The words ἀμβρότων ἐπέων answer metrically to “ναιετῶν παρ᾽ ὑγρόν” (1123). There is no metrical reason, then, for altering the MS. “ἀμβρότων”, with Turnebus, to “ἀβρότων”. Cp. O. T. 158 “ἄμβροτε Φάμα”. There is no certain instance of “ἄβροτος” in Tragedy. Cp. Pind. P. 4. 299“ἀμβροσίων ἐπέων”, ‘divine strains.’ Here the epithet suggests the mystic power of the invocation. εὐαζόντων: see on “εὔιον”, 964: ‘while divine chants resound with the cry evoe’; i.e., while the bacchants escort thee on thy way to Thebes with chants of praise. The conjecture “ἑπετᾶν” is neat, but needless.
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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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