Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Trachiniae

οὔτε is followed by δὲ (1153), as in Aesch. Suppl.223 ff., Xen. An.6. 3. 16(=6. 1. 16 of some edd.), Plat. Rep. 389A, etc. Cp. 143 n.

ἐπακτίᾳ Τίρυνθι: see on 270.

συμβέβηκεν, impers., it has come to pass: the subject to ἔχειν (“αὐτήν”) can easily be supplied, and the whole phrase =“τυγχάνει ἕδραν ἔχουσα”. — For ὥστε, cp. Arist. Pol.2. 2. 5“καὶ συμβαίνει δὴ τὸν τρόπον τοῦτον ὥστε πάντας ἄρχειν”.— Not, ‘she has come to terms (with Eurystheus), so that she should dwell,’ etc.

Sophocles glances here at parts of the story which do not come within the scope of the play. Alcmena, daughter of Electryon king of Mycenae, had been betrothed to her first cousin, Amphitryon, son of Alcaeus king of Tiryns. Amphitryon accidentally killed his uncle, Electryon, and then fled from Tiryns to Thebes with his betrothed. At Thebes Alcmena bore Heracles to Zeus. Heracles afterwards went to Argolis and served Eurystheus,—with the hope that his toils would purchase a return to Tiryns for the exiled Amphitryon and Alcmena ( Eur. H. F.19). When these toils were over, Heracles dwelt in freedom at Tiryns with his family, including Alcmena,—Amphitryon being dead ( Diod.4. 33). He afterwards slew Iphitus, and then sought a refuge for his household at Trachis (39). But, in the course of the fifteen months since he departed for Lydia, Alcmena had returned to Tiryns, (Eurystheus having no cause to fear the aged widow,)—and had taken some of her grandchildren with her, in order to lighten the burden on the hospitality of Ceÿx.— ξυλλαβοῦς᾿, here simply=“λαβοῦσα μεθ᾽ ἑαυτῆς”: cp. O. T.971 n.