ἐκεῖνος, of whom ye were speaking: Ant. 384: Aristoph. Ach. 41 “τοῦτ᾽ ἐκεῖν᾽ οὑγὼ ᾿λεγον”: Nub. 1167 “ὅδ᾽ ἐκεῖνος ἀνήρ”: El. 665. φωνῇ γὰρ ὁρῳ: (I appear to you), for in sound is my sight (i.e. I know your presence by your voices). To this announcement of his blindness a certain gentle pathos is added by τὸ φατιζόμ. (acc. in appos.), "as they say of us the blind": alluding generally, perh., to the fig. use of ὁρᾶν, βλέπειν in ref. to mental sight (as O. T. 747, of the blind seer, “δέδοικα μὴ βλέπων ὁ μάντις ᾖ”), rather than to any special proverb. So Thuc. 7.87 “πανωλεθρίᾳ δή, τὸ λεγόμενον,...οὐδὲν ὅτι οὐκ ἀπώλετο”, referring merely to the phrase. [Dem.] or. 25 § 89 “ὥσπερ τὸ τῆς παροιμίας, ὁρῶντας μὴ ὁρᾶν καὶ ἀκούοντας μὴ ἀκούειν”. We must not render (1) with the schol., "I understand by sound what ye mean," τὸ λεγόμενον παρ᾽ ὑμῶν, nor (2) with Ellendt, “"I perceive what is uttered by your voice."” The pause saves the short final of φατιζόμενον from being a breach of synaphea: cp. 143 (“πρέσβυς”;): Ant. 932 (“ὕπερ”).
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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