ἐρρέτω Ἴλιον: not a curse on Troy itself, but a way of saying that he cares not how the Trojan war may end. οἵ θ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνῳ: cp. Eur. Hec. 764“τῶν θανόντων...ὑπ᾽ Ἰλίῳ.” τόδ᾽ ἐμοῦ ποδὸς ἄρθρον, this limb (cp. “ἄρθρα” in 1207), my foot: “ποδὸς” is here a defining genitive, and the phrase is a periphrasis for “τὸν ἐμὸν πόδα”, with a certain added pathos,—‘this poor lame foot.’ But in O. T. 718“ἄρθρα ποδοῖν” are the ankles.— ἀπῶσαι, act., as in Ai. 446“ἀνδρὸς τοῦδ᾽ ἀπώσαντες κράτη”: cp. 600 “ἐκβεβληκότες”. (But the midd. “ἀπώσῃ” in 1122, of repelling advances.) He speaks as if the tortured limb were a mute suppliant that might well have moved their pity: cp. 1188 “ὦ ποὺς πούς”.
This text is part of:
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part IV: The Philoctetes. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1932.
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