Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Antigone

ἀνθηρόν, bursting into flower, hence, fig., exuberant, or at its height: cp. Plat. Polit. 310D “πέφυκεν ἀνδρία...κατὰ μὲν αρχὰς ἀκμάζειν ῥώμῃ, τελευτῶσα δὲ ἐξανθεῖν παντάπασι μανίαις”: Aesch. Pers. 821 “ὕβρις...ἐξανθοῦς”'. So oft. “ἄνθος ῀ ἀκμή”, as Tr. 998 “τόδ᾽ ἀκήλητον ι μανίας ἄνθος.”

ἀποστάζει = ἀπορρεῖ, ‘trickles away,’ so ‘gradually passes off.’ The fig. use of “ἀνθεῖν” being so familiar, the change of metaphor in “ἀποστάζει” would hardly be felt. Wecklein, indeed, conceives that the poet is thinking of a tumour, which bursts when it has attained its full size. Unity of metaphor can be bought too dearly.—Others understand: ‘so dread and exuberant is the rage that flows from madness’: i.e., ‘so dreadful was the excess of impiety into which L. had been led by his madness.’ But here we look rather for some direct comment on his punishment. His abasement (“ζεύχθη”) is the theme of these verses. The reference to his crime comes later (962).