Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Antigone

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προβᾶσ᾽ … πολύ: having advanced to the furthest limit of rashness, thou hast struck heavily (“πολύ”) against the lofty pedestal of Justice. We are to imagine the daring offender as going forward to a boundary where Justice sits enthroned, forbidding all further advance. Instead of pausing there, the rebel still rushes on, to cross the boundary—and, in doing so, dashes herself against the throne of the goddess. For “βάθρον” cp. Her. 1.183 (a sitting statue of Zeus) “καὶ τὸ βάθρον” (pedestal) “οἱ καὶ ὁ θρόνος χρύσεός ἐστι”. For προσέπεσες, Polyb. 1. 39 “προσπεσόντες εἴς τινα βραχέα” (having struck on some shallows—in sailing). Cp. Aesch. Theb. 409 “μάλ᾽ εὐγενῆ τε καὶ τὸν Αἰσχύνης θρόνον ι τιμῶντα καὶ στυγοῦνθ᾽ ὑπέρφρονας λόγους”. Ag. 383“λακτίσαντι μέγαν Δίκας βωμόν”. Eum. 539“βωμὸν αἴδεσαι Δίκας, ι μηδέ νιν κέρδος ἰδὼν ἀθέῳ ποδὶ λὰξ ἀτίσῃς”. Solon fr. 4. 14 “οὐδὲ φυλάσσονται σεμνὰ θέμεθλα Δίκης.”

πολύ (adv.) =“σφόδρα”, violently.—Bellermann, adopting Kvíčala's general view, and also Kern's ἐσχάτου, renders: ‘having advanced, with extreme rashness ( Dem. or. 18 § 17 “οὔτε δικαίως οὔτ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἀληθείας οὐδεμιᾶς εἰρημένα”), to the lofty threshold (“βάθρον”) of Justice, thou hast fallen heavily down’ : i.e., ‘ while, with the utmost boldness, thou wast obeying the command of Justice, thou hast been hurled to destruction.’ But (1) προσέπεσες could not mean this: we must at least have “κατέπεσες”. (2) The Chorus feel pity, indeed, for Ant. , and recognise the praise of piety, which she has won (817, Ant. 872). But they also regard her collision with the city's law as an act of frantic folly (“λόγου τ᾽ ἄνοια καὶ φρενῶν ἐρινύς”, Ant. 603); and they presently tell her that she has left Creon no choice but to punish her (874). By “Δίκη” they understand the law of the State,—not those “θεῶν νόμιμα” which Ant. preferred to obey.