Notice the dat. προσχρῄζουσιν (with “καλόν”), followed by the acc. αὐτόν with πάσχειν, and παθόντα with ἐπίστασθαι. A literal version shows the reason:—“"It is not fitting for the askers of just things to sue long, nor that a man should himself be well-treated, and then not know how to requite it."” Importunity is here viewed as touching the dignity of the suppliants; ingratitude, in its moral aspect.— οὐδ̓, sc. “καλόν ἐστι”. Cp. Isocr. or. 4 § 175 “ἄξιον ἐπισχεῖν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐπειχθῆναι.” οὐκ ἐπίστασθαι: with the inf. after “οὐ καλόν ἐστι” the normal negative would be “μή”, or “μὴ οὐ”: but οὐ is treated as forming one word with the inf.: cp. Il. 24.296 “εἰ δέ τοι οὐ-δώσει.” τίνειν=“ἀμείβεσθαι”: see on 229. The structure of οὐδ᾽ αὐτὸν … τίνειν illustrates the Greek tendency to co-ordinate clauses: cp. Isocr. or. 6 § 54 “πῶς οὐκ αἰσχρόν,...τὴν μὲν Εὐρώπην καὶ τὴν Ἀσίαν μεστὴν πεποιηκέναι τροπαίων,... ὑπὲρ δὲ τῆς πατρίδος...μηδὲ μίαν μάχην φαίνεσθαι μεμαχημένους”; We sometimes meet with the same construction in English: e.g. “"For one thing I am sorry, and that is that the English Government might have prevented the conflict with one single word, and yet has not thought it necessary to interfere."”
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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