μέλον … μέλημα: with a certain emphasis; cp. Eur. Andr. 868“δείμ᾽ <*> δειμαίνεις”. The Chorus first reply to the last words of N., and then respond to his suggestion that perhaps they wish to see the abode of Ph. —The text is sound, when, with Triclinius, we have ejected “τὸ σὸν” (see cr. n.),—a gloss added by some one who, taking the “ὄμμα” to be that of N., naturally felt the want of the pos sessive pron. The ὄμμα is that of the Chorus, and is the subject to φρουρεῖν: this appears certain, when we compare Soph. Tr. 225“οὐδέ μ᾽ ὄμματος” | “φρουρὰν” [“φρουρὰ” L] “παρῆλθε”, ‘nor hath it escaped my watchful eye.’ Dindorf takes “ὄμμ̓” as a sort of ‘cognate’ acc., ‘to watch with the eye,’ and compares Soph. Tr. 914“κἀγὼ λαθραῖον ὄμμ᾽ ἐπεσκιασμένη” | “φρούρουν”: but there the partic. is the warrant for it. ἐπὶ σῷ καιρῷ=lit., ‘for thine occasion,’ i.e., ‘for the moment at which a thing can be done for thine advantage.’ The use of the sing. “καιρός” with the possessive is rare, but is akin to a freq. use of the plur., as Isocr. or. 6 § 80 “ἐν τοῖς ἡμετέροις καιροῖς” (i.e. at the moments advantageous for us) “ἀλλὰ μὴ τοῖς αὑτῶν ποιήσασθαι τοὺς κινδύνους”. And how naturally “ὁ σὸς καιρός” might approximate (esp. in lyric poetry) to the sense of “τὸ σὸν κέρδος”, is suggested by such phrases as that in Her. 1. 206“οὐ γὰρ ἂν εἰδείης εἴ τοι ἐς καιρὸν ἔσται ταῦτα τελεόμενα”, ‘seasonably for thee,’=‘for thine advantage.’
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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