πηγάς: here, strictly the gushing of the water from the bowl. From each of the three bowls he is to pour a “χοή”. The first and second bowls are to be filled with the spring water only; and from each of these he is to make a libation without emptying the bowl. The third bowl is to contain water sweetened with honey; and, in making the libation from this, he is to empty it. τρισσάς might be distributive, “"three from each bowl"” (as the number nine recurs in 483); but in the “χοή” to the dead in Od. 10.519, at least, there are only three pourings, viz. of (1) hydromel, (2) wine, (3) water. τὸν τελευτ. (“κρωσσόν”) as if “ἔκχεον”, not “χέον”, were understood: cp. Menander fr. 461 “τὸν χοᾶ ι ἐκκέχυκας”, you have emptied the pitcher.
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.
Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education provided support for entering this text.
This text was converted to electronic form by professional data entry and has been proofread to a high level of accuracy.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.