Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/334

 324 Journal of Philology. man (/ e. I shall never be proved to be other than the child of Fortune), so as not to discover (i. e. so as to have a motive for refusing to discover) my descent." Thus (Obs. III.) (Edipus persists in proud self-assertion to the very edge of his fall, and boasts himself Fortune's child at the moment before he learns that he is the inheritor of misery. 1225, oipai yap ovt av "icrrpov ovre <bairiv av vtycu Kadapfiw nfi'Se ttjv OTtyiyv, ocra Kevdfi rot 5' avriK els to (pics (Pavel Kaica tKovra kovk aKovra. Wunder finds difficulties here from not perceiving, what Schneidewin has seen, that to pfr is to be supplied, per schema Pindaricum, with Kddei. " I ween nor Ister, nor the Phasis' stream Can cleanse this roof by washing from the ills Which now it part conceals, and part shall bring Forthwith to light, a voluntary troop." 1271, avdcov Toiav6 % y SdovveK ovk o^oivto viv ov$ y ol ' enao-x^v ovd* oiroV edpa nana, dXX' iv o-kotco to Xoiffov ovs pev ovk et o^roiad*, ovs 8' ^XPllC V ov yvao-oiaro. Wunder and Schneidewin have most unwisely adopted Her- mann's conjecture tyaiv, seduced by the sense they think arises, viz. "that, because they had not seen, &c., at least (dd) they should see, &c." The motive ought indeed to be strong, which should induce us to intrude into Attic tragedy a form, of which the supposed instances, even in the old Epic dialect, are very dubious. Were the verb itself a rare one, the conjecture might be more plausible. But, as the verb of seeing is one of the commonest in the lan- guage, as the forms ctyo/xm, on-ama, <5<p0r)v, and again d/)<S, i6W, &c. meet us so often in tragedy, it is impossible to imagine that oj/ilpr}v would not have appeared often, were it admissible at all. I deem it therefore inadmissible. Again, I conceive that, in the sense sought, not the aorist optative, but the Imperfect is wanted, the past time referred to being long-continued. Sophocles then would have written bipKoivro, and, if I felt the need of obtaining that sense, I should rather conjecture the certain epic form oWouro, than the very doubtful one tyaivro.