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1437-1441

These verses are antistrophic to 1417—1421. δἰ ὠτὸς implies gentle, whispering tones; cp. Theocr. 14. 27 “χἁμῖν τοῦτο δἰ ὠτὸς ἔγεντο πόχ᾽ ἅσυχον οὕτως.”

ὡς ἠπίως, ‘as if kindly,’ ‘with seeming gentleness’: not like “ὡς ἐτητύμως” in 1452.

λαθραῖον, as epith. of “ἀγῶνα”, has a predicative force,—‘that he may rush upon his doom without foreseeing it’; it may thus be represented by an adv., ‘blindly.’—“δίκας ἀγῶνα. δίκη” is the just retribution which awaits him. “δίκης ἀγών” is the struggle which this retribution brings upon him,—his conflict with the avenging power.


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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