Ἰδαῖα “κ.τ.λ.” If this passage cannot be restored with certainty, at least the doubt lies within narrow limits. Three points should be noted. 1. The metre (logaoedic) is clear: no suspicion rests on the antistrophic verses, 613—615 “κρατοῦντ᾽ ... ηὕρηται”. Metre proves, then, that (a) instead of L's “ἰδαία”, we require --u, which is given by “Ἰδαῖα”. (b) Instead of “λειμωνίᾳ ποίᾳ” we require --uu-u, which is satisfied by “λειμώνἰ ἔπαυλα”. (c) Instead of “εὐνόμᾳ”, we require ---. 2. εὐνῶμαι, as a correction of “εὐνόμᾳ”, may be regarded as certain. Sophocles would have written “ΕΓΝΟΜΑΙ”. It is confirmed by the fact that our best MS., L, has μίμνων, not “μίμνω”. 3. μηνῶν, as a correction of “μήλων”, is (to my mind) not less certain. For μηνῶν ἀνήριθμος, cp. Tr. 247（“χρόνον”) “ἡμερῶν ἀνήριθμον”. In no other way can “ἀνήριθμος” be justified. What remains doubtful, then, is only how we should correct the words, “ἰδαῖα... λειμωνίᾳ ποίᾳ”. Now, in favour of “Ἰδαῖα.. λειμώνἰ ἔπαυλα”, let it be noted that, if “ἔπαυλα” was the genuine word, then the corruption of “μηνῶν” into μήλων is at once explained; for “ἔπαυλα” meant properly a fold for cattle, as in O. T. 1138, where it is synonymous with “σταθμά”. Here, however, it would have the general sense which it bears in O. C. 669, “ἵκου τὰ κράτιστα γᾶς ἔπαυλα”, ‘dwellings,’—a sense in which “σταθμά” too was poetically used. No other conjecture accounts for the origin of “μήλων”. The construction then is, “εὐνῶμαι Ἰδαῖα λειμώνια ἔπαυλα”, ‘I am encamped in quarters on the fields of Ida,’ “μηνῶν ἀνήριθμος”, ‘through countless months.’ For the acc. with “εὐνῶμαι”, cp. such phrases as “ζυγὸν ἕζομαι” (249 n.), “κεῖμαι τόπον” ( Ph. 144 f.). For “εὐνῶμαι” with ref. to camping, cp. Il. 10. 408“Τρώων φυλακαί τε καὶ εὐναί”: Aesch. Ag. 559“εὐναὶ γὰρ ἦσαν δαΐων πρὸς τείχεσιν: ι ἐξ οὐρανοῦ δὲ κἀπὸ γῆς λειμώνιαι ι δρόσοι κατεψάκαζον”—a passage which Sophocles may have had in mind. For other views of the passage, and other emendations, see Appendix.
This text is part of:
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.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.