ἰοὺ ἰοὺ, as in O. T.1071(Iocasta) O. T., 1182(Oedipus). δύστηνος: for the nom., cp. 986. οἴχομαι. From the beginning of his torments, Heracles has felt that they could end only in death (cp. 802: 1001: 1111). Why, then, should he now speak as if he realised his state for the first time? The answer seems to be that, though the ultimate prospect is unchanged, his doom acquires a new terror in the light of its supernatural source. Hitherto he has believed himself the victim of human malice: it might leave no hope, but still it fixed no term. Now he knows that he is in the grip of “ἀνάγκη”: his moments are numbered. Henceforth he thinks only of the end.
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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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