Νέμεσι: this voc. occurs also in Soph. Ph. 183, where, as here, “νέμεσις” is a v.l. (Cp. Ar. Ran. 893“ξύνεσι”.) τοῦ θανόντος ἀρτίως: for the place of the adv., cp. Ai. 635“ὁ νοσῶν μάταν”: Aesch. P. V. 216“τῶν παρεστώτων τότε”: Anooc. or. 1 § 53 “τῶν ἀπολωλότων ἤδη”. Nemesis is the goddess who requires that each man should receive his due (“Νέμεσιν ἀπὸ τῆς ἑκάστῳ διανεμήσεως”, Mund. 7. p. 401 b. 13). The ‘Nemesis of the dead man’ is the avenger of wrong done to him; as the Greeks said “Δίκη τινός” ( Aesch. Ag. 1432), “Ἐρινύς τινος”. Cp. Aesch. fr. 266 “ἡμῶν γε μέντοι Νέμεσις” (‘our Nemesis’) “ἔσθ᾽ ὑπερτέρα”, | “καὶ τοῦ θανόντος ἡ Δίκη πράσσει κότον”. At Athens “Νεμέσεια” were certain rites in honour of the dead ( Dem. or. 41 § 11), “ἐπεὶ ἡ Νέμεσις ἐπὶ τῶν ἀποθανόντων τέτακται” (Bekker Anecd. I. 282). Nemesis appears in art, too, as a goddess of the dead (Baumeister, Denkm., p. 1008).
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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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