[1086] μάντις as Soph. El. 472 “εἰ μὴ γὼ παράφρων μάντις ἔφυν καὶ γνώμας ι λειπομένα σοφᾶς”: cp. Soph. OC 1080, Soph. Ant. 1160, Soph. Aj. 1419: and μαντεύομαι = “to presage. ”
[1087] κατὰ with an accus. of respect is somewhat rare （ Soph. Trach. 102 “κρατιστεύων κατ᾽ ὄμμα”: Soph. Trach. 379 “ἦ κάρτα λαμπρὰ καὶ κατ᾽ ὄμμα καὶ φύσιν）,” except in such phrases as κατὰ πάντα, κατ᾽ οὐδέν, κατὰ τοῦτο. Cp. Metrical Analysis.
[1088] οὐ = οὐ μὰ: see on 660.
ἀπείρων = ἄπειρος: Hesych. 1.433 “ἀπείρονας: ἀπειράτους. Σοφοκλῆς Θυέστῃ.” Ellendt thinks that ἀπειράτους here meant ἀπεράντους （ “limitless ”）: but elsewhere ἀπείρατος always = “untried” or “inexperienced.” Conversely Soph. used ἄπειρος in the commoner sense of ἀπείρων, “vast, ” fr. 481 χιτὼν ἄπειρος ἐνδυτήριος κακῶν. περά-ω, to go through, πεῖρα （περία）, a going-through （peritus, periculum）, are closely akin to πέρα, beyond, πέρας, πεῖραρ a limit （Curt. Etym. 356-357）: in poetical usage, then, their derivatives might easily pass into each other's meanings.[1090] τὰν αὔριον πανσέληνον “the full-moon of to-morrow, ” acc. of ἡ αὔριον πανσέληνος （there is no adj. αὔριος）, as Eur. Alc. 784 “τὴν αὔριον μέλλουσαν,” acc. of ἡ αὔριον μέλλουσα, Eur. Hipp. 1117 “τὸν αὔριον χρόνον.” At Athens the great Dionysia were immediately followed by the Πάνδι_α, a festival held at full-moon in the middle of the month Elaphebolion （at the beginning of April）: cp. A. Mommsen Heortol. p. 389, and C. F. Hermann Ant. 2.59. Wolff remarks that, if this play was produced on the last day of the Dionysia, the poet would have known that arrangement long beforehand, and may have intended an allusion to the Πάνδια which his Athenian hearers would quickly seize. This would explain why precisely “to-morrow's fullmoon ” is named. —Nauck reads αὖρι（as = ταχέως, “the coming ” full-moon）: Wecklein, ἦρι（dat. of ἦρ）, “the vernal full-moon ” —that, namely, in Elaphebolion.
πανσέληνον （sc. ὥραν）: Hdt. 2.47 “ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ πανσελήνῳ.” For the accus., cp. on 1138 χειμῶνα. The meaning is: “At the next full-moon we will hold a joyous παννυχίς, visiting the temples with χοροί （Soph. Ant. 153）, in honour of the discovery that Oedipus is of Theban birth; and thou, Cithaeron, shalt be a theme of our song. ” Cp. Eur. Ion 1078, where, in sympathy with the nocturnal worship of the gods, ἀστερωπὸς ι ἀνεχόρευσεν αἰθήρ, ι χορεύει δὲ Σελάνα. The rites of the Theban Dionysus were νύκτωρ τὰ πολλά （Eur. Ba. 486）.[1091] πατριώταν since Cithaeron partly belongs to Boeotia; so Plutarch of Chaeroneia calls the Theban Dionysus his “πατριώτην θεόν,” Plut. Mor. 671c. —I read Οἰδίπουν instead of Οἰδίπου. With the genitive, the subject to αὔξειν must be either （1） ἡμᾶς understood, which is impossibly harsh; or （2） τὰν ... πανσέληνον. Such a phrase as ἡ πανσέληνος αὔξει σε, i.e., “sees thee honoured,” is possible; cp. 438 ἥδ᾽ ἡμέρα φύσει σε καὶ διαφθερεῖ: but it is somewhat forced; and the order of the words is against it. The addition of one letter, giving Οἰδίπουν, at once yields a clear construction and a pointed sense. “Thou shalt not fail to know that Oedipus honours thee both as native to him, and as his nurse and mother （i.e., not merely as belonging to his Theban fatherland, but as the very spot which sheltered his infancy）; and that thou art celebrated in choral song by us （πρὸς ἡμῶν）, seeing that thou art well-pleasing to him.” μὴ οὐ with αὔξειν, because οὐκ ἀπείρων ἔσει = a verb of hindrance or denial with a negative. αὔξειν, not merely by praises, but by the fact of his birth in the neighbourhood: as Pindar says of a victor in the games, Pind. O. 5.4 “τὰν σὰν πόλιν αὔξων,” Pind. P. 8.38 “αὔξων πάτραν.” The acc. φέροντα, instead of φέρων, may be explained by supposing that σέ γε is carried on as subject to χορεύεσθαι: cp. Soph. Trach. 706 n. Another defence of the acc. would be to take καὶ χορ. πρὸς ἡμῶν as a parenthesis （cp. Soph. Ant. 1279 n.）: so Tyrrell in Class. Rev. 2.141.
