μέλει γ̓: “γε” emphasises the verb, cp. 660. ἐπεὶ οὔποτ̓: for this synizesis, cp. 446 n.—Philoctetes has not found the gods kindly: cp. 254, 452, 1020. But the very fact that Odysseus and his comrade have taken the trouble to visit Lemnos shows that at least the gods have some care for justice. Maimed as Ph. is (ἀνδρὸς ἀθλίου), he is not one whom those pitiless warriors would have sought, had not the gods driven the sense of need for him like a goad into their souls. The Greeks must be failing at Troy; and their failure is the proof that the gods are just. 1039 For the place of τι, cp. 104 n. κέντρον … ἐμοῦ, the sting of need for me. The objective gen. is like that after “ἐπιθυμία”, since “κέντρον”, like “οἶστρος”, was constantly associated with that idea. Plat. Rep. 573E “ὥσπερ ὑπὸ κέντρων ἐλαυνομένους τῶν ... ἐπιθυμιῶν ... οἰστρᾶν” (‘rage’). Eur. Hipp. 39“κέντροις ἔρωτος”: ib. 1303 “δηχθεῖσα κέντροις” (“Ἀφροδίτης”). So an objective gen. can follow “οἶστρος” when it means “οἰστρώδης ἐπιθυμία”: Anthol. II. 389. 4 “μὴ σέ γ᾽ ἀπειρεσίων οἶστρος ἕλῃ κτεάνων”.
This text is part of:
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part IV: The Philoctetes. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1932.
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