ἀμαιμακετᾶν: used by the poets of any violent force, divine or elemental, with which men cannot cope (as the Chimaera, Il. 6.179; Artemis in her wrath, Pind. Pyth. 3.33; the sea, ib. 1.14; fire, O. T. 177), and probably associated with ἄμαχος. But the reduplication recalls μαι-μά-ω (cp. πορ-φύρ-ω, ποι-πνύ-ω), —the ἀ being intensive: and if we suppose a secondary development of √MA as μακ (Fennell on Pind. P. 1. 14), the proper sense of ἀμαιμάκετος would be "very furious." The word being of epic coinage, it is conceivable that associations with μάχομαι may have influenced the formation as well as the usage.
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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