μὰ τὴν πατρῴαν ἑστίαν is a fitting asseveration here, since the hearth symbolises the very existence of the family. Similarly the disguised Odysseus, when he affirms that the lord of the house will return, swears by the “ἑστία” ( Od. 14. 159). ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ὕβρει. Here “ἀλλὰ” (‘nay’) protests against Electra's words, and, as usual, follows the oath: cp. Ar. Ran. 173“ΝΕ. δύο δραχμὰς μισθὸν τελεῖς”; | “ΔΙ. μὰ Δἴ, ἀλλ᾽ ἔλαττον”: and so ib. 753, Ar. Ran. 759, Ar. Ran. 1053; Xen. Mem. 3. 13. 3. ἀλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνον. This second “ἀλλά” merely opposes its clause to the former: ‘I do not say this in mockery, but report him as (really) present’: cp. Ai. 852 f. “ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲν ἔργον ταῦτα θρηνεῖσθαι μάτην”, | “ἀλλ᾽ ἀρκτέον τὸ πρᾶγμα σὺν τάχει τινί”. For the ὡς, which might be absent (as in 676), cp. 1341: O. T. 956“πατέρα τὸν σὸν ἀγγελῶν” | “ὡς οὐκέτ᾽ ὄντα Πόλυβον”. Others, less well, take “ἐκεῖνον ὡς παρόντα νῷν” not as depending on “λέγω” but as an acc. absol. (cp. O. T. 101 n.).—For the triple “ἀλλά” in vv. 879—882, cp. Ph. 645—651: O.C. 238—248. The v.l. “νόει” for νῷν was suggested by such passages as Ph. 415, “ὡς μηκέτ᾽ ὄντα κεῖνον ἐν φάει νόει”. It implies the unexampled contraction “νῶ”. (In Aesch. Pers. 1054, where Dindorf corrects “κἀπιβόα” to “κἀπιβῶ, καὶ βόα” is read by Eustathius on Dionys. p. 791.)
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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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