[60] ἡμεῖς. Cp.
τοῖοι ἀμυνέμεν, ‘we are not such [as he was], that we should drive it away.’ Similarly Od.7. 309“ξειν̓, οὔ μοι τοιοῦτον ἐνὶ στήθεσσι φίλον κῆρ” “μαψιδίως κεχολῶσθαι”, my heart is not such [i e. so prone as thou thinkest] to be lightly angry;’ and Od.24. 254“τοιούτῳ δὲ ἔοικας, ἐπεὶ λούσαιτο φάγοι τε”,“ Tres sumus imbelles numero; sine viribus uxor
Laertesque senex, Telemachusque puer.
”
“εὑδέμεναι μαλακῶς”, ‘but thou art like to such an one [not in slavish appearance, but in this] that he should have a soft bed to sleep on,’ etc. So in Od.17. 20“οὐ γὰρ ἐπὶ σταθμοῖσι μένειν ἔτι τηλίκος εἰμὶ”,
“ὥς τ᾽ ἐπιτειλαμένῳ σημάντορι πάντα πιθέσθαι”. See Monro, H. G. § 232. For the mere infinitive cp. Thuc.1. 50“μὴ αἱ νῆες ὀλίγαι ἀμύνειν ὦσι”, Aesch. Pers.87“δόκιμος δ᾽ οὔτις εἴργειν ἄμαχον κῦμα θαλάσσης”, and Hom. Od.21. 195“ποῖοί κ᾽ εἶτ᾽ Ὀδυσῆι ἀμυνέμεν, εἴ ποθεν ἔλθοι”;
ἦ καὶ ἔπειτα, ‘verily, if we do (“καί”） try, we shall prove but weaklings, and little skilled in prowess.’ ἔπειτα, as distinguished from “ὀπίσσω”, points to an immediate future: so in Soph. Antig. 611 “τό τ᾽ ἔπειτα καὶ τὸ μέλλον, καὶ τὸ πρὶν ἐπαρκέσει νόμος”. Cp. Lucret. 1. 461 “Tum quae res instet, quid porro deinde sequatur.” See Od.1. 65, and cp. inf. 273 “οὔ τοι ἔπειθ᾽ ἁλίη ὁδὸς ἔσσεται”, and similarly v. 280. This is nearly what the Schol. must mean by interpreting it “μετὰ τὸ ἐπιχειρῆσαι”.
