οὐ γὰρ εἰδόμην, ‘for I had (never) seen him.’ The comment “ζῶντα”, written after “εἰδόμην” in the margin of L, represents the simplest and best interpretation. Neoptolemos was born in Scyros, and remained there, under the care of his maternal grandfather, Lycomedes (243), until he went to Troy (see n. on 239 f.). Soon after the birth of Neoptolemus, his father Achilles had returned to Phthia; whence, some eight or ten years later, he went to Troy, without revisiting Scyros. Hence Neoptolemus can say that he had never seen his father. In this conception Sophocles is following the Iliad. From Il. 11. 765—782 it appears that Phthia, not Scyros, was the place from which Achilles went to Troy. And in Il. 19. 331 f. Achilles speaks of his son as having never seen Phthia; for, apostrophising the dead Patroclus, he says, ‘my soul had hoped that thou should'st return to Phthia,’—“ὡς ἄν μοι τὸν παῖδα θοῇ ἐνὶ νηὶ μελαίνῃ” | “Σκυρόθεν ἐξαγάγοις, καί οἱ δείξειας ἕκαστα”, | “κτῆσιν ἐμὴν δμῶάς τε καὶ ὑψερεφὲς μέγα δῶμα”.—Apollodorus (3. 13. 8) follows a different version, according to which Achilles had remained in Scyros till he was brought thence to Troy by Odysseus.—For the midd. εἰδόμην in dial., cp. El. 977“ἴδεσθε”, ib. 892 “κατειδόμην”, Tr. 151“εἰσίδοιτο”: in lyrics, below, Tr. 1113, Ai. 351; and in anapaests, Tr. 1004.Cp. “ὁρωμένη” (midd.) in dial., Tr. 306.—See Appendix.
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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