ἐξειρήσεται; This is clearly the right punctuation; for Hyllus is most anxious to know what will be asked of him. Heracles evades the question by replying, “τὸ λεχθὲν ἔργον”,—i.e., “ὃ ἂν λεχθῇ”: just as in Ai.528, “ἐὰν μόνον τὸ ταχθὲν εὖ τολμᾷ τελεῖν”, the partic.=“ὃ ἂν ταχθῇ”.—With a full stop at “ἐξειρήσεται”, the sense would be merely, ‘and this promise shall be given.’
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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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