στράψαντα. “στράπτω” is not extant in classical Attic, but occurs in Apollonius Rhodius (2nd cent. B.C.) and Oppian (2nd cent. A.D.), also in an Orphic hymn of uncertain date, and in the Anthology. In cases of this kind we should always recollect how incomplete is our knowledge of the classical Attic vocabulary, and allow for the likelihood that the learned Alexandrian poets had earlier warrant for this or that word which, as it happens, we cannot trace above them. (Cp. on “ἀκορέστατος”, 120.) With “ἀστράπτω” and “στράπτω”, cp. “ἀστεροπή” and “στεροπή, ἀσπαίρω” and “σπαίρω, ἀσταφίς” and “σταφίς, ἄσταχυς” and “στάχυς”, and many other instances in which the longer form and the shorter both belong to the classical age. σκήψαντα (Forster) is much less forcible: the thought is of the lightningflash breaking forth as a sign in the sky (“φλέγει”, 1466), rather than of its descent on earth: and this word would hardly have passed into the MS. “στρέψαντα.” χειρὸς τῆς ἀνικήτου, gen. of point whence with στρ. ( O. T. 152 “Πυθῶνος...ἔβας”) rather than possess. gen. with βέλη.
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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