[1092] τροφὸν as having sheltered him when exposed: τί μ᾽ ἐδέχου; 1391. ματέρ᾽, as the place from which his life rose anew, though it had been destined to be his τάφος, 1452.
[1094] χορεύεσθαι to be celebrated with choral song: Soph. Ant. 1153 “πάννυχοι ι χορεύουσι τὸν ταμίαν Ἴακχον.” （Not “danced over, ” like “ἀείδετο τέμενος,” Pind. O. 11.76.）
[1095] ἐπὶ ἦρα φέροντα see Merry's note on Hom. Od. 3.164 “αὖτις ἐπ᾽ Ἀτρείδῃ Ἀγαμέμνονι ἦρα φέροντες”. ἦρα was probably acc. sing. from a nom. ἦρ, from root ἀρ （to fit）, as = “pleasant service. ” After the phrase ἦρα φέρειν had arisen, ἐπὶ was joined adverbially with φέρειν, ἐπὶ ἦρα φέρειν being equivalent to ἦρα ἐπιφέρειν. Aristarchus, who according to Herodian first wrote ἐπίηρα, must have supposed an impossible tmesis of a compound adj. in the passage of the Od. just quoted, also in Hom. Od. 16.375, Hom. Od. 18.56.
τοῖς ἐμοῖς τυρ. i.e. to Oedipus: for the plur., see on θανάτων, 497.[1096] ἰήϊε esp. as the Healer: see on 154.
[1097] σοὶ δὲ Soph. El. 150 “Νιόβα, σὲ δ᾽ ἔγωγε νέμω θεόν.”
ἀρέστ᾽ i.e. consistent with those oracles which still await a λύσις εὐαγής （921）.[1098] ἔτικτε see on 870.
[1099] τᾶν μακραιώνων here not goddesses （ Aesch. Seven 524 “δαροβίοισι θεοῖσιν”）, but the Nymphs, who, though not immortal, live beyond the human span; HH 4.260 “αἵ ῥ᾽ οὔτε θνητοῖς οὔτ᾽ ἀθανάτοισιν ἕπονται: ι δηρὸν μὲν ζώουσι καὶ ἄμβροτον εἶδαρ ἔδουσιν.” They consort with Pan, “ὅς τ᾽ ἀνὰ πίση ι δενδρήεντ᾽ ἄμυδις φοιτᾷ χοροήθεσι Νύμφαις,” HH 19.2.
[1100] In Πανὸς ὀρεσσιβάτα προσπελασθεῖσ᾽, the reading of the MSS., we note （1） the loss after ὀρεσσιβάτα of one syllable, answering to the last of ἀπείρων in 1087: （2） the somewhat weak compound προσπελασθεῖσ᾽: （3） the gen., where, for this sense, the dat. is more usual, as Aesch. PB 896 “μηδὲ πλαθείην γαμετῇ.” L has κοίτῃ written over ὀρεσσιβάτα. I had thought of λέκτροις πελασθεῖσ᾽. But the gen. is quite admissible: and on other grounds Lachmann's πατρὸς πελασθεῖσ᾽ is far better, since πατρὸς, written προς （with line superscribed）, would explain the whole corruption.
[1101] If in 1090 we keep οὐκ ἔσει τὰν αὔριον, it is best to read here with Arndt. ἢ σέ γ᾽ εὐνάτειρά τις. On the view that in 1090 τὰν ἐπιοῦσαν ἔσει was a probable emendation （see Appendix on that verse）, I proposed to read here, ἢ σέ γ᾽ ἔφυσε πατὴρ ι Λοξίας; If the σε of ἔφυσε had once been lost （through a confusion with the preceding σέ）, ΓΕΦΥΠΑΤΗΡ might easily have become ΓΕΘΥΓΑΤΗΡ: the τις （which is not in L） would have been inserted for metre's sake, and the change of Λοξίας to Λοξίου would have followed. （It cannot be objected that a mention of the mother is required here, since, as the context shows, the foremost thought is, “what god was thy sire? ”） It would be a very forced way of taking ἢ σέ γέ τις θυγάτηρ to make θυγάτηρ depend on μακραιώνων, and Λοξίου on πελασθεῖσ᾽ （i.e., “some daughter of the Nymphs wedded to Pan, or haply to Loxias ”）. Nor does it seem easy to take θυγάτηρ with τᾶν μακραιώνων in both clauses （ “some daughter of the Nymphs, wedded to Pan, or perhaps to Loxias ”）. On the whole, I now prefer Arndt's correction. -For σέ γε in the second alternative, cp. Soph. Phil. 1116 “πότμος σε δαιμόνων τάδ᾽, ι οὐδὲ σέ γε δόλος ἔσχεν.” Hdt. 7.10 （ad fin.） διαφορεύμενον ἤ κου ἐν γῇ τῇ Ἀθηναίων ἢ σέ γε ἐν τῇ Λακεδαιμονίων.
