Poseidon has taught men to row as well as to ride. He fits the oars to their hands. But, instead of “τὰν δὲ πλάταν χερσὶ παράψας”, the form is varied to a passive constr. If παραπτομένα is sound, this seems the best account of it,—“παρά”, “"at the side,"” suggesting the notion, “"as an aid."” (If from “παραπέτομαι”, it could be only aor., which the sense excludes.) Conjecture might proceed on either of two views:—（a) that in the strophic v. 704 the correction αἰὲν is true, so that “παραπτομένα” is metrically sound: (b) that in 704 the MS. εἰσαιὲν is true, so that here we require u--uu-. On the latter view I would suggest that προσαρμοζομένα is suitable, and on this “παραπτομένα” may have been a gloss; cp. Eur. I. T. 1405 (“χέρας”) “κώπῃ προσαρμόσαντες”. εὐήρετμος, adj. compounded with a noun cognate in sense to the subst. (πλάτα): cp. “βίος μακραίων” (O. T. 518 n.), “λογος κακόθρους” (Ai. 138), “εὔπαις γόνος” (Eur. I. T. 1234), “εὐπήχεις χεῖρες” (Hipp. 200). ἔκπαγλα, neut. plur. as adv., cp. 319. ἁλία with θρῴσκει: cp. on 119 “ἐκτόπιος”.
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.