τοτὲ μὲν … ὕπερθεν. Whitelaw: “"Oh then past cure, but worst is now grown worse."” The neut. plur. is most simply taken as adverb (319), referring to “μόγος ἐπεῖχε”: though we might also construe, “ἄπορα” (“ἦν τὰ ἡμέτερα”). τοτὲ μὲν … τοτὲ δέ, "at one time" (i.e. while Oed. lived)... "at another time" (i.e. now that he is dead). ὕπερθεν, hyperbolic, since ἄπορα already=“"hopeless"”: cp. fr. 188 “ὦ πᾶν σὺ τολμήσασα καὶ πέρα, γύναι”.
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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