Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Philoctetes

Other interpretations are: (1) δοὺς= “δοὺς σεαυτόν”, ‘yielding to others’ (than the “κακοὶ ἄνδρες”),—i.e., to Philoctetes himself. The objection here is the use of “δούς”. Eur. Phoen. 21, “ὁ δ᾽ ἡδονῇ δούς”, is the only extant example of this usage in the classical period, and there it denotes self-abandonment to impulse; a tone which was apparently associated with it by Alciphron also, when he wrote “δρόμῳ δοὺς φέρεσθαι” (3. 47), me in pedes coniciens. (2) Reading ἄλλοις σε δοὺς: ‘having allowed thyself to be overruled by others’ (i.e., by Ph. ). But this phrase implies relations of confidence and friendship (cp. 84): it does not suit the stern and cold admonition which these verses convey. (3) With Dindorf's οἷα (which he does not explain) the obvious sense would be, ‘having given others their due,’—an anticipation of “τἀμά μοι μεθεὶς ὅπλα”. The objection to this is that ἄλλοισι then becomes strange, since Ph. is no longer contrasted with bad advisers, but is merely the recipient of the bow.

974 We are to suppose that Odysseus,—disquieted when he found that the “ἔμπορος” (627) was not quickly followed by N.,—had set out to inquire into the cause of the delay. From a place of concealment close to the scene he has overheard the last part of the conversation, and now, at the critical moment, he springs forward. The abruptness of his entrance is marked by the divided verse (“ἀντιλαβή”).

975 Join εἶ … πάλιν; Neoptolemus was in the act of approaching Philoctetes: Odysseus places himself between them. Cp. O. C. 1398“νῦν τ᾽ ἴθ᾽ ὡς τάχος πάλιν”: ib. 1724 “πάλιν, φίλα, συθῶμεν”.