ἀνάγκῃ … προτρέπει. Cp. Il. 6. 336“ἥμην ἐν θαλάμῳ, ἔθελον δ᾽ ἄχεϊ προτραπέσθαι”, ‘to turn forwards towards’ grief, and so, ‘to yield myself up to it.’ It seems possible that this Homeric use of the middle was that on which Sopho cles modelled his use of the act. here. ‘Who causes thee to yield to this necessity,’—‘subjects thee’ to it? No dative occurs with this verb elsewhere; nor is any emendation probable. [I formerly understood, ‘impels thee with this necessity.’ But this is awkward: in Ant. 269 f. “ὅς πάντας ἐς πέδον κάρα” | “νεῦσαι φόβῳ προὔτρεψεν”, the sense is, indeed, ‘impelled,’ but the inf. aids it, as in O. T. 358“σὺ γάρ μ᾽ ἄκοντα προὐτρέψω λέγειν”.]
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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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