This antistrophe is devoted to Poseidon, as the strophe to Athena. ματρόπολει, “"mother-city"” (Athens), since the men of Colonus, like all other dwellers in Attica, may deem themselves her children. So Pind. Nem. 5.8 “Αἰακίδας ...ματρόπολίν τε”, their native state (Aegina): Ant. 1122 “Βακχᾶν ματρόπολιν Θήβαν” (with allusion to Semelè). Not, “"capital city,"” which would be prosaic: this sense occurs as early, however, as Xen., Anab. 5. 2. 3 “ἒν δὲ ἦν χωρίον μητρόπολις αὐτῶν”.
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.
Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education provided support for entering this text.
This text was converted to electronic form by professional data entry and has been proofread to a high level of accuracy.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.