Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Antigone

ἡσυχωτέραν, the MS. reading, has been prudently retained by most of the recent edd. In Plat. Charm. 160A the MSS. give “ὁ ἡσυχώτατος”, though two lines before they give “ὡς ἡσυχαίτατα”. A grammarian in Bekker Anecd. 98. 19 quotes “ἡσυχώτερον”. In Aesch. Eum. 223 the MSS. give “ἡσυχαιτέραν”, and in Plat. Phileb. 24C “ἡσυχαιτέρου”. It is true that our MSS. have no great weight on such a point, and that, if the ω form had been the current one in later Greek, it would have been likely to oust an older form in αι. But we see that sometimes, at least, the MSS. could preserve the αι and the ω forms side by side. It seems safer, then, to suppose that the normal ω form and the irregular αι form were both in Attic use, than to assume that the αι form alone was tolerated. The dictum of Thomas Magister, (quoted by Dindorf,) p. 426 “ἡσυχαίτερον: οὐχ ἡσυχώτερον”, is indecisive without more evidence than we possess.