means not sameness but cor-relation. His task is to examine the correlation.28
To do so, he undertakes the Antigone analysis, the keystone of which is the designation of man (we retain the term "There-being") as τὸ δεινότατον, "the strangest of all beings" (das Unheimlichste)?29 Δεινόν has a two-fold meaning, Heidegger claims: it says "awesome" or "aw-ful" (das Furchtbare), sc. "filling with awe." In this sense, it pertains to the Over-powering (Being), which inspires anxiety and reticence, sc. "awe" (Scheu). Secondly, δεινόν says "awesome" in the sense of "filled with awe." Here it pertains to that being which is open unto this aweinspiring Power and takes up a position with regard to it in such a way as to gather it into open-ness. This taking of a position is a resistance, contentious in character; it brings force to bear; it does violence to the Over-powering.
When Sophocles calls There-being the "most awesome," sc. the strangest, of all beings, then, we are to understand this for a double reason: because, by its very essence, There-being is in the midst of the total ensemble of beings and exposed unto Being, the awe-inspiring Over-powering mentioned above; because it does violence to the Over-powering by gathering it together into a place of open-ness. And this prerogative is unique in There-being. Briefly: There-being is the strangest of all beings because "... in the midst of the Over-powering it brings force to beat upon it ...."30
All three pairs of strophe-antistrophe in the choral ode articulate, each in its own way, this contention between the Overpowering and its There. In the first, the focus is on those beings which are completely external to There-being and surround it, v.g. the sea, the earth, the animal kingdom. In the second, the focus shifts to those beings which bear direct relation to There-being (v.g. language, comprehending, working or building,
28 "... dasselbe aber ist das Denken und das Sein" (EM, p. 104). See p. 106 (Einerleiheit vs. Zusammengehörigkeit).
29 EM, p. X14. Translation recommended by etymology (OF: estrange, fr. Lat. extraneus ["external," "foreign"], fr. extra ["on the outside"], which suggests nicht einheimisch and permits such overtones as "awesome," "aw-ful" (sc. filled, or filling, with "awe"), which concord nicely with the nuances of Angst (p. 114) and Scheu (p. 115) that are detectable here. Alternate translations: un-common, extra-ordinary. Neither one, however, comports the same air of mystery as "strange."
30 EM, p. 115 (gewalt-tätig inmitten des Überwältigenden).