ναύτας ἐφορμήσαντα … τὸ ι πλεῖν: for the inf. with art., instead of a simple inf., cp. O. C. 442“τὸ δρᾶν ι οὐκ ἠθέλησαν” (and ib. 47, n.): Thuc. 2. 87§ 1 “οὐχὶ δικαίαν ἔχει τέκμαρσιν τὸ ἐκφοβῆσαι” (where Classen compares this verse). Liddell and Scott, s. v. “ἐφορμάω”, remark that the dat. ϝαύταις should be read here. It is, in fact, the reading of a few late MSS.,—having been introduced, perhaps, by Triclinius; but ναύτας is right. “ἐφορμῶ” takes a dat. of the person when it means to rouse or urge something against one; e.g. Hom. Od. 7. 272“ὅς μοι ἐφορμήσας ἀνέμους”: Soph. fr. 619. 2 “ᾧ καὶ Ζ<*>ὺς ἐφορμήσῃ κακά”. But here, where “ἐφορμῶ” means to urge one to do something, the person is necessarily in the acc., as after “ἐπείγω, προτρέπω”, etc. Cp. Xen. Cyr. 8. 1. 43“τούτους οὔτε μελετᾶν τῶν ἐλευθερίων πόνων οὐδένα παρώρμα κ.τ.λ.”
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part VII: The Ajax. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1907.
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