κυνηγετοῦντα: his keen scrutiny suggests a hunter; as his sagacity suggests a hound (8). We can speak of a dog ‘hunting,’ but a Greek would hardly have said “κύων κυνηγετεῖ”. The transition from one image to the other is natural and easy. μετρούμενον, with the eyes. In Attic the midd. is rare, except as=‘to have measured out to one,’ [Dem.] or. 34 § 37: but it is frequent in later poetry, as Apoll. Rh. 1. 724, Mosch. 2. 157.Nauck holds that “μετρούμενον” could denote only literal measurement (as with a foot-rule). But its figurative sense—as denoting a mental process of examination and comparison— is exactly illustrated by the use of “συμμετρεῖσθαι” in the sense of ‘to compute’ ( Her. 4. 158, etc.). Cp. also Lat. metiri (oculis, auribus, etc.).
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part VII: The Ajax. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1907.
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