Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Electra

†ὅθ᾽ αὐτοὺς. The traditional ὅθ̓ can hardly be right: we should perh. read ἵν̓. The use of “ὅθι” in Tragedy is elsewhere confined to lyric passages, and even in these the “ι” is never elided; O.C. 1044; Eur. Hipp. 125, Eur. Hipp. 1127; Eur. I.A. 548, Eur. I.A. 1285, Eur. I.A. 1294: in Suppl. 124 “ὁπόθι”. The elision occurs, indeed, in Il. 2. 572, Od. 4. 426; but would be foreign to Attic practice. (Cp. O. C., p. 289, append. on 1436.) The simplest remedy would be ὅτ̓, which is not necessarily excluded by “στάντες”: the sense might be, ‘having taken their stations, when these had been assigned.’ But we should rather expect a word meaning ‘where’; and if the local sense of “ἵν̓” had been explained by a marginal gloss “οὗ” or “ὅθι”, either of these might have given rise to “ὅθ̓”.

βραβῆς: cp. 690. The phrase οἱ τεταγμένοι is illustrated by Paus. 5. 9. 5.At Olympia three Hellanodicae had charge of the “ἵππων δρόμος”, and three of the pentathlon; while the rest supervised the other contests. The total number of these judges was ten, acc. to Pausanias, from Ol. 25 to Ol. 103 (680—368 B.C.), when it became twelve.

710 *“κλήρους ἔπηλαν”. I should much prefer to read “αὐτοῖς” in 709: but “αὐτοὺς” is defensible, and I refrain from change. Two views are possible; the first is generally received, and is perhaps simplest. (1) “αὐτοὺς” depends on “κλήρους ἔπηλαν” as=“ἐκλήρωσαν”: cp. Ar. Eccl. 683“κληρώσω πάντας”, ‘I will place them all by lot,’ “ἕως ἂν” | “εἰδὼς ὁ λαχὼν ἀπίῃ κ.τ.λ.” See above on 123, Ar. Eccl. 556.(2) “κλήρους ἔπηλαν καὶ”=“κλήρους πήλαντες”, a parenthetic construction (“διὰ μέσου”), so that “αὐτοὺς” is governed by “κατέστησαν” only, and “δίφρους” is a second acc., defining “αὐτούς”, as in “μέθες με...χεῖρα” ( Soph. Ph. 1301). See on 466 f.

ἔπηλαν. Each competitor casts his “κλῆρος”, or lot,—usu. a potsherd (“ὄστρακον”), or a small stone,—into a helmet, which one of the “βραβῆς” shakes, and the places are settled by the order in which the lots jump out. Il. 23. 352“ἂν δ᾽ ἔβαν ἐς δίφρους, ἐν δὲ κλήρους ἐβάλοντο:” | “πάλλ᾽ Ἀχιλεύς, ἐκ δὲ κλῆρος θόρε Νεστορίδαο”.