Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Electra

ἀφειδήσαντε, fem. (cp. 1003, 1006). The properly feminine form of the dual in participles of the third declension is actually rare, though it was certainly in use (thus “ἐχούσα” occurs in an Attic inscr. of 398 B.C.). See appendix on O. C. 1676“ἰδόντε καὶ παθούσα”.

προὐστήτην φόνου, lit., ‘became minis ters of bloodshed.’ “προστῆναί τινος” is properly to place oneself ‘in front of,’ or ‘at the head of,’—a general sense which yields several shades of meaning; thus Eur. Andr. 220“χείρον᾽ ἀρσένων νόσον” | “ταύτην νοσοῦμεν, ἀλλὰ προὔστημεν καλῶς”, ‘we are wont to control it well’: Soph. Ai. 803“πρόστητ᾽ ἀναγκαίας τύχης”, ‘shelter it’: Aeschin. or. 2 § 161 “τὸν προστάντα τῆς εἰρήνης”, ‘the champion’ of it. Here, the presence of the dat. ἐχθροῖς serves to blend the sense of ‘administering’ required by φόνου with that of ‘standing forth’ to confront an adversary; cp. Soph. Ai. 1133“ἦ σοὶ γὰρ Αἴας πολέμιος προὔστη ποτέ”;

981 f. For τούτω … τώδε, cp. Ph. 841 n.—As dist. from ἑορταῖς, the phrase πανδήμῳ πόλει denotes any gathering of the citizens, as in the ordinary intercourse of the agora; cp. O. T. 1489“ποίας γὰρ ἀστῶν ἥξετ᾽ εἰς ὁμιλίας”, | “ποίας δ᾽ ἑορτάς”..; Similarly Lucian Toxaris 1 “καὶ ἑορταῖς καὶ πανηγύρεσι τιμῶμεν αὐτούς”. For τοι introducing the final comment, cp. Ai. 776(n.).