[359] τοῦ γὰρ κράτος. As the article is properly a demonstrative pronoun, with a specially deictic force, i. e. interpreted by gesture, etc., there need be no more difficulty in accepting “ἐμοὶ τοῦ γάρ” than “ἡμεῖς οἵδε” supra 76. We may suppose that Telemachus lays his hand on his breast, or does something equivalent, while saying ‘most of all to me, for this is he to whom belongs the power in the household.’ It is quite true that “ἀνὴρ ὅδε” as the equivalent for “ἐγώ” is postHomeric, but we have “ὅδ᾽ ἐγώ” Od.16. 205, “ὅδ᾽ αὐτὸς ἐγώ” Od.21. 207, etc. Others, objecting to refer the demonstrative to the first person, make the reference to the class of which “ἐμοί” marks an individual, viz. “ἄναξ”, or the like (in the sense in which Telemachus says, infra 397, “αὐτὰρ ἐγὼν οἴκοιο ἄναξ ἔσομ᾽ ἡμετέροιο”). Similarly in the analogous passage ( Od.11. 352) “πομπὴ δ᾽ ἄνδρεσσι μελήσει”
“πᾶσι, μάλιστα δ᾽ ἐμοὶ, τοῦ γὰρ κράτος ἔστ᾽ ἐνὶ δήμῳ—τοῦ” may be said to stand for “βασιλῆος”, understood out of “ἐμοί”. Cp. infra 392 “οὐ μὲν γάρ τι κακὸν βασιλευέμεν: αἶψά τέ οἱ δῶ”“ἀφνειὸν πέλεται καὶ τιμηέστερος αὐτός”, where “οἱ” represents “βασιλῆι”, understood from the predicate of the sentence preceding.
