Sophoclea

Extract

This use of ήβης has caused qualms both to others and to myself, but it means simply ‘life.’ Soph. frag. 713, ύβρις δέ τοι | ού πώποθ' ἥβης είς τ⋯ σώφρον ἳkετο | àλλ' έν νέοις àνθις τε καἱ πáλιν φθἱνει where τò νώθρον ἥβης must mean an advanced period of life. Thuc. v. 32, àπέκτειναν τούς ήβώντας, παῖδας δέ κα⋯ γυναικας ήνδραπόδισαν 116, ⋯πέκτειναν Mηλ⋯ων ὃνους ⋯βώντας ἔλαβου, παιδας δέ κα⋯ γυναῖκας ήνδραπόδισαν; in these two passages the context shews that ήβώντας includes grown men of all ages. Hence we may say with reason that ⋯κμ⋯ν ἥβης means merely ‘point of life.’ It does not, I think, mean to suggest that Oedipus hopes to hear that Laius was younger than the man he had killed; Oedipus is very careful to avoid leading questions throughout his investigations; it is his extreme scientific honesty that causes him to begin this very couplet by refusing to give Iocasta any hint of what he fears.Indeed he often seems to me to be an unconscious satire upon that scientific espirit which has led us to seek for the root from whence we sprung only to find an ancestor ‘with pointed ears, probably arboreal’; luckily we are none the worse. All he means therefore in this question is ‘how old was he?’ Both Campbell and Jebb mistranslate it.