Abstract

So Diggle's recent text and apparatus criticus; so too its predecessor in the Oxford series . Advocates of πντα δ' ξελον βον have, however, been in a considerable majority, and include Porson, Elmsley, Bothe, Weil, Wecklein, Nauck, Paley, Verrall, Meridier, and, more recently, Schiassi and Ebener . But Page's objection cannot be lightly dismissed: ‘With βον here, σο must be understood; and the ellipse seems intolerable.’ To this I would add what appears to have been largely disregarded, namely that the contextual and thematic significance of δμον is an even stronger argument in its favour. Medea is πολις , having lost not only her home in Colchis but also her new home in Corinth . In a sense the fate cruelly forced upon the daughters of Pelias by Medea is now visited upon Medea herself, who finds herself deserted and alone . This isolation brings with it the realization that to those to whom she should be ίλη she is now χθρ , while those whom she should be able to regard as λoι are now χθρ . Her response? As Medea had done in Iolcus, so δμον τε πντα συγχασʼ ονος | ξετιτι γαας κτλ.