ἴωμεν clearly means, ‘let us be going’ (from Lemnos). Cp. 645 “χωρῶμεν”. It expresses his joyful impatience to avail himself of N.'s offer here, and naturally follows the preceding verses. If, on the other hand, we take ἴωμεν to mean, ‘let us go into the cave,’ we shall have no direct expression of Ph. 's eagerness to leave Lemnos: and the invitation to enter the cave will come with an awkward abruptness after the first words of gratitude. But if ἴωμεν means, ‘let us be going from Lemnos,’ then we must accept εἰσοίκησιν, unless we can substitute for προσκύσαντε some partic. which could go with εἰς οἴκησιν. For “προσκύσαντε εἰς οἴκησιν” could not mean, ‘having gone into the dwelling to salute it.’ I once suggested “τήνδε προσκύψαντ᾽ ἔσω” | “ἄοικον εἰς οἴκησιν”, i.e. ‘after one look’ into it; but I now doubt whether the classical usage of “προσκύπτω” would bear this. We may rather believe that Soph. hazarded the otherwise unknown word “εἰσοίκησις”, much as in Soph. O. C. 27 he ventured on “ἐξοικήσιμος”. It implies a verb “εἰσοικέω” (nowhere found, except as a v.l. for “ἐνοικέω” in Anthol. 7. 320), capable of being used thus,—“ἄντρον εἰσῴκησε”, ‘he entered the cave and made his dwelling there’=“ἄντρον εἰσελθὼν ᾤκησε”. Then “εἰσοίκησις” would be properly, the act of so making a dwelling, or the dwelling made. (“εἰσοικίζω”, to bring in as a settler, is irrelevant.) See Appendix.— προσκύσαντε, a farewell salutation (as by kissing the soil), because the cave had so long given him shelter: see below on 1408. ὡς … καὶ: cp. 13.
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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