εἰ θέμις ἐστι: a propitiatory address, since Pluto and the other “χθόνιοι θεοί” are stern to human prayers. So Hades is “δίχα παιάνων” (Eur. I. T. 185), “ἀμείλιχος ἠδ᾽ ἀδάμαστος” (Il. 9.158). Hor. Carm. 2. 14. 5 “Non si tricenis, quotquot eunt dies, Amice, places illacrimabilem Plutona tauris.” τὰν ἀφανῆ θεὸν, Persephone (1548), an unusual title, perhaps suggested by the literal sense of “Ἅιδης”: cp. Pind. fr. 207 “Ταρτάρου πυθμὴν πιέζει σ᾽ ἀφανοῦς”: Aesch. Th. 859 “τὰν ἀνάλιον ι πάνδοκον εἰς ἀφανῆ τε χέρσον” (the nether-world).
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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