ἄχθη (a nomin., like “νύξ”) is defined by the following words. But instead of saying “ἄχθη, θάνατοι αἰκεῖς, τοὺς ἴδε κ.τ.λ.”, the poet has drawn “θάνατοι αἰκεῖς” into the relative clause. He thus gains more prominence for “τοὺς ἐμὸς ἴδε πατήρ”. The conjecture τοῖς (neut., ‘by which’) would enfeeble the passage. For the tragic plur. θανάτους, cp. Tr. 1276(Deianeira's death), O.T. 497 (that of Laïus): so below, 779 “φόνους”: Ant. 1313“μόρων”: Eur. El. 137 “αἱμάτων” . διδύμαιν χειροῖν, the hand of Clytaemnestra and the hand of Aegisthus. Cp. 1080 “διδύμαν..Ἐρινύν”. Nauck wishes to write διδύμοιν. But Meisterhans (Gramm. d. Att. Inschr. p. 49) quotes “λιθίναιν” from an Attic inscr. of 439 B.C. Cp. 1133.
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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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