σύντροφος is strongly recommended by metrical reasons, for the short “μέν” (=the 1st syll. of “κεύθων” in 635) is very difficult to defend. Sophocles has, indeed, used the other compound in O. C. 1362“μόχθῳ..ἔντροφον”. Here, however, the “εν” of “μὲν” might have led to ἔντροφος. Similarly in Ant. 837“ἔγκληρα” is probably a corruption of “σύγκληρα”. For “σύντροφος”, cp. 611 “ξύναυλος”, n. παλαιᾷ … ἁμέρᾳ, the day of old age; cp. Eur. Ion 720“νέαν δ᾽ ἁμέραν ἀπολιπὼν θάνοι”. Ar. Ran. 347“χρονίους τ᾽ ἐτῶν παλαιῶν ἐνιαυτούς”. λευκῷ, the general epithet of “γῆρας”, seems slightly more poetical here than λευκὰ, though the latter may be supported by Eur. H. F. 909“ὦ λευκὰ γήρᾳ σώματ̓”. Cp. Eur. Bacch. 258“γῆρας πολιόν”. The use of μὲν and δὲ here is the same as in ‘epanaphora,’ where the ideas represented by the formally opposed clauses are often closely akin; e.g. Theog. 656 “ἴδμεν ὅ τοι πέρι μὲν πραπίδες πέρι δ᾽ ἐστὶ νόημα”, Her. 7. 9“τῶν ἐπιστάμεθα μὲν τὴν μάχην ἐπιστάμεθα δὲ τὴν δύναμιν”.
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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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