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[414] ὣς ἐμὲ … ἔχυντο. Bekk. ii. puts no comma at κεῖνοι, but makes ἐμέ to be governed by ἴδον. But it is better to stop off ἐπεὶ ἴδον ὀφθαλμοῖσι, making ἐμέ governed by ἔχυντο, either as an equivalent to “χύμενοι ἵκοντο”, cp. La Roche, Hom. Stud. § 60. 4, or, better, as retaining something of the force of the preposition in “ἀμφι-θέουσι”, and so= “ἀμφέχυντο”, cp. “ἀμφιχυθεὶς πατέρ᾽ ἐσθλόν” Od.16. 214, “θείη δέ μιν ἀμφέχυτ᾽ ὀμφή” Il.2. 41.To make “δακρυόεντες ἔχυντο” mean no more than ‘in lacrimas effusi sunt’ gives no sort of antithesis to “σκαίρουσιν ἐναντίαι”. Further, “ἐπεὶ ἴδον ὀφθαλμοῖσι” stands as a set phrase, in Od.2. 155; 3.373; 11.615; 23. 92. ‘They threw themselves upon me weeping.’

But ἐμέ is really determined by the position in which it stands with regard to μητέρας, as though ἐμέ also was to be governed by ἀμφιθέουσι, for which, by a necessary change of scene, ἔχυντο is substituted.

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

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