In only one of these places is the sense of the poet altered by the emendation (167): in many the very rendering is unchanged. At such slight expense are these metrical deformities removed.

VI. Having proposed to ourselves, as the object of our editorial labours, to place in the hands of readers a Greek text, which should be free from errors of grammar sense and metre, we found this could not be accomplished without venturing upon a novel step.

We ascertained, to our full conviction, that, in a certain number of places besides those which are manifestly and by admission defective, the text is corrupted by the hitherto undiscerned or unacknowledged loss of lines or parts of lines. The step which in these. places we have ventured to take is to introduce, in connexion with the manuscript text, such Greek words (lines chiefly, but sometimes parts of lines), as seem competent to supply the defective sense of the place in a form not unworthy of the poet's mind. These extraneous words we have so clearly distinguished (by signs explained on p. 2), both in Greek text and in English translation, from the ms. Greek handed down as Aeschylean, that no careful reader can suppose them to be other than what they are—i.e. matter suggested as capable of filling up gaps in the sense, which have arisen from the accidental omission of lines or parts of lines by careless transcribers. As we make no pretension (except perhaps in 69) to ascribe any of these appended suggestions to the hand of Aeschylus, we have not included them in our numeration of lines. They will be seen in the following places: 69, 101, 283, 377, 392, 530, 565, 722, 733, 736, 766, 977, 1367, 1526, 1579.

The reasons which prompt change, and the arguments in favour of each suggestion will be found in our Notes on Lection.

VII. As regards the general emendation of the ms. text (apart from changes made by all editors, such as

the restitution of misspelt words, and the correction of other manifest blunders) its statistics in the present edition are as follows, approximately. Out of 1603 lines, 24 per cent. contain some emendation, by words being altered or substituted or transposed, or (in three or four places) removed from the text. Of these changes 8 per cent. are due to the present editor, 15 to other scholars. Of his own changes, the editor is disposed to regard (a) the following as approaching to certainty: 17, 61, 67, 69, 121, 123, 180, 190, 191, 265, 675, 704, 708, 742, 922-923, 1195–1197, 1249-1251;

(b) the following as highly probable:

7, 83, 91-2, 97, 154, 346, 388-389, 516, 564, 699, 712, 714, 716, 862, 871, 889, 893, 906, 913—914, 927-929, 933—934, 982, 1038, 1040, 1061, 1087, 1101 —1102, 1265, 1303, 1336, 1491, 1504—1505;

(c) the following as reasonably satisfactory:

139—140, 141, 157, 159, 167, 216, 232, 313, 355—359, 383-384, 397-398, 402, 419, 427, 565, 658, 667, 676, 679, 941-946, 1012—1014, 1024, 1065-1067, 1121, 1187, 1376, 1382, 1402-1404, 1411, 1454-1455, 1534, 1554-1556.

The corrections of other scholars are duly noted in the Conspectus Lectionum, and are capable of similar distinction, if it were desirable to attempt it.

ΥΠΟΘΕΣΙΣ

ΑΓΑΜΕΜΝΟΝΟΣ.

