γήρᾳ refers to the change in his appearance; χρόνῳ μακρῷ, to the lapse of seven years (v. 14), which may have caused him to be forgotten. οὐδ᾽ ὑποπτεύσουσιν follows οὐ μὴ γνῶσι, as in O. C. 450 ff. “οὐδ᾽ ἥξει” follows “οὐ μὴ λάχωσι”. The latter example is so far less harsh that the verbs have different subjects; but it shows how these two forms of future statements could be strictly co-ordinated. No correction is probable. (“ὑποπτεύσωσιν” would require, of course, “μηδ̓”.) ὧδ᾽ ἠνθισμένον, with grey hair: O. T. 742“λευκανθὲς κάρα”: Erinna fr. 2 “παυρολόγοι πολιαί, ταὶ γήραος ἄνθεα θνατοῖς”. The schol., objecting that such a change would not suffice to disguise him, takes the word as=“ἠσκημένον” (an impossible sense for it). Another view strangely refers it to ‘a Phocian dress spangled with flowers’ (Paley).
This text is part of:
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.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.