Τ⋯ τε 'Ομ⋯ρον ⋯ξ ὑποβολ⋯ς γ⋯γραφε [σόλων] ῥαψῳδεῖσθαι, οἷον ὅπου ό πρ⋯τος ἒληξεν ⋯κεῖθεν ἂρχεσθαι τòν ⋯χ;óμεν㦿ν (Diogenes Laertius, I. 2, 57).

It would be tedious to trace the course of the controversy about this phrase. Since Hermann showed that ύποβάλλειν means ‘subiicere alteri quod recordetur uel dicat’ (as in administering an oath), the many conflicting interpretations have been obliged to resort to some device, more or less strained, in order to reconcile the natural sense of ύποβολή with what at least appears to be the explanatory clause added in the text of Diogenes, and with the parallel phrase in the Hipparchus, 228d: ήνάγκασε τούς ῥαΨῳδοὺς Παναθηναίοις ⋯ξ ύπολ⋯ψεως ⋯φεξης α⋯τ⋯ διι⋯ναι. We should expect some term meaning performance by turns, and sufficiently technical to need the explanation given by Diogenes. Mr. Pallis has cut the knot in the Classical Quarterly (1913, p. 134) by suggesting ⋯ξ ὺποβ⋯ς on the model of the pseudo-Platonic passage. There is, however, no classical authority for this word, and a change as small will restore a known technical word with the required sense.