αὖθις, at a later time: Ant.1204 n. Τιρυνθίαν … κλιτύν. We cannot be sure that Sophocles had any clear picture of the place before his mind; but his phrase, at least, is not unsuitable. “κλιτύς”, ‘slope,’ does not necessarily imply great elevation. The site of Tiryns is a ridge of limestone rock on the Argolic Gulf (cp. 1151), in which, at some prehistoric time, it formed an island. The length of this ridge, from N. to S. , is about 328 yards: its width about 109. The upper citadel of Tiryns was at the southern end, where the rock attains a height of about 72 feet above sea-level, and of 59 feet above the present surface of the plain. North of this was the lower citadel; and the whole was surrounded by those massive ‘Cyclopean’ walls from which Tiryns derived its Homeric epithet ( Il.2. 559), “τειχιόεσσα”. See Schliemann's Tiryns, p. 177. Such a site, though not steep or lofty, might correctly be described as the “Τιρυνθία κλιτύς”.—For the υ^ in κλιτύν, cp. Ant.1144 n., and ib. 1127 “λιγνύς”: so “νηδύς” ( Eur. Andr.356 etc.). ἵππους νομάδας: acc. to Od.21. 22, Iphitus came, “ἵππους διζήμενος, αἵ οἱ ὄλοντο” | “δώδεκα θήλειαι, ὑπὸ δ᾽ ἡμίονοι ταλαεργοί”: but Apollod.2. 6. 2 says, “κλαπεισῶν ἐξ Εὐβοίας ὑπὸ Αὐτολύκου βοῶν”. For νομάδας, ‘wandering,’ cp. O.T. 1350 n.
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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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