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[406] ‘I should be fain thereupon to entreat Zeus’ (sc. “Ζεὺς ξείνιος”), i.e. to make my peace with him. The aor. must refer to some single prayer to be made. The usual rendering—‘with good heart, forsooth, would I pray’—neglects the force of the tense. Moreover, πρόφρων implies eagerness to do something, not confidence in doing it. The reading ἀλιτοίμην ‘I should (thereby) sin’ is tempting, but gives a forced meaning to πρόφρων (=“ἐθέλων γε”), and to ἔπειτα.

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