[717] πολλῶν κατὰ οἶκον ἐόντων. Dr. Hayman curiously translates this, ‘she could not endure to take her chair of state, and face the company now numerous.’ It should be of course, ‘she had no longer the heart to sit on a seat, though there were many [seats] in the chamber, but down she sank on the floor of her bower crying piteously.’ Cp. Eur. Troad.503“ὡς οὔτε μ᾽ ἄρσην οὔτε θήλεια σπορὰ”
“πολλῶν γενομένων τὴν τάλαιναν ὠφελεῖ”.οἶκος is used here, as in Od.1. 356, for the women's apartment. To sit on the ground was the customary posture of grief. Cp. Hdt.1. 45“Κροῖσος δὲ ἐπὶ δύο ἔτεα ἐν πένθεϊ μεγάλῳ κατῆστο” “τοῦ παιδὸς ἐστερημένος”, Isaiah 3. 26 ‘She being desolate shall sit upon the ground.’ Cp. also Isa. 47. 1.
