previous next

ματᾶν. The MS. μάτην seems plainly corrupt. The sense is: “"for I cannot say that any decree of deities is in vain"”: i.e. “μάτην” must stand for “μάταιον εἶναι”. Isocr. or. 4 § 5 has “ὥστ᾽ ἤδη μάτην εἶναι τὸ μεμνῆσθαι περὶ τούτων” (=“μάταιον”): but that does not justify the use of the adv. alone here. Nor can it go with “φράσαι”. For ματᾶν cp. Aesch. Eum. 142 “ἰδώμεθ᾽ εἴ τι τοῦδε φροιμίου ματᾷ”, "is in vain."

ἀξίωμα prop., “"what one thinks right"”; here, “"decree,"” “"ordinance"”; in 1459 “"request."” Cp. Dem. or. 18 § 210 “τὰ τῶν προγόνων ἀξιώματα”, their political maxims.

φράσαι: cp.

“πτανά τε καὶ πεδοβάμον᾽ ἂν ἀνεμοέντων
αἰγίδων φράσαι κότον

”

.—These words are a comment on the last. Perchance it is Fate that is being fulfilled; for a heaven-appointed fate never fails of fulfilment.


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.

Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education provided support for entering this text.

This text was converted to electronic form by professional data entry and has been proofread to a high level of accuracy.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (4 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (4):
    • Aeschylus, Eumenides, 142
    • Aeschylus, Libation Bearers, 591
    • Demosthenes, On the Crown, 210
    • Isocrates, Panegyricus, 5
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: