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τεθάψεται. Here, as at 1141, the fut. perf. gives a peremptory tone. Athena uses it in I. T. 1464: “οὗ καὶ τεθάψει”. (Cp. Nub. 1436 “τεθνήξεις”.) The ordinary fut. pass. was “ταφήσομαι”. The practice of burying a warrior's arms with him was a primitive Aryan custom; witness the swords found in the graves at Mycenae. Sophocles in this play follows the legend that the body of Ajax was interred, and not, as was the ordinary practice in the heroic age, burned (cp. 1166 n.). The reference to the burial of the arms is thus perfectly fitting. There was less meaning in the practice, noticed by Homer, of burning a warrior's armour with him; Il. 6. 418ἀλλ᾽ ἄρα μιν κατέκηε σὺν ἔντεσι δαιδαλέοισιν”: Od. 11. 74ἀλλά με κακκῆαι σὺν τεύχεσιν”. It may have come down from the earlier days when interment was the rule. No arms are burned on the pyre of Patroclus ( Il. 23. 165 ff.), Hector (24. 785 ff.), or Achilles ( Od. 24. 65 ff.).

κοίν̓ ἐμοὶ: κοινὰ” is here adv.: cp. Ant. 546μή μοι θάνῃς σὺ κοινά”.


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