ἐνιαυτὸν. The popular version spoke of three years. This was the term assigned by the mythographer Herodorus (c. 430 B.C.?), acc. to the schol.; as it is by Apollodorus (2. 6. 2). If this change was due to Sophocles, we can see the artistic motive. Three months or so, after the bondage, were required for the war in Euboea. If the poet had made Heracles go to Lydia 39, instead of 15, months before his death, there would have been less room for those hopes which contend with fears in the opening scene of the Trachiniae.
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part V: The Trachiniae. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1902.
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