λήθουσά μ᾽ ἐξέπινες. It seems unnecessary to suppose a confusion of images. The venom from the echidna's bite is here described as working insidiously, and, at first, almost insensibly. So Heracles says of the poison, which he has already (Tr. 770) compared to the echidna's, “ἐκ δὲ χλωρὸν αἷμά μου ι πέπωκεν ἤδη”, Tr. 1055. Cp. El. 784 “ἥδε γὰρ μείζων βλάβη ι ξύνοικος ἦν μοι, τοὐμὸν ἐκπίνουσ᾽ ἀεὶ ι ψυχῆς ἄκρατον αἷμα”.
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part III: The Antigone. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1900.
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