κρῆναι, the “"founts."” “"The most distant sources of the river are on the w. side of Mt. Pentelicus and the s. side of Mt. Parnes, and in the intermediate ridge which unites them"” (Leake): in particular, a broad stream descends from the steepest part of Parnes. The Cephisus has a course of about 20 miles to the bay of Phalerum. μινύθουσιν. Soph. has seized a distinctive point. Even at this day, when the plain has much less shade than of old, the Cephisus “"never fails,"” while in the long droughts of summer the bed of the Ilissus is absolutely dry. Cp. Modern Greece by H. M. Baird (1856) p. 294: “"The little river Cephisus...scatters fertility and verdure around. Great was the contrast between its banks and the rest of the plain, which in the month of October is dry, parched, and dusty. The whole valley, in its width of six miles, had been stripped of nearly every vestige of vegetation; for not a drop of water had fallen during the previous four or five months."”—“μινύθω” is both trans. and intrans. in Homer; intrans. in the Ionic of Hippocr. (who has it of flesh “"wasting"”). Aesch. has it twice in lyrics (intrans.); Soph. only here.
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.