μὲν merely emphasises “ἐμέ”: there is no corresponding clause with “δέ”: cp. Ant. 11（“ἐμοὶ μὲν”) n. ὁ πολὺς … βίοτος, the best part of it: see on 962, where she speaks of her sister as “γηράσκουσαν”. When “ὁ πολύς” thus means “ὁ πλείων”, the noun (with art.) usu. precedes it; as Her. 1. 102“ὁ στρατὸς...ὁ πολλός”, Thuc. 1. 24“τῆς δυνάμεως τῆς πολλῆς. ” ἀνέλπιστος, predic., has passed away from me without leaving me any hopes. 187 *“τεκέων”. I am now satisfied that this is a true correction of τοκέων, for these reasons. (1) She is saying that the best days of her life have gone by without giving her anything to hope for. It would be inappropriate to justify this (as the causal ἅτις does) by saying that she is pining away ‘without parents,’ or a husband's care, while the mention of children is perfectly in place. (2) The very order of the words, “τεκέων...ἀνήρ”, is confirmed by vv. 164 f., “ἄτεκνος...ἀνύμ-” “φευτος”. (3) If τοκέων be right, it means that, while Agamemnon is dead, the living Clytaemnestra is a “μήτηρ ἀμήτωρ” (1154): but this is forced.
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part VI: The Electra. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1894.
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