Ptolemy Bk. VII, Ch. 1, S. 83: Some Names and Some Comments

Extract

M. Louis Renou, in his critical text of Ptolemy Bk. VII (Paris: Champion, 1925), gives the first name in ch. 1, s. 83, as Nαγαγοúρα (Nagagoura), with -γ-(-g-) as the third consonant. This is the reading of the MS. Vatic. 191 (X), which M. Renou and other authorities find superior to its competitors. The majority of the other MSS. utilized by M. Renou give the name as Nαϒαρονραρίςc (Nagarouraris), with -ρ- (-τ-) as the third consonant and an added final syllable which looks as if it had crept in from the margin or was some other kind of a corruption: this reading was followed by earlier editions such as that of Nobbe. The choice between -g- and -r- as the third consonant is thus a choice between “the best and the rest”, always embarrassing for a critical editor. One is, in such a case, fully entitled to prefer “the best”, as M. Renou has done. Moreover, it is only fair to mention two extraneous considerations, which could be argued as supporting -g-. First, there is another case where X reads -g- and the rest read -r-, and X is unquestionably right: this is in ch. 1, s. 50, Ȇragassa X, Ȇrarassa al., modern Eraj, ancient Erakaccha. Secondly, the termination -goura might claim some a priori probability if one considers the article by Przyluski in Bull. Soc. Ling., xxvii, p. 218 (not xx as wrongly given in footnote in JRAS., 1929, p. 273); but this point has very little weight, for as Przyluski shows and anyone can quickly see, the consonant which precedes the terminatio -oura in Ptolemy is very variable.