Schaefer's remedy, ἐμοὶ, is quite admissible; Hermann wrote ἀμπεχόναν..ἐμάν. The nearest analogy to such a license as ὁ λυμεὼν ἐμός is afforded by such instances as τὸν ἐμὸν πατέρ’ ἄθλιον ( Eur. 133 n.), where ἄθλιον is a mere epithet, but ought, by position, to be a predicate. Remembering the originally pronominal sense of the art., we may hesitate to affirm that an Attic poet could not have ventured to write ὁ λυμεὼν ἐμός, meaning, ‘that destroyer of mine.’

No correction is very probable. We cannot read μήθ’ ὁ λυμεὼν ἐμοῦ, since, though μου can represent the possessive pron., such a use of ἐμοῦ would be unexampled. (See Krüger, , § 47. 9. 13.) The dat. ἐμοί is also untenable. It is possible that the poet wrote μήτε λυμεὼν ἐμός : but the article, if not indispensable, is at least very desirable here.

αὐτό , that,—with an emphasis due to the place of the word.

ἐπώνυμον , ‘that gives thee thy name’; as at Athens the ἐπώνυμοι were the heroes who gave names to the Attic tribes. Cp. 430 n.

πολυρράφου … πόρπακος . This must be interpreted by the usage of the poet's day, not by Homeric practice. The πόρπαξ may be seen on shields depicted in Greek vase-paintings; an example is reproduced in Smith's (3rd ed., vol. I. p. 459, art. clipeus). It was a leathern thong, running round the inner edge of the shield, and fixed at intervals of six inches or so by pins or nails, so as to form a succession of loops. The name, πόρπαξ, was derived from these pins (πόρπαι), which could be taken out, when it was wished to remove the πόρπαξ and so to unfit the shield for immediate use. (It is made a charge against Cleon in Ar. 849 that he had dedicated the shields taken at Pylos αὐτοῖσι τοῖς πόρπαξιν.)

But a loop at the edge of the shield, such as the πόρπαξ offered to the warrior's hand ( 1376 ἐμβαλὼν πόρπακι γενναίαν χέρα), would not suffice to give him control. Hence, in the vasepainting noticed above, we see the πόρπαξ combined with another contrivance, viz., a band (of metal, or wood), placed vertically across the inside of the shield, and furnished at the middle with an arrangement of small bars, forming a support for the arm just below the elbow. This band was the ὄχανον or ὀχάνη.—See Appendix.

πολυρράφου (‘much, or well, stitched’) is a general epithet for elaborate leatherwork, and is again illustrated by the vase-painting cited above, where ornamental tassels hang from the pins which divide the loops of the πόρπαξ. In Theocr. 25. 265, πολύρραπτόν τε φαρέτρην , the epithet probably refers to braiding; quivers were often made of hide or leather.