Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/321

 On Schneidewin* s Edition of the (Edipus Rex. 311 I shall notice in its place v. 221, where again I shall have occasion to agree with Wunder, and not with Schneidewin. 15 19. The division of the clauses must here be carefully noted : Protasis. Apodosis. (1) Spas pev fjpds . . . to 8' uXXo (pvXov. . . (2) oi peu. . . ol de. . . otSe 8e. (3) cyo) ptv Ztjvos . . . (suppressed clause aXXoi Se aXXa>v deav.) 20. dyopaicri Banel, npos re UaWddos 8nrols vaois. I would remove the comma after danei, regarding dyopata-i as governed by the reflected rrpos, per schema Pindaricum. 40 5, vvv r < KpariiTTOP nacriv OiStVou icdpa, iKirevopev (re navres oiSe irpocrTpoTroi olXktjv tip* evpflv ypw> (HI tov 6ea>v (prjprjv dtcovaaf, (tr air dvbpos oicr6d nov  paXtara rav fiovXfvpdrcov. The ordinary version of the two lines last cited (given by the Scholiast, and followed both by Wunder and Schneidewin) is: " Since I perceive that to experienced men the results also of their counsels are most successful." I cannot regard the sense here given either to the word ^oWs, or to the phrase rds vp(f>opas twv jSovXeu/itxTcoi/, as good Greek : nor do I see that the emphati- cally placed particle nai has any force whatever according to this view. Logic halts as well as language ; for what sense is there in saying, " Find us some help, whether God or man shew it you, for the counsels of the experienced have the best results"? My explanation of this passage rests on the assumption that Sophocles is at liberty to use the verbal noun o-vpepopd in any abstract sense derivable from its primitive verb o-vp(pepa> or <rvp- epepopat. Its general sense is " occurrence," " event." Sometimes it implies "a happy occurrence:" but oftener it is used, by Greek euphemism, as a mild term for " calamity," like the expressions ti veov, ri vewrepop, and as we say, " something has happened to him." Sometimes it is to be rendered " dealing," from crvpcpepea-Bai. Here I believe it is employed in the rarer but certainly admissible sense " comparison." 7rtcrToi(ri iricTTa avnt