Join σπεύδειν ἀπὸ θυμάτων, ἄνιππον, ἱππότην τε ἀπὸ ῥυτῆρος: to hasten from the sacrifice, some on foot, others on horseback, with slack rein. The worshippers of the “Ἵππιος” and “Ἱππία” are in part “ἱππεῖς” (cp. 1070), and have their horses with them. The place of ἀπὸ ρ᾽. is due to the fact that these horsemen are the important pursuers, ἄνιππον being added merely to give the notion of a pursuit en masse. Thus there is some formal resemblance to
, though there "present and absent" is merely a colloquial phrase for “"every one."” ἀπὸ ῥυτῆρος, “"away from the rein,"” i.e. “"unchecked by the rein,"” immissis habenis: Phrynichus ap. Bekker Anecd. p. 24 “ἀπὸ” “ὁυτῆρος τρέχειν ἵππον: οἷον ἀπὸ χαλινοῦ ἣ ἄνευ χαλινοῦ”. Cp. El. 1127 “ἀπ᾽ ἐλπίδων”, contrary to my hopes: Tr. 389 “οὐκ ἀπὸ γνώμης”, not against my judgment: and so “οὐκ ἀπὸ τρόπου” (not unreasonably), “οὐκ ἀπὸ καιροῦ”, etc. Plut. Dion 42 “οὗτοι διελάσαντες τὴν ὁδὸν ἵπποις ἀπὸ ῥυτῆρος ἧκον εἰς Λεοντίνους τῆς ἡμέρας ἤδη καταφερομένης”, “"having ridden the whole distance at full speed."” For the “ο_” in “ἀπὸ” before “ῥ”, cp. Ant. 712 n. δίστομοι … ὁδοί. See map in Appendix on 1059. The two roads meant are probably:—(1) A road leading from Colonus, north of the Sacred Way, to the pass now called Daphnè, a depression in the range of Mount Aegaleos through which the Sacred Way issued from the plain of Athens, after which it skirted the shores of the bay of Eleusis. The beginning of this road is shown by the map in the Introduction. (2) A road diverging from the former in a N.W. direction, and going round the N. end of the same range of Aegaleos, at a point some miles N. of the Daphnè pass, into the Thriasian plain. By either route the captors could gain the pass of Dryoscephalae, over Mount Cithaeron, leading from Attica into Boeotia. The hope of Theseus is that the pursuers may reach the point of bifurcation before the captors, since it is conceivable that the latter should wait to be joined by their master, Creon. see on 1054 ff. μάλιστα with ἔνθα, lit., “"to about the place where"”: cp. Her. 1.191 “ἀνδρὶ ὡς ἐς μέσον μηρὸν μάλιστά κῃ”, “"just about to the height of a man's thigh."”
