Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/400

 374 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY substituting the later ylvojxai and yivwa-Kco in tlie texts of the dra- matists. (1 9) Yerbals in -ros retain or omit the or between the root and ter- mination, according to the caprice of the poet ; thus we have aSa/xaros in Soph. (Ed. T. 205, 1315, but dSdfjia(rTo<s in Aj. 445, seemingly from the exigencies of the metre in the former cases. There is a distinction of meaning in yvwo-ros, "intelligible," and yi/coros, "known;" but we have ayvcocrro?, dKavaTo<;, cvyvwcrrog, dK6p€aT0<;, 7rdyKavaT0<s Avithout any dif- ference of signification by the side of ayvwros, aKXavro?, evyi/coro?, ctKo/ae- Tos, 7rdyKavTos, which are also supported by MS. authority. Some of these verbals, as /xe/x7rrog, ttio-tos, {jTroTrro?, are used with an active as well as a passive signification (see Person ad Hec. 1117). (20) Both dvvoi and dvvTOi are found in the dramatists, the former more frequently, though Porson prefers the latter (ad Phoen. 463, Hec. 1157, cf Hermann ad Soph. Electr. 1443). (21) In the particles we may notice the forms ^vv for avv, h for ei?, ecro) for cicrw, evt for iv, dirat, 8tat', vTrat for ctTro, Sid, vtto, as occurring either regularly or occasionally in the dramatists. We have eiv "AtSov 86fxoi<; in Soph. Antig. 1226, and etmAtog, ih. 346. For IvravOoi, which is sometimes found in the text, we should read ivrevOev or ivravOi. (see I^ew Cratylus, § 139); and when owcKa appears as a preposition, it should be changed into elVcKa {N. Ci^at. § 277). For avOi'i we have both avTts and aure. It is doubtful whether jw,€;)(pts occurs in Greek Tragedy (see the commentators on Soph. Aj. 5Qd>). (22) Porson lays it down that the tragic writers preferred ix^aipoi to e^^patvco and layxiivia to W^Q/aivia {ad Orest. 292; Med. 555); but the MSS. sometimes give such forms as ixOpavel (Soph. Antig. 93), ixOpavrios {Aj. 664), ia-xvaivui (^sch. From. 269, 380; Eum. 267, &c.). It is also proposed to substitute ttvcv/awv for TrXev/xwv in those passages in which the MSS. give the latter (Pors. ad Eur. Orest. 271); KvdirTUi is con- sidered more Attic than yvctTTTw, though the MSS. vary (see commen- tators on Soph. Aj. 1010); and though /xiKpos is sometimes required by the metre, there can be no doubt that or/xt/cpos is much more common in the dramatists (see Hermann ad Soph. Electr. 1113; Elmsley ad Eur. Med. 361). (23) Compound adjectives in -og are generally of two genders only, and the same is frequently the case with adjectives in -i/>tos; but if there is any possibility of a doubt as to the gender, the feminine inflexion is used; thus we have dXKL/xa ^cog when a goddess is intended (Soph. Aj. 395); but it would have been dXKLjxos ded. Adjectives in -ag, -aSog, are