ἔπτηξα, aor. referring to a moment just past, where we should ordinarily use the pres.: Ai. 693 “ἔφριξ᾽ ἔρωτι”. Cp. O. T. 337 n. θυμόν, acc. of part affected. οὐρανία: schol. “ἀντὶ τοῦ ταχεῖα”. This seems to be merely a marginal note by the “"diorthotes"” of L, not one of the ancient scholia which he copied into the MS.: and I doubt whether it points to a different reading. Rather, probably, it means that the writer took “οὐρανία” as= “"rushing from the sky."” Heinrich Schmidt defends οὐρανία as -u-: others deny that such a synizesis is possible. But in Aesch. Th. 288 “καρδίας” answers metrically to “ἐχθροῖς” (305); in his Suppl. 71 “καρδίαν”=the last two syllables of “στυγοῦντες” (80); and ib. 799 “καρδίας”=the first two of “γαιάοχε” (816). Dindorf cuts the knot in all these places by adopting “κάρζα”, an Aeolic form mentioned in Etym. M. 407. 21,—surely a most improbable remedy. It is more reasonable to infer that so easy a synizesis as that of ια was sometimes allowed in the lyrics of Attic drama. Elmsley's οὐρία (suggested by the schol.'s “ταχεῖα”) is unsuitable here. From Hesych. “ἄργιος: λευκός, ταχύς”, Wecklein suggests ἀργία, comparing the Homeric “ἀργῆτα κεραυνόν”. If any change were needed, I should prefer οὐρανῷ.
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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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