ἐμπαίει κ.τ.λ.: ‘there strikes, rushes, upon my soul a familiar image, (suggesting) that in this I see a sure token of Orestes.’ ὄμμα is the ‘face’ or ‘form’ of her brother, σύνηθες, because she was accustomed to think of him. The inf. ὁρᾶν, explanatory of the first clause, depends on the idea of a conception or belief which is implied in the mental image of the face; i.e., “ἑμπαίει μοι ὄμμα” implies “παρίσταταί μοι δόξα”. The intrans. “ἐμπαίειν” (a stronger “ἐμπίπτειν”) occurs only here; but cp. O. T. 1252“βοῶν γὰρ εἰσέπαισεν Οἰδίπους”. In Aesch. Ag. 187“ἐμπαίοις τύχαισι” are ‘the fortunes which have suddenly struck him’: cp. ib. 347 “εἰ πρόσπαια μὴ τύχοι κακά.” ψυχῇ is best taken with “ἐμπαίει”, though it could also go with “σύνηθες”. The scholium in L runs thus:—“ψυχῇ σύνηθες ὄμμα”] “ὅραμα ὃ ἀεὶ ἐφανταζόμην κατὰ ψυχήν”: i.e., the writer took “ὅμμα” to mean ‘a sight’; a sense possible for it only when, as here, it denotes the human face or form ( Ai. 977: ib. 1004: Aesch. Ch. 238). This scholium cannot be claimed, however, as indicating that the scholiast read φάσμα (cr. n.) instead of “ὄμμα”,—a change which would grievously mar the passage.
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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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