ῥείτω κατ᾽ οὖρον, go down the stream before the wind. Nothing is gained by changing “ῥείτω” to ἴτω ( Aesch. Theb.690 f. “ἴτω κατ᾽ οὖρον” ... | ... “πᾶν τὸ Λαΐου γένος”). For οὖρον, cp. 815. She means, ‘it is idle to dwell upon what cannot be undone.’ κακὸν = “ἄπιστον, ψευδῆ” (347). πρὸς ἄλλον κ.τ.λ.: i.e., ‘if thou must use deceit, use it towards anyone rather than me’: cp. Ph.1119“στυγερὰν ἔχε” | “δύσποτμον ἀρὰν ἐπ᾽ ἄλλοις” (n.). The parataxis makes the precept κακὸν | πρὸς ἄλλον εἶναι absolute in form, though it is only relative in sense: cp. 383 f.: Isocr. or. 6 § 54 “πῶς οὐκ αἰσχρὸν,...τὴν μὲν Εὐρώπην...μεστὴν πεποιηκέναι τροπαίων,...ὑπὲρ δὲ τῆς πατρίδος...μηδὲ μίαν μάχην φαίνεσθαι μεμαχημένους”;
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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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