Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Ajax

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καγχαζόντων. Dindorf writes καχαζόντων, on the ground that the form “καγχάζω” was not Attic. (His further change of “πάντων” into “ἁπάντων” is merely for the sake of equalising this v. with 197 f.) The main facts are these. 1. Aristophanes uses “καχάζων” once ( Eccl. 849), and also the noun “καχασμῶν” (Nub. 1073). 2. It is true that “καγχάζω” cannot be proved by metre from any verse earlier than that of Babrius (100. 8 “καγχάσας”), and Paulus Silentiarius (6th cent.) in Anth. Pal. 6. 74. 3 (“καγχάζουσα”). 3. On the other hand the MSS. have “ἀνεκάγχασε” in Plat. Rep. 337 A, and “ἀνακαγχάσας” in Euthyd. 300 D; forms, be it noted, which carry their own commendation, since, in the compound with “ἀνά”, the nasal (“γ” before “χ”) makes pronunciation easier. 4. Lastly, there is the analogy of the Homeric “καγχαλάω”. Surely, then, there is no reason to doubt that Sophocles could have used “καγχάζω” if he found it metrically convenient.

βαρυάλγητα. I follow the MSS. in leaving the hiatus (cp. 196), which here has the special justification of a pause, making it needless to write “βαρυαλγήτως” with Dindorf. That the scholiast in L, like the MSS., had the neut. pl., appears from his paraphrase, “βαρέα καὶ ἀλγεινά”. Some editors prefer to write βαρυάλγητ̓, which is also metrically possible. The sense is, ‘fraught with heavy pain’ to us; the “ἄλγος” is not the bitter indignation felt by the Greeks. The word occurs only here: and “βαρυαλγής” is post-classical.

ἕστακεν, ‘stands fixed’: cp. 1084.