ἀλλ᾽ ἀρχέπλουτον, sc. “πέμψατε” or the like, to be supplied from “ἀποστείλητε”, as “αὐδῶ” in O. T. 241 from “ἀπαυδῶ, δεῖ” in O. C. 1404 from “οὐκ ἔξεστι, ἕκαστος” in Ant. 263 from “οὐδείς”. ἀρχέπλουτον, ‘master of my possessions’; cp. “ἀρχέλαος, ἀρχέπολις” ( Pind. P. 9. 58). Others understand, ‘having ancient wealth,’=“ἀρχαιόπλουτον”. If, however, the verbal part of the compound denoted ‘beginning’ rather than ‘ruling,’ analogy would suggest that “ἀρχέπλουτος” should mean, ‘a founder of wealth’; cp. “ἀρχέκακος” ( Il. 5. 63), “ἀρχέχορος” (“ποῦς”, Eur. Tro. 151), “ἀρχέγονος”, etc. In Pindar P. 4. 110, where Jason speaks of his “ἀρχεδικᾶν τοκέων”, the sense is strictly, ‘ancestors who founded the right’ to possession,—Cretheus, father of Aeson, having been the founder of Iolcus; not merely, ‘who held an ancient right.’—As to the form of the word, see Appendix. καταστάτην, as restoring its fortunes, “ἀποκαθιστάντα”.
This text is part of:
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part VI: The Electra. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1894.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.