ξυνηρετεῖν is Lobeck's certain correction of the MS. reading, ξυνηρετμεῖν. The latter would be formed from an adj. “ξυνήρετμος”, which does not occur, but which would be like “εὐήρετμος”, etc. (“ἐρετμόν”, oar). ξυνηρετεῖν is formed from “ξυνηρέτης” (“ἐρέτης”, oarsman), a word recorded by Photius, who explains it by “σύμφωνος”, and compares “ἀντηρέτης” ( Aesch. Theb. 283“ἀντηρέτας ἐχθροῖσι”). In Eur. fr. 776. 3 (from Stobaeus Flor. 93. 2), “ἆρ᾽ ὄλβος αὐτοῖς ὅτι τυφλὸς συνηρεφεῖ”, Meineke restored “συνηρετεῖ”. In Eur. fr. 282. 7 the best texts of Athenaeus (413 D) have “οὐδ᾽ αὖ πένεσθαι καὶ ξυνηρετεῖν τύχαις”, though Schweighäuser, following Valckenär, gave “ξυνηρετμεῖν”: the true reading there, however, is found in Galen's quotation of the verse (vol. 1. p. 23), viz., “κἀξυπηρετεῖν”. [Hesychius gives “ξυνηρετίσεις: συνήσεις. συζυγήσεις”. Lobeck proposed to read “ξυνηρετήσεις”: but the interpretation by “συζυγήσεις” seems rather to favour a conjecture (Ruhnken's?) mentioned in Alberti's ed. of Hesychius, vol. II. p. 707, “ξυναρτίσεις”.] For the metaphor, cp. Ant. 541“ξύμπλουν” (n.). In Aesch. Ag. 842 the king says of Odysseus, “ζευχθεὶς ἕτοιμος ἦν ἐμοὶ σειραφόρος”.
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part VII: The Ajax. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1907.
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