ἰδού: cp. 821 “ἴδ̓” (n.). 1081 It is best to retain αἰαῖ, ὦ τάλας, αἰαῖ, L's reading. Hermann and others, taking “αἰαῖ ὦ τάλας” as a dochmiac, read “ἐέ” or “ἒ ἔ” instead of the second “αἰαῖ”, placing it in a line by itself. Dindo<*>f formerly read “αἰαῖ τάλας” (deleting “ὦ” and the second “αἰαῖ”), as an iambic dipodia: but his latest text gives “αἰαῖ, ἆ τάλας” (as a dochmiac). Nauck requires bacchii, and suggests “ἰώ μοι, τάλας, φεῦ”. Wilam. (Hermes XVIII. 246) says—(1) “αἰαῖ, ὦ τάλας”, dochmius: (2) “αἰαῖ”, interjection: (3) “ὦναξ ...παῖσον”, ‘acatalectic anapaestic trimeter.’ A brief interjection of this kind could take almost any metrical form; and, in the absence of a lyric context, the metre here cannot be defined with certainty. Cp. El.1160—2.
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part V: The Trachiniae. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1902.
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