ἄρσην, of strong, deep sound: cp. Ar. Th. 124“κίθαρίν τε ματέρ᾽ ὕμνων”. | “ἄρσενι βοᾷ δόκιμον”. (In Soph. fr. 480 “ἄρσενας χοὰς” | “Ἀχέροντος” is explained by some as ‘deep-sounding waves.’) Conversely in Hom. Od. 6. 122“κουράων...θῆλυς ἀυτή”. A difference between deeper and shriller tone was expressed by the terms “αὐλὸς ἀνδρήιος” and “γυναικήιος” ( Her. 1. 17). The MS. προβλής (without θ̓) cannot be defended as an epithet of κτύπος,—‘a sound sent forth by the sea’ (as Seyffert takes it). We must read either (1) προβολῆς with Hermann, or (2) προβλής θ̓ with Musgrave and Schaefer. I prefer (1), because θ̓ is decidedly tame, whether πόντου be taken with προβλής only, or (as seems needful) with κτύπος also. Nor can it be questioned that προβολῆς gives a much finer verse. It is true that we have had “προβλῆτες” in 936, whereas this sense of “προβολή” recurs only in later Greek (Quintus Smyrn. 9. 378 “ἐπὶ προβολῇσι θαλάσσης”). But, if such a use of “προβολή” was actually a rare one, the presence of “πόντου” would make it clear.
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.
