φονίᾳ νεφέλᾳ, dat. of circumstance, ‘with a cloud of death around him’: cp. Il.16. 350“θανάτου δὲ μέλαν νέφος ἀμφεκάλυψεν”. There is perhaps a reminiscence of Pindar N. 9. 37 “φόνου” | “παρποδίου νεφέλαν” (referring to battle). The image might be partly suggested by the vivid description, which the Chorus have just heard, of Heracles in his agony, with the altar-smoke hanging around him: the “πρόσεδρος λιγνύς” (794) was indeed, for him, a “φονία νεφέλη”. Others understand: (1) ‘in the Centaur's deadly net.’ “νεφέλη” was a kind of bird-net used by fowlers: in Anthol. 6. 11. 2 it is called “λεπτόμιτος”, ‘of fine texture,’ and distinguished from the hunter's “δολιχὸν δίκτυον”. Cp. 1052 “ὑφαντὸν ἀμφίβληστρον”, and 1057 “πέδῃ”. But it seems doubtful whether this use of “νεφέλη” would have been suitable to Tragedy. (2) ‘The deadly envelopment,’—i.e., the robe, compared to a cloud which obscures the sun. Κενταύρου … δολοποιὸς ἀνάγκα, the Centaur's insidious constraint; i.e., the inevitable doom, brought upon him by the Centaur's guile. The adj. is properly active in sense, ‘contriving fraud’; cp. “παιδοποιός, σιτοποιός”. In O. C.698 the passive sense of “αὐτοποιόν” (‘selfproduced’) is exceptional. χρίει, irritates, torments: Aesch. P. V.567“χρίει τις αὖ με τὰν τάλαιναν οἶστρος”. This sense, like that of ‘anointing,’ comes from the primary sense, to ‘graze,’ or ‘rub.’ πλευρά from “πλευρόν”: for the second acc., cp. Ph.1301“μέθες με... χεῖρα”. 834 The MSS. have “ὃν τέκετο θάνατος, ἔτεκε δ̓ αἰόλος δράκων”. This has been explained as if “θάνατος” were the father and the “δράκων” (hydra) the mother. But usage does not warrant such a pointed antithesis between “τίκτομαι” (midd.) and “τίκτω”. The poets apply either voice to either parent: see, e.g., Il.6. 154“ὁ δ᾽ ἄρα Γλαῦκον τέκεθ᾽ υἱόν”, | “αὐτὰρ Γλαῦκος ἔτικτεν ἀμύμονα Βελλεροφόντην”: ib. 2. 728 “ἔτεκεν Ῥήνη”, and 742 “τέκετο κλυτὸς Ἱπποδάμεια”. Lobeck's correction of ἔτεκε to ἔτρεφε is a certain one.— αἰόλος: cp. 11.
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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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