ποήσω. He will marry Iolè. But he will call the gods to witness that it is his father's doing, and not an act of his own choice. τὸ σὸν θεοῖσι δεικνὺς ἔργον: the “ἔργον” is not, strictly, the marriage itself, but the act of Heracles in prescribing it. Hence the words, ‘showing thy deed to the gods,’ mean properly, ‘pleading, before the gods, the constraint which you have put upon me’: not, ‘protesting that my act in marrying Iolè is really your act.’ Accordingly we have “δεικνὺς τὸ σὸν ἔ<*>ον”, not “δεικνὺς τὸ ἔργον σὸν” (“ὄν”). The text has been suspected (cr. n.) only because it has not been fully understood.
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part V: The Trachiniae. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1902.
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