οἶμαι γὰρ “κ.τ.λ.”: for I think that even the bare sight would have deterred any one but myself from enduring these things: “οὐδεὶς ἄλλος ἂν ἔτλη τάδε, εἰ θέαν μόνην ἔλαβε”. The first glance at such a dwelling would have made any other man renounce the attempt to live in it. Instead of “καὶ ὄμμασιν μόνην θέαν λαβόντα, οὐκ ἂν τλῆναι”, we have “οὐδ̓ ὄμμασιν...τλῆναι,—οὐδ̓” thus serving to weld the sentence into a more compact whole. μόνην need not be changed to μόνον, though the latter would be more usual: cp. O. T. 388“ἐν τοῖς κέρδεσιν” | “μόνον δέδορκε”: Ant. 361“Ἅιδα μόνον φεῦξιν οὐκ ἐπάξεται”.—Some govern τάδε by θέαν λαβόντα as=“θεασάμενον” (cp. O. C. 223 n.), and take τλῆναι with the partic.: ‘endure to have looked upon.’ This is forced. For “τλῆναι” with simple acc., cp. Tr. 71, O. C. 1077, etc.
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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