πρισθεὶς … ἐξ ἀντύγων, firmly bound — gripped from the chariot-rail. The schol. explains “πρισθείς” by “δεθείς”: Suidas, by “δεθείς, ἐξαφθείς, δεσμευθείς”. The senses of “πρίω” are:—1. To saw. 2. In “πρίειν τοὺς ὀδόντας”, to grind or clench the teeth. Suidas quotes “ἐμπρίσαντες τοὺς ὀδόντας” (said of men under torture). 3. To bite: Soph. fr. 811 “ὀδόντι πρῖε τὸ στόμα”. 4. To clutch tightly (as with the teeth). Oppian Opp. Hal. 2. 138 describes a serpent winding its coils round an “ἐχῖνος” (hedgehog): “ἴσχει τ᾽ ἐμπρίει τε”, ‘he holds and compresses him’ (schol. “πιέζει”). So Hesychius: “πρισμοῖς: ταῖς βιαίοις κατοχαῖς” (‘grips’). Hence “ἀπρίξ, ἄπριγδα”, mordicus, ‘tightly’ (as between the teeth): see above, Opp. Hal. v. 310. Thus “πρισθείς” is forcibly used here to describe the fatal grip of the girdle, from which Hector could not escape. I do not think that the word was meant also to suggest that the girdle cut into his flesh.—Paley is surely mistaken in explaining “ζωστῆρι πρισθείς” as ‘lacerated by means of the girdle’: “πρισθείς” could not bear that sense, which is expressed in the next verse by “ἐκνάπτετ̓”. ἀντύγων, the rail which protected the front and both sides of the chariot (hence the plur.): see on El. 746.ἱππικῶν, as in Homer “ἵπποι” often=‘chariot’: so El. 730“ναυαγίων..ἱππικῶν”, ‘wreck of chariots.’
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part VII: The Ajax. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1907.
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