The eye of Theseus

Θησεύς
ἔα ἔα:
τί δή ποθ᾽ ἥδε δέλτος ἐκ φίλης χερὸς
ἠρτημένη; θέλει τι σημῆναι νέον;
ἀλλ᾽ ἦ λέχους μοι καὶ τέκνων ἐπιστολὰς
ἔγραψεν ἡ δύστηνος, ἐξαιτουμένη;
860θάρσει, τάλαινα: λέκτρα γὰρ τὰ Θησέως
οὐκ ἔστι δῶμά θ᾽ ἥτις εἴσεισιν γυνή.
καὶ μὴν τύποι γε σφενδόνης χρυσηλάτου
τῆς οὐκέτ᾽ οὔσης οἵδε προσσαίνουσί με.
φέρ᾽ ἐξελίξας περιβολὰς σφραγισμάτων
865ἴδω τί λέξαι δέλτος ἥδε μοι θέλει.

Theseus What's this? What can it be, this tablet hanging from her dear hand? Does it want to tell me of something I do not know? Has the poor woman written me a message of entreaty about our marriage and children? [860] Fear not, poor woman: there is no woman who shall take possession of the bed and house of Theseus. (He takes up the tablet.) See, the impress of the dead woman's gold-chased seal attracts my eyes. Come, let me open its sealed wrappings [865] and see what this tablet wishes to tell me.

The tablet hangs from Phaedra's dead hand -- Euripides uses the same word here -- ἠρτημένη -- that was used to describe Phaedra's body hanging from the rafter. His eyes are drawn to it, and the language dwells upon seeing and the intricate thing being seen:

καὶ μὴν, Why look!, he says, τύποι γε σφενδόνης χρυσηλάτου the impress (form, shape) of the bezel (or seal) of beaten gold προσσαίνουσί με -- literally: fawns on me, pleases, coaxes my attention.

He continues:

ἐξελίξας περιβολὰς σφραγισμάτων
Let me unfold the wrappings, (garments, twinings) of the impression of the signet, the seal  

ἴδω τί λέξαι δέλτος ἥδε μοι θέλει.
to see what the tablet wants to say to me.

Theseus's speech shifts from deluded speculation about what the tablet might say to a curiously vivid and concrete description of the appearance of the seal which has caught his eye. The usual rhetorical term for this sort of vivid showing is hypotyposis (enargeia)

Gk hypotypōsis, fr. hypotypoun to sketch, outline, fr. hypo- + typoun to stamp, form (fr. typos impression, cast)

He is about to read something that speaks of a deed which he'll say dishonors "the eye of Zeus," that is, the sun. It's worth pondering why Euripides chose to present such a vivid description of the seal, the tablet, the act of unwrapping it, all this in the eye of Theseus, as he is about to read a text depicting a deed never seen by the eye of Theseus, or by the sun.