θανάτους, Deianeira's violent death (for the plur., cp. O. T. 497 n.). The bold use of μεγάλους is softened by the poetical plur., which brings out the notion of a ‘great’ or ‘awful’ calamity. “μέγας” is often nearly equivalent to “δεινός”, as in “μέγα τι παθεῖν” (Xen. An. 5. 8. 17), etc. πήματα … καινοπαθῆ, the strange and terrible sufferings of Heracles. This adjdoes not occur elsewhere: but Aesch. Theb. 363 has “καινοπήμων” as=‘new to woe.’ (For the bad sense of “καινός”, cp. 867, 873.) The second part of the compound is akin in sense to “πῆμα”: cp. 756 n.—The v. l. καινοπαγῆ was a prosaic conjecture, suggested by such words as “νεοπαγής”.
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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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