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[302] ἔν τ᾽ ἄρα … χειρί, ‘he grasped his hand;’ lit. ‘fastened on his hand for him.’ Eustath. joins rightly “ἐμφὺς τῇ χειρί”, which is more correct than Bekker's way of making “χειρί” the instrumental dative. So Virgil understood the words, Aen.8. 124 “dextramque amplexus inhaesit” , and so we have Od.3. 374“Τηλεμάχου ἕλε χεῖρα”, where “ἕλε χεῖρα” is but another way of saying “ἐνέφυ χειρι”. Compare also Od.18. 258“δεξιτερὴν ἐπὶ καρπῷ ἑλὼν ἐμὲ χεῖρα προσηύδα”. See Od.1. 381.

ἔκ τ᾽ ὀνόμαζε. Ameis remarks that the whole verse, viz. “ἔν τ᾽ ἄρα . . ὀνόμαζε”, occurs eleven times in Homer (here and in Od.8. 291; 10.280; 11.247; 15. 530; Il.6. 253, 406; 14. 232; 18. 384, 423; 19. 7), and the hemistich “ἔκ τ᾽ ὀνόμαζε” thirty-two times. The phrase always introduces a direct personal address, and either the name or its equivalent is used, except in the following passages, Od.5. 181; 6.254; 10.319; 17. 215; 21. 248; Il.14. 218; 24.286.

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

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