ἂν … εἱλόμην: cp. Ph.1239“ἂν...ἐβουλόμην” (n.). σε is subject to each of the three infinitives which follow. It is placed as if the speaker mentally supplied a word such as “παθεῖν”. But ἓν is really an accus. in apposition with the whole sentence, σε ἢ μηκέτ᾽ εἶναι, etc. The peculiar order has been due to the metrical difficulty of inserting σε anywhere in vv. 735—737. ἐκ τριῶν ἓν. Photius and Suidas quote the proverb, “τῶν τριῶν κακῶν ἕν”, illustrating it from Polyzelus (a poet of the later Old Comedy), “τριῶν κακῶν ἕν γ᾽ οὖν ἑλέσθ᾽ αὐτῷ τι πᾶσ᾽ ἀνάγκη”, and Menander, “ἓν γάρ τι τούτων τῶν τριῶν ἔχοι κακῶν”. Cp. schol. Pind. O.1. 97“τρία λέγεται κοινῶς καὶ τὰ πρὸς τὸν θάνατον συνεργοῦντα, ξίφος, ἀγχόνη, κρημνός: Σοφοκλῆς” (fr. 822)<*> “λύσω γάρ, εἰ καὶ τῶν τριῶν ἓν οἴσομαι”. A like prov. was “τρία Θηραμένους”, alluding to three alternative penalties proposed by him. κεκλῆσθαι: cp. 149: El.366“πάντων ἀρίστου παῖδα κεκλῆσθαι.—ἀμείψασθαι”, get in exchange: Aesch. Theb.304“ποῖον δ᾽ ἀμείψεσθε γαίας πέδον” | “τᾶσδ᾽ ἄρειον; ποθεν” is wholly vague: the schol.'s “ἐκ θεοῦ τινος” is too definite.
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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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