ἀνάλγητα, a lot with no pain in it; for the absol. neut. pl., cp. Od.8. 413“θεοὶ δέ τοι ὄλβια δοῖεν”. Elsewhere “ἀνάλγητος”=‘insensible to pain,’ or ‘un feeling.’ οὐδ᾽ ὁ πάντα κρ. κ.τ.λ.: ‘a painless lot not even Zeus hath appointed,’ i.e., ‘Zeus himself hath not appointed.’ It is the will of Zeus himself that mortals should have pain along with joy. For this use of “οὐδέ”, emphasising a person, cp. 280: O. C.590(n. on “οὐδὲ σοὶ”). In Il.5. 22“οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδέ κεν αὐτὸς ὑπέκφυγε” (as in Od.8. 32, a like case), it is the second “οὐδέ”, belonging to “αὐτός”, that is parallel with οὐδ̓ here. ἐπέβαλε: since the reference is to an eternal law, it seems best to take the aor. as=a perfect, rather than as gnomic (‘usually imposes’). For the sense, cp. Eur. Med.1112“πῶς οὖν λύει”... | “τήνδ᾽ ἔτι λύπην”... | “θνητοῖσι θεοὺς ἐπιβάλλειν”; Il.6. 357“οἷσιν ἐπὶ Ζεὺς θῆκε κακὸν μόρον”.
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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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