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[434] οἵ κεν, as being the direct relative to σῦς and λέοντας, would naturally take a verb in 3rd pers. plur., but as Eurylochus means by ἅπαντας ‘all of us,’ there is no difficulty in attracting the verb into the 1st. pers. Transl. ‘So that we should have perforce to keep Circe's great house for her.’

The word φυλάσσοιμεν is interpreted by the Schol. “τηροῖμεν. οὐχὶ φυλάσσειν τὸ δῶμα, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀεὶ ἐκεῖσε εἶναι”. The phrase ‘keep the house’ presents the same ambiguity; cp. “δῶμα φυλάσσοις” Od.5. 208.It is better however to understand that the swine and the lions are forced to keep ward at the house of the sorceress, like the gold and silver dogs at the palace of Alcinous, which were posted on either side of the door, “δῶμα φυλασσέμεναι” Od.7. 93.Cp. the Latin phrase ‘servare domum.’

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

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