ξυλλάβετον αὐτόν is far the best correction of L's ξυλλάβετ᾽ αὐτόν. The addition of γε to ξυλλάβετε was a feeble makeshift, and cannot be excused by assuming that the attendants had taken the initiative, so that their master merely says, ‘Yes, seize him.’ The use of the dual—‘Seize him, you two men’— is the more natural here, since each grasps one of his arms. Cp. O. C. 1437“μέθεσθε δ᾽ ἤδη, χαίρετόν τ̓” (as here, in 1054, we have the plur.): so in Plut. 76 the imperat. dual “ἀκούετον” follows “μέθεσθε” in 75. Other Attic examples of the imperat. dual are Ar. Av. 107“εἴπατον”: Plat. Euthyd. 294C “ἐπιδείξατον”. In Homer it is frequent ( Il. 1. 322; 7. 279; 8. 186, Il. 191; 20. 115; 23. 443; Od. 4. 60). μὴ ᾿πὶ τῷδ̓: for this “ἐπί” with dat. (penes eum), cp. O. C. 66“ἢ ᾿πὶ τῷ πλήθει λόγος”; El. 1431.
This text is part of:
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part IV: The Philoctetes. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1932.
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