στρατὸν … ἐπακτὸν: the adj. here merely=“ξένον”, ‘alien,’ i.e., not belonging to his own home. “ἐπακτός” is prop. said of allies, or mercenaries, whom a foreign state calls in (“ἐπάγεται”) to its aid: cp. O.C. 1525 n. But here it denotes the allies of an exile,—just as Polyneices is said to bring a “στράτευμ᾽ ἐπακτὸν” against his country ( Aesch. Theb.583).— Apollod.2. 7. 7 describes this army as composed of Arcadians, Malians, and Epicnemidian Lo crians: but those who cite him here have not observed that he supposes Heracles to make the war from Trachis. ἔρχεται with acc. of place: O. C.89, El.893. πόλιν τὴν Εὐρυτείάν: cp. O. T.267“τῷ Λαβδακείῳ παιδὶ” (n.): ib. 450 “φόνον” | “τὸν Λαΐειον.—τόνδε”, as if “τὴν Εὐρύτου” had gone before: so in Il.5. 640“ὅς” refers to “βίην Ἡρακληείην”: in O. C.942“αὐτοὺς” to “πόλιν” in 939: in Ph.1364“οἵ γε” to “Τροίαν” in 1363: in El.963“τῶνδε” to “ἄλεκτρα ἀνυμέναιά τε.—μεταίτιον”: Zeus was primarily “αἴτιος”, but Eurytus was the only mortal who had a part in it.
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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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