ARS SOPHOCLIS INTERPRETANDI. 535 



I may note a point o\'erlooked by other ciitics, which shows that 

 N£(T(Toi> is sound and no interpolation. 



Some commentator was offended by the hiatus between Ne'acrui; 

 and u-of/)om«, so he inserted B' after Ntcrcrou but he compensated 

 the gain of a short syllable in the metre by writing a single a so 

 as to make the first syllable of Nfrroi; short. He accordingly had 

 a short, long, short which was equivalent to the two long ones 



in Nf<T(T()i;i»77. 



I therefore consider that line 840 ran : Nto-crou vnofpo'ivui SoXo/xvOa 

 Kivrp' tTTiC^cfavTa. The first syllable of Nttro-ou stands in 

 anacrusis. The metre is then : — v — vv w — v — v — v — v 

 Taking in in v. 830 in anacrusis corresponding with the first 

 syllable of Netrtrou we see that we require in the lacuna four short 

 syllables to emend the metre. This must be the object of Xeva-o-iov 

 and the e of ttotI shows that it must begin with a consonant. 

 It must be from seven to eight letters long. This can be either 

 Tohe (paoq or ro (p^yyo^. I prefer to ([liyyo^ where the long 

 syllable of (plyyo^ corresponds with that in v-ixpoivLc. 



So the passage runs : 



77ti)^ yiij) «r O fUl AHV'.rirhtV 



Oavtov Xar/>ii<i.v ; 



This gives er/ -ort its real force, and shows that the two words 

 iTi have their respective work in the sentence. 



Tills sentence corresponds with v. 840 in metre : 



NfCrcrOl^ V-<>(i>OlVfii. C(lX(tfl.v9a Kl:^'T|) i:-t4f(TaV7n. 



//'/;/. 841 sqq. 



ojv (iC< a TAd/K'n' <ioK\'(i\' fi.fyuA'Av -jxKroiXriira 



rtf»^/.()(,!r(, jjXajJuv Ttwr 

 a/crcruvrw,' -yu/ioji', tci uav ovn rr/JOTtpiAAK 



ra () i- o.XXoOpov 

 yviojiiix; liinAuvr oXtOfiiaari (rin'oXXoyoi'^ 



1) ,Toi' oXoii (n>;vKJ, ktX. 



Musgrave reads udkvu^ for (kikvjv. For ukto-uvtiov Nauck reads 

 uiiTf-ovrav. Blaydes suggests aiiTci for fji»-t. For t- aXXodpov 

 L. has a correction <<.-' uXXoffpov which is found in B,K,T. In 

 V. 842 ^oiiioun is the reading of Triclinius : ^o/^ol^ MSS. Minor 

 corrections are 844 -/>(>(.rf/3u/\e v : -luurejiaXtiv L. ; aXXoB/wv 

 Erfundt ; aXXoBi>6<)v MSS. 845 oXEdfuaicn Triclinius : oXeOp'iat^ 

 MSS. avvaW'i.ycA^ Wimtler : t,vv:tXXayat~^ MSS. 



