εἰ γὰρ κτενοῦμεν. Note two points of syntax here. (1) We have two protases, not co-ordinate: the first of them, “εἰ κτενοῦμεν”, states the primary condition, on which everything else depends. ‘If that is to be the rule, then (if you got your due) you would die.’ Cp. Ai. 782 f.: Suppl. 1084 “εἰ δ᾽ ἦμεν νέοι ι δὶς καὶ γέροντες, εἴ τις ἐξημάρτανε”, | “διπλοῦ βίου λαχόντες ἐξωρθούμεθ᾽ ἄν”. (2) The first protasis has the fut. indic.: the second protasis and the apodosis have the optat. with “ἄν”, not as a softened future, but in a potential sense. Cp. Thuc. 1. 142“φρούριον δ᾽ εἰ ποιήσονται, τῆς μὲν γῆς βλάπτοιεν ἄν τι μέρος”. Eur. Tro. 730“εἰ γάρ τι λέξεις ᾦ χολώσεται στρατός”, | “οὔτ᾽ ἂν ταφείη παῖς ὅδ̓, οὔτ᾽ οἴκτου τύχοι”. πρώτη: i.e., no one has more fully deserved the penalty.
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.