Nota filologica a Ov. her. 20, 177-178

The couplet vv. 177-178 of her. 20 is particularly problematic. In this paper I retrace the various attempts to amend the couplet and propose a solution: to recover the long-ignored Palmer’s conjecture based on the Greek translation of Maximus Planudes. For the first time, Palmer’s conjecture on v. 178 is joined with Thompson’s proposal to accept the reading of ms. H (13th century) for the v. 177. The proof that the text obtained from Planudes’ translation is the authentic one allows us to consider worthy of esteem, at least for this last part of the Heroides, the lost Latin ms. from which Planudes translated, although the overall value of Planudes’ translation for the reconstruction of Ovid’s text is still a matter of debate.