λέγω σ᾽ … λαβεῖν, ‘I say that thou art to take.’ In this constr., ‘say’ means ‘command’; the act commanded is denoted by the inf., and the agent by the acc., as subject to the inf. Cf. Ai. 1047“σὲ φωνῶ τόνδε τὸν νεκρὸν χεροῖν” | “μὴ συγκομίζειν”: O. C. 932“εἶπον μὲν οὖν καὶ πρόσθεν, ἐννέπω δὲ νῦν”, | “τὰς παῖδας ὡς τάχιστα δεῦρ᾽ ἄγειν τινά”: Tr. 137 ff. “σὲ...ἐλπίσιν λέγω” | “τάδ᾽ αἰὲν ἴσχειν”. The agent can also stand in the dat. as object to the verb of saying: O. C. 840“χαλᾶν λέγω σοι”.—This verse has no caesura: cp. 1369: Ant. 1021“οὐδ᾽ ὄρνις εὐσήμους ἀπορροιβδεῖ βοάς”, with n. there. Distinguish these rare examples from those which have an elision after the 3rd foot (‘quasi-caesura’), as 276: Ant. 44“ἦ γὰρ νοεῖς θάπτειν σφ̓, ἀπόρρητον πόλει”;
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.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
