τοῦδε σώματος (without “περί”), gen. of connection; see on 307. φύλαξ δέ μοι κ.τ.λ., a general description of her part, subjoined to the special instance just given: "and you constituted yourself a trusty watcher (at Thebes) in my interest, when I was being driven from the land," i.e. from the moment when the decision to expel me had been taken, and the act was in contemplation. μοι for μου seems necessary: and I suspect that “μου” first arose from inattention to the exact sense. A gen. after φύλαξ always denotes the object guarded: thus φύλαξ μου ought to mean (not, "a watcher in my interest," but) "a guardian of my person"; this, however, was Antigone's part (21): Ismene had never roamed with him. So in Eur. Bacch. 612 “τίς μοι φύλαξ ἦν;” (say the Bacchants to Dionysus), "what overseer, master (of our rites, like “ἐπίσκοπος” of Dionysus, Ant. 1148) had we?" — not, "what guardian of our persons was there?" Yet there L2 (cod. Laur. 32. 2) has “μου”.
This text is part of:
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part II: The Oedipus Coloneus. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1899.
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