[137] The key to this difficult passage is “τέων”, which is of course interrogative. To follow “οἰκτείρατε” it would have to be relative. Therefore rather than write “τέως” (un-Homeric in the sense of “until”) with Ruhnken, it seems better to assume a lacuna containing a verb to govern “τέων”, e.g. (on the analogy of the corresponding line 149) “τοῦτο δέ μοι σαφέως ὑποθήκατε, ὄφρα πύθωμαι”. The termination “-ωμαι” coming before “ἵκωμαι” and “ἐργάζωμαι” would account for the omission. The answer, 149 f., implies a question. Attempts have been made to give “τοκῆες” its full metrical value, but the synizesis is probably genuine; cf. “βασιλῆες” Hes. Op.263, and perhaps “ἱππῆες Λ” 151. So “ἐπηετανός” (quadrisyll.) Hes. Op.607, h. Herm. 113.
The Homeric Hymns, edited, with preface, apparatus criticus, notes, and appendices. Thomas W. Allen. E. E. Sikes. London. Macmillan. 1904.
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