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ἔδοξέ μοικ.τ.λ.” The constr. of προστυχόντι is made somewhat awkward by the negative before ποεῖσθαι. ‘I decided to sail, not in silence, or before I had told thee, (but only when, having told thee,) I had received a due reward.’ It would have been clearer to have written either: (1) “ἔδοξέ μοι φράσαντι τὸν πλοῦν ποεῖσθαι, προστυχόντι τῶν ἴσων”: or (2) “ἔδοξέ μοι μὴ σῖγα τὸν πλοῦν ποεῖσθαι, πρὶν φράσαιμι καὶ προστύχοιμι τῶν ἴσων”. The justification of the actual form is that μὴ σῖγα, πρὶν φράσαιμι, is felt as a more emphatic equivalent for a simple “φράσαντι”. For the dat. προστυχόντι (instead of an acc.) with the inf., cp. Xen. An. 2. 1§ 2 “ἔδοξεν οὖν αὐτοῖς συσκευασαμένοις...προϊέναι”. The acc. is, however, more usual, as ib. 3. 2. 1 “ἔδοξεν αὐτοῖς προφυλακὰς καταστήσαντας συγκαλεῖν τοὺς στρατιώτας”, since it excludes a possible ambiguity: cp. Soph. Ant. 838 n.— The use of προστυχόντι (‘having obtained, met with’) is like that in Soph. El. 1463ἐμοῦ κολαστοῦ προστυχών.

τῶν ἴσων: by “τὰ ἴσα” is meant a reasonable recompense for his trouble. This sense of “ἴσος” (aequus) is virtually the same as in such phrases as “ἐπὶ τοῖς ἴσοις καὶ ὁμοίοις” ( Thuc. 5. 79), etc. Similarly the messengers in Soph. O. T. 1005 and Soph. Tr. 190 expressly say that they have come in the hope of being rewarded.—Others join προστυχόντι with σοι, ‘when thou shouldst have received (the information) due.’ Nauck understands, ‘since I have met with the same fortune as thine’—i.e., have put in at the same coast. (Cp. Soph. El. 1168ξὺν σοὶ μετεῖχον τῶν ἴσων”.)


hide References (7 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (7):
    • Sophocles, Antigone, 838
    • Sophocles, Electra, 1168
    • Sophocles, Electra, 1463
    • Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus, 1005
    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.79
    • Xenophon, Anabasis, 2.1
    • Sophocles, Trachiniae, 190
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