κοὐχ ἡλίωσε τοὔπος: modelled on the Homeric “οὐδ᾽ ἁλίωσε βέλος” ( Il.16. 737), with a reminiscence also of “οὐδ᾽ ἅλιον ἔπος ἔσσεται” (ib. 24. 92). ὅθ᾽ ἁγνὸς ἦν. The Homeric poems know nothing of a ritual for purification from homicide: the blood-shedder either flies into exile ( Il.24. 480 ff.), or prevails on the kinsfolk of the slain to accept a “ποινή” (ib. 9. 632 ff.), and stays at home. Here the schol. supposes that, by ἁγνός, Sophocles alludes simply to the year of exile having expired. This may be so; but it is more probable that Heracles is conceived as also undergoing a formal “κάθαρσις”. According to other writers, he received this from Deiphobus at Amyclae, after vainly seeking it from Neleus at Pylos ( Apollod.2. 6. 2: Diod.4. 31). So Aesch. makes the exile Orestes receive the “καθαρμοὶ χοιροκτόνοι” ( Aesch. Eum.283Aesch. Eum., 449). The homicide who withdrew into banishment was said “ἀπενιαυτίζειν” (or “ἀπενιαυτεῖν”),—a word not always restricted to one year: Legg. 868 D “ἐνιαυτοὺς τρεῖς ἀπενιαυτεῖν”. Cp. ib. E “καθαίρεσθαι μὲν τοὺς αὐτοὺς καθαρμούς, τριετεῖς δὲ ἀπενιαυτήσεις διατελεῖν”. The rites of “κάθαρσις” for homicide are fully described by Apoll. Rhod., 4. 693—717.
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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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