προκηραίνουσα (“κῆρ”), feeling anxiety about him, “μεριμνῶσα κατὰ τὸ κέαρ” (schol.). The compound occurs only here: Eur. has the simple “κηραίνω” as = ‘to be anxious’ ( Eur. Hipp.223, Eur. H. F.518). Distinguish the other “κηραίνω”, from “κήρ”, ‘to harm’ ( Aesch. Eum.128, “δρακαίνης ἐξεκήραναν μένος”). νὺξ γὰρ εἰσάγει κ.τ.λ.: ‘for one night ushers in a trouble, and another, in succession (to the former night), expels it,’ —to make room for some fresh anxiety. This is a poetical amplification of “ἀεί τιν᾽ ἐκ φόβου φόβον τρέφω”. Each night torments her, as she lies awake, with some new surmise as to her husband's fate.— πόνον is governed by both verbs. διαδεδεγμένη is used absolutely: its object, if expressed, would have been “τὴν προτέραν νύκτα”: cp. Her.8. 142“ὡς δὲ ἐπαύσατο λέγων Ἀλέξανδρος, δια δεξάμενοι” (‘in their turn’) “ἔλεγον οἱ ἀπὸ Σπάρτης ἄγγελοι”. Thus “διαδεδεγμένη” serves at once (a) to show that the words “νὺξ εἰσάγει καὶ νὺξ ἀπωθεῖ” refer to different nights; and (b) to suggest the new “πόνος”—not expressly mentioned—which the second night brings; since the task in which it is “διάδοχος” to the first is that of harassing the sufferer's mind. See Appendix.
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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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