Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Philoctetes

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Ἀχὼ τηλεφανὴς, Echo, appearing afar,—as if she came forth from her secret abode in response to the voice. Eur. introduced Echo as an (unseen) speaker in his Andromeda; cp. Ar. Th. 1059 ff. (“Ἠχώ, λόγων ἀντῳδός, ἐπικοκκάστρια” ‘mocker’). But she was not, in the classical age, a distinctly recognised “δαίμων”: though Paus. (2. 35. 10) saw at Corinth a “ἱερόν” of “ἡ Χθονία”, locally called “Ἠχώ”. Cp. Wieseler, Die Nymphe Echo (Göttingen, 1854).

πικραῖς ι οἰμωγαῖς ὑπακούει is the best correction yet proposed for πικρᾶς οἰμωγᾶς ὑπόκειται. With the latter verb, the dat. “πικραῖς οἰμωγαῖς” would be required. The sense would then be, ‘Echo is subject to his cries,’ i.e., attends upon them, follows them, as a kind of understrain or accompaniment. Such a use of “ὑπόκειται” is not merely forced; it is (to my mind) inconceivable. Prof. Campbell, keeping the gen. “πικρᾶς οἰμωγᾶς”, renders “ὑπόκειται” ‘lies close to, i.e. keeps following upon’: and quotes Plat. Gorg. 465B “τῇ μὲν οὖν ἰατρικῇ...ἡ ὀψοποιϊκὴ κολακεία ὑπόκειται”: but that means, ‘Cookery is a flattery which ranges under medicine,’ i.e., corresponds to it, as the counterfeit to the genuine art. And, on any view of “ὑπόκειται”, the dat. is needful. For ὑπακούει, cp. Hom. Od. 4. 283(Helen was calling to the heroes in the wooden horse; they were eager) “ἢ ἐξελθέμεναλ, ἢ ἔνδοθεν αἶψ᾽ ὑπακοῦσαι”, ‘to come forth, or to answer promptly from within.’ And ib. 10. 82 “ποιμένα ποιμὴν” | “ἠπύει εἰσελάων, ὁ δέ τ᾽ ἐξελάων ὑπακούει”, ‘herdsman hails herdsman as he drives in, and the other, as he drives forth, makes answer.’ In classical prose, “ὑπακούειν” more often means to ‘respond’ in the sense of ‘comply.’ But the passages just cited prove that the word was also familiar as=‘to speak in reply’: nor was this latter sense confined to poetry; cp. Arist. Top. 8. 11(Berl. ed. p. 157 b 14) “ἐρωτώμενοι τἀναντία καὶ τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ πολλάκις ὑπακούουσιν”, =“ἀποκρίνονται” (the word used previously in the same passage).—Other emendations of “ὑπόκειται” are examined in the Appendix.