μηδαμά, “οὐδαμά” are used by the poets when the final must be short; “μηδαμῇ, οὐδαμῇ”, when it must be long. Where, as here, either form is possible, L is not a safe guide in choosing between them. The “μη”-adverb occurs 5 times in Soph.: here L has “μηδαμᾶ”: in Ph. 789 (a like case) “μηδαμῆι”. Above, 517, where “μηδαμά” is necessary, L has “μηδαμᾶ”: in 1698 (a like case), “μηδαμῆι”. The “οὐ”-adv. occurs 4 times in Soph., and L has always “οὐδαμᾶι”, which is necessary only in Ant. 874, while “οὐδαμά” is necessary ib. 830: either could stand ib. 763, Tr. 323. Thus L's perispomenon form has displaced a necessary “-ά” in 3 places, while only one place of all 9 requires the long form. “τὸ μηδαμὰ ἐλπισθὲν ἥξειν”, the generic “μή”, one which was never expected, etc.,— and which, therefore, is the more welcome. Cp. O. T. 397 “ὁ μηδὲν εἰδώς”, n. —“βαστάσαι δηλοῖ παρὰ τοῖς Ἀττικοῖς τὸ ψηλαφῆσαι” (Suidas s.v.): Eur. Alc. 917 “φιλίας ἀλόχου χέρα βαστάζων”.
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.