ἐξαιτοῦντα, "asking earnestly." This compound has a like force in O. T. 1255, Trach. 10; and so the midd. below, 586, 1327. Cp. ἐξεφίεται, straitly enjoins, Ai. 795. In prose, the special sense of ἐξαιτεῖν was "to demand the surrender of" a person, answering to ἐκδιδόναι: Antiph. or. 6 § 27 “εἰ...θεράποντας ἐξαιτοῦσι μὴ ἤθελον ἐκδιδόναι.” σμικροῦ is better than μικροῦ, since the rhetorical ἐπαναφορά (cp. 610, O.T. 25) needs the same form in both places. μικρός having prevailed in later Attic (as in Xen. and the orators), our MSS. in the tragic texts often drop the ς. But, metre permitting, tragedy preferred σμικρός. In Soph. fr. 38 “εἰ μικρὸς ὢν τὰ φαῦλα νικήσας ἔχω”, the word="of short stature," in which sense Il. 5.801 too has “Τυδεύς τοι μικρὸς μὲν ἔην δέμας”, though in 17. 757 “σμικρῇσι”. Curtius (Etym. p. 622), comparing σμυκτήρ and μυκτήρ, remarks that analogy speaks for the antiquity of the ς in σμικρός, while it is possible that the μ was not original, but arose from some other sound.
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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