ἄγλωσσος profits by the suggestion of “γῆ” in the adjective Ἑλλὰς ( Ph.256“Ἑλλάδος γῆς”). The “βάρβαρος” has no ‘language’ properly so called: to the ear of the Hellene, he merely twitters like a bird (n. on Ant.1002). Cp. Pind. I.6. 24“οὐκ ἔστιν οὕτω βάρβαρος οὔτε παλίγγλωσσος πόλις”, ‘barbarous or strange of speech.’ οὔθ᾽ ὅσην: the division of mankind into Greeks and barbarians is exhaustive; but the range of earth traversed by Heracles extended beyond the dwellings of men (cp. 1100 “ἐπ᾽ ἐσχάτοις τόποις”). It seems unnecessary, then, to regard this third clause as merely a rhetorical summary of the other two. γαῖαν: antecedent attracted into relative clause: O. C.907 n.
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part V: The Trachiniae. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1902.
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