εἰς ἔλεγχον ἐξιὼν, going forth to those contests of real life by which the adult tries the maxims learned in youth. “ἔλεγχος” here is the test which the man applies to the principle (“γλῶσσαν μὲν ἀργόν κ.τ.λ.”); not the test applied to the man himself. The latter is, however, the usual sense of this phrase: cp. fr. 101 “γένος γὰρ εἰς ἔλεγχον ἐξιὸν καλὸν” | “εὔκλειαν ἂν κτήσαιτο”: Eur. Alc. 640“ἔδειξας εἰς ἔλεγχον ἐξελθὼν ὃς εἶ”: Phaedr. 278 C “εἰς ἔλεγχον ἰὼν περὶ ὧν ἔγραψε.” βροτοῖς ‘for men,’ i.e. in their estimation, an ethic dat. ( Ar. Av. 445“πᾶσι νικᾶν τοῖς κριταῖς”). πάνθ᾽ ἡγουμένην, ‘taking the lead, having the chief influence (absol., as 386) in all things’: for the adv. “πάντα” cp. Soph. O. T. 904“πάντ᾽ ἀνάσσων”.—We might also take “βροτοῖς” directly with “ἡγουμ”. as= ‘showing the way in all things to men’) cp. 133): but here the notion required is that of ‘swaying’ rather than ‘guiding’; and in the former sense “ἡγουμένην” would take the genit. “βροτῶν”. There is an allusion to the Athenian demagogues (cp. 388 “διδασκάλων λόγοισι”): as Cleon says ( Thuc. 3. 38) of the citizens in the ecclesia, “εἰώθατε θεαταὶ μὲν τῶν λόγων γίγνεσθαι, ἀκροαταὶ <*>ὲ τῶν ἔργων” (‘absorbed in the drama of debate, but content with rumours from the field of action’).
This text is part of:
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part IV: The Philoctetes. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1932.
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