SOPHOCLES
tell the whole truth. It was she herself who gave the child to be killed (p. 70, l. 1173).
P. 42, l. 730, Crossing of Three Ways.]—Cross roads always had dark associations. This particular spot was well known to tradition and is still pointed out. “A bare isolated hillock of grey stone stands at the point where our road from Daulia meets the road to Delphi and a third road that stretches to the south. . . . The road runs up a frowning pass between Parnassus on the right hand and the spurs of the Helicon range on the left. Away to the south a wild and desolate valley opens, running up among the waste places of Helicon, a scene of inexpressible grandeur and desolation” (Jebb, abridged).
P. 44, l. 754, Who could bring, &c.]—Oedipus of course thought he had killed them all. See his next speech.
P. 51.]—Observe the tragic effect of this prayer. Apollo means to destroy Jocasta, not to save her; her prayer is broken across by the entry of the Corinthian Stranger, which seems like a deliverance but is really a link in the chain of destruction. There is a very similar effect in Sophocles’ Electra, 636–659, Clytaemnestra’s prayer; compare also the prayers to Cypris in Euripides’ Hippolytus.
P. 51, l. 899.]—Abae was an ancient oracular shrine in Boeotia; Olympia in Elis was the seat of the Olympian Games and of a great Temple of Zeus.
P. 52, l. 918, O Slayer of the Wolf, O Lord of Light.]—The names Lykeios, Lykios, &c., seem to have two roots, one meaning “Wolf” and the other “Light.”
P. 56, l. 987, Thy father’s tomb Like light across
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