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[181] τῶ κέν τοι ‘then to thee I &c.’

184-192, = 3. 486-494. The line “δύσετό τ̓ ἠέλιος κτλ.” is obviously archaic and conventional. It is always used when the poet wishes to say what point, in a journey or process of some kind, had been reached at sunset. The form is noticeable as an instance of primitive parataxis. Here (e.g.) there are three statements virtually forming a single sentence: ‘the horses rattled the yoke—the sun set—and they reached Pherae’; i.e. ‘they trotted along until, at sunset, they reached Pherae.’ The connexion of the clauses is generally obscured in our texts by the punctuation. It is well seen in the shorter 6. 321 “δύσετό τ᾽ ἠέλιος καὶ τοὶ κλυτὸν ἄλσος ἵκοντο” (cp. 8. 417). See also the note on 15. 296.

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

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