ἐπὶ τάνδ᾽ … ἄκοιτιν, ‘to win Deianeira as bride’ (predicate): for the prep., cp. Ph.591“ἐπὶ τοῦτον”... | ...“πλέουσιν”: Xen. Cyr.1. 2. 9“ὅταν...ἐξίῃ... ἐπὶ θήραν.—ἀμφίγυοι”: the prep. expresses the idea, ‘two’; the second part of the compound suggests that of ‘stalwart,’ ‘vigorous.’ Thus the epithet is of the same class as “δίστολοι” ( Soph. O. C.1055), said of two persons who are travelling. It seems more likely that Sophocles here used “ἀμφίγυος” with an original boldness, than that he was directly thinking of the Homeric “ἔγχεσιν ἀμφιγύοισιν” ( Il.13. 147): where the adj. has been explained as (a) ‘having a “γυῖον”, a limb (of iron), at each end,’—the “λόγχη”, and the “σαυρωτήρ”: or (b) ‘having a “λόγχη” curved (“γυ”) on both sides’: but Leaf ad loc. suggests (c) ‘bending to either side,’ ‘elastic.’ The primary notion of “γυῖον” is, ‘a flexible limb.’ Other explanations of “ἀμφίγυοι” here are these:—(1) ‘With massive limbs,’— “ἀμφί” being intensive. (2) ‘Dexterous combatants’: cp. “ἀμφιδέξιος”. (3) ‘Of dissimilar forms,’—i.e., man and bull. κατέβαν, in certamen descenderunt.— Xen. An.4. 8. 27“ἠγωνίζοντο δὲ παῖδες κ.τ.λ....καὶ καλὴ θέα ἐγένετο: πολλοὶ γὰρ κατέβησαν.—πρὸ γάμων”, ‘for it,’ i.e., to win it (=“ὑπέρ”): not, ‘before it.’ In “πρό”, just as in ‘for,’ the two notions are closely linked. Cp. Soph. O. T.134“πρὸ τοῦ θανόντος” (on his behalf): Soph. El.495“πρὸ τῶνδε” (on this account).
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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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