λεύσσων, absol., looking about him, ὅπου γνοίη (to see) where he could perceive (stagnant water), προσενώμα, he used to bend his way towards it. εἰς στατὸν ὕδωρ is joined with “προσενώμα”, instead of standing (without “εἰς”) as object to γνοίη. The latter is oblique for “ὅπου γνῷ” (delib. subjunct.). Cp. Ai. 890“ἄνδρα μὴ λεύσσειν ὅπου”: O. C. 135“ὃν ἐγὼ” “λεύσσων περὶ πᾶν οὔπω” | “δύναμαι τέμενος γνῶναι ποῦ μοί” | “ποτε ναίει” (n.). προσενώμα intrans.: cp. 168 n.—The usage of “λεύσσειν” in Soph. makes this constr. preferable to the other, which is possible: “λεύσσων εἰς στατὸν ὕδωρ” (fixing his gaze on it), “ὅπου γνοίη”, wherever he might perceive it (oblique of “ὅπου ἂν γνῷ”).— στατὸν … ὕδωρ, water collected in stagnant pools: cp. Arist. fr. 207 (Berl. ed. p. 1515 b 25) “πρόσφατόν ἐστι καὶ νέον ὕδωρ τὸ ὑόμενον, ἕωλον δὲ καὶ παλαιὸν τὸ λιμναῖον”. Her. 2. 108“πλατυτέροισι ἐχρέωντο τοῖσι πόμασι, ἐκ φρεάτων χρεώμενοι” (‘somewhat brackish’). Odysseus remembered a spring near the cave (21), and Ph. speaks of “κρῆναι” (1461): but the imagination of the Chorus “ἐπὶ τὸ μεῖζον πάντα δεινοῖ”.
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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