ποῦ χρὴ τίθεσθαι: where am I to place these things (in a theory of divine government), i.e., what am I to think of them? For this use of the midd. “τίθεμαι”, cp. 473, 876: Dem. or. 18 § 299 (“ταῦτα”) “πόρρω μέντοι που τῶν ἐμοὶ πεπολιτευμένων τίθεμαι” (‘rank them far below...’). ποῦ δ᾽ αἰνεῖν: and in what respect to praise them: cp. O. T. 390“ποῦ σὺ μάντις εἶ σαφής”; and ib. 355 n. ὅταν κ.τ.λ. The simplest form of question would have been:—‘What is one to think of these things, seeing that they conflict with one's belief in beneficent gods?’ This is amplified into—‘What is one to think of these things, seeing that, while one praises the dealings of the gods, one finds (by these facts) that the gods are bad?’ ἐπαινῶν is best taken in a simple temporal sense, (=‘at the same time that one praises,’) rather than as tentative (‘while one tries to praise’), or concessive (‘though one praises’). Theognis, in a similar strain, asks how a mortal is to revere the gods when he sees good men afflicted and bad men prosperous (743—752).
This text is part of:
Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part IV: The Philoctetes. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1932.
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