=120 “ὁ πάντων ἀκορέστατος”. In regard to L's reading, μακραίων τέ θ᾽ ῾σιξ̓ ὡς ἐπεικάσαι, note these points: (1) ὡς is wrong, as the metre shows, (2) τ̓ is certainly right. We should not read, with Campb., δυσαίων; μακραίων τις, ἐπεικάσαι, because the thought turns on the linking of δυσαίων with μακραίων, the chief stress falling (as oft. in Greek) on the second: thou art old as well as hapless: i.e. thou hast borne thy woes long. (3) ἔθ᾽ may, I think, be rejected, as too weak. (4) How, then, is the short syllable to be supplied? (a) We might read;— μακραίων θ᾽, ὅς᾿ ἐπεικάσαι: cp. Thuc. 6.25 “ὅσα...ἤδη δοκεῖν αὐτῷ”, “"so far as he could now judge."” (b) μακραίων τέ τις, εἰκάσαι: cp. O. T. 82 “ἀλλ̓, εἰκάσαι μέν, ἡδύς”. I prefer (a), since all MSS. have ἐπεικάσαι.
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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