ἀμπυκτήρια φάλαρα πώλων is the MS. reading. Hesychius s.v. has: “ἀμπυκτήρια: τὰ φάλαρα. Σοφοκλῆς Οἰδίποδι ἐν Κολωνῷ”. This proves what the metre (on any view of 1054) already hinted,— that φάλαρα is a gloss. “ἀμπυκτήριον” here=“"bridle,"” as “ἀμπυκτήρ” in Aesch. Theb. 461 “ἵππους δ᾽ ἐν ἀμπυκτῆρσιν ἐμβριμωμένας”: where the schol. (minor) expressly says that “ἄμπυξ” (properly the head-band) was similarly used: “κυρίως οἱ περὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἱμάντες τοῦ χαλινοῦ ἄμπυξ καλοῦνται”: and so Quintus Smyrnaeus uses “ἄμπυξ”, 4. 511. It is but a slight poetical extension of meaning to use ἀμπυκτήρια as including the bridle-reins. The MS. πώλων is against the metre, unless 1054 f. are very boldly altered (see Metrical Analysis). When the gloss φάλαρα had crept into the text, πώλων (suggested by 1062) may have been tacked on to it. Wecklein's conjecture, “ἀμπυκτήρια στομίων” (“"the reins of the bits"”) gives an exact correspondence with 1054 “ἔνθ᾽ οἶμαι τὸν ἐγρεμάχαν”. Nothing better has been suggested.
This text is part of:
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part II: The Oedipus Coloneus. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1899.
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