κεῖνος δ̓. Odysseus acted by the public command for the public good. He himself has used a similar plea (109). εἷς ἀπὸ πολλῶν ταχθεὶς, appointed to the task as one out of many, i.e., as their agent. For the prep., cp. 647 n. Though v. 6 might suggest ὑπὸ, change is needless. ἐφημοσύνᾳ=“ἐφετμῇ, ἐντολῇ”: a Homeric and Pindaric word.— τῶνδ̓ is a clearly true correction of the MS. τοῦδ̓. Blaydes, reading “τάνδ᾽ ἐφημοσύναν”, joins it with “ταχθείς” (‘intrusted with this commission’). ἐς φίλους, ‘towards’ his friends,—in their interest. “ἐς” has been suspected (see cr. n.); but “ἐς φίλους” is better than “τοῖς φίλοις” here, where two aspects of the same act are contrasted. Cp. Ai. 679“ὅ τ᾽ ἐχθρὸς ἡμῖν ἐς τοσόνδ᾽ ἐχθαρτέος” | “ὡς καὶ φιλήσων αὖθις: ἔς τε τὸν φίλον” | “τοσαῦθ᾽ ὑπουργεῖν ὠφελεῖν βουλήσομαι κ.τ.λ.”
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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