οἶμαι μὲν οὖν: ‘Now (“οὖν”) I think (“οἶμαι μὲν”） that our father is already aiding us of his own accord; but still (“ὅμως δέ”, 461) pray for his help.’ Here the particles “μὲν οὖν” have each their separate force, as in O. T. 483, O. C. 664, Ant. 65: not their compound force, ‘nay rather’ (1503). If μέλον be kept, we must supply “ἦν”, and take “οἶμαι” as parenthetic. This is possible, but harsh. “οἶμαι” cannot govern “μέλον”, as though it were “οἶδα”. (Nor can “μέλον τι” be the subject to “πέμψαι”, as Paley takes it: ‘I think that some concern affecting him also sent these dreams.’) Probably μέλειν was corrupted to μέλον through a misunderstanding of the construction. The sense is, “νομίζω ὅτι καὶ ἐκείνῳ ἔμελέ τι” (adv., ‘in some degree’) “πέμψαι κ.τ.λ.” She means that, though the gods below are the primary authors of the vision, the spirit of the dead was also in some measure active.
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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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