[294] The subject to ἔχει is the murderer, who is foremost in the thoughts of the Chorus, —not the eye-witness(ὁ ἰδών, 293). The reversion from plural(ὁδοιπόρων, 292) to singular is unconscious, just as in 124 we have ὁ λῃστής, after λῃστάς in 122.
δείματός γ᾽ δεῖμα, prop. “an object of fear,” is used by Herodotus and the poets as = δέος: Hdt. 6.74 “Κλεομένεα ... δεῖμα ἔλαβε Σπαρτιητέων”: Aesch. Supp. 566 “χλωρῷ δείματι θυμὸν ι πάλλοντ᾽”: Eur. Supp. 599 “ὥς μοι ὑφ᾽ ἥπατι δεῖμα χλοερὸν ταράσσει”: id. Soph. El. 767 “ἐκ δείματος,” from fear. Cp. above, 153. The γε gives emphasis: the ἀραί of Oed. were enough to scare the boldest. Hartung conjectures δειμάτων ἔχει μέρος. The plur. δείματα means either (a) objects of fear, or (b) much more rarely, fears, with reference to some particular objects already specified: as in Soph. El. 636 “δειμάτων ἃ νῦν ἔχω,” “the terrors which I now suffer,” alluding to the dreams. Here we seem to need the sing., “fear.”
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