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οὐ πολὺνκ.τ.λ.”: ‘they did not cause me to make any long delay, or to refrain from sailing at once’: another way of saying, ‘they filled me with burning eagerness to sail at once.’ He speaks with a certain bitterness, meaning, ‘they well knew how to act their part, when they put the matter in that light.’ For “ἐπέχω τινά” as=‘to cause one to pause,’ see Thuc. 4. 5καί τι καὶ αὐτοὺς στρατὸς ἔτι ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις ὢν ἐπέσχε”, ‘partly, too, the fact that their army was in Attica caused them to delay’ (instead of marching out at once). Id. 1. 129καί σε μήτε νὺξ μήτε ἡμέρα ἐπισχέτω” (pres. imper.) “ὥστε ἀνεῖναι πράσσειν τι”. This sense of the trans. “ἐπέχω” and “ἐπίσχω” is not precisely the same as that in Soph. El. 517ὅς σ᾽ ἐπεῖχ᾽ ἀεὶ” | “μήτοι θυραίαν οὖσαν αἰσχύνειν φίλους”, ‘restrained thee’ (by compulsory detention): i.e., “οὐ πολὺν χρόνον μ᾽ ἐπέσχον” is not, ‘they did not succeed in restraining me long’ (as if they had been trying to do so); but rather, ‘they gave me no cause for delaying long’;— not, ‘non diu me cohibuerunt,’ but ‘effecerunt ne diu morarer.’

Instead of “μή με ναυστολεῖν”, we might well prefer, with Blaydes, “μὴ οὐχὶ ναυστολεῖν”, were it not that palaeographically it is so improbable. And for “μή” where “μὴ οὐ” might be expected, cp. O. T. 1387οὐκ ἂν ἐσχόμην” | “τὸ μὴ ᾿ποκλῇσαι”, n. The repetition of με, as subject to “ναυστολεῖν”, may seem slightly inelegant; but it is not grammatically objectionable.—See Appendix.


hide References (4 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (4):
    • Sophocles, Electra, 517
    • Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus, 1387
    • Thucydides, Histories, 1.129
    • Thucydides, Histories, 4.5
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