Ἄρης. The first syll. might be long (as it is in some other lyric passages, Ant.139, El.96, Ai.254 Ai., 614): but more probably it is short, and the first syll. of “πειθοῦς” in 661 is ‘irrational’ (see Anal.). οἰστρηθεὶς: the sudden rage of Ares symbolises the furious impulse which sent Heracles against Oechalia. Cp. Eur. Bacch.119“οἰστρηθε<*>ς Διονύσῳ”. The conject. αὖ (or οἱ) στρωθεὶς would suggest the subsidence of a storm ( Her.7. 193“τὸ κῦμα ἔστρωτο”). This is less suitable, when, as here, Ares is a personified deliverer. ἐξέλυσ᾽ ἐπίπονονἁμέραν, has ‘resolved,’ ‘cleared away,’ the day of sorrow. The notion of untying a knot passes into that of dissipating a trouble. Cp. O. T.35“ἐξέλυσας...δασμὸν” (n.). The image is more clearly developed in Ai.706“ἔλυσεν αἰνὸν ἄχος ἀπ᾽ ὀμμάτων Ἄρης”.—For ἐπίπονον ἁμέραν, cp. Eur. Phoen.540“ἐχθρᾶς... ἡμέρας”, Eur. Hec.364“λυπρὰν...ἡμέραν”. In the Athamas Sophocles had “λευκὴν ἡμέραν” as=“τὴν ἀγαθήν” (Bekk. Anecd. p. 106. 33).
This text is part of:
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.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.