Further notes on the ‘Heraclidae’ of Euripides

Abstract

15-16 φεύγομεν δ᾿ ἀλώμενοιἄλλην ἀπ᾿ ἄλληϲ ἐξορίζοντεϲ πόλινThe children of Heracles are roaming from city to city in search of refuge. But every city which at first admits them soon yields to the threats of their pursuer Eurystheus and sends them on their way. ‘We wander in exile,’ says Iolaus, ‘from city to city, ἐξορίζοντεϲ. But ἐξορίζειν is a transitive verb, ‘send beyond the frontier, banish’ (LSJ), and so cannot, according to its normal use, have the Heraclidae as its subject. Normal use is illustrated by 257 ϲὺ δ᾿ ἐξόριζε κἆιτ᾿ ἐκεῖθεν ἄξομεν (‘you send them beyond the frontier and we shall take them from there’). LSJ create a special intransitive meaning for the present passage (‘c. acc. loci only …passfrom one [city] to another’), just as they do for ὁρίζειν in a passage which Elmsley and others have compared with ours,Med.433 (‘pass between or through’), though the verb there has its ordinary meaning, as both Pearson (here) and Page (ad loc.) show.