οὐδέ γ᾽ ἔνερθ᾽ is Wecklein's correction of the corrupt οὐδὲ γέρων. In Linwood's οὐδὲ γὰρ ὣς (which Hartung and Blaydes adopt), γάρ will refer to her addressing him as “ὦ φίλος” (1700). We might also conjecture οὐδ᾽ ἐκεῖ ὢν, “"not even in that other world"” ( Ai. 1372 “κἀκεῖ κἀνθάδ᾽ ὤν”): for the hiatus cp. 1720 “ἀλλ᾽ ἐπεὶ ὀλβίως.” οὐδὲ γέρων yields no intelligible sense. (1) “"Even though thou wast old at the time of thy death."” (2) “"Even though thou art old in Hades,"”—the dead being supposed to remain such as they were at the time of death. (3) “"Even when they memory is old"”—i.e. after the lapse of years. This last is untenable: while neither (1) nor (2),—which Campbell blends by rendering “"Even old as thou wast (or art),"”—seems appropriate. She could hardly say that they would still love him though he had been so long with them, and had died at a ripe age.
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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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