C. Fox.
Addison Road.
Passage in Sophocles.—In Vol. viii., p. 73., appears an article by Mr. Buckton, in which he quotes the following conclusion of a passage in Sophocles:
"Ὅτῳ φρένας
Θεὸς ἄγει πρὸς ἄταν·
Πράσσειν δ' ὀλιγοστὸν χρόνον ἐκτὸς ἄτας."
This, πέτρῳ στάθμην ἁρμόζων, he translates,—
"Whose mind the God leads to destruction; but that he (the God) practises this a short time without destroying such an one."
But for the Italics it might have been an oversight: they would seem to imply he has some authority for his translation. I have no edition of Sophocles by me to discover, but surely no critical scholar can acquiesce in it. The only active sense of πράσσειν I remember at the moment is to exact. It surely should be translated, "And he, whom the God so leads to ἄτη, fares a very short time without it." The best translation of ἄτη is, perhaps, infatuation. Moreover, how is the above translation reconciled with the very superlative ὀλίγοστον?
M.