γὰρ, prefatory (32). δισσῶν ὀνείρων (neut., cp. Eur. H. F. 518“ὄνειρα”), ‘ambiguous’ dreams, “ἀμφιβόλων”. The ordinary sense of “δισσὰ ὄνειρα” would be (1) ‘two dreams,’ or (2) ‘two sets of dreams.’ But it can mean also, (3) ‘dreams of two kinds’: cp. Arist. Rhet. 1. 15§ 13 “μάρτυρές εἰσι διττοί” (are of two kinds), “ο<*>” “μὲν παλαιοὶ οἱ δὲ πρόσφατοι”. And ‘dreams of two kinds’ are here, ‘dreams which admit of two interpretations,’—i.e., which may be either good or bad. Cp. Lucian Alex. 10 “διττούς τινας καὶ ἀμφιβόλους καὶ λοξοὺς χρησμοὺς συγγράφων”. [The sing. “διττόν” often expresses ‘ambiguity,’ as in Arist. Pol. 2. 3(p. 1261 b 20), “τὸ γὰρ ‘πάντες’ διττόν”: but that is different.] Jacobs Fr.(ap. Wunder) understood, ‘two dreams,’—as if Clyt.'s vision consisted of two parts,—the return of Agamemnon, and the growth from the sceptre (417—423). This seems forced. Still less can we assume that there was some second dream which Clyt. did not relate even to the Sun-god (425). Λύκεἰ ἄναξ: Iocasta, too, appeals to Apollo in this quality (O.T. 919). Both as a god of light, and as a destroyer of foes, the “Λύκειος” is fitly invoked here: see above on 6.
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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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