Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Trachiniae

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πολλὰ γὰρ … ἴδοι. For “κύματα ἢ νότου ἢ βορέα” (waves belonging to, i.e. raised by, them), cp. Il.2. 396“τὸν δ̓” (sc. “σκόπελον”) “οὔ ποτε κύματα λείπει” | “παντοίων ἀνέμων, ὅτ᾽ ἂν ἔνθ᾽ ἢ ἔνθα γένωνται”. Note the last clause as parallel with the mention of two opposite winds here,—showing that Sophocles had that passage in mind.— κύματ᾽ ἂν … ἴδοι is clearly right: εὐρέϊ πόντῳ is a locative dat. of a common kind, like El.174“μέγας οὐρανῷ” | “Ζεύς”.

Three other views claim notice. (1) <*>ν, not ἂν, should be inserted after “κύματ̓”, and ἴδοι taken as a potential opt., ‘might see.’ But in Attic poetry the opt. is so used only where there is some stress on the notion of the possible or conceivable; as in Ant.605“τίς...κατάσχοι”; (n.): see O. C., Append. on 170, p. 275 (2d ed.). (2) ἐν is to be inserted, but ἴδοι changed to ἴδῃ, an epic subjunct. of comparison, as in Il.2. 474 f. “ὥστε...διακρίνωσιν”. But there is no Attic example of this; for in Eur. Hec.1026 the “ἐκπέσῃ” of the MSS. should be “ἐκπεσεῖ”. (3) The objection to Zippmann's compromise—“κύματ᾽ ἐν...βάντ̓ ἐπιόντ̓ ἂν”—is the harsh asyndeton, which is foreign to the poet's manner.

βάντ᾽ ἐπιόντα τ̓, lit., ‘having passed by, and coming on.’ The spectator sees wave after wave go by.—Others understand, ‘driven back, and then coming on again’ (Blaydes, ‘ebbing and flowing’). This gives a forced sense to βάντ̓.