βασιλειδᾶν, i.e., of the race of the Labdacidae. This correction of βασιλίδα is certain. In Plat. Critias 116C, “τὸ τῶν δέκα βασιλειδῶν γένος”, the same corruption, “βασιλίδων”, occurs in the MSS. Suidas has “βασιλείδης: ὁ τοῦ βασιλέως” (where Küster wrongly proposed “ὁ τοῦ Βασιλείου”). In adding the patronymic suffix “ιδα_” to a stem in “ευ” (“βασιλευ”), the “υ” is dropped, as in the gen. plur. (“βασιλέ-ων”): hence “βασιλε-ίδης, βασιλείδης”: cp. “Πηλείδης.” μούνην, ignoring Ismene; not in bitterness (cp. on 559), but because she feels that, in spirit at least, she herself is indeed the last of the race. It is otherwise when Oed. speaks of his daughters as his only children (O. C. 895); and when Electra says that she is “ἄνευ τοκέων” (187),— since Clytaemnestra is a “μήτηρ ἀμήτωρ” (1154).
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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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