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[69] πρόχνυ, lit. ‘on the knees,’ used metaphorically of utter downfall (as Il.21. 460“ἀπόλωνται πρόχνυ κακῶς”), but here with a play on the literal sense: ‘may the race of Helen fall and be brought to its knees, even as she has loosed the knees of many men.’ Brugmann thinks that “πρόχνυ” here and in Il.21. 460 is from the root of “χναύω” ‘gnaw,’ ‘rub away,’ so that the meaning was originally ‘rubbed away,’ and so ‘utterly.’ The use in the phrase “πρόχνυ καθεζόμενοι”, in which it seems to mean ‘on the knees,’ may have arisen, he thinks, by confusion with a form “πρόγνυ” ‘kneeling forward.’ On this view “πρό-χνυ” is an adverb of similar formation to “πάγχυ”, all-pouringly,’ “ἄσσυ” in “ἀσσύτεροι”, &c. (Brugmann, Gr. Gr. ed. 2. p. 571).

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

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