τῆσδ᾽ ἄτερ explains μόνῃ: cp. on 445. βιώσιμον is Ionic and poet.; the Attic word was “βιωτός”. It is needless to change τί (subst.) into “πῶς”. The more usual phrase was, indeed, impers., as Her. 1.45 “οὐδέ οἱ εἴη βιώσιμον”: Plat. Crito 47D “ἆρα βιωτὸν ἡμῖν ἐστί”; But, just as we can have “ὁ βίος οὐ βιωτός ἐστι” (cp. O. C. 1691), so also “οὐδὲν βιωτόν ἐστι”, no form of life is tolerable. Cp. O. T. 1337 “τί δῆτ᾽ ἐμοὶ βλεπτόν, ἢ ι στερκτόν, ἢ προσήγορον ι ἔτ᾽ ἔστ᾽”, etc., where the only difference is that the subst. “τί” corresponds to an object. accus., and not as here to a cognate (“βίον βιῶναι”).
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part III: The Antigone. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1900.
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