ἀλλ᾽ ἀντ᾽ ἀδελφοῦ δῆτα. Here the first supposition is introduced by “πότερον”, and the second by “ἀλλὰ δῆτα”, as in Ai. 460—466. “ἀλλά” was regularly used in thus putting the imagined arguments of an adversary,—the figure called “ὑποφορά” in Greek rhetoric, and in Latin subiectio, because “subicimus id quod oportet dici” (Cornificius, 4. 23. 33). Xen. An. 5. 8. 4“πότερον ᾔτουν τί σε καί, ἐπεί μοι οὐκ ἐδίδους, ἔπαιον; ἀλλ᾽ ἀπῄτουν; ἀλλὰ περὶ παιδικῶν μαχόμενος; ἀλλὰ” “μεθύων ἐπαρῴνησα”; In this verse, “ἀλλὰ” introduces both the supposed argument and the reply, since κτανὼν=“εἰ ἔκτανεν” (as=‘granting that he slew’). Cp. Andoc. or, 1. § 148 “τίνα γὰρ καὶ ἀναβιβάσομαι δεήσομενον ὑπὲρ ἐμαυτοῦ; τὸν πατέρα; ἀλλὰ τέθνηκεν. ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἀδελφούς; ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ εἰσίν. ἀλλὰ τοὺς παῖδας; ἀλλ᾽ οὔπω γεγένηνται” . ἀντὶ ἀδελφοῦ here=‘in his stead,’ i.e. ‘to save him from slaying his child’: not, ‘for his sake.’ Nor is it short for “ἀντὶ” [“τῶν τοῦ”] “ἀδελφοῦ.” τἄμ̓: for the neut. referring to persons, cp. 972: O. T. 1195 n. In Ant. 48“τῶν ἐμ<*>ν”, and in O. T. 1448“τῶν γε σῶν”, may be masc., like O. C. 832“τοὺς ἐμοὺς ἄγω”.
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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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