καὶ closely with ξυμφορά, a very misfortune. Deianeira is deeply interested by the captive, and feels drawn towards her. She is anxious to know the stranger's story, in order to offer her personal sympathy. These words express the pain and regret which she would feel at not being able to do so. The subtle art of the poet's language here depends on the different shades of meaning possible for “ξυμφορά”. When Deianeira at last learns all, that knowledge is to her a “ξυμφορά” in the gravest sense: she knows that, in Iolè, she has received a “πημονὴν ὑπόστεγον” (376). But here she is courteously using “ξυμφορά” in the milder sense which it could also bear,—‘a matter of deep regret.’ Cp. Her.1. 216“συμφορὴν ποιεύμενοι ὅτι οὐκ ἵκετο ἐς τὸ τυθῆναι”.
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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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