κελαινὰ, ‘dark,’ referring at once to the colour of the metal, and to old stains. This general character of the epithet is seen in Eur. Bacch.628, “ἵεται ξίφος κελαινὸν ἁρπάσας”: where no blood has yet been shed. προμάχου, ‘fighting in the front of battle.’ Others understand, ‘fighting on behalf of men,’ ‘champion of the oppressed’ (cp. 1011); the sense, probably, in which Heracles was styled “Πρόμαχος” at Thebes ( Paus.9. 11. 4). But the war upon Oechalia hardly illustrated that character. αἰχμᾷ, in the sense of ‘prowess,’ ‘warlike might,’ can follow “λόγχα προμάχου δορός”, since the latter is really an image for the warrior himself. Cp. 355 “αἰχμάσαι” (n.). θοὰν here is merely abverbial,=“ταχέως”. So Od.2. 257“λῦσεν δ᾽ ἀγορὴν αἰψηρήν”= Il.2. 808“αἶψα δ᾽ ἔλυσ᾽ ἀγορήν”. Od.8. 38“θοὴν ἀλεγύνετε δαῖτα”, ‘quickly fall to feasting.’ αἰπεινᾶς: cp. 327 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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