δίκης ἐς ὀρθόν, conformably with the straight rule of honesty: cp. O. T.853“δικαίως ὀρθόν”, truly right (for the prophecy). For the implied metaphor, cp. Eur. Hec.602“ο<*>δεν τό γ̓ α<*>σχρὸν κανόνι τοῦ καλοῦ μαθών”: for “εἰς”, fr. 555 “εἰς ὀρθὸν φρονεῖν” (=“καλῶς φρονεῖν”): Thuc.6. 82“ἐς τὸ ἀκριβὲς εἰπεῖν” (so the MSS.: “ὡς” Krüger). The gen. “δίκης” can be joined to “ὀρθόν” (though without art.), since the latter is felt as a subst.: cp. Soph. Ai.1144“ἐν κακῷ” | “χειμῶνος”. ἢ νῦν … ἢ πρόσθεν … παρῆν: since “νῦν” can mean ‘just now,’ it is not necessary to supply “πάρεστιν”: but it is easy to do so: cp. Xen. An.3. 3. 2“ἐγὼ...καὶ Κύρῳ πιστὸς ἦν,...καὶ νῦν ὑμῖν εὔνους” (“εἰμί”).— κακός here=“ἄπιστος”, as at 468 it is opposed to “ἀψευδεῖν.—οὐ δίκαιος” is merely a synonym for “κακός” (cp. 457), ‘not honest’: cp. 411: Ant.671“δίκαιον κἀγαθὸν παραστάτην”. The antithesis, which is only between “νῦν” and “πρόσθεν”, is thus somewhat blurred.
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.