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[257] αἰψηρήν, proleptic epithet= ‘quick to disperse at his word,’ just like “θοὴν ἀλεγύνετε δαῖτα” Od.8. 38, “ταχέες δ᾽ ἱππῆες ἔγερθεν” Il.23. 287.The use of the adjective here instead of the adverb is most common in Homer with adjectives of time, as “ἔνδιος” Od.4. 450, “ἠματίη” Od.2. 104, “ὑπηοῖοι” Il.8. 530, “ἠέριος”, see Buttm. Lexil. p. 41; cp. also the use of “χθιζός, πάννυχος, ἑσπέριος”. Here the expression is not exactly equivalent to “αἶψα δ᾽ ἔλυσ᾽ ἀγορήν” Il.2. 808, but points also to the fact that the quality, ‘readiness to disperse,’ is more or less inherent in the subject. Cp. “αἰψηρὴς δὲ κόρος κρυεροῖο γόοιο” Od.4. 103, “αἰψηρὰ δὲ γούνατ᾽ ἐνώμα” Il.10. 358 with v. l. “λαιψηρά”. The expression before us occurs also in Il.19. 276. Cp. Virg. Aen. 12. 860 “alitis in parvae subitam collecta figuram.” Düntzer, with Voss, renders “αἰψηρήν”, ‘excited.’

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

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