αἰαῖ, φεῦ. To delete φεῦ here seems a less probable remedy than to supply τοι in 1697, where the neighbourhood of καὶ may have caused its loss. ἔστιν ἔστι νῷν δή. The passage is simple if it is only remembered that οὐ τὸ μέν, ἄλλο δὲ μή is an adverbial phrase, equivalent to “παντελῶς”. “"It is indeed for us twain in no incomplete sense to bewail the accurst blood of our father which was born in us, hapless that we are."” While he lived, they suffered with him. Now, his fate has snatched him from them in strange and terrible sort, leaving them destitute. οὐ τὸ μέν, ἄλλο δὲ μή (“μή”, instead of “οὐ”, because it goes with the inf. “στενάζειν”), “"not in one respect merely, with the exception of some other"”; not merely partially. This phrase is frequent where the notion of completeness or universality is to be brought out with greater emphasis than would be given by the mere use of “πᾶς” or like words. Aesch. Pers. 802 “συμβαίνει γὰρ οὐ τὰ μὲν τὰ δ᾽ οὔ”, i.e. “"for our disasters are complete."” Her. 1.139 “οὐ τὰ μέν, τὰ δ᾽ οὔ, ἀλλὰ πάντα ὁμοίως”: so id. 2. 37: Phocylides fr. 1 “Λέριοι κακοί, οὐχ ὁ μέν, ὃς δ᾽ οὔ, ι πάντες”:
: Plat. Rep. 475B, etc. The idiom strikingly illustrates three tendencies of Greek; (1) love of antithesis, (2) love of parataxis, (3) the tendency to treat whole clauses as virtually adverbs (cp. “οὐκ ἔσθ᾽ ὅπως οὐ, οἶδ᾽ ὅτι”, etc.).“οὐ γὰρ τὸ μέν σοι βαρὺ κακῶν, τὸ δ᾽ οὐ βαρύ,
ἀλλ᾽ εἰς ἅπαντα δυστυχὴς ἔφυς, πάτερ
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