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δυοῖνδύο. The addition of δύο would have more point if two pairs were in question, each consisting of one brother and one sister (as, e.g., one might say, ‘the two husbands were taken from the two wives’): yet it is not pointless, since it helps to suggest the isolation of the sisters. As Greek (esp. tragic) idiom loves to mark reciprocity by a repeated word (73 “φίλη...φίλου”, Ai. 267κοινὸς ἐν κοινοῖσι”), so it also loves to mark coincidence or contrast of number, whether this is, or is not, especially relevant (cp. 14, 55, 141).


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  • Commentary references from this page (2):
    • Sophocles, Ajax, 267
    • Sophocles, Antigone, 14
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