Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus

---

---

ὤμοι is Wecklein's correction of ἰὼ μή. That μή was an error for μοι had already been surmised by some old corrector (see cr. n.). Hermann defended μή by taking it with ἔχρῃζες as=“"would that thou hadst not wished"”—an unheardof construction (cp. on 540). He took “ἔρημος ὧδέ … μοι” as=“"lonely, just as thou wast, for me,"”—i.e. in his wanderings before he had found Attic friends; since, if he had died while still alone with her, she could have given him burial herself.—With ὤμοι render:—“"Ah me, it was thy wish to die in a strange land (and so far thy death is well): but thus (by this manner of death) thou hast died forlorn in regard to me"” (μοι ethic dat.). She means, “"I have had no opportunity of rendering thee the due rites, and now I do not know the place of thy grave, so as to make the “ἐναγίσματα"” at it.” Hence her passionate desire to find his grave (1724 ff.), which Theseus with difficulty allays by reminding her of his solemn promise (1760). The preparatory offices rendered at 1602 f. could not be viewed as taking the place of a daughter's tribute to the dead. Like 1410, this trait serves to recall the special manifestation of her piety in the earlier play.—Not merely:—“"It was your wish; but it was sad for me to see you die forlorn,"”—i.e. in exile. Though “ἐπὶ ξένης”, he was not in this sense ἔρημος,—he who, in his own words, had “"Athens and all her people"” for his friends (772).—Cp. 1705 “ἆς ἔχρῃζε...ἔθανε”. The repetition of one phrase in no way justifies Dindorf's rash hypothesis of interpolation here (see cr. n.). Here, the wish is connected with a painful thought; there, with a soothing one. Mention of the wish itself might most naturally recur in a lament.