στέργω, “"I desire."” Schol. “σημαίνει μὲν οἶον προσίεμαι: τελευτᾷ δὲ εἰς ἴσον τῷ προκαλοῦμαι”, “the (literal) sense is nearly, “"I approve"” (or “"consent"”); but the ultimate (or virtual) sense is, “"I invoke"”.” The scholiast saw the impropriety of rendering, “"I am content that the gods should come to help us,"” and so imagined this transition of meaning. His only fault lay in starting from the special and derivative sense of “στέργειν”, “"to be content,"” and not from its primary sense, “"to love,"” whence poetry could easily draw the neighbouring sense, “"to desire."” So in O. T. 11 “στέρξαντες”= “"having formed a desire."” Hermann and others take “στέργω” here as=“"I entreat,"” —getting the idea of “"praying"” through that of “"revering"” (as implied in the “στοργή” of children for parents, etc.). Hermann so takes the word in the Orphic Argonautica 772 “μειλιχίοις στέρξοι τε παραιφάμενος ἐπέεσσιν” (“"entreat him"”), where Ruhnken conjectured “θέλξοι”. διπλᾶς ἀρωγὰς, two aids (abstract for concrete), Apollo and Artemis. Cp. O. T. 164 “τρισσοὶ ἀλεξίμοροι προφάνητέ μοι” (Zeus, Apollo, Artemis).
This text is part of:
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part II: The Oedipus Coloneus. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1899.
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