ὦ φίλης χθονός, O thou (who belongest to) a dear land. The possessive gen. can thus be used, without a subst., just as the gen. of origin (a special form of the possessive) is so used, Ant. 379“ὦ δύστηνος” | “καὶ δυστήνου πατρός”. We cannot well repeat παῖ with “ὦ φίλης χθονός”, because, though classical idiom allowed “παῖδες Ἑλλήνων”, it would hardly allow “παῖς Ἑλλάδος” in the fig. sense, ‘a son of Greece.’ That would mean rather, ‘a boy belonging to Greece’ (cp. “Ἑλλάδος νεανίαι”, I. A. 52). It seems needless to write “ὦ ᾿κ φίλης χθονός”.
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.
