τίς οὖν, a remonstrance, in which “οὖν” may be rendered by ‘Nay.’ ἀξίαν is predicative, and equiv. to an adverb, ‘worthily,’ ‘fitly’; cp. the schol., “τίς ἄν, φησί, σοῦ φανέντος δικαίως ἕλοιτο ἀντὶ λόγων σιωπήν”; I agree with the schol. also in taking σοῦ πεφηνότος as a gen. absol., rather than as depending on “ἀξίαν”. For the absolute use of the latter, cp. 298 “ἀξίαν δίκην”: O. T. 1004“χάριν.. ἀξίαν”: ib. 133 “ἀξίως.” Join λόγων with μεταβάλοιτ̓, not with “σιγὰν”: cp. Antiphon or. 5 § 79 “ἠλλάξαντο..εὐδαιμονίας.. κακοδαιμονίαν.” <*>δε, as thou biddest. 1264 After τότ᾽ εἶδες, the MSS. have ὅτε: but the tribrach in the second foot, while there is no caesura in the third, makes an intolerably lame verse. Read εὖτε instead of ὅτε, and scan θεοὶ as a monosyllable by synizesis. In the other trimeters of Sophocles where “θεὸς” belongs to the third foot, it is always so scanned: O. C. 964, Ph. 1020, Ai. 489, Ai. 1129.ὅτε arose from τότ̓. ἐπώτρυναν, by the oracle (35): an answer to the reproach unconsciously conveyed by “ἀέλπτως” (1263). He came as soon as Apollo gave the word. After this verse, a trimeter has been lost, as the strophe shows, where v. 1244 (“ἔνεστιν κ.τ.λ.”) is certainly genuine.
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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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