μόνον and μόνου are alike admissible; “μόνον” means, ‘the only thing that he will not achieve is to escape death’; “μόνον”, ‘the only thing that he will not escape is death.’ In this general view of human achievement, “μόνον” seems a little the better. φεῦξιν — ἐπάξεται, procure means of escape from death. “ἐπάγεσθαι”, prop. ‘to bring into one's own country’; usu. said of calling in allies to help one; or of importing foreign products: Thuc. 4.64 “ξυμμάχους δὲ οὐδέποτε ...ἐπαξόμεθα”: id. 1. 81 “ἐκ θαλάσσης ὧν δέονται ἐπάξονται”. Then often fig., of calling in anything to one's aid: Plat. Legg. 823A “τὸ δὲ δὴ παρὸν ἡμῖν τὰ νῦν οἷον μάρτυρα ἐπαγόμεθα: δηλοῖ μὲν ἂν ὃ βουλόμεθα”: ‘we call to our help, as a witness, the example which is actually present with us; it will show what we mean.’ Gorg. 492B “αὐτοὶ ἑαυτοῖς δεσπότην ἐπαγάγοιντο τὸν τῶν πολλῶν ἀνθρώπων νόμον τε καὶ λόγον καὶ ψόγον” (‘call in to rule them’). Menander “Ὑδρία” fr. 2 “γέροντα δυστυχοῦντα, τῶν θ᾽ αὑτοῦ κακῶν ι ἐπαγόμενον λήθην, ἀνέμνησας πάλιν” (‘seeking to procure forgetfulness of his troubles’). The word is admirably suitable and vivid here: man looks to every side for succour against the foe that is ever in the land,—Death; but from no quarter can he find help. It is surprising that so many recent critics should have confidently condemned “ἐπάξεται”, and sought to replace it by conjectures (see cr. n.).
This text is part of:
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.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
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.