ὡς μάλιστ᾽ ἂν ἐν πόθῳ λάβοις, as thou mightest most desire (that he should pass away). “λαμβάνειν τι ἐν πόθῳ”, to take a thing into one's desires, to conceive a wish for it; cp. Ant. 897 “ἐν ἐλπίσιν τρέφω”: “ἐν ὀργῇ ἔχειν τινά” (Thuc. 2.21). For “λαμβάνειν” of mental conception, cp. 729.—The MS. εἰ (for ἐν) seems a mere mistake. The construction “ὡς μάλιστα ἂν πόθῳ λάβοις, εἰ” (“λάβοις”) is intolerable here.
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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