οὐδενὶ μοιριδία τίσις ἔρχεται, to no one comes punishment from fate, ὧν (=τούτων ἃ) προπάθῃ, for things (caus. gen.) which he has already suffered, τὸ τίνειν (acc.), in respect of his requiting them. συγγνωστόν ἐστιν ἐὰν τίνῃ τις ἃ ἂν προπάθῃ. <"Thou didst deceive us by getting our promise before telling thy name; we may requite thy deceit by deeming our promise void." τίνειν (with τὸ added, see on 47) further explains the causal gen. ὧν: "no one is punished for deeds which have first been done to him—that is, for repaying them to the aggressor." Cp. 1203 “πάσχειν, παθόντα δ᾽ οὐκ ἐπίστασθαι τίνειν”: Eur. Or. 109 “τίνοι...τροφάς”, repay care. ὧν for “ὧν ἄν”, as 395, O. T. 1231 (n.). With Wunder's ἃν some construe:— οὐδενὶ τὸ τίνειν ἃ ἂν προπάθῃ ἔρχεται μοιριδία τίσις, "for no one retaliation becomes (=γίγνεται) a fate-doomed punishment": but could the τίσις itself thus stand for the cause of the τίσις? The ὧν of the MSS. is confirmed by other passages where, instead of an acc. governed by the infin., we have a gen. depending on another word, and then the infin. added epexegetically: El. 542 “ἵμερον τέκνων … ἔσχε δαίσασθαι”: Plat. Crito 52B “οὐδ᾽ ἐπιθυμία σε ἄλλης πόλεως οὐδ᾽ ἄλλων νόμων ἔλαβεν εἰδέναι”: Rep. 443 B “ἀρχόμενοι τῆς πόλεως οἰκίζειν”.
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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