Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Trachiniae

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τ<*> νεάζον “κ.τ.λ.” The young life grows in ‘regions of its own,’— sheltered, like some tender plant, from scorching heat, from violent rain, and from rough winds. τοιοῖσδε refers to the preceding words, “νῦν δ᾽ ἄπειρος εἶ”: i.e., ‘such’=‘thus untroubled.’ For this retrospective “τοιόσδε”, cp. Ai.148.βόσκεται: cp. Ai.558“τέως δὲ κούφοις πνεύμασιν βόσκου, νέαν” | “ψυχὴν ἀτάλλων. χώροισιν αὑτοῦ”: schol. “τοῖς ἰδίοις αὑτοῦ τόποις”. He notices the other reading αὐτοῦ, which Paley supports by the Homeric “αὐτοῦ ἐνὶ Τροίῃ” ( Il.2. 237), etc.: but here it would be both weak and obscure. For the image of the sheltered plant, cp. Il.18. 56(Thetis of Achilles), “ὁ δ᾽ ἀνέδραμεν ἔρνεϊ ἶσος”, | “τὸν μὲν ἐγὼ θρέψασα, φυτὸν ὣς γουνῷ ἀλωῆς κ.τ.λ.”—

θάλπος … ὄμβρος … πνευμάτων: Schneid. cp. Od.5. 478(of “θάμνοι”) “τοὺς μὲν ἄρ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἀνέμων διάη μένος ὑγρὸν ἀέντων”, | “οὔτε ποτ᾽ ἠέλιος φαέθων ἀκτῖσιν ἔβαλλεν”, | “οὔτ᾽ ὄμβρος περάασκε διαμπερές”.

The text is as clearly sound as the passage itself is beautiful. But numerous changes have been proposed: for these, see Appendix. Here I will only remark that the genuineness of the words καί νιν—which most of the conjectures assume to be corrupt—is confirmed by a fragment of the orator Antiphon (no. XXVIII. 10 in Sauppe, Oratt. Att. vol. II. p. 151), where he speaks of education as a permanent influence:—“ἐν νέῳ σώματι ὅταν τις τὴν παίδευσιν γενναίαν ἐναρόσῃ, ζῇ τοῦτο καὶ θάλλει διὰ παντὸς τοῦ βίου, καὶ αὐτὸ οὔτε ὄμβρος οὔτε ἀνομβρία ἀφαιρεῖται”. The last sentence is manifestly a reminiscence of “καί νιν οὐ θάλπος θεοῦ” | “οὔτ᾽ ὄμβρος κ.τ.λ.”