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

[794] ἐπακούσας （708）, “having given ear”—with the attention of silent horror.

τὴν κορινθίαν “Henceforth measuring from afar （ἐκμετρούμενος）by the stars the region of Corinth, I went my way into exile, to some place where I should not see fulfilled the dishonours of [= foretold by] my evil oracles.” ἄστροις ἐκμετρούμενος: i.e. visiting it no more, but only thinking of it as a distant land that lies beneath the stars in this or that quarter of the heavens. Schneidewin cp. Aelian Hist. Anim. 7.48 （περὶ ζῴων ἰδιότητος） ἧκε δ᾽ οὖν （Ἀνδροκλῆς） ἐς τὴν Λιβύην καὶ τὰς μὲν πόλεις ἀπελίμπανε καὶ τοῦτο δὴ τὸ λεγόμενον ἄστροις αὐτὰς ἐσημαίνετο, προῄει δὲ ἐς τὴν ἐρήμην: “proceeded to leave the cities, and, as the saying is, knew their places only by the stars, and went on into the desert.” Wunder quotes Medea's words in Valer. Flacc. 7.478 quando hic aberis, dic, quaeso, profundi Quod caeli spectabo latus? ἔφευγον might share with ἐκμετρ. the government of τὴν Κορ. χθόνα, but is best taken absolutely. Sense, not grammar, forbids the version: - “I went into exile from the Corinthian land （τὴν Κορινθίαν）,thenceforth measuring my way on earth （χθόνα） by the stars.” Phrases like ὕπαστρον ... μῆχαρ ὁρίζομαι γάμου δύσφρονος ι φυγᾷ （Aesch. Supp. 395）, ἄστροις τεκμαίρεσθαι ὁδόν （Luc. Icaromen. 1）, are borrowed from voyages in which the sailor has no guides but the stars. Such phrases could be used figuratively only of a journey through deserts: as Hesych. explains the proverb ἄστροις σημειοῦσθαι: μακρὰν καὶ ἐρήμην ὁδὸν βαδίζειν: ἡ δὲ μεταφορὰ ἀπὸ τῶν πλεόντων.