ὡς ὤφελον: cp. Il. 3. 428“ὡς ὤφελες αὐτόθ᾽ ὀλέσθαι”. With Homer, “ὡς” and “αἴθ̓” are alike frequent in this phrase: Attic usage prefers “εἴθ̓” (1021), though “ὡς” also occurs (as in Ar. Ran. 955, Eur. Ion 286). The simple “ὤφελον” stands in O.T. 1157, and with “μή” in Ph. 969, Tr. 998. The v.l. ὤφελες is excluded by κλέψασα, since we should then require (“ἐμὲ”) “κλέψασαν”: it would also forestall v. 1134. Electra's self-reproach is that her action, without ultimately saving his life, deprived him of funeral rites at home. She goes on to lament that she herself had not rendered those rites (1138 ff.). That regret might seem inconsistent with her wish in 1131; but it represents a separate thought which rises in her mind as she pictures him perishing among strangers. τοῖνδε, the fem. form in Attic inscriptions (O.T. 1462 cr. n.). κἀνασώσασθαι, ‘rescue’: so the act. in O.T. 1351 “ἀπό τε φόνου” | “ἔρρυτο κἀνέσωσε”. The word means esp. to ‘recover’ what has been lost. Her. 3. 65“μὴ δὲ ἀνασωσαμένοισι τὴν ἀρχήν, μηδ᾽ ἐπιχειρήσασι ἀνασῴζειν.” φόνου: cp. 11.
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part VI: The Electra. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1894.
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