μελέτωρ (only here): ‘one who cared’ for the dead,—an avenger (cp. 237 “ἀμελεῖν”). Suidas s.v., “ὁ ἐπιμελούμενος, ὁ τιμωρούμενος τῷ πατρί”. The conjecture “νεμέτωρ” (a word applied to the avenging Zeus in Aesch. Th. 485) is less fitting. For the form, cp. also “γενέτωρ”. Amphiaraüs was avenged by his son Alcmaeon ,—the counterpart, in this story, of Orestes. Before setting out for Thebes, the seer had charged him with this duty. Eriphylè, bribed once more, prevailed upon her son to lead the Epigoni against Thebes. After its fall, he returned to Argos, and slew her. Pursued by the Erinyes, he fled to Psophis in Arcadia, and there was purified. He was the subject of a play by Sophocles, and of two by Euripides,—the first, “ὁ διὰ Ψωφῖδος” (produced in 438 B.C.), dealing with his absolution, and the second, “ὁ διὰ Κορίνθου”, with a later episode. Acc. to a grammarian in Anecd. Oxon. II. p. 337, 4, the form of the name used by Eur. was “Ἀλκμέων”.
This text is part of:
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.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.