πρὸς βίαν: so 594 “πρὸς ἰσχύος κράτος”: cp. “πρὸς ἡδονήν, πρὸς χάριν”, etc.: ἄγειν=“ἀπάγειν” (cp. 941), as 102, 985 etc. —“καὶ μὴ δόλοισιν: μή” is generic (it does not, and could not here, go with the inf. “ἄγειν”): i.e., the phrase means strictly, ‘and by such means as are not frauds’: cp. on 409 (“μηδὲν δίκαιον”), Ant. 494“τῶν μηδὲν ὀρθῶς...τεχνωμένων”. οὐ γὰρ κ.τ.λ.: the “γάρ” implies, ‘this ought to satisfy thee, for force cannot fail': it is thus already a trace of irresolution. ἐξ ἑνὸς ποδὸς, lit. starting from one foot,’ i.e. ‘when he has the use of only one foot,’—“ἐκ” marking that “εἷς πούς” is the condition which makes his victory impossible. Cp. n. on O. C. 848“οὔκουν ποτ᾽ ἐκ τούτοιν γε μὴ σκήπτροιν ἔτι” | “ὁδοιπορήσῃς”. In El. 455“Ὀρέστην ἐξ ὑπερτέρας χερὸς” | “ἐχθροῖσιν...ἐπεμβῆναι”, (‘that, with victorious might, he may trample on his foes,’) the “ὑπερτέρα χείρ” is similarly the antecedent condition. τοσούσδε (sc. “ὄντας”, cp. n. on “ἐγκρατής”, 75): the 15 seamen who form the Chorus will be at hand to help them.
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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