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[398] “εἵατ᾽ [ο”] (as inf. 403 “εἵατ [αι”]). Epic form of “ἧντο” (which occurs in Il.3. 153, and is perhaps a mark of the late date of the passage). The “-αται, -ατο”, instead of “-νται, -ντο”, are found in Homer always after consonants and “ι”, sometimes after “υ” and long hard vowels, but never after short hard vowels, whether radical or thematic. “Ἕαται” Il.3. 134, and “ἕατο” 7. 414, are written “εἵαται” and “εἵατο”, where the metre needs a long syllable. “Ἕαται”, identical with Sanskr. Asate, was originally “ἥσ-αται”, and hence it is probable that in Homer the word, which in the old alphabet was written HEATAI, was wrongly written “εἵαται”, instead of “ἥαται”, when the first syllable was long. Curt. Verb. p. 65, Monro, H. G. App. C.

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

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