Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Ajax

ἀντατιμάσαιμ̓. The choice lies between this correction by Bothe of L's “οὐκ ἂν ἀτιμάσαιμ̓”, and Elmsley's οὔ τἂν ἀτιμάσαιμ̓. The best reason for preferring “ἀντατιμάσαιμ̓” is a palaeographical one, viz., that a change of “ΟΥΤΑΝ” into “ΟΥΚΑΝ” (T into K) is rather less probable than a loss of T in “ΟΥΚΑΝ”（“Τ”）“ΑΤΙΜΑΣΑΙΜ”, seeing that “ἀτιμάζω” was a familiar word, while “ἀντατιμάζω” was unfamiliar. There is no force in the objection that “ἀντ-” in the compound is unfitting (since Ajax had not ‘dishonoured’ Odysseus); the reciprocity marked by “ἀντ-” is simply that of overt hostility. As to the οὔκουν (or οὐκ οὖν) of the later MSS., it was evidently a makeshift, only less feeble than the Triclinian “οὐκ ἄν γ̓.— ἀντατιμάζω” occurs nowhere else, but is formed like “ἀνταδικεῖν”.