βοστρύχων ἄκρας φόβας, since the offering at the grave was to be merely a lock of hair (“πλόκαμος πενθητήριος”, Aesch. Ch. 8), in token of grief. The hair is not now to be cut short, as for a recent death ( Helen. 1053 “γυναικείοις ἂν οἰκτισαίμεθα” | “κουραῖσι καὶ θρήνοισι”). The censure of Helen in Eur. Or. 128, “εἴδετε παρ᾽ ἄκρας ὡς ἀπέθρισεν τρίχας”, | “σῴζουσα κάλλος”, refers to the time of her mother's death. κἀμοῦ ταλαίνης is a possessive genitive, going with “τήνδ᾽ ἀλιπ. τρίχα”. It is so placed in the sentence as to heighten the pathos:—‘give him a lock cut from (thine own head),—and (give) on my part..this hair,’ etc.
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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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