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[101] If this line is genuine, we must suppose an anacoluthon: ‘would that I were young enough, either being the son of Ulysses, or would that he might come himself.’ That is to say, instead of “ἠὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐλθών” (subordinate to “νέος εἴην”), the second alternative takes the form of an independent clause of wish. This is an irregularity of a type common enough in Greek (cp. H. G. § 272): but here there is a real anacoluthon or change of meaning; since the second clause—the wish that Ulysses himself would come—does not fit “οὕτω νέος εἴην”. Thus the line interferes with the main point of the sentence—the duty incumbent on Telemachus of resisting the Suitors at all hazards. Moreover, the half-line ἔτι γὰρ καὶ ἐλπίδος αἶσα is much more effective in the other place where it occurs, viz. 19. 84.

ἐλπίδος αἶσα ‘hope has its share,’ i.e. a claim to its place, a raison d'être.

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

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