To  fill  the  generally  recognised  gap  of  four  syllables
above  marked,  Dindorf  has  suggested  irepOo/jbevav,
Fritzsche  Bvpo/jLcvot,  and  Hermann  BaKpvxeei.  No
possible  explanation,  short  of  sheer  carelessness  or
an  accident,  such  as  a  blot  or  hole  in  the  page  of
the  original,  can  account  for  the  loss  of  any  words
of  such  letters;  and  the  majority  of  other  emenda-
tions are  equally  irrational.  Wecklein,  on  the  other
hand,  suggests  eaireptoL.  Now,  not  only  does  this
suit  the  sense  admirably,  for  the  four  quarters  of
the  world  are  represented  as  mourning  the  sorrows
of  Prometheus,  and  the  Hesperians  or  people  of  the
West  are  alone  not  mentioned  specifically  in  our
extant  manuscripts,  but  the  omission  can  be  readily
accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  in  uncials  -7)
arivovcTL  (ECTENOTCI),  badly  written,  looks  very
like  ka-irepioi  (ECIIEPIOI),  and  might  easily  have
dropped  out  by  a  common  type  of  error  already
noticed.  In  short,  Hermann  and  others  have  reHed
on  blind  conjecture,  Wecklein  on  imagination  guided
by  reason  and  experience.
We  may  go  a  little  farther  in  this  quest.  It  will
be  seen  from  what  has  been  said  above  how  easy
it  was  for  notes  and  explanations  to  be  mistaken
for  corrections,  and  hence  inserted  into  the  text.
13


Notes  on  the  Text  of  Aeschylus

It  was  not,  however,  so  likely  that  words  would  be
omitted  unless  preceded  or  followed  by  similar
words.  Thus,  as  a  general  rule,  if  of  two  stanzas,
clearly  of  the  same  metre  and  intended  to  corre-
spond, there  are  in  one  more  syllables  than  in  the
other,  it  is  safer  to  assume  interpolation  in  the
former  than  omissions  in  the  latter.  The  best
illustration  of  this  is  perhaps  in  the  Prometheus,
11.  425-35  (Oxford^  Text),  where  the  Medicean  MS.
