πατρὸς … δευτέραν ὁμιλίαν= “πατέρα αὖθις ὁμιλοῦντα”: cp. Ai. 872“ναὸς κοινόπλουν ὁμιλίαν”: Eur. Heracl. 581“ὑμεῖς δ̓, ἀδελφῶν ἡ παροῦσ᾽ ὁμιλία”, | “εὐδαιμονοῖτε”. So Soph. Ph. 868“οἰκούρημα...ξένων” (n.). ἐφέστιον πῆξαι: cp. O. T. 1411“θαλάσσιον ἐκρίψατ̓” (n.). The floor of the Homeric megaron was not of wood or stone, but merely of earth trodden hard; Odysseus, when he sets up the axes, digs a trench in it ( Od. 21. 120). “πῆξαι”, then, affords no reason against referring “ἐφέστιον” to the hearth in the megaron (270 n.). But the vision of the tree becomes more intelligible if we imagine the sceptre planted at the altar of Zeus Herkeios in the open “αὐλή” of the house ( Ant. 487). The suppliants at the household altars of Oedipus can say of themselves, “ἑζόμεσθ᾽ ἐφέστιοι” (O.T. 32). This sceptre is described in the Iliad (2. 101 f.) as the work of Hephaestus, who gave it Zeus; Hermes transmitted it to Pelops, from whom it passed to Atreus and Agamemnon. The Homeric sceptre is often called “χρύσεον” ( Il. 2. 268, etc.), prob. as being ornamented with gold foil, or studded with gold nails ( Il. 1. 246“χρυσείοις ἥλοισι πεπαρμένον”). Among the objects found at Mycenae are some supposed remains of such sceptres (Schliem., Myc. 201, etc.). οὑφόρει ποτέ κ.τ.λ.: cp. 268 n.
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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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