φόβου πρόβλημα, a screen ( Ph. 1008 n.), a defence, afforded by fear,— the gen. defining that in which the defence consists; cp. El. 682“πρόσχημ᾽ ἀγῶνος”, ib. 857 “ἐλπίδων..ἀρωγαί.” αἰδοῦς. The schol. on 1074 quotes from Epicharmus, “ἔνθα δέος, ἐνταῦθα καὶ αἰδώς”: cp. Euthyphr. p. 12 B, where Socrates quotes from Stasînus, “ἵνα γὰρ δέος, ἔνθα καὶ αἰδώς”,—remarking that we ought rather to say, “ἵνα μὲν αἰδώς, ἔνθα καὶ δέος: οὐ μέντοι, ἵνα γε δέος, πανταχοῦ αἰδώς”. The sentiment of Menelaüs is genuinely Spartan. Plut. Cleom. 9 dwells on the place of “φόβος” in Spartan government: “τιμῶσι δὲ τὸν φόβον...τὴν πολιτείαν μάλιστα συνέχεσθαι φόβῳ νομίζοντες”. The Aeschylean Athena, too, counsels “μὴ τὸ δεινὸν πᾶν πόλεως ἔξω βαλεῖν” ( Plut. Eum. 698), but there the basis of the fear is to be “αἰδώς”,—the “σέβας” (690) for the Areiopagus. As at Sparta there was a shrine of “Φόβος” ( Plut. l.c.), so at Athens there was an altar of “Αἰδώς” ( Paus. 1. 17. 1).
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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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