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

ἀχείρωτον was read here by Pollux (2. 154), and is thus carried back to about 160 A.D.; it is also in A and a majority of our other MSS.; while L's “ἀχείρητον” is clearly a corruption. The question is whether ἀχείρωτον means (1) “"unvanquished,"” the only sense in which it occurs elsewhere, as Thuc. 6.10 “οἱ Χαλκιδῆς...ἀχείρωτοί εἰσι”: or (2) “ἀχειρούργητον”, as Pollux takes it, “"not cultivated by human hands."” “χείρωμα” usu. meant “"a conquest,"” or “"a violent deed"”; yet Aesch. could say “τυμβοχόα χειρώματα” (work of the hand in mound-making) Theb. 1022. A bold artist in language might similarly, perhaps, have ventured on “ἀχείρωτος” as =“"not hand-wrought."” My reason for preferring “"unvanquished"” is the context. While βλαστόν (697) refers to the miraculous creation of the olive by Athena, αὐτοποιόν refers (I think) to its miraculous self-renewal after the Persians had burnt it. Her. 8.55 “δευτέρῃ τε ἡμέρῃ ἀπὸ τῆς ἐμπρήσιος Ἀθηναίων οἱ θύειν ὑπὸ βασιλέος κελευόμενοι ὡς ἀνέβησαν ἐς τὸ ἱρόν, ὥρων βλαστὸν ἐκ τοῦ στελέχεος ὅσον τε πηχυαῖον ἀναδεδραμηκότα”. This connection of ideas is further indicated by the next phrase, ἐγχέων etc. For αὐτοποιός as “"self-produced"” (i.e. producing itself from itself) cp. “αὐτοτόκος, αὐτοφάγος, αὐτοφόνος”. Chandler (Accent. § 457 2nd ed.) remarks that all compounds of “-ποιος” are oxytone (quoting Arcadius 88. 2): “αὐτόποιος” (as our MSS. give it) in this passage “"is the one solitary exception, and therefore probably a false accent."”