wish to afford you the utmost assistance ; (a just belief) for I should be hard-hearted not to compassionate a supplication such as this."
Schneidewin : " Tell me, old man, &c. in what frame are ye
here, terror-stricken or resigned, as you may be assured that I
shall wish to afford you every assistance; for I should be hard-
hearted if I did not ((
Greek characters)) pity a supplication such as this."
As far as the word (Greek characters), I agree with Schneidewin, understand-
ing (Greek characters) to mean, "dreading evils which impend,
but may be averted by deprecatory prayer, or resigned to evils
which exist, but may be removed by prayerful submission to the
will of the Gods." The very rare sense of " intresting," which
Wunder gives to (Greek characters), is, I think, excluded by the tense of
that participle. The clause as (Greek characters). is connected
With (Greek characters).
But, in the next clause, I totally disapprove Schneidewin's
conjectural alteration (Greek characters) for (Greek characters) oh, and agree more nearly with
Wunder, with his reading and version, but not precisely with
his explanation of the construction. Wunder, in his Excursion,
explains (Greek characters) as equivalent to wore (Greek characters).
And he is not far wrong. But I would not put the point precisely
so. If the participial clause were necessarily to be regarded as
the protasis of a condition, of which (Greek characters) is the
apodosis, then I should say with Schneidewin, that (Greek characters) must be
read, and not (Greek characters). But I do not so regard it. The protasis
((Greek characters)) is suppressed (Obs. II.), and to be supplied from the
previous clause, while the participial clause further explains the
word (Greek characters): "for, if I did not wish to help you, I should be
hard-hearted, namely, in refusing to compassionate a supplication
like this."
(Greek characters) is essentially epexegetic; = " that is to say, not."
It occurs with a participle three times in Sophocles: in this place, again in v. 221, and in Œd. Col. 360. In the last-mentioned passage, there being no condition, the force of the particles is very simply and clearly exhibited.
(Greek characters)
The participial clause here is a mere epexegesis of (Greek characters) :
"you are not come empty, that is to say, not without bringing
me some fearful tidings."
