ἄστομοι, schol. “σκληρόστομοι”. The only extant example of the word in this sense; for in Aesch. fr. 442 “στόμις” (‘hard-mouthed’) is clearly right: see Nauck there (2nd ed.). Xenophon uses “ἄστομος” of hounds which have ‘no mouths’ for holding their prey ( Cyn. 3. 3): he expresses ‘hard-mouthed’ by “ἀπειθής” ( Eq. 3.§ 6), and calls the ‘hard side’ of a horse's mouth “ἡ ἄδικος γνάθος” (ib. § 5). Cp. Anth. Plan. 361 “οὔτε χαλινοῖς” | “δύστομος ἱππείη σοῖς ἀπίθησε λόγοις.” βίᾳ φέρουσιν: Eur. Hipp. 1223“αἱ δ᾽ ἐνδακοῦσαι στόμια πυριγενῆ γνάθοις” | “βίᾳ φέρουσιν”. So “ἐκφέρειν”, Xen. Eq. 3§ 5. ἐκ δ᾽ ὑποστροφῆς=“ὑποστρέψαντες”, a phrase like “ἐξ ὑπερτέρας χερός” (455). Cp. Polyb. 2. 25. 3 “ἐξ ὑποστροφῆς ἀπήντων”, ‘wheeling round, they went to meet the enemy.’
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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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