We present the combined results on electron-pair production in 158 GeV/n {Pb-Au} ($sqrt{s}$= 17.2 GeV) collisions taken at the CERN SPS in 1995 and 1996, and give a detailed account of the data analysis. The enhancement over the reference of neutral meson decays amounts to a factor of 2.31$pm0.19 (stat.)pm0.55 (syst.)pm0.69 (decays)$ for semi-central collisions (28% $sigma/sigma_{geo}$) when yields are integrated over $m>$ 200 MeV/$c^2$ in invariant mass. The measured yield, its stronger-than-linear scaling with $N_{ch}$, and the dominance of low pair $p_t$ strongly suggest an interpretation as {it thermal radiation} from pion annihilation in the hadronic fireball. The shape of the excess centring at $mapprox$ 500 MeV/$c^2$, however, cannot be described without strong medium modifications of the $rho$ meson. The results are put into perspective by comparison to predictions from Brown-Rho scaling governed by chiral symmetry restoration, and from the spectral-function many-body treatment in which the approach to the phase boundary is less explicit.
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