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[138] “μὰψ, ἀτὰρ οὐ”. The unseemliness did not consist in summoning the as sembly ‘for sunset,’ morning being the usual time for such gatherings: but in summoning it at that hour, under the particular circumstances, noted (parenthetically) in v. 139, namely that the men had been at a banquet and were heated with wine. The reaction from the toils of the war amid the temptations of a sacked city, implied in “οἱ δ᾽ ἦλθον οἴνῳ βεβαρηότες”, is touched on by Aeschylus ( Agam.330) “τοὺς δ᾽ αὖτε νυκτίπλαγκτος ἐκ μάχης πόνος”

“νῆστις πρὸς ἀρίστοισιν ὧν ἔχει πόλις τάσσει”. The line “οἱ δ᾽ . . Ἀχαιῶν” is parenthetical to the construction (which having set out with a participle has yet to be finished), but not to the sense; for the sense requires it, and requires it in this place.

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

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    • Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 330
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