The fragment was included by Lentz in his Herodianus’ Περὶ παθῶν edition (300, 21-24). The argument supporting the etymology is opportunistic: ἀγαθώτερος, as well as the superlative, is indeed almost never used in ancient Greek (see Ael.Dion., Attic words, alpha 10 Erbse : <<ἀγαθός>· ἡ σύγκρισις ‘μᾶλλον ἀγαθός’ καὶ ἡ ὑπέρθεσις ‘μάλιστα ἀγαθός’>. ἀγαθώτερος <δὲ> καὶ ἀγαθώτατος παρ' οὐδενὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων κεῖται ; Phryn., Eclog. 65: Ἀγαθὸς μᾶλλον λέγεται καὶ ἀγαθὸς μάλιστα, ἀλλὰ μὴ ἀγαθώτατος καὶ ἀγαθώτερος ; Eustathius, Comm. Od., 1, 9 Van der Valk, l. 30), but the comparative ἀγαθὸς μᾶλλον introduces also a double emphasis (or redundancy). Yet some Christian authors, likely inspired by a Septuagint passage (Jd. 11.25, 1 : καὶ νῦν μὴ ἐν ἀγαθῷ ἀγαθώτερος σὺ ὑπὲρ Βαλακ υἱὸν Σεπφωρ βασιλέα Μωαβ;) such as Adamantios (De recta in deum fide 114, 11 Hinrichs), Johannes Chrysostomus (In Acta apostolorum, MPG 60, p. 231, 55: Οὐκ εἶ σὺ ἀγαθώτερος τοῦ ποιήσαντος ἡμᾶς ; etc.) or Cyrillus (Catecheses ad illuminandos, 6, 7 Reischl, Rupp, Munich) do use ἀγαθώτερος. Philoponus refers to the same explanation as Philoxenus (Opif. 298, 21-25 Reichardt: διόπερ οὐδὲ ἡ λέξις παρὰ τοῖς ἀκριβοῦσι τὴν Ἑλλήνων φωνὴν ὑπερτέθειται εἰς τὸ ἀγαθώτερος ἢ ἀγαθώτατος – ἔχει γὰρ ἐν ἑαυτῇ τὸ ὑπερθετικὸν ἐπίρρημα τὸ ἄγαν – καὶ εἴ που παρά τινι σπανίως εἴρηται, παρέλκει). The second part of the word is not mentioned here, but θεῖος is probably meant, as witnessed by a similar passage in Eustathius (in Od. 1.9.28-30, see Paral.). Note that the same argument is put forward by Orion (Etymologicum, alpha, p. 1 Sturz) for another compound with ἄγαν, viz. ἄγαν θεῖν (<Ἀγαθόν> παρὰ τὸ ἄγαν θεῖν ἡμᾶς εἰς αὐτὸ, οἷον ἐφ' ᾧ ἄγαν θέομεν. ἔνθεν οὐ λέγομεν ἀγαθώτερος, οὔτε ἀγαθώτατος, ὡς ἐγκειμένου ἐπιτατικοῦ μορίου τοῦ ἄγαν, ἵνα μὴ γένωνται ἐν αὐτῷ δύο ἐπιτάσεις, ἀπό τε τοῦ ἄγαν, καὶ τῆς παραγωγῆς τῆς διὰ τοῦ <τερος>, ἀλλὰ ῥητέον, μᾶλλον ἀγαθὸς τοῦδε ὅδε)