Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Antigone

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σεισθῇ θεόθεν, i.e. by an “ἀρά” (likened to a storm, or earthquake, that shakes a building): when a sin has once been committed, and the shock of divine punishment has once been felt. In the case of the Labdacidae the calamities were traced to the curse called down on Laïus by Pelops, when robbed by him of his son Chrysippus (O. T. p. xix.).

ἄτας οὐδὲν ἐλλείπει, (for these men, “οἷς ῀ τούτοις οἷς”) no sort of calamity is wanting. Some join ἐλλείπει with “ἕρπον”, on the analogy of “παύεσθαι” with part., ‘never fails to go’; but this constr. is at least very rare. In a probably spurious “ψήφισμα” ap. Dem. or. 18 § 92 we have “οὐκ ἐλλείψει εὐχαριστῶν”: but Xen. Mem. 2. 6§ 5 (adduced by Wecklein) is not an example, for there “μὴ ὲλλείπεσθαι εὖ ποιῶν”=‘not to be outdone in generosity.’ Then in Phaedr. 272 B “ὅ τι ἂν αὐτῶν τις ἐλλείπῃ λέγων” =simply ‘omit in speaking.’

γενεᾶς ἐπὶ πλῆθος. The phrase is bold, and somewhat strange; but I do not think that it is corrupt. γενεᾶς here is the whole race, not (as in 596) a generation of the race. The words mean literally, ‘over a multitude of the race’; i.e., the “ἄτη” does not cease with the person who first brought it into the family, or with his generation, but continues to afflict succeeding genera tions. The collective noun “γενεᾶς” justifies the use of “πλῆθος”: as he might have said, “ἀπογόνων πλῆθος”. It is needless, then, to write “γενεᾶν”. We cannot understand, ‘to the fulness of the race,’ i.e. till the race has been exhausted.