̓ΑΓΑΜΕΜΝΩΝ εἰς Ιλιον ἀπιὼν τῇ Κλυταιμνήστρα, εἰ πορθήσοι τὸ Ἴλιον, ὑπέσχετο τῆς αὐτῆς ἡμέρας σημαίνειν διὰ πυρσοῦ. ὅθεν σκοπὸν ἐκάθισεν ἐπὶ μισθῷ Κλυταιμνήστρα, ἵνα τηροίη τὸν πυρσόν. καὶ ὁ μὲν ἰδὼν ἀπήγγειλεν αὐτὴ δὲ τὸν τῶν πρεσβυτῶν ὄχλον μεταπέμπεται, περὶ τοῦ πυρσοῦ ἐροῦσα· ἐξ ὧν καὶ ὁ χορὸς συνίσταται· οἵτινες ἀκούσαντες παιανίζουσι. μετ ̓ οὐ πολὺ δὲ καὶ Ταλθύβιος παραγίνεται, καὶ τὰ κατὰ τὸν πλοῦν διηγεῖται. ̓Αγαμέμνων δ ̓ ἐπὶ ἀπήνης ἔρχεται· εἴπετο δ ̓ αὐτῷ ἑτέρα ἀπήνη, ἔνθ ̓ ἦν τὰ λάφυρα καὶ ἡ Κασάνδρα. αὐτὸς μὲν οὖν προεισέρχεται εἰς τὸν οἶκον σὺν τῇ Κλυταιμνήστρα. Κασάνδρα δὲ προμαντεύεται, πρὶν εἰς τὰ βασίλεια εἰσελθεῖν, τὸν ἑαυτῆς καὶ τοῦ Αγαμέμνονος θάνατον, καὶ τὴν ἐξ Ορέστου μητροκτονίαν, καὶ εἰσπηδα ὡς θανουμένη, ρίψασα τὰ στέμματα. τοῦτο δὲ τὸ μέρος τοῦ δράματος θαυμάζεται, ὡς ἔκπληξιν ἔχον καὶ οἶκτον ἱκανόν. ἰδίως δὲ Αἰσχύλος τὸν ̓Αγαμέμνονα ἐπὶ σκηνῆς ἀναιρεῖσθαι ποιεῖ. τὸν δὲ Κασάνδρας σιωπήσας θάνατον, νεκρὰν αὐτὴν ὑπέδειξε. πεποίηκέ τε Αἴγισθον καὶ Κλυταιμνήστραν ἑκάτερον διϊσχυριζόμενον περὶ τῆς ἀναιρέσεως ἑνὶ κεφαλαίῳ τὴν μέν, τῇ ἀναιρέσει Ιφιγενείας τὸν δέ, ταῖς τοῦ πατρὸς Θυέστου ἐξ ̓Ατρέως συμφοραῖς.

Ἐδιδάχθη τὸ δρᾶμα ἐπὶ ἄρχοντος Φιλοκλέους, Ολυμπιάδι ὀγδοηκοστῇ, ἔτει δευτέρῳ. πρῶτος Αἰσχύλος ̓Αγαμέμνονι, Χοηφόροις, Εὐμενίσι, Πρωτεῖ σατυρικῷ. ἐχορήγει Ξενοκλῆς ̓Αφιδνεύς.

Προλογίζει δὲ ὁ φύλαξ, θεράπων ̓Αγαμέμνονος.

1 Επί σκηνῆς. The writer of this argument may merely mean, that the cries of Agamemnon from within are heard on the stage, but not those of Cassandra,

Κ. Α.

I

ΤΑ ΤΟΥ ΔΡΑΜΑΤΟΣ ΠΡΟΣΩΠΑ.

ΦΥΛΑΞ.

ΧΟΡΟΣ ΓΕΡΟΝΤΩΝ.

ΚΛΥΤΑΙΜΝΗΣΤΡΑ.

ΤΑΛΟΥΒΙΟΣ ΚΗΡΥΞ.

ΑΓΑΜΕΜΝΩΝ.

ΚΑΣΑΝΔΡΑ.

ΑΙΓΙΣΘΟΣ.

SIGNS USED.

* before a word, and in the line with it, implies that such word is an emendation of that which corresponds in mss.; *ảλκậ 107.

* * above the line imply that the words between them are emendations of what corresponds in mss. ; *êv Téμvwv* 17.

++ inclose words added to complete the text where it is manifestly defective. Such additions cannot be warranted as the words of Aeschylus, but an editor printing them is responsible for their appropriateness in feeling and expression. The letters are spaced to manifest their distinction. See 69.

A point or points before or after words indicate the probable loss of a word or words which cannot be supplied for want of clue. || stands before a line which contains transposition. See 67.