παρὸν: cp. fr. 323 “ἢν παρὸν θέσθαι καλῶς” | “αὐτός τις αὑτῷ τὴν βλάβην προσθῇ φέρων.” φρονῆσαι, to come to a sound mind (ingressive aor.). Cp. 1259 “ἐσωφρόνησας”. So the aor. partic. in O. T. 649“πιθοῦ θελήσας φρονήσας τ̓” (n.). The gen. τοῦ … δαίμονος depends not on εἵλον alone (as if it were “προέκρινας”), but on the idea of comparison suggested by the whole phrase εἵλου τὸ κάκιον αἰνεῖν. Cp. Ai. 1357“νικᾷ γὰρ ἁρετἡ με τῆς ἔχθρας πολύ”, where “πολὺ νικᾷ με”= “πολὺ κρείσσων παρ᾽ ἐμοί ἐστι”. For αἰνεῖν as=“στέργειν”, cp. Eur. Alc. 2“θῆσσαν τράπεζαν αἰνέσαι”. τοῦ λῴονος δαίμονος, the MS. reading, is metrically impossible. The words “τοῦ λῴονος” must represent “¯˘˘¯” (= 1121 “καὶ γὰρ ἐμοὶ”). But the first syllable of “λῴονος” is necessarily long. A shortening of ωι before ο cannot be justified by the similar shortening of αι or οι, as in “δείλαιος” ( Ant. 1310 n.) or “οἰωνούς” ( El. 1058). Musgrave compares “ζωῆς” and “δῃώσας” from Eur. ; but in Eur. Hec. 1108 we must read “ζόης”, and in Eur. Heracl. 995“διώσας”. In the few places where “πατρῷος” appears to have the 2nd syll. short, “πάτριος” is a certain correction (cp. 724 n.). Are we, then, to admit the v. l. τοῦ πλέονος? It occurs in the first schol. on this v.:—“πλείονος δὲ δαίμονος λέγει τοῦ λυσιτελεστέρου καὶ συμφόρου”. Hermann, Dindorf and Wecklein are among those who accept it. In its favour two points may be noticed. (a) “δαίμων”, when it means “μοῖρα”, is sometimes quite impersonal; e.g., fr. 587 “μὴ σπεῖρε πολλοῖς τὸν παρόντα δαίμονα” (‘spread not thy present trouble abroad’—by speech). (b) “τοῦ πλέονος δαίμονος” would be suggested by such phrases as “πλέον ἔχειν”: i.e., it might be possible to say “τὸν πλείω δαίμον᾽ ἔχω”, or the like, though not “ὁ πλείων δαίμων με σῴζει”. And so the bold phrase seems just conceivable here, where the idea is, ‘Instead of the better portion, thou hast chosen the worse.’ Omitting τοῦ, Bothe would read λωΐονος (cp. Simonides Amorg. 7. 30 “λωΐων γυνή”), and Wunder λωϊτέρου. But, for Soph. , neither seems probable. I should like to read “εὖτέ γε παρὸν κυρῆσαι λῴονος αὖ δαίμονος εἵλου τὸ κάκιον αἰνεῖν”. The loss of “αὖ” might have led to “τοῦ” being added by some one who thought that the first syll. of “λῴονος” could be short.
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.
