οὐδ᾽ ἐπὶ σμικρῶν λόγων. In El. 415“σμικροὶ λόγοι” mean ‘few’ or ‘brief’ words. Probably the sense here is, ‘not even in brief words.’ This use of “ἐπί” with the genitive is illustrated by two passages which Wolff has quoted; Plat. Symp. 192C “ἕτερος ἑτέρῳ χαίρει ξυνὼν οὕτως ἐπὶ μεγάλης σπουδῆς” (‘with such great eagerness’): Dem. or. 18 § 17 “οὔτε δικαίως οὔτ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἀληθείας οὐδεμιᾶς εἰρημένα” (‘nor with any truth’). Julian or. 3. 128 A (quoted by Lobeck) has “τούτων ἐπὶ σμικρῶν μνημονεύει”, meaning by “ἐπὶ σμικρῶν” ‘in brief words only.’ (In El. 414“ἐπὶ σμικρὸν”=‘to a small extent only’: the v.l. “ἐπὶ σμικρῶν” is there an error.) I formerly took “ἐπὶ σμικρῶν λόγων” as=‘not even in slight respects,’ ‘on slight accounts,’ but now doubt whether this sense can be given to the plural of “λόγος”.—The best emendation, if any were needed, would be “οὐδ᾽ ἐπὶ σμικρὸν λόγον”, ‘not even to the extent of a brief mention’; but, though “ἐπὶ σμικρὸν” can bear this sense ( El. 414), the phrase is hardly satisfactory when “λόγον” is added.
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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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