ὡς οὐκέτ᾽ ὄντος. Here συμβόλαια are the signs observable by one who watched Ph. sleeping after the attack of the disease, when he seemed like one “Ἀΐδᾳ πάρα κείμενος” (861). The chief of such signs would be, a deathly pallor, and the absence (as a spectator might think) of respiration.—By τὰς παρούσας ξυμφορὰς are meant the agonies of disease to which he is subject, and which he had endured just before his sleep. “τὰς παρούσας” might be the part. of the imperf., “αἳ παρῆσαν” (cp. Soph. Ant. 1192 n.), but is more forcible if taken as pres.,=“αἳ πάρεισιν”: cp. 734 “τῆς παρεστώσης νόσου”. Thus the meaning is:—‘Thy symptoms (in sleep), judged in the light of (πρὸς) the sufferings which afflict thee, seemed like those of a dead man.’ Such a sleep, following on such paroxysms, might well have been mistaken for death. For “πρός” as= ‘in view of,’ cp. Thuc. 7. 47“ἐβουλεύοντο πρός τε τὴν γεγενημένην ξυμφορὰν καὶ πρὸς τὴν παροῦσαν ἐν τῷ στρατοπέδῳ κατὰ πάντα ἀρρωστίαν”.—Not: ‘In view of thy plight just now (i.e., while sleeping), thy symptoms seemed like those of a dead man.’ τὰς παρ. ξυμφοράς would then mean merely the condition of the sleeper, as distinguished from the “συμβόλαια” or outward signs thereof. But, since the inference was drawn wholly from the outward signs, the words πρὸς τὰς παρ. ξυμφορὰς would lose their natural force, and mean no more than “τὰ παρόντα συμβόλαια σκοποῦντι.” συμβόλαια=“σύμβολα”: the only Attic example of this sense; which occurs, however, in Her. 5. 92§ 7, “πιστὸν γάρ οἱ ἦν τὸ συμβόλαιον” (the token, or proof, “μαρτύριον”). In Eur. Ion 411“ἅ τε νῷν συμβόλαια πρόσθεν ἦν”, the meaning is ‘dealings,’ ‘intercourse’ (the regular Attic sense of “συμβόλαια” being that of ‘covenants’).
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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