As Headlam remarked more than thirty years ago, ‘It is a strange fact that the order of words in a Greek sentence has never been clearly appreciated.’ The emphatic word is placed at the beginning of the sentence, or as near it as the structure of the language permits. That is the general law, which I have discussed at length in my edition of the Oresteia. My object in this article is to make an exhaustive study of its operation in (...) a limited field. (shrink)

The openings of the strophe and antistrophe do not correspond, and many unavailing efforts have been made, from Triclinius to Lawson, to bring them into conformity. But, as I have shown elsewhere , the discrepancy appears to be intentional and appropriate. For other instances of the same thing see 709–10, 715–16 , and there is yet another in Cho. 422–4 = 443–5 . In 1005 πρπαρ is not only better attested than προιθ' , but it makes a much better rhythm: (...) τ δ' π γν πεσν παξ θανσιμον πρνσιμον πρπαρ νδρς μλαν αμα τς ν…. (shrink)

As a student at Cambridge forty years ago I received a good training in the language and literature of classical Greece, and had the good fortune to study paleography under the late E. H. Minns. For all this I am deeply grateful. But I had no training in Byzantine Greek. It was only later, and more or less by accident, that I discovered Byzantine and Modern Greek. It is not my intention to discuss the wider aspects of this question now, (...) but to appeal, on the basis of some passages in the Oresteia, for a new approach to textual criticism, or rather for the renewal of an old approach. (shrink)

As a student at Cambridge forty years ago I received a good training in the language and literature of classical Greece, and had the good fortune to study paleography under the late E. H. Minns. For all this I am deeply grateful. But I had no training in Byzantine Greek. It was only later, and more or less by accident, that I discovered Byzantine and Modern Greek. It is not my intention to discuss the wider aspects of this question now, (...) but to appeal, on the basis of some passages in the Oresteia, for a new approach to textual criticism, or rather for the renewal of an old approach. (shrink)

In this article I propose to discuss some passages in the Oresteia in order to illustrate the method devised by Heimsoeth and Headlam for the detection of intrusive glosses. Headlam's theory of glosses, which I outlined in a recent article, was based on a systematic study of the ancient lexica and scholia. Further work on the scholia has raised some problems affecting their authenticity, which need to be settled, if they are to be used effectively for the elucidation of the (...) text. (shrink)

In this article I propose to discuss some passages in the Oresteia in order to illustrate the method devised by Heimsoeth and Headlam for the detection of intrusive glosses. Headlam's theory of glosses, which I outlined in a recent article, was based on a systematic study of the ancient lexica and scholia. Further work on the scholia has raised some problems affecting their authenticity, which need to be settled, if they are to be used effectively for the elucidation of the (...) text. (shrink)

In an interesting paper read some time ago to the Cambridge Philological Society , H. J. M. Milne analysed the first Ode of Sappho and showed that it is constructed according to those principles of poetical form which we should expect to find in the work of so delicate a Greek artist. If more of these lyrics had survived in their entirety, the task of expounding the technique of Greek poetry would be simpler than it is, because naturally the principles (...) are more easily grasped in a short lyric than in epic or drama. (shrink)

As Headlam remarked more than thirty years ago, ‘It is a strange fact that the order of words in a Greek sentence has never been clearly appreciated.’ The emphatic word is placed at the beginning of the sentence, or as near it as the structure of the language permits. That is the general law, which I have discussed at length in my edition of the Oresteia. My object in this article is to make an exhaustive study of its operation in (...) a limited field. (shrink)