κέαντες. This aor. part. of “καίω”, found in the Ionic prose of Hippocr. (7. 422 “ἀποκέας”), occurs also in two Attic inscrr. of 408 B.C. (“ἐγκέαντι” bis, Meisterhans, p. 86, n. 686). Here it is used without a metrical motive, such as exists in Aesch. Ag. 849“κέαντες”: [Eur. ] Rhes. 97 “ἐκκέαντες”: Ar. Pax 1133“ἐκκέας”. The epic form is “ἔκηα” (for “ἔκηϝα”), part. “κήας”.— The plur. part. refers, in grammar, only to the two bearers of the ashes, but, in sense, to all who assisted at the funeral. Cp. Her. 8. 124“αἰνέσαντες δὲ πολλά” (sc. “οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι”), “προέπεμψαν ἀπιόντα τριηκόσιοι Σπαρτιητέων λογάδες”. ἐν βραχεῖ χαλκῷ: cp. 1113 “φέροντες αὐτοῦ σμικρὰ λείψαν᾽ ἐν βραχεῖ” | “τεύχει θανόντος”: and 54 n. μέγιστον. The heroes were conceived as transcending later mortals in strength (cp., e.g. Il. 5. 303); and so also in stature: Her. 1. 68(the grave of Orestes at Sparta) “ἐπέτυχον σορῷ ἑπταπήχεϊ: ὑπὸ δὲ ἀπιστίης μὴ μὲν γενέσθαι μηδαμὰ μέζονας ἀνθρώπους τῶν νῦν ἄνοιξα αὐτήν, καὶ εἶδον τὸν νεκρὸν μήκεϊ ἴσον” (‘proportionate’) “ἐόντα τῇ σορῷ.” σῶμα … σποδοῦ, a body now consisting in (reduced to) dust: see on 682 “πρόσχημ᾽ ἀγῶνος”. (The gen. cannot be taken with “χαλκῷ”, as=‘an urn filled with dust.’) The conjecture “δειλαίαν σποδὸν” is possible, but not probable. [A schol. in the margin of L has written “ἀντίπτωσις”, ‘interchange of cases’: i.e., he took the phrase as=“μεγίστου σώματος δειλαίαν σποδόν”.] Verse 758 cannot be omitted: “ἐν βραχεῖ” could not here stand alone, as=‘in a small compass.’ Cp. Aesch. Ag. 440(Ares) “πυρωθὲν ἐξ Ἰλίου” | “φίλοισι πέμπει βραχὺ” | “ψῆγμα δυσδάκρυτον, ἀντήνορος σποδοῦ γεμίζων λέβητας εὐθέτου”. Suppl. 1130 “σποδοῦ τε πλῆθος ὀλίγον ἀντὶ σωμάτων” | “εὐδοκίμων”. Propert. 2. 9. 13 (Briseïs with the ashes of Achilles), et tanti corpus Achillei | Maximaque in parva sustulit ossa manu.
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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.
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