δύο, i.e. to-day and to-morrow. ἢ καί τι πλείους (Dindorf) is the best correction of ἢ καὶ πλείους τις (L), which may have arisen from τι being accidentally omitted or transposed. The v. l. ἢ καὶ πλέους τις was an attempt to reconcile that reading with metre. In lyrics we find the gen. “πλέονος” ( O. C.1211; Ph.1100, if the reading of the schol. be accepted): but in the iambics of Tragedy there is no certain instance (apart from “πλέον”) of the shorter form. (In Aesch. Ag.1299, “οὐκ ἔστ᾽ ἄλυξις, ὧ ξένοι, χρόνῳ πλέω”, the text is doubtful.) A further objection to “πλέους” is the repeated “τις”. The sense is:—‘Men often reckon on the morrow, or even, perchance (τι), on more days to come; but this is rash. A man can never be sure that his good fortune (i.e. immunity from disaster) will last even to the end of to-day.’ Cp. O. C.567“ἔξοιδ᾽ ἀνὴρ ὤν, χὤτι τῆς ἐς αὔριον” | “οὐδὲν πλέον μοι σοῦ μέτεστιν ἡμέρας”. For “ἡ αὔριον” (without “ἡμέρα”), cp. Alexis “Ὕπνος” fr. 3 “εἰς τὴν αὔριον.—λογίζεται”, ‘computes,’ i.e., ‘sets down in his calculations,’ as something upon which he can count.
This text is part of:
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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