Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannus

[597] ἐκκαλοῦσι Those who have a boon to ask of Oed. come to the palace （or to Creon's own house, see on 637） and send in a message, praying Creon to speak with them. Seneca's Creon says （Oed. 687） Solutus onere regio, regni bonis Fruor, domusque civium coetu viget. In Greek tragedy the king or some great person is often thus called forth. Cp. Aesch. Lib. 663: Orestes summons an οἰκέτης by knocking at the ἑρκεία πύλη, and, describing himself as a messenger, says —ἐξελθέτω τις δωμάτων τελεσφόρος ι γυνὴ τόπαρχος, —when Clytaemnestra herself appears. So in Eur. Ba. 170 Teiresias says —τίς ἐν πύλαισι Κάδμον ἐκκαλεῖ δόμων; “where is there a servant at the doors to call forth Cadmus from the house?” —ἴτω τις, εἰσάγγελλε Τειρεσίας ὅτι ι ζητεῖ νιν: then Cadmus comes forth. The active ἐκκαλεῖν is properly said （as there） of him who takes in the message, the middle ἐκκαλεῖσθαι of him who sends it in （Hdt. 8.19）: but in Soph. Phil. 1264 “ἐκκαλεῖσθε” （n.） is an exception. Musgrave's αἰκάλλουσι is not a word which a man could complacently use to describe the treatment of himself by others. αἴκαλος. κόλαξ Hesych. （for ἀκ-ίαλος, from the same rt., with the notion of soothing or stilling, as ἀκεῖσθαι, ἦκα, ἀκέων, ἄκασκα, ἀκασκαῖος）: Aristoph. Kn. 47 “ὑποπεσὼν τὸν δεσπότην ι ᾔκαλλ᾽, ἐθώπευ᾽, ἐκολάκευ᾽,” “fawned, wheedled, flattered”: in tragedy only once, Eur. Andr. 630 “φίλημ᾽ ἐδέξω, προδότιν αἰκάλλων κύνα.”