ἕργμα τυμβόχωστον, an enclosure (prison) with a sepulchral “χῶμα”. The “ἕργμα” is the chamber in the rock, “πετρώδης κατῶρυξ” (774), in which she is to be immured: the “χῶμα” consists of the stones heaped up at the entrance, so as to close it: cp. 1216 “ἁρμὸν χώματος λιθοσπαδῆ”. For “ἕργμα” (“εἵργω”, to shut in) cp. Part. Anim. 2. 15. 1, where it is said that the eyelashes (“βλεφαρίδες”) protect the eyes, “οἷον τὰ χαρακώματα ποιοῦσί τινες πρὸ τῶν ἑργμάτων”, like the palings sometimes placed in front of fences (or hedges). The Berlin ed. (p. 958 b 18) there gives “ἐργμάτων” from the MSS. just as here L has “ἔργμα”, and as, conversely, MSS. of Pindar (I. 1. 27 etc.) give “ἕργμα” for “ἔργμα ῀ ἔργον”. The old edd. of Arist. give “ἐρυμάτων”.—The reading ἕρμα (from “ἐρείδω”)=‘mound’: C. I. 4599 “ἐρισθενὲς ἕρμα θανοῦσιν”: Kaibel Epigr. 1063. 4“κἀγήραον ἕρμα”. But this seems less fitting here than the notion of ‘prison’: cp. 886 “περιπτύξαντες, 892 ἀείφρουρος”.
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part III: The Antigone. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1900.
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