κἄδει τι. The sense of τι here is nearly “ἕκαστόν τι”, just as “τις” sometimes =“ἕκαστός τις” ( Thuc. 1. 40“τοὺς ξυμμάχους αὐτόν τινα κολάζειν”); a sense which the impf. ἔδει brings out, by implying successive needs at successive moments.— βαιᾷ, of size, as Aesch. Pers. 447“νῆσος”... | “βαιά”. διακονεῖσθαι, midd.: schol. “ἐμαυτῷ ἐξυπηρετεῖσθαι”. That the midd. would suggest, to an Attic ear, ‘serving oneself,’ may be inferred from Legg. 763 A “διακονοῦντές τε καὶ διακονούμενοι ἑαυτοῖς”, ‘serving (the State), and serving themselves’ (cp. Ar. Ach. 1017“αὑτῷ διακονεῖται”). In later Greek, however, the midd. is sometimes no more than the act.; e.g. Lucian Philops. 35“δεξιῶς ὑπηρέτει καὶ διηκονεῖτο ἡμῖν”.
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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