[194] μεταδόρπιος. Vide Lehrs, Aristarch. § 134. Aristarchus maintained that “δόρπον” never means anything in Homer except the last meal of the day; remarking, “ὅτι τρὶς τροφὰς ἐλάμβανον οἱ ἥρωες” (i.e. men of Homeric times); 1. “ἄριστον” Il.24. 124; Od.16. 2; 2. “δεῖπνον”, the mid-day meal, Il.11. 86; and 3. “δόρπον”, the evening meal. Now Telemachus came at sunset ( Od.3. 497) to the house of Menelaus, and finds a meal going on which must have been the “δόρπον”. When Peisistratus says here, “οὐ τέρπομαι ὀδυρόμενος μεταδόρπιος”. he means ‘I do not like weeping after supper; I do not like ending the day badly.’ Menelaus feels the force of this, and proposes (inf. 213) to resume the meal (“ἐξαῦτις” = denuo) and so to finish the evening in comfort. With reference to this rendering of “μεταδόρπιος” Lehrs remarks, l. c., ‘nihil aliud “μεταδόρπιος” significare potest; ut haec composita omnia id significant quod praepositio cum substantivo. “Μεταδήμιός ἐστι” (e. g. Od.8. 293) i. q. “μετὰ δήμῳ”, sed “μετὰ δόρπῳ” nihil est. Dignus horum usus qui attendatur. Sic Od.9. 234(cf. 249) “φέρε δ᾽ ὄβριμον ἄχθος”
“ὕλης ἀζαλέης ἵνα οἱ ποτιδόρπιον εἴη”, i. e. “πρὸς δόρπον”.’ Cp. also Od.15. 51“ἐπιδίφρια” = “ἐπὶ δίφρῳ”, and Il.7. 267“ἐπομφάλιον” = “ἐπ᾽ ὀμφαλῷ”. But Nitzsch and the majority of commentators interpret the word as meaning ‘during supper,’ according to which “ἐξαῦτις μνης”. (213) describes the resumption of the “δόρπον” interrupted by the burst of weeping. The difficulty still remains that Menelaus should (sup. 61) call the meal “δεῖπνον”. It may be that he uses the word designedly, supposing that his guests in the bustle of travel had taken no mid-day meal. Lehrs thinks that the word has crept into the text here from Od.1. 124.Voss's interpretation, that this “δεῖπνον” had been carried through the whole afternoon, and so had passed into “δόρπον”, is not supported by Od.20. 390 which he quotes, for between the “δεῖπνον” and “δόρπον” there mentioned, the whole of the “τόξου θέσις” comes in. The rendering of Eustath. is “ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ τῷ δόρπῳ ἐν ᾧ ἀνέσεως μάλιστα χρεία”.ἀλλὰ καὶ ἠώς, ‘but the dawn of day shall serve for that,’ i. e. “ἔσσεται ὀδυρομένῳ”. He goes on to say, ‘It is the time and not the act that I do not like. I, who have myself lost a brother, have no fault to find with one who,’ etc. The words are equivalent to “οὐ φθονῶ [τινα] κλαίειν τὸν” [i. e. “τοῦτον] βροτῶν ὅς κε θ”. With “τὸν . . ὅς” compare “τάων . . ἅς” Od.2. 119; 5.448.
