εἰ γὰρ “κ.τ.λ.” She says:— ‘I will not cease to lament, and to invoke retribution on the murderers (209 f.). For, if they are not to pay with their blood for the blood which they have shed, there will be an end to regard for man and to fear of heaven.’ γᾶ here=“σποδός”, of the dead: Eur. fr. 522 “κατθανὼν δὲ πᾶς ἀνὴρ” | “γῆ καὶ σκιά: τὸ μηδὲν εἰς οὐδὲν ῥέπει.” οὐδὲν (not “μηδὲν”) ὢν, though εἰ precedes: cp. O. C. 935“βίᾳ τε κοὐχ ἑκών” (after “εἰ μή”): Ai. 1131“εἰ...οὐκ ἐᾷς”. Here the parataxis affords a special excuse for “οὐδέν”,—viz., that this first clause, though formally dependent on “εἰ”, is not really hypothetical: he is dead. In the second clause (“εἰ..μὴ.. δώσους᾿”), a real hypothesis, the negative is “μή”. Cp. Lys. or. 10 § 13 “οὐκ οὖν δεινόν, εἰ ὅταν μὲν δέῃ σε..τοὺς ἐχθροὺς τιμωρεῖσθαι, οὕτω τοὺς νόμους...λαμβάνεις, ὅταν δ᾽ ἕτερον παρὰ τοὺς νόμους εἴπῃς κακῶς, οὐκ ἀξιοῖς δοῦναι δίκην;” Electra is contrasting her father, whose earthly life has been cut short, with his murderers, who survive. But she believes that his spirit lives in the world below, and will be active in aiding the vengeance (453 ff.). πάλιν, in recompense: O. T. 100“φόνῳ φόνον πάλιν” | “λύοντας.” ἀντιφόνους δίκας, a penalty which exacts blood for blood: cp. Ph. 1156“ἀντίφονον...στόμα”: Aesch. Eum. 464“ἀντικτόνοις ποιναῖσι φιλτάτου πατρός”.
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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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