γὰρ as in 155. κρατοῦντα, the pres. (=‘is victorious’), as oft. “νικῶν”: cp. n. on O. T.437. ἀπαρχὰς refers more especially to the train of “αἰχμαλωτίδες” which the Messenger had seen with Lichas, but can also include the spoils which were to come later with Heracles. For “ἀπαρχή” said of human beings, cp. Arist. fr. 443 (p. 1550 b 39) ap. Plut. Thes.16“Κρῆτας...ἀνθρώπων ἀπαρχὴν εἰς Δελφοὺς ἀποστέλλειν”. So in Soph. Ph.202 the captive “Φοίνισσαι” describe themselves as “ἀκροθίνια Λοξίᾳ.—θεοῖσι” (for the synizesis, O.C. 964 n.) τοῖς ἐγχωρίοις, esp. Zeus “Οἰταῖος” (200), Apollo, and Artemis Ortygia (210 ff.). Cp. 245 (of the captives) “αὑτῷ κτῆμα καὶ θεοῖς κριτόν”.
This text is part of:
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.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.