κολώνης ἐξ ἄκρας is best taken with “νεορρύτους”,—‘which had newly streamed from the top of the mound’; this suits “πηγάς”.—Others understand, ‘I saw on the top of the mound streams of milk which had been newly poured there,’ and compare 742 “ἐξ ὀρθῶν δίφρων”. (For “ἐκ” in phrases describing position, cp. Ant. 411 n.) γάλακτος: cp. Eur. Or. 114“ἐλθοῦσα δ᾽ ἀμφὶ τὸν Κλυταιμνήστρας τάφον” | “μελίκρατ᾽ ἄφες γάλακτος οἰνωπόν τ᾽ ἄχνην”. περιστεφῆ … ἀνθέων: cp. O. T. 83“πολυστεφὴς..δάφνης” (n.). ἔστιν, not “ἐστὶν”, as the sense is, ‘exist.’ θήκην, here denoting the “κολώνη”, was a general term for a sepulchre, whatever its form might be; thus Plato says (Legg. 947 D) “θήκην δὲ ὑπὸ γῆς αὐτοῖς εἰργασμένην εἶναι ψαλίδα” (vault) “προμήκη λίθων”: and Thuc. applies the word in one place to movable grave-fittings or coffins (1. 8 § 1 “θηκῶν ἀναιρεθεισῶν”), in another to monuments (3. 58 § 4 “ἀποβλέψατε..ἐς πατέρων..θήκας”).
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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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