ἐξερῶ gives an exact correspondence with “εἰ τὰ μὲν” in 405. The ἐξερέω of the MSS. might, indeed, be compared with El. 178“ὑπεράχθεο”, O. C. 227“ὑπέσχεο”, ib. 1244 “κλονέουσιν”. (In Tr. 639“καλέονται” should be “κλέονται”.) But “ἐξερέω” was so familiar as the Homeric form that it could easily have displaced “ἐξερῶ” here. It is not likely that the poet would have written “ἐξερέω” if he had meant the word to be scanned -u- by synizesis. Join οὔτινα with στρατοῦ: cp. 1175 “κεἴ τινα στρατοῦ.” χθονὸς μολόντ᾽ ἀπὸ ι Ἑλλανίδος: for the place of “ἀπό”, and for the hiatus, cp. Tr. 510“Βακχίας ἀπὸ ι ἦλθε...Θήβας”. This vaunt of Ajax (modified only by the half-apologetic “ἔπος ἐξερῶ μέγα”) is epic in tone; thus Achilles says of himself （Il. 18. 105), “τοῖος ἐὼν οἷος οὔτις Αχαιῶν χαλκοχιτώνων”: Odysseus,
. Such a tone is better suited, indeed, to epos (in which speech is sometimes little more than audible thought) than to drama. But here, at least, as in the case of Heracles ( Tr. 1101 f.), it has the excuse of being prompted by the anguish of a sudden overthrow. (Cp. n. on O. T. 8, where Oedipus speaks of himself as “ὁ πᾶσι κλεινός”.)“ὃς πᾶσι δόλοισιν
ἀνθρώποισι μέλω, καί μευ κλέος οὐρανὸν ἵκει
”
