ON THE PROBABLE COMPASS AND CONTENTS OF ODE I, WHEN ENTIRE.

That portion of the Ode which has been preserved in a coherent form begins with the arrival of Minos in Ceos, his union with Dexithea, and the birth of Euxantius. It is evidently the last part of a mythical narrative. The probable nature of the part which preceded it will be discussed presently. One thing is certain,—that it was of considerable length.

The verse with which my text of Ode I begins is numbered as verse III of that Ode in the edition of Professor Blass. He supposes that, of the 110 verses which originally came before it, 64 are wholly lost, while 46 (not all consecutive) can be partly reconstructed from small separate fragments, with the aid of conjectural supplements.

This reconstruction is given below. The element of conjecture involved in it is so very large that (in my opinion) it is inexpedient to print it as if it formed part of the ascertained text. But it is interesting and suggestive. I will endeavour to state clearly the scope of the reconstruction, and the nature of the evidence on which it rests.

A metrical ‘system’ in this Ode consists of 23 verses (a strophe of 8, an antistrophe of 8, and an epode of 7). The number of lines in a column of the MS. varies from 32 to 36, 35 being the commonest total, while 34 is also frequent.