Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Electra

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τοὐμὲ μὴ λυπεῖν: ‘For me, let it be food enough that I do not pain myself (by a base compliance with the murderers)’: “ἐμὲ” for “ἐμαυτήν”, as “ἐμοί” for “ἐμαυτῷ” in Ant. 736“ἄλλῳ γὰρ ἢ ᾿μοὶ χρή με τῆσδ᾽ ἄρχειν χθονός”; For the figurative sense of “βόσκημα”, cp. Aesch. Ch. 26“δἰ αἰῶνος δ᾽ ἰυγμοῖσι βόσκεται κέαρ”. The phrase “λυπεῖν ἑαυτόν” seems to have been familiar: Eur. Cycl. 336“ὡς τοὐμπιεῖν γε καὶ φαγεῖν τοὐφ᾽ ἡμέραν”, | “Ζεὺς οὗτος ἀν-” “θρώποισι τοῖσι σώφροσι”, | “λυπεῖν δὲ μηδὲν α<*>τόν”: Eur. (?) fr. 174 (Nauck) “μὴ οὖν ἔθελε λυπεῖν σαυτόν” (where Hermann conjectured “μή νυν θέλε” | “λυπεῖν σεαυτόν”). The tone of the phrase here is explained by the context. In the preceding verses Electra has fully set forth her view: now she is summing it up, in words suited to a hearer of whose sympathy she despairs. ‘Enough for me if I do not offend my own sense of right’; i.e., ‘I must obey my own instincts,—as you follow yours.’

Remark the resemblance to the passage where Antigone—summing up her position—compares the moral pain of neglecting her duty with those penalties which she contemns:—“κείνοις ἂν ἤλγουν: τοῖσδε δ᾽ οὐκ ἀλγύνομαι” ( Ant. 468). There, too, we have a Sophoclean triad of clauses, the third echoing the first,—as “τῆς σῆς δ᾽ οὐκ ἐρῶ τιμῆς τυχεῖν” here reiterates the sense of “σοὶ δὲ πλουσία... βίος” (n. on Ant. 465 ff.).

One of the scholia recognises the traditional reading, and explains it correctly: —“τοῦτο μόνον ἐμὲ βοσκέτω, τὸ μὴ λυπεῖν ἐμὲ αὐτήν, εἰ” (‘as I should do, if’) “τοῖς φονεῦσι τοῦ πατρὸς πείθεσθαι ἀναγκασθήσομαι”.—The conjectures have been numerous: see Appendix.