Περίθου. Elsewhere in extant classical literature the form is “Πειρίθοος” or (Attic) “Πειρίθους”. But a form “Περίθους” is sufficiently attested by the name of the Attic deme of which this hero was eponymus. Harpocr. “Περιθοῖδαι: δῆμός ἐστι τῆς Οἰνηΐδος”. Aeschin. or. 1 § 156 “Περικλείδην τὸν Περιθοίδην”: and so [Dem.] or. 50 § 41. Eustathius (101. 3) notices both forms, and Dindorf ascribes “Περίθουν” to the Paris MSS. of Georgius Syncellus (the Byzantine chronographer, 800 A.D.), p. 299. 11: vases and inscriptions also give it. There is no need, then, to write “Πειρίθου Θησέως τε”, as Blaydes does. κεῖται … ξυνθήματα: schol. “οἷον ὑπομνήματα τῆς πίστεως ἧς ἔθεντο πρὸς ἀλλήλους”: i.e. he understood by κεῖται some visible memorial. This seems clearly right. The local belief probably pointed to characters or marks on the rock. See the schol. on Aristoph. Eq. 785 “ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἀγέλαστος πέτρα καλουμένη παρὰ τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις, ὅπου καθίσαι φασὶ Θησέα μέλλοντα καταβαίνειν εἰς Ἅιδου”. Leake (Demi I. 635) conjectured that this “πέτρα” may have marked the place (“χωρίον”) mentioned by Paus. 1.18.4 as near the temple of Sarapis, S.E. of the acropolis, “ἔνθα Πειρίθουν καὶ Θησέα συνθεμένους ἐς Λακεδαίμονα καὶ ὕστερον ἐς Θεσπρωτοὺς σταλῆναι λέγουσιν”. But the expeditions named there are distinct from the descent to Hades with which the schol. connects the “πέτρα”. And, wherever this “ἀγέλαστος πέτρα” was, there must have been a cavern suggestive of the descent to Hades. The schol.'s phrase, “παρὰ τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις”, would cover Colonus. Others understand: “"where the compact has been made"” (κεῖται=pf. pass. of “τίθημι”),—a lively way of saying, “"was made,"” “ἐτέθη”: but this is improbable.— Wecklein conjectures Περίθῳ καλεῖται: “"where men say that the compact of Th. with P. was made"”: the dat. as Tr. 668 “τῶν σῶν Ἡρακλεῖ δωρημάτων”: the verb as Simonides fr. 107 “ἔνθα καλεῖται...Ἀρτέμιδος...τέμενος”. (Cp. on O. T. 1451.) This idiom, however, elsewhere always refers to places, not to acts.
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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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