On some special difficulties in Pindar. 217 mented workmanship of the handicraftsmen bringing to the Crisaean hill he passed to the hollow dell of the God, just so much (i. e. without any diminution) brings he to the cypress hall hard by the image, which the Cretan bowmen placed in the Parnassian temple, that image which grew in one piece, and was so taken up from the stem." The internal coherence of a passage is after all the best evidence of its genuineness, and the expe- rienced critic can judge for himself whether the established reading agrees with the context or requires some alteration, diplomatically feasible, in order to carry out the manifest inten- tion of the writer. I do not believe that Pindar wrote the passage before us as it has been hitherto edited. I do believe that the changes which I have suggested are both in accordance with the meaning, which he designed to convey, and with the usages and requirements of the Greek language. It is a question of minor importance whether we ought to construe ayav with vano?, and apeiyf/ev with <pov, as Bockh does ; or, as I have done, vice versa. The latter construction is suggested by the order of the words, and supported by the facts of the case. Carrhotus landed at Cirrha, went up the stream of the Pleistus to the Crisaean hill, and then passed on to the hippodrome in the valley at the foot of Mount Parnassus. The verb d/ieij3< signifies both " to quit a place" and " to go to a place ;" and here it bears a meaning from which these two applications have diverged, namely, to pass from one place to another. III. Almost every commentator has proposed a distinct emenda- tion of Nem. vi. 51, 2, (84, 85), which stands thus in the old text : /3apu 8e <r<f)i vcIkos efnrea 'AxiXXcus X a H- ai * a i3/3ais a<f> dpfidrtov. Hermann (Opusc. I. p. 261,) proposed : /3apv hi (r<f)i vcIkos e/wras nafi&as AxiXevs' x a H- ai ** 4^ op/xareov. Bockh at first read: {5apv 8e a<pi vclkos ep.Tra' A^tXevs x a H-^ ls KC""a/3as d<p* apfiarav. He afterwards accepted Dissen's conjecture: /3api> fie <7<pt 8eie vcIkos Xapai Kara/Has AxiXeus d<f> apfiarav.
