νέα τάδε … κιγχάνει. Two views are admissible: I prefer that which is here placed first. (1) ἦλθέ μοι=“"I have seen come,"” not, “"have come on me,"” μοι being ethic dative (81). The Chorus alludes to the doom pronounced on Polyneices and his brother. “"Here are new ills which I have seen come from the blind stranger,—unless perchance, Fate is finding fulfilment."” Oedipus has often spoken of the fate which pursues his race (964 etc.), and the Chorus correct their first phrase by surmising that haply this fate, not Oedipus, is the real agent of the doom on the brothers. The schol. took ἦλθέ μοι as a foreboding of the Chorus that they might be involved in these alien ills: but μοι seems merely to express sympathy. (2) Others suppose that a low rumbling of thunder was heard immediately after the exit of Polyneices, and that ἔκτυπεν αἰθήρ in 1456 merely marks the first loud sound. νέα τάδε … κακὰ are then the evils which the Chorus forebode from the incipient thunder: ἦλθέ μοι=“"have come upon me."” εἴ τι μοῖρα μὴ κιγχάνει is then taken either as before, or thus:—“"if haply his end is not coming upon him."” To this view we may object:—（a) It is much more natural to suppose that the beginning of the thunder is denoted by ἔκτυπεν. Each step in the crescendo of the thunder is marked by words of the Chorus: a second, and louder, peal comes at 1462, a third at 1476. The whole effect of the passage depends on the moralising of the Chorus (1451 ff.) being interrupted by the sudden crash at 1456. (b) After the exit of Polyneices, we naturally expect from the Chorus some comment on the father's curse and the son's doom. (c) If νέα κακὰ meant “"new ills"” brought on the Chorus by Oed., the language would rather imply that they had suffered something else from him before,—which is not the case. νεόθεν strengthens νέα, and might mean, “"from a new occasion"” (the visit of Polyneices); but it seems more probable that the poet used it merely in the sense of “"newly"” (lit., “"from a recent moment"”); schol. “νεωστί”. For the form cp. Il. 7.97 “λώβη τάδε γ᾽ ἔσσεται αἰνόθεν αἰνῶς”, “"with horrors of horrors"”: ib. 39 “οἰόθεν οἶος”, “"singly and alone."” εἴ τι μοῖρα μὴ κιγχάνει: for τι=“"perchance,"” cp. O. T. 124 (n.): the formula “εἴ τι μή” is used in noticing an alternative which occurs to one as an afterthought, ib. 969. κιγχάνει “"is overtaking"” (its victims), the acc. being understood, as
. (The full constr., 22. 303 “νῦν αὖτέ με μοῖρα κιχάνει”.) So 11. 451 “φθῆ σε τέλος θανάτοιο κιχήμενον”. Wecklein (who reads “κιγχάνῃ”) understands, “"unless fate prevent them"” (“τὰ κακά”),—as if it were a hope that the curse on the brothers might not be fulfilled. This surely strains the sense of the verb.“πᾶσιν γὰρ ἐπίστατο μείλιχος εἶναι
ζωὸς ἐών: νῦν αὖ θάνατος καὶ μοῖρα κιχάνει
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