μὴ. We might have had the “οὐ” of oratio obliqua with “λακεῖν, ῀ ὅτι οὐκ ἔλακε”. But here we have “μή”, as after “πιστεύω” and like verbs. So O. T. 1455 “οἶδα, μήτε μ᾽ ἂν νόσον ι μήτ᾽ ἄλλο πέρσαι μηδέν” (n.). Cp. O. C. 656 n., 797 n. In such cases “μή” seems to add a certain emphasis to the statement of fact (like saying, ‘I protest that I know no instance’). λακεῖν, infin. (instead of the more usual partic.) after “ἐπιστάμεσθα”: 293 n. This verb is esp. used of prophecy: cp. Tr. 822 (where “τοὔπος τὸ θεοπρόπον” is subject to “ἔλακεν”): Aesch. Ag. 1426 (of Clytaemnestra) “περίφρονα δ᾽ ἔλακες”. The ref. is esp. to the seer's denunciation of Oedipus, and his command regarding Megareus (1303 n.).
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part III: The Antigone. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1900.
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