Page:Essays and Addresses.djvu/286

 the long e: (2) occasionally to denote the rough breathing—the use for which the Western alphabets regularly reserved it.

But our inscription presents new modifications of these uses:—

(1) In, by itself denotes epsilon with the rough breathing.

(2) In, for , it perhaps serves, as M. Homolle suggests, to aspirate the. While koppa was in use, it, not kappa, was preferred before o and u. Where kappa was so placed, the need of a complementary sound may have been felt. As, however, we have, it is not easy to see why we have not. does not strengthen to, for we have simply for.

(3) In stands for, which in the older inscriptions is normally expressed by. Thus alone stands for an aspirated, just as above for an aspirated.

(4) Most remarkable of all is. No one, I think, who examines the facsimile given by M. Homolle will have any doubt that the word is rightly read thus. The letters are, indeed, clear. The preceding is clear also. After (which must be fem.), in hexameter verse,  is the only alternative which presents itself, and the