ἐλθόντι … βίον. Apollo said: “αὕτη παῦλά σοι ἔσται, ἐλθόντι χώραν τερμίαν, ὅπου ἂν λάβῃς θ. ς. ἕδραν καὶ ξενόστασιν: ἐνταῦθα κάμψεις κ.τ.λ.” In the orat. obliqua, if the tense of the principal verb were primary (as λέγει), ὅπου ἂν λάβῃς would become ὅπου ἂν λάβω: since it is secondary (ἔλεξε), we have ὅπου λάβοιμι. The part. ἐλθόντι expresses the first condition to be fulfilled before the παῦλα can be attained. ταύτην is explained by ἐνταῦθα κάμψειν. τερμίαν is proleptic: in whatever land he should find the Semnae, that land was to be for him τερμία, i.e. was to contain the goal of his wanderings. The word occurs elsewhere only in Ant. 1331, “τερμίαν ἁμέραν”, one's last day. It fits the metaphor of κάμψειν, from rounding the post in the δίαυλος (“κάμψαι διαύλου θάτερον κῶλον πάλιν”, Aesch. Ag. 344), since τέρμα oft.=νύσσα or καμπτήρ, the turning-post (Il. 23.466 “εὖ σχεθέειν περὶ τέρμα”).
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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