κάλει … κάλει δὲ: cp. Ant.806 n. ὁμαιμόνων, brethren ( O. C.330 n.): Hyllus was the eldest of the family (56). Ἀλκμήνην: 1105 n. μάτην, since Zeus had been cruel to her son. Cp. Eur. H. F.339(quoted by Wakefield), where her mortal husband, Amphitryon, says, with the same meaning, “ὦ Ζεῦ, μάτην ἄρ᾽ ὁμόγαμόν σ᾽ ἐκτησάμην”. τελευταίαν … φήμην … θεσφάτων, my last (dying) utterance of them. Cp. O. T.723“φῆμαι μαντικαί”: ib. 86 “τοῦ θεοῦ φήμην φέρων. ἐμοῦ” with πύθησθε: cp. O. T.333“οὐ γὰρ ἂν πύθοιό μου”. The schol. wrongly took “ἐμοῦ” with “τελ. φήμην”, as= “τὴν περὶ τῆς τελευτῆς μου φήμην”. The oracles can be only the two which are told to Hyllus (1159—1171). If there had been others, they also must have been confided to him, as representing the absent kinsfolk. Heracles wishes to gather his family around him at a solemn farewell,—to convince them, by the “θέσφατα”, that he is in the hand of Zeus,—and, with that sanction, to lay his last commands upon them all.
This text is part of:
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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