παρών, not merely, ‘being here at Troy’ (while Neoptolemus was absent, 379), but, ‘being present at the critical moment’: cp. 1405: Ar. Lys. 283“τασδὶ δὲ”... | “ἐγὼ οὐκ ἄρα σχήσω παρὼν τολμήματος τοσούτου”; Eur. Hipp. 1242“τίς ἄνδρ᾽ ἄριστον βούλεται σῶσαι παρών”; (i.e., to go and save).— Acc. to Arctînus in the Aethiopis, it was Ajax who carried the body of Achilles out of the fray, while Odysseus kept the Trojans off (Proclus p. 479). In Od. 5. 309 f. Odysseus speaks of the day, “ὅτε μοι πλεῖστοι χαλκήρεα δοῦρα” | “Τρῶες ἐπέρριψαν περὶ Πηλείωνι θανόντι”. In Ov. Met. 13. 284 he says: “his...humeris ego corpus Achillis | Et simul arma tuli.”
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.
