While the MS. words ἴδε μάλα μέγας ἐρείπεται correspond with the first verse of the strophe (1447), the second verse here exceeds its strophic counterpart by uu. Hermann supplied νέα in the strophe: Heinrich Schmidt omits ὅδε here. We need not do either. The erasure in L at μάλα μέγας shows that some disturbance had occurred; and this may have concerned the order of words. If we write “μέγας, ἴδε, μάλ᾽ ὅδ᾽ ἐρείπεται
κτύπος ἄφατος διόβολος
”, we get an exact correspondence, without either adding to the strophe or taking from the antistrophe. ἐρείπεται, ruit (cp. Ai. 309 n.); the very sky seems to come down with the crash: so Valerius Flaccus 8. 334 “ruina poli” of thunder. κτύπος … διόβολος, the noise of a bolt hurled by Zeus: cp. on 710 “αὔχημα ...εὔιππον.” ἄκραν, the tips, not the roots: cp. 1624.
