The words τῷ νῷ have been suspected by recent criticism. They seem to me sound. The sense is, “"these things, which I say to you, are purposed by my mind as really as they are uttered by my tongue."” With τῷ νῷ a verb meaning “"I intend"” (e.g. “διανοοῦμαι”) should strictly have been used; but the verb appropriate to ἀπὸ γλώσσης is made to serve for both. For a similar zeugma cp. O. T. 116 “οὐδ᾽ ἄγγελός τις οὐδὲ συμπράκτωρ ὁδοῦ ι κατεῖδ᾽”, where the verb appropriate to “ἄγγελος”, viz. “ἦλθε”, has to be supplied from “κατεῖδ̓”. To Meineke's τοῦ νοῦ (governed by “ἀπό”) it may be objected that “ἐκ” would be the right prep., as in “ἐκ θυμοῦ, ἐκ ψυχῆς.” ἀπὸ γλώσσης usu.=“"by word of mouth"” (as opp. to “"by letter"”), as in Thuc. 7.10.— For the antithesis cp. Plat. Symp. 199A “ἡ γλῶττα οὖν ὑπέσχετο, ἡ δὲ φρὴν οὔ” (alluding to Eur. Hipp. 612).
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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