It seems surprising that this text—or others similar—(emending the manuscript reading found in both L and P) has been accepted without any serious search for a more meaningful alternative. Even if it be thought that Euripides was capable of adding , in an unusual sense producing an awkward tautology, to , surely this should only be accepted in the absence ofa more credible emendation which departs no further from the manuscripts? Is there such an alternative? In the corresponding last line of the strophe we have : the first syllable of is doubtful; there seems to be no convincing metrical objection to its being a long syllable here. This atonce suggests the maintenance of the manuscripts' to maintain the metrical balance.