τὸν τοῦ Διὸς παῖδ̓, Heracles: cp. 727 f. n. σῴζεις, as their temporary guardian: cp. 766. τοῦτ̓; i.e. “ἐμπρῆσαι”, cp. 670. Heracles was conveyed to the summit of Oeta by his son Hyllus, who helped to make the pyre, but refused to kindle it ( Tr. 1214). It was kindled, acc. to one account, by Philoctetes; acc. to another, by his father Poeas. The former version was naturally preferred where the aim of the legend was to honour Philoctetes, since thus he inherited the bow directly from Heracles: and, since Philoctetes was a more important figure than Poeas, this was the prevailing account. The other version, which made Poeas the kindler, had a recommendation of a different kind in the eyes of mythologists who aimed at a strict chronology,—viz., that the episode was thus confined to the generation before the Trojan war. Tzetzes, in his scholia on Lycophron, gives the first version in one place (on vv. 914 ff.), and the second in another (on v. 50).—Cp. Met, 9. 229 At tu, Iovis inclyta proles, | Arboribus caesis quas ardua gesserat Oete | Inque pyram structis, arcus pharetramque capacem | Regnaque visuras iterum Troiana sagittas | Ferre iubes Poeante satum; quo flamma ministro | Subdita. ἐπηξίωσα, brought myself to do it, here almost=“έτόλμησα”. Cp. El. 1273“φιλτάταν” | “ὁδὸν ἐπαξιώσας...φανῆναι.” δρᾶν with double acc., as 315, 918, 924, 940.
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.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
