Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Ajax

δῆτ᾽ αὐτὸν ἄξεις. There is no other example of “δῆτα” as first word of a verse. It is usually read as first word of a clause in Nub. 399 (“καὶ πῶς”) “εἴπερ βάλλει τοὺς ἐπιόρκους, δῆτ᾽ οὐχὶ Σίμων᾽ ἐνέπρησεν”..; where, however, Dindorf gives “πῶς οὐχι” (“πῶς δῆτ̓” being a variant for “δῆτ̓”). There is, however, no reason to doubt it here. With Sophocles the words sometimes run on from the end of one trimeter to the beginning of the next, as if there were no break between the verses. See e.g. 1089 “ὅπως ι μή”: Ant. 409“πᾶσαν κόνιν σήραντες ἣ κατεῖχε τὸν ι νέκυν”: Ph. 263“ὃν οἱ ι δισσοὶ στρατηγοί”: O. T. 332“τί ταῦτ᾽ ι ἄλλως ἐλέγχεις;” (Such elision at the end of the verse was remarked by the ancients as peculiar to Sophocles: see on O. T. 29.) The place of “δῆτα” here is only another example of the same tendency, and is illustrated by that of “ποτέ” in O. T. 1084“οὐκ ἂν ἐξέλθοιμ᾽ ἔτι ι ποτ᾽ ἄλλος”. This virtual synaphea of trimeters naturally occurs most often in passages where, as here, the speech is excited or rapid.

κενῆς, ‘robbed’ of her young: Bion Idyll. I. 59 “χήρα δ᾽ ἁ Κυθέρεια, κενοὶ δ᾽ ἀνὰ δώματ᾽ Ἔρωτες”. The adj. is ‘proleptic’: if the child is not quickly brought, the mother will seek him only to find that she is bereaved. Cp. Ant. 791“δικαίων ἀδίκους φρένας παρασπᾷς”: Aesch. Pers. 298“ἄνανδρον τάξιν ἠρήμου θανών”. Schol. “οἱ γὰρ κυνηγοὶ τηροῦσι τὸν καιρὸν ὁπότε ἔρημοι τῶν μητέρων γίγνονται οἱ σκύμνοι”. —Others take κενῆς as merely ‘separated’ (at this time) from her child: but this would be a strange sense for it.