ὦ δὐστηνος, sc. “ἐγώ”: cp. 1143, 1243. Ph.744“δύστηνος, ὦ τάλας ἐγώ.— ἀνώνυμος”: “ἄσημος καὶ δυσγενής” (schol.). The reference to origin is brought out by πέφυκεν. This question seems strange after the words κτείνει τ᾽ ἄνακτα πατέρα τῆσδε in 364,—which Deianeira can hardly be supposed to have forgotten. (See n. on 362 ff.) If those words be genuine, we might perhaps regard the question here as merely continuing her own bitter thought,— not as really asking for information:— ‘Wretched that I am! Is this the nameless maiden of whom he spoke?’ (Cp. the bitter self-communing of Oedipus, O. T.822: “ἆρ᾽ ἔφυν κακός”; | “ἆρ᾽ οὐχὶ πᾶς ἄναγνος”;) It is not decisive against this view that the matter-of-fact “ἄγγελος” takes the question literally. διώμνυτο (cp. 255 n.): Lichas had merely declared that he knew nothing (314—319).
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.
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