νεώς γε τῆς ἐμῆς ἔπι. The correction of the MS. ἔνι to ἔπι is necessary and certain. Of ἔνι (=“ἔνεστι”) only three explanations are possible. (1) Some hold that the gen. νεώς depends on the idea of “ἔσω” or “ἔνδον” implied in ἔνι: ‘is contained in my ship.’ Cp. Ai. 1274“ἑρκέων... ἐγκεκλῃμένους”: Eur. Ph. 451 “τόνδ᾽ εἰσεδέξω τειχέων”. But there the notion ‘within’ is implied far more clearly than by “ἔνι” here. (2) Or “νεώς” is an absolute local gen., ‘in the ship’; cp. El. 900“ἐσχάτης δ᾽ ὁρῶ πυρᾶς...βόστρυχον”. (3) Others take ἔνι with “λαβεῖν” supplied from “λαβών” in 645: ‘what is there which it is not possible to obtain from my ship?’ No one of these views is tenable.
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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