οὐ μὰ is here followed by a second negative, as in 1239 f.: Il. 1. 86, Il. 23. 44: Ar. Ran. 1043, etc. δέσποιναν. This title, given to Athena in Ai. 38, is not Homeric in ref. to a goddess, but is so used by Pindar (fr. 122. 14 “δέσποινα Κύπρου”). At Athens it was more especially applied to Persephone ( Legg. 796 B “ἡ...παρ᾽ ἡμῖν κόρη καὶ δέσποινα”). Ἄρτεμιν. Clytaemnestra calls u<*>n the virgin-goddess to witness her threat, because she regards Electra as guilty <*> unmaidenly conduct (516 ff.). Electra has already appealed to Artemis (563), and again invokes her in 1238. θράσους τοῦδ᾽ οὐκ ἀλύξεις, ‘thou shalt not escape (punishment) for this boldness’; causal gen.: cp. Ant. 931“τούτων τοῖσιν ἄγουσιν” | “κλαύμαθ᾽ ὑπάρξει”. Nub. 1239 “οὔτοι”... | “ἐμοῦ καταπροΐξει” (on my account). See n. on Ant. 488“οὐ<*> ἀλύξετον” | “μόρου κακίστου”, where the gen. denotes the penalty. And so “θράσους” is sometimes taken here: but ‘escape from boldness’ surely could not mean, ‘escape from the penalty of boldness.’ It is different when (e.g.) “φεύγων τόδ᾽ αἷμα κοινόν” ( Aesch. Ch. 1038) means, ‘flying from (the stain of) a kinsman's murder.’— μόλῃ: cp. 313.
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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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