Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus

[931] αὔτως （ Soph. Trach. 1040 “ὧδ᾽ αὔτως ὥς μ᾽ ὤλεσε”） can be nothing but adverb from αὐτός （with Aeolic accent）, = ”in that very way “: hence, according to the context, (a) simply “likewise,” or (b) in a depreciatory sense, “only thus,” —i.e. “inefficiently,” “vainly.” The custom of the grammarians, to write αὕτως except when the sense is “vainly,” seems to have come from associating the word with οὗτος, or possibly even with αὑτός. For Soph., as for Aesch. and Eur., our MSS. on the whole favour αὕτως: but their authority cannot be presumed to represent a tradition older than, or independent of, the grammarians. It is, indeed, possible that αὕτως was an instance of old aspiration on false analogy, —as the Attic ἡμεῖς （Aeolic ἄμμες for ἀσμές） was wrongly aspirated on the analogy of ὑμεῖς （see Peile, Greek and Latin Etymology p. 302, who agrees on this with Curtius）. In the absence of evidence, however, that αὔτως was a like instance, it appears most reasonable to write αὔτως.