The text †ἐπεζήτει† is a critical crux in the manuscript tradition. The verb ζητέω ('to seek') is semantically awkward with the adverbial phrase πάλαι ποτ' ('long ago once'), as the imperfect ἐπεζήτει implies a continuous or repeated action that does not easily accommodate the punctual or vague temporal marker 'once'. Most editors, following the reading of the codex Venetus Marcianus (L), emend the verb to ἐπείπει ('once he had said' or 'once he had commanded'), derived from the aorist imperative or aorist indicative of πείθω, or consider the phrase to be a corruption of ἐπεζήτησεν. However, some scholars defend the transmitted reading, arguing that the imperfect denotes a long-standing, habitual search that was finally interrupted, a usage attested in later Greek but rare in Aristophanes. The crux lies in determining whether the text preserves a unique temporal aspect or a corruption of a more standard narrative verb.