Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Antigone

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The MSS. have ὃν...Πολυνείκης. If this were sound, it would be necessary to suppose that after “ἀμφιλόγων” a dipodia has been lost, such as Nauck supplies by <“ἤγαγεν: ἐχθρὸς δ᾽> ὀξέα κλάζων”. For (1) a verb is wanted to govern “ὅν”, and (2) the description of the eagle, beginning with “ὀξέα κλάζων”, clearly refers to the Argive host, not to Polyneices only. But if, with Scaliger, we read ὃς ...Πολυνείκους, no such loss need be assumed. The correspondence between anapaestic systems is not always strict, and the monometer “ὀξέα κλάζων” could stand here, though the anti-system has a dimeter in the same place (129). The MS. reading “ὃν...Πολυνείκης” probably arose from a misunderstanding of the scholium:—“ὅντινα στρατὸν Ἀργείων, ἐξ ἀμφιλόγων νεικέων ἀρθείς, ἤγαγεν ὁ Πολυνείκης, οἷον ἀμφιλογίᾳ χρησάμενος πρὸς τὸν ἀδελφόν: διὰ βραχέων δὲ εἶπεν αὐτό, ὡς γνωρίμου οὔσης τῆς ὑποθέσεως”. The Schol. wrote “ἀρθείς”, to agree with “Πολυνείκης”, and not “ἀρθέντα”, to agree with “στρατόν”, because it suited the form of his paraphrase, “οἷον ἀμφιλογίᾳ χρησάμενος πρὸς τὸν ἀδελφόν”. By “διὰ βραχέων δὲ εἷπεν αὐτό”, the Schol. meant not merely the indefiniteness of “νεικέων ἐξ ἀμφιλόγων”, but also the compactness of “Πολυνείκους ι ἀρθεὶς ἐκ νεικέων” for “ὅντινα στρατὸν ἤγαγεν ὁ Πολυνείκης”. But a transcriber, noticing that the Schol. joined “ἀρθείς” with “Πολυνείκης”, might easily infer that “ὃν...Πολυνείκης” ought to stand in the text, and might take “διὰ βραχέων” as meaning that the verb “ἤγαγε” could be understood.—L has the Doric “γᾷ”, and presently “γᾶν, ὑπερέπτα”, which I keep: see Appendix.

Πολυνείκους … νεικέων, playing on the name, like Aesch. ( Aesch. Th. 577, Aesch. Th. 658, Aesch. Th. 829): as elsewhere on that of Ajax ( Ai. 432 “αἰάζειν”), and of Odysseus (fr. 877, “πολλοὶ γὰρ ὠδύσαντο δυσμενεῖς ἐμοί”, have been bitter).

ἀρθείς, ‘having set forth’: so Her. 1.165 “ἀερθέντες ἐκ τῶν Οἰνουσσέων ἔπλεον”: 9. 52 (of a land-force) “ἀερθέντες ...ἀπαλλάσσοντο”. Attic prose similarly uses the act. “ἄρας”, either absolutely, or with dat. (“ταῖς ναυσί, τῷ στρατῷ”), or, more rarely, with acc. (“τὰς ναῦς” Thuc. 1.52). Here the choice of the word suits the image of an eagle soaring.

νεικ. ἐξ ἀμφιλόγων, lit. in consequence of contentious quarrels, i.e. his claims to the Theban throne, against his brother Eteocles. Eur. Med. 636 “ἀμφιλόγους ὀργὰς” (contentious moods) “ἀκόρεστά τε νείκη”: Ph. 500“ἀμφίλεκτος...ἔρις”. The prep. as O. C. 620 “ἐκ σμικροῦ λόγου”.