προπάτωρ, a word used by Pindar, Eur. , and Herodotus. The reading πάτερ (requiring χεροῖν instead of “χερὶ μὲν” in 372) had an obvious and prosaic motive; viz., that Aeacus, the grandfather of Ajax, was the son of Zeus ( Il. 21. 189), so that Zeus could not properly be called an ‘ancestor’ of the hero's ‘ancestors.’ But when the poet wrote “προγόνων προπάτωρ”, it was enough for him that it expressed the thought, ‘author of my line’; he did not trouble himself with this subtlety.—It was the nymph Aegina who bore Aeacus to Zeus ( Plat. Gorg.p. 526 E: “τὸν δικαστὴν τὸν τῆς Αἰγίνης υἱόν”). πῶς ἂν … θάνοιμι: cp. Ph. 531 f. “πῶς ἂν ὑμὶν ἐμφανὴς ι ἔργῳ γενοίμην” (n.).
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