κακῷ, ill-omened (O.C. 1433). οἴστρῳ, ‘gad-fly,’ then fig., ‘rage,’ a word which often suggests divine stimulation: as Heracles asks, “ποῦ δ᾽ οἶστρος ἡμᾶς ἔλαβε”; ( H. F. 1144). κλάζοντας, since “φθόγγον ὀρνίθων” = “ὄρνιθας φθεγγομένους”: Il. 17.755 “τῶν δ᾽ ὥστε ψαρῶν νέφος ἔρχεται ἠὲ κολοιῶν ι οὖλον κεκλήγοντες”: Od. 12.181 “ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε τόσσον ἀπῆν” (sc. “ἡ νηῦς”) “ὅσσον τε γέγωνε βοήσας, ι ῥίμφα διώκοντες.” βεβαρβαρωμένῳ. To the seer, the voices of birds were usually “εὔσημοι” (1021). Conversely the sound of a strange language is likened to the twittering of birds: Her. 2.57 “ἕως δὲ ἐβαρβάριζε” (“ἡ γυνή”), “ὄρνιθος τρόπον ἐδόκεέ σφι φθέγγεσθαι”. Aesch. used “χελιδονίζειν” as=“βαρβαρίζειν” (fr. 440, cp. Aesch. Ag. 1050).
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part III: The Antigone. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1900.
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