ἀνδρῶν ἀγ., Peleus and Achilles; cp. 384. ὑπαντήσας in prose would mean, ‘having come to meet,’ and would take a dat. A poet might feel that the gen. was sufficiently warranted by the Homeric “ἀντήσω γὰρ ἐγὼ τοῦδ᾽ ἀνέρος” ( Il. 16. 423), etc.: indeed, the gen. differs from the dat. only by its more vivid suggestion of the idea, ‘face to face’ (“ἀντίον τινός”). Cp. 320 n. Here the phrase, ‘having come face to face’ with him, suggests not merely the good fortune of the meeting, but the intercourse,—frank on the side of Philoctetes,—which had followed it.—As Ph. and Neoptolemus are now seen to be leaving the cave, the Chorus once more speaks language designed to support N.'s plan.
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.
