κεναῖς δ᾽ ἀμφίσταμαι τραπέζαις. “κενὴ τράπεζα”, a ‘bare,’ or scantily furnished, table, is opposed to “τράπεζα πλήρης” ( Eur. Hipp. 110): it would be prosaic to insist that it must mean a table with nothing on it. While the docile Chrysothemis fares sumptuously (361), the rebel Electra is treated like a halfstarved slave. In v. 265 there is another hint of her privations (“τὸ τητᾶσθαι”).— ἀμφίσταμαι, because to lie at meals on a “κλίνη” was a luxury refused to the “δούλη”: such food as she receives must be taken standing. This touch seems quite in keeping with what she says below as to the treatment inflicted upon her (1196 “λύμαισι”). The plur. “τραπέζαις” refers to her experience from day to day. Hartung, reading “κενὰ δ̓ ἀμφίσταμαι τραπέζαις”, takes the sense to be that she stands ‘hungry’ by the tables at which the others feast. But “κενή” as=“νῆστις” would be neither usual nor elegant.
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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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