καινῷ καινὸν: the epithet, strictly applicable to the “πέπλωμα” only, is given to the “θυτήρ” also, expressing the new radiance with which the robe shall invest its wearer. This common idiom ( Her.2. 173“ἐν θρόνῳ σεμνῷ σεμνὸν θωκέοντα”) occurs elsewhere also under a similar condition,— viz., where the repeated adj. serves for collective emphasis rather than for separate characterisation: Soph. El.742“ὀρθὸς ἐξ ὀρθῶν δίφρων”: Soph. Ai.267“κοινὸς ἐν κοινοῖσι λυπεῖσθαι”: ib. 467 “ξυμπεσὼν μόνος μόνοις”. But it should be observed that, in this passage, the repetition has a further motive. It is a touch of tragic irony, like the unconscious ambiguity of “προσαρμόσαι” in 494. For “θυτὴρ καινός” could mean, ‘a sacrificer of a novel kind’: cp. Soph. O. C.1542“ἐγὼ γὰρ ἡγεμὼν” | “σφῷν αὖ πέφασμαι καινός”. For the sinister sense of “καινός”, cp. 867. As to the wearing of new, or freshly washed, garments on such occasions, cp. Od.4. 750(Penelope is to pray to Athena) “καθαρὰ χροῒ εἵμαθ᾽ ἑλοῦσα”.
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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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