¹ Euripides: Phoenissae(Cambridge, 1994). Mastronarde retains the text printed in his Teubner edition (1988). I follow both editors in treating 1485–1581 as substantially authentic though rich in textual difficulties (cf. Diggle's apparatus ad loc.) of the kind expected in an astrophic monody and amoibaion. I have commented briefly on the severe doubts that surround what follows (1582–1766) in BMCR 6 (1995), 431–2.

² with IT; with the main tradition but allowing the plausibility of Eldik's ( Markland). Diggle and Mastronarde provide further textual information which need not be repeated here.

³ SIFC1 (1989), 205–6 = Euripidea (Oxford, 1994), 351–2.Google Scholar

⁴ The seeds of the misinterpretation lie in the Scholia, which begin from a false reading ‘lifting’, explain this as meaning that Jocasta lifted and displayed her breast to her duelling sons, and then offer the (correct) variant with an equivalent (false) explanation (.

⁵ E.g. Paley (‘she set out to carry her suppliant breast to her sons’), Meridier (‘elle s’elancait, suppliante, pour presenter a ses fils un sein suppliant’), Buschor (‘Eilte sie, eilte sie hin, flehend den Sohnen zu zeigen flehende Brust ihrer Mutter’). Cf. Pho. 1530–2 (, , ‘Leave your house, bearing your sightless eye(s), old father…’) and such phrases as Tro. 334 , Tro. 1332 , Soph. Trach. 967 .

⁶ ‘What were you feeling when your mother was holding out her breast to supplicate you?’ ().

⁷ See Stockert ad loc. and cf. e.g. Horn.//. 5.590, Soph. O r 176.

⁸ Diggle 205–6 (= Euripidea 352): ‘The tenor of Jocasta's supplication (1568–9) may be inferred from the apostrophe at 1436 ’, implying “Do not abandon your mother to a childless old age”.)’ Diggle's apparatus to lines 1429 and 1433 in the Oxford Text perhaps allows for a reading which does not involve supplication.

⁹ ‘Lotus-rearing meadow’ means no more than ‘flowery meadow’, like (or ), Horn.//. 12.283. CQ's referee compares LA. 1544 , also the setting for a scene of death.

¹⁰ The jarring rhythm given by (self-contained contracted dactyl following blunt ending in the previous line) compounds the difficulty, though it is not, I think, indefensible in itself. (828 has a rather similar effect, though the punctuation makes a difference.)

¹¹ Wilamowitz, KS VI.359 = SPAW (1903), 600; rejected by e.g. Diggle 352 n. 31 and Mastronarde, Comm. on 1574. For the present participle as ‘imperfect’ participle cf. Kiihner-Gerth 1.200 n. 9 with such examples as Thuc. 2.58 , ‘so that the original troops also fell sick, though having previously been enjoying good health’. The phrasing in our passage gives no encouragement to such an interpretation.Google Scholar

¹² Similarly e.g. Wecklein: ‘ steht appositionell zum Inhalt des Satzes und bezeichnet den Erfolg des Kampfes.’

¹³ Cf. LSJ , B.I.i; also e.g. Pho. 786,1499, El. 163, Or. 1491, Bacch. 1369.Google Scholar

¹⁴ CQ's referee notes that similarity between a participle such as and 1573 might have led to some textual disruption.

¹⁵ could be shifted, e.g. by placing it before and putting where now is; but such a displacement would be hard to explain. Mastronarde (on 1570–6) thinks the placement between and is intended for pathetic effect.

¹⁶ This was Paley's suggestion: ‘Either some participle seems wanting… like (cf. Ion 147), or we should read , “a chilled (or congealed) outpouring of blood on their wounds”.‘ His second suggestion (anticipated by the reading in ms. O) gives an unhappy zeugma: ‘She found her sons fighting… and a chilled outpouring of blood on their wounds.‘ The Scholia also attempt to make the -phrase a second object to , but asyndetically: … Musgrave proposed .

¹⁷ For suggestions to insert a connective (though to different effect) see previous note.

¹⁸ Cf. 933 where Menoeceus must ‘give gory blood as a libation to the ground’, of offering libations (xoai) cf. also/. T. 61, Or. 125, Soph. Ant. 902.