[1103] πλάκες ἀγρόνομοι = πλ. ἀγροῦ νεμομένου, highlands affording open pasturage: so “ἀγρον. αὐλαῖς,” Soph. Ant. 785. Apollo as a pastoral god had the title of Νόμιος （Theocr. 25. 21）, which was esp. connected with the legend of his serving as shephered to Laomedon on Ida （Hom. Il. 21.448） and to Admetus in Thessaly （Hom. Il. 2.766: Eur. Alc. 572 “μηλονόμας）.” Macrobius 1.17.43 （Apollinis） aedes ut ovium pastoris sunt apud Camirenses [in Rhodes] ἐπιμηλίου, apud Naxios ποιμνίου, itemque deus ἀρνοκόμης colitur, et apud Lesbios ναπαῖος [cp. above, 1026], et multa sunt cognomina per diversas civitates ad dei pastoris officium tendentia. Callim. Apoll. 47 “οὐδέ κεν αἶγες ι δεύοιντο βρεφέων ἐπιμηλίδες, ᾗσιν Ἀπόλλων ι βοσκομένῃς ὀφθαλμὸν ἐπήγαγεν.”
[1104] ὁ Κυλλάνας ἀνάσσων Hermes: HH 3.1 “Ἑρμῆν ὕμνει, Μοῦσα, Διὸς καὶ Μαιάδος υἱόν, ι Κυλλήνης μεδέοντα καὶ Ἀρκαδίης πολυμήλου”: Verg. Aen. 8.138 quem candida Maia | Cyllenes gelido conceptum vertice fudit. The peak of Cyllene （now Ziria）, about 7300 ft. high, in N. E. Arcadia, is visible from the Boeotian plain near Leuctra, where Cithaeron is on the south and Helicon to the west, with a glimpse of Parnassus behind it: see my Modern Greece, p. 77.
[1105] ὁ Βακχεῖος θεὸς not “the god Βάκχος” （though in Soph. OC 1494 the MSS. give Ποσειδαωνίῳ θεῷ = Ποσειδῶνι）, but “the god of the Βάκχοι, ” the god of Bacchic frenzy; HH 19.46 “ὁ Βάκχειος Διόνυσος”: Soph. OC 678 “ὁ Βακχιώτας ... Διόνυσος.” Some would always write Βάκχειος （like Ὁμήρειος, Αἰάντειος, etc.）: on the other hand, Βακχεῖος is said to have been Attic （cp. Καδμεῖος）: see Chandler, Greek Accentuation, §381, 2nd ed.
[1107] εὕρημα expresses the sudden delight of the god when he receives the babe from the mother, —as Hermes receives his new-born son Pan from the Νύμφη ἐϋπλόκαμος, HH 19.40 “τὸν δ᾽ αἶψ᾽ Ἑρμείης ἐριούνιος ἐς χέρα θῆκεν ι δεξάμενος: χαῖρεν δὲ νόῳ περιώσια δαίμων.” The word commonly = a lucky “find, ” like ἕρμαιον, or a happy thought. In Eur. Ion 1349 it is not “a foundling, ” but the box containing σπάργανα found by Ion.
[1109] συμπαίζει Anacreon fr. 2 （Bergk p. 775） to Dionysus: ὦναξ, ᾧ δαμάλης （subduing） Ἔρως ι καὶ Νύμφαι κυανώπιδες ι πορφυρέη τ᾽ Ἀφροδίτη ι συμπαίζουσιν: ἐπιστρέφεαι δ᾽ ι ὑψηλῶν κορυφὰς ὀρέων. Ἑλικωνίδων is Porson's correction of Ἑλικωνιάδων （MSS.）, ad Eur. Orest. 614. Since αἶς answers to δέ in 1097, Nauck conjectured Ἑλικῶνος αἶσι. But this is unnecessary, as the metrical place allows this syllable to be either short or long: so in Soph. El. 486 “αἰσχίσταις” answers to 502 νυκτὸς εὖ.
