μόνα δ̓: whereas in an ordinary “ἀγών” there were several “ῥαβδοῦχοι. ...εὔλεκτρος”: in Ant.795 the epithet of a bride: here, of the goddess who gives fair brides to men. ἐν μέσῳ here refers to the umpire as an impartial judge between two competitors. ῥαβδονόμει ( = “ἐρραβδονόμει”). The officials who maintained order in the contests at the great festivals were called “ῥαβδοῦχοι”: Thuc.5. 50“ἐν τῷ ἀγῶνι ὑπὸ τῶν ῥαβδούχων πληγὰς ἔλαβεν”. The term included the notion of ‘umpire’: Plat. Prot. 338A “πείθεσθέ μοι ῥαβδοῦχον καὶ ἐπιστάτην καὶ πρύτανιν ἑλέσθαι, ὃς ὑμῖν φυλάξει τὸ μέτριον μῆκος τῶν λόγων ἑκατέρου”. The verb “ῥαβδονομεῖν” occurs only here, and “ῥαβδονόμος” itself is postclassical: but cp. Hesych. (s. v. “ῥάβδοι”), “καὶ ὁ βραβευτὴς ῥαβδονόμος”. Aphroditè is here the only person near the two combatants (ξυνοῦσα): Deianeira views the fight from afar. But the scene was not always so conceived. Thus the Megarian “θησαυρός” at Olympia contained a group of figures in gilt cedarwood, of which Paus. (6. 19. 12) says: “Ζεὺς δὲ ἐνταῦθα καὶ ἡ Δηιάνειρα καὶ Ἀχελῷος καὶ Ἡρ<*>κλῆς ἐστιν Ἄρης τε τῷ Ἀχελῴῳ βοηθῶν”.
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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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