Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Electra

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τοῦτ᾽ ἐκεῖν̓ “κ.τ.λ.” Three modes of punctuation are possible; the first is perhaps the best, though the second is also satisfactory. (1) To place no point either after “ἐκεῖν̓” or after “σαφές”. ‘There, it seems, I clearly see that sorrow (=the sorrow which I foreboded) in your hands.’ “σαφὲς” is then equiv. to an adv. with “δέρκομαι”: and the combination of “σαφὲς” with “πρόχειρον” is like that in Tr. 223“τάδ᾽ ἀντίπρῳρα δή σοι” | “βλέπειν πάρεστ᾽ ἐναργῆ”. (2) To place a point after “σαφές”. ‘This is what I feared (“ἐκεῖνο”), now placed beyond a doubt; I see,’ etc. The only objection to this is that the words “πρόχειρον κ.τ.λ.” then become a little abrupt and obscure. (3) To place a point after “ἐκεῖν̓”, and none after “σαφές”. ‘That is it; I now see clearly,’ etc. Cp. Ar. Av. 354“τοῦτ᾽ ἐκεῖνο: ποῖ φύγω δύστηνος”; But this colloquialism, though used by Eur. ( Eur. Or. 804“τοῦτ᾽ ἐκεῖνο, κτᾶσθ᾽ ἑταίρους”), seems too homely for the style of Sophocles. In 1178 we have merely “τόδ᾽ ἔστ᾽ ἐκεῖνο”: in Soph. O. C. 137“ὅδ᾽ ἐκεῖνος ἐγώ”.

πρόχειρον, ‘ready in the hand’: Ph. 747“πρόχειρον εἴ τί σοι, τέκνον, πάρα” | “ξίφος χεροῖν” (n.).

ἄχθος, i.e., the urn, but with ref. to the figurative sense, ‘woe’ (cp. 120, 204): Ant. 1172“τί δ᾽ αὖ τόδ᾽ ἄχθος βασιλέων ἥκεις φέρων”;