γνώμα μοι my mind προμνᾶταί τι (adv.) somehow pleads for the belief, presages. “προμνᾶσθαι” means (1) to woo for another, “κόρην τινί”: (2) fig., to seek to obtain anything for another, e.g. “δῶρά τινι”. The bold use here comes through the notion of pleading, or speaking persuasively, as the “προμνήστρια” to the maiden on behalf of the lover. This use is bolder than the fig. use in Plat. Menex. 239 C, where the question is of themes which have already been “"married to immortal verse,"” as distinguished from others in respect of which Poetry “ἔτι ἐστιν ἐν μνηστείᾳ”, is still in the stage of courtship. Of these latter, says the orator, I will speak—“ἐπαινοῦντά τε καὶ προμνώμενον ἄλλοις ἐς ᾠδὰς...αὐτὰ θεῖναι”, commending them, and wooing them for others (i.e. for the poets), with a view to their putting them into verse. (A passage which has often been misunderstood as if “προμν. ἄλλοις” meant “"pleading with others"”:—so Lidd. and Scott, with Ast.)
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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