θηρός, here a wild beast, as dist. from domesticated animals (cp. 1081): more often the term excludes only birds and fishes. του with θηρός also: Eur. Hec. 370 “οὔτ᾽ ἐλπίδος γὰρ οὔτε του δόξης ὁρῶ ι θάρσος παρ᾽ ἡμῖν.” οὐ σπάσαντος. The negatives in 257 affect “ἐλθόντος”: and οὐ stands with “σπάσαντος” as if we had simply “οὐκ ἐλθόντος, οὐ σπάσαντος, σημεῖα ἦν. οὐ” is not here an irregular substitute for “οὔτε”, as in 250: this would be so only if we had “οὔτ᾽ ἐλθόντος”. Either “οὐδὲ σπ”. or “οὔτε σπ”. would be correct, but the latter would suppose an “οὔτε” understood before “ἐλθόντος”. For σπάσαντος of rending, cp. 1003. It could not mean, ‘having cast up earth’ over the body (as Triclinius took it). The point is that the body must have been covered before the beasts had had time to come. The poet has preferred this order to σπάσαντος οὐδ᾽ ἐλθόντος (i.e. ‘or even having come’), because, “εἰ ἦλθον, καὶ ἔσπασαν ἄν”.
This text is part of:
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part III: The Antigone. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1900.
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