ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' Soph.OT 828-29
Posted: April 16th, 2015, 4:13 pm
Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus
Line 828-29
Ἆρ' οὐκ ἀπ' ὠμοῦ ταῦτα δαίμονός τις ἂν
κρίνων ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' ἂν ὀρθοίη λόγον;
“Would not one judge and rightly say that on me
these things were sent by some malignant god?”
David Grene 1942
“Would one not be right who judged that this came upon me by the action of a cruel deity?”
LCL Hugh Lloyd-Jones 1994
“Then would he who judged these things to be sent down by some cruel divinity not be right about Oedipus?” R. C. Jebb
Geoffrey Steadman agrees with Jebb's notes concerning ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' “in the case of this man” which appears to link κρίνων semantically with ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' which seems fair enough but there is another alternative.
One might read ἀπ' ὠμοῦ ταῦτα δαίμονός … ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' as verb-less metaphor of travel where ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' is the goal with perhaps an adversative color “sent/coming against this man.” The expression ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' being a means of indirect reference used for whatever (??) reason. The adversative part is a bit a of stretch since that idiom isn’t peculiar to Attic Tragedy according to G. Cooper who finds it in Herodotus.
The sentence initial position of ἀπ' ὠμοῦ ταῦτα δαίμονός (after the particles) is used for focus marking. This is most salient unit of new information. Those who prefer a final position for focus marking could argue that ὀρθοίη λόγον is in focus.
Line 828-29
Ἆρ' οὐκ ἀπ' ὠμοῦ ταῦτα δαίμονός τις ἂν
κρίνων ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' ἂν ὀρθοίη λόγον;
“Would not one judge and rightly say that on me
these things were sent by some malignant god?”
David Grene 1942
“Would one not be right who judged that this came upon me by the action of a cruel deity?”
LCL Hugh Lloyd-Jones 1994
“Then would he who judged these things to be sent down by some cruel divinity not be right about Oedipus?” R. C. Jebb
Geoffrey Steadman agrees with Jebb's notes concerning ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' “in the case of this man” which appears to link κρίνων semantically with ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' which seems fair enough but there is another alternative.
One might read ἀπ' ὠμοῦ ταῦτα δαίμονός … ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' as verb-less metaphor of travel where ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' is the goal with perhaps an adversative color “sent/coming against this man.” The expression ἐπ' ἀνδρὶ τῷδ' being a means of indirect reference used for whatever (??) reason. The adversative part is a bit a of stretch since that idiom isn’t peculiar to Attic Tragedy according to G. Cooper who finds it in Herodotus.
The sentence initial position of ἀπ' ὠμοῦ ταῦτα δαίμονός (after the particles) is used for focus marking. This is most salient unit of new information. Those who prefer a final position for focus marking could argue that ὀρθοίη λόγον is in focus.