καὶ τῶνδ᾽ ἀποίσεις. Deianeira has sealed the casket (622) with her own signet. “σφραγίς” here is not the signetring itself, but the impression in wax, the seal: cp. I. A. 155 “σφραγῖδα φύλασς᾿, <*>ν ἐπὶ δέλτῳ” | “τῇδε κομίζεις”. The word “ἕρκος”, ‘enclosure,’ means the part of the ring which bears the device, “σῆμα”. This part was called “σφενδόνη” ( Eur. Hipp.862“τύποι...σφενδόνης”), Lat. funda, be cause the gem in its setting was like a stone in a sling: the English term is bezel; the French, chaton. That “ἕρκος” here denotes the whole bezel, and not merely the rim, is shown by “ἐπόν”, which would otherwise be “ἐνόν”. The use of the word “σῆμα” in this context is illustrated by an inscription on a scarab of the 6th cent. B.C., published by Rossbach, Archäol. Zeit. (1883, pp. 311 ff., pl. 16, No. 19): “Θέρσιώς εἰμι σᾶμα: μή με ἄνοιγε”. Cp. Prof. H. MiddletonJ. , Engraved Gems of Classical Times (1891), p. 67. ἐπὸν μαθήσεται is Billerbeck's certain correction of ἐπ᾽ ὄμμα θήσεται, a corruption caused by the easy change of ν (before “μαθήσεται”) into μ; just as in Ant.1266, “ξὺν μόρῳ”, L has “ξυμμόρωι”. As to εὐμαθὲς … μαθήσεται, cp. n. on Ant.502“κλέος... εὐκλεέστερον”. Those who keep the vulgate govern ὃ by ἐπιθήσεται ὄμμα as= “ὄψεται”.
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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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