Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus

[696] ἂν γένοιο The MSS. have εἰ δύναιο γενοῦ: for δύναιο, the 1st hand of L had written δύναι, i.e. δύνᾳ. Now εἰ δύνᾳ γενοῦ is satisfactory in itself, since δύνᾳ for δύνασαι has good authority in Attic, as Eur. Hec. 253 “δρᾷς δ᾽ οὐδὲν ἡμᾶς εὖ, κακῶς δ᾽ ὅσον δύνᾳ.” But then we must correct the strophe, 667, —as by writing there τὰ πρὸς σφῷν τοῖς πάλαι προσάψετον, which I should prefer to Nauck's ingenious προσάψει τοῖς πάλαι τὰ πρόσφατα. Verse 667, however, seems right as it stands: it gives a better rhythm for the closing cadence than we should obtain by adding a syllable. And if so, εἰ δύναιο （or δύνᾳ） γενοῦ here must be reduced to ˘¯˘. （i） If with Hermann we simply omit γενοῦ, the elliptical εἰ δύναιο— understanding ἴσθι or γενοῦ— is intolerably harsh; to me it does not seem even Greek. （2） εἰ γένοιο, “mayest thou become!” is read by Bergk and Dindorf; cp. 863 εἴ μοι ξυνείη. （3） To this I much prefer ἂν γένοιο, which Blaydes adopts; but I do so for a reason which he does not give. I suspect that εἰ δύναιο was a marginal gloss intended to define the sense of ἂν γένοιο, and that ἂν γένοιο was corrupted to γενοῦ when εἰ δύναιο had crept into the text. （4） Prof. Kennedy conjectures εἶ τό γ᾽ ἔν σοι: “now also | with thy best skill thou ably waftest.” Since the metre of 667 is not certainly sound, no treatment of our verse can be confident.