Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Electra

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ἀρκυστάτοις. The “ἄρκυς” (cassis） was a hunting tunnel-net, ending in a pouch (“κεκρύφαλος”, Cyneg. 6 § 7). It was meant to receive the game when driven to the extremity of the enclosed ground. “ἀρκύστατα” (“ἄρκυς, ἵστημι”) meant properly such nets when set up; and “ἀρκυστάσιον”, or “ἀρκυστασία”, is the enclosure formed by them ( Cyneg. 6 § 6). When used figuratively, as here, the word suggests, not merely the capture of the victim, but also the act of decoying or driving him into the toils. It is thus more expressive than “δίκτυον” (the general word for ‘net’), “ἀμφίβληστρον” (‘castingnet’), or “γάγγαμον” (a circular fishing-net), —which are also used metaphorically ( Aesch. Ag. 358, Aesch. Ag. 1382, Aesch. Ag. 361). Cp. Aesch. Ag. 1374“πῶς γάρ τις ἐχθροῖς ἐχθρὰ πορσύνων, φίλοις” | “δοκοῦσιν εἶναι, πημονῆς ἀρκύστατ᾽ ἂν” | “φράξειεν ὕψος κρεῖσσον ἐκπηδήματος”;

For μέσοις, cp. Aesch. Eum. 112“ἐκ μέσων ἀρκυστάτων” | “ὤρουσεν”: Eur. El. 965 “καλῶς ἄρ᾽ ἄρκυν ἐς μέσην πορεύεται.”

πέπτωκα with ἐν (instead of “εἰς” with acc.), as Eur. H. F. 1091“ὡς ἐν κλύδωνι καὶ φρενῶν ταράγματι” | “πέπτωκα δεινῷ”.