πρός τε ποίμνας=“πρὸς ποίμνας τε”: for “τε” misplaced, cp. 654: O.T. 258 n. As distinguished from herds of oxen, “ποῖμναι” are flocks of sheep and goats; cp. 63, 297, 374. But the word “ποῖμναι” is also used more vaguely to denote both herds and flocks (42, 300): and in 1061 we find even “μῆλα καὶ ποίμνας”, ‘sheep and cattle.’ σύμμικτά τε … φρουρήματα: confused, unshared, spoil-charges of herdsmen, i.e., ‘the confused droves, your unshared spoil, guarded by herdsmen.’ λείας is a defining gen., denoting that in which the “φρουρήματα” consisted; βουκόλων is a possessive gen. Cp. El. 681“Ἑλλάδος ι πρόσχημ᾽ ἀγῶνος”, the pride of Greece (possessive gen.), consisting in a festival (defining gen.): so Aesch. Ch. 183“καρδίας κλυδώνιον ι χολῆς” (defining gen.). Others prefer to take “λείας” as a partitive gen. (‘forming part of the spoil’),—less fitly, I think.
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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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