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[337] “Φήμιε, πολλὰ γὰρ κ.τ.λ.” It is a very characteristic feature of Homeric syntax, to arrange clauses in the simple order in which they come into the mind, instead of combining and interlacing them as in the periodic structure of later Greek. This principle shows itself very markedly in the way in which the explanatory clause precedes the clause to be explained. Such explanatory clause may be introduced with “ἐπεί”, as in Od.13. 4

“ὦ Ὀδυσεῦ, ἐπεὶ ἵκευ ἐμὸν ποτὶ χαλκοβατὲς δῶ”.

“ὑψερεφὲς, τῷ σ᾽ οὔ τι πάλιν πλαγχθέντα ὀίω”

“ἂψ ἀπονοστήσειν”.

But here there is a real syntactical connection between the clauses, by the relatival force of “ἐπεί”. Often, however, the explanatory clause is introduced quite parenthetically with “γάρ” as in the present passage, as if in the passage quoted above we had found “ὦ Ὀδυσεῦ, ἵκευ γὰρ ἐμὸν ποτὶ δῶμα . . τῷ κ.τ.λ.” For other instances of this construction cp. Od. 5. 29; 8. 159; 10. 190, 226, 337, 383, 501; 12. 154, 208, 320; 14. 402; 15. 545; 17. 78; 19. 350; Il. 10. 61; 15. 201; 17. 221; 23. 156, 890; 24. 334. Note here the form οἶδας (for “οἶδ-θα, οἶσθα”) only found in this passage, and twice in the Hymns.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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