Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Trachiniae

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αἰόλα, ‘gleaming’ with stars: cp. 11: Eur. fr. 596 “περὶ δ᾽ ὀρφναία” | “νὺξ αἰολόχρως, ἄκριτός τ᾽ ἄστρων” | “ὄχλος.—ἐναριζομένα” might be merely ‘slain,’ but seems here to have its proper sense, ‘slain and despoiled.’ One point which favours this view has not been noticed. The inverted order of the words (‘chiasmus’) has its usual effect for the ear,—viz., to indi cate that φλογιζόμενον balances ἐναριζομένα, as κατευνάζει balances τίκτει. And this is so, if “ἐναριζο<*>ένα” implies, not only ‘slain,’ but ‘despoiled,’—thus serving, with “αἰόλα”, to suggest that bright panoply which Night is still wearing when the Dawn comes to vanquish her,—ere the Sun-god has yet issued from her womb. Cp. Aesch. Ag.279“τῆς νῦν τεκούσης φῶς τόδ᾽ εὐφρόνης”.

The text has been much suspected (see cr. n.), but without reason. The imagery, indeed, does not form a consistent whole: Night is slain, and then overcomes. But this is merely one of many instances in which the poet's language wavers between the figurative and the literal.

κατευνάζει τε φλογιζόμενον. The passage is marred by placing the comma, as some do, after “τε”, and taking the partic. with “αἰτῶ”. Cp. Byron, Corsair, canto III.: ‘Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run, | Along Morea's hills the setting sun; | Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright, | But one unclouded blaze of living light.’