ἑλών. The partic. answers the question asked by ποῖον: ‘what unbecoming deed didst thou do?’ ‘(I did such a deed) by capturing,’ etc. Thus we understand “ἔπραξα ἔργον οὐ πρέπον μοι”. The verb which N. would naturally have used, if Od.had allowed him to finish his sentence, would have been “ἥμαρτον”, to which “ἣν” in 1226 would have been cogn. acc.: but, after the interruption, the verb is best supplied from v. 1227. Thus ἣν remains actually an acc. of respect, ‘(the sin), by which.’ Blaydes suggests “εἷλον ἄνδρα καὶ δόλοις”. It is true that in stichomuthia an interrupted speaker usually ends with a finite verb (as O. T. 560“ἔρρει”, O. C. 646“κρατήσω”). But in this context ἑλών is more forcible than “εἷλον”, since then it is Od.himself who supplies the description of the deed as “οὐ πρέπον”.
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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