μὲν merely emphasises “ἐγώ” ( Ant. 11 n.); it is not opposed to “ἀλλ̓” in 90. Λαερτίου: the same form (always in the 1st or 5th place, the α being long) 417, 628, 1357, Ai. 101: but “Λαέρτου” below, 366, 614, fr. 827: and “Λαρτίου”, 401, 1286, Ai. 1, 380. Eur. , too, has these three forms: while in the Hom. Od., where the name occurs 22 times, “Λαέρτης” alone is used. τούσδε, referring back to οὓς ἂν: cp. O. C. 1332“οἷς ἂν σὺ προσθῇ τοῖσδ᾽ ἔφασκ᾽ εἶναι κράτος”: so El. 441, Tr. 23, Tr. 820.Prose would here use “τούτους”, because “οὗτος” regularly (though not always) points back, while “ὅδε” points forward. Buttmann's τοὺς δὲ, though admissible, would be too emphatic: see Appendix. “πράσσειν λόγους”, as meaning, ‘to put words into acts,’ is not a strictly correct phrase, but the verb is used here, with some poetical freedom, as if “οὓς ἂν τῶν λόγων...τούσδε” were “ἃ ἂν λεγόμενα...τάδε”: i.e. “λόγοι” are virtually ‘proposed deeds.’ The prose equivalent of this “πράσσειν” would be “ἔργῳ ἐπιτελεῖν” ( Thuc. 1. 70). Distinguish Eur. H. F. 1305“ἔπραξε γὰρ βούλησιν ἣν ἐβούλετο”, where the verb= “ἐξέπραξε”, ‘effected.’—Isocr. or. 1 § 15 has the converse maxim, “ἃ ποιεῖν αἰσχρόν, ταῦτα νόμιζε μηδὲ λέγειν εἶναι καλόν” (cp. Soph. O. T. 1409).
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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