πρὶν...ἐξήκοι, not πρὶν ἂν ἐξήκῃ, although the tense of the principal verb (“πονεῖ”, understood in v. 196) is primary, since a secondary tense is implied in the phrase “θεῶν του μελέτῃ”: i.e., ‘he is suffering, because the gods ordained that he should suffer, until the time should be fulfilled,’ etc. Cp. Dem. or. 22 § 11 “τοῦτον ἔχει τὸν τρόπον ὁ νόμος...ἵνα μηδὲ πεισθῆναι μηδ᾽ ἐξαπατηθῆναι γένοιτ᾽ ἐπὶ τῷ δήμῳ”: ‘the law stands thus, that the people might not even have the power’: where ‘stands’ (“ἔχει”) implies ‘was made’ (“ἐτέθη”). “γένηται” would be regular there, as “πρὶν ἂν ἐξήκῃ” would be here: yet in both places the optat. is natural. The speaker is tracing a present fact to a past motive. λέγεται: the Trojan seer Helenus had said that Troy was to be taken by Philoctetes before the summer was over (1340).—“τῶνδε, τῶν βελῶν”: cp. on “τούσδε”, 87.
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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