[509] Join τῷ … ἐφεζόμενος.
510, 511. τὸν δ᾽, ‘and him the crag carried down into the vast surging sea: so there he died when he had drunk the brine.’ On this passage Nitzsch quotes from Wolf. Proleg. 41 ‘Ceterum insunt plurimis MSS. versus aliquot qui in nulla “ἐκδόσει” ferebantur (see crit. note on 511) partim recentioris fabricae putandi,’ and himself rejects it, almost on the same grounds as Eustath., on account of its poorness and flippancy (“διὰ τὸ λίαν εὐτελές”). Ameis sees in it the comic colouring of a parody, and thinks it compounded from Od.14. 137; 11.98; 12.263. He quotes an obvious imitation of it from Achill. Tat. 3. 4. “παραχρῆμα τῆς ἅλμης πιόντες κατεσχέθησαν”. Others attempt to dispose of the supposed difficulty by making “ὕδωρ” the subject to “πίεν”, as though ‘the gulf had washed him down;’ but this is very unlikely. The line requires no apology: there is a grim humour in it; a bitter irony about the contemptible end of a boastful hero; one moment he is sitting on the rocks, secure and self-complaisant—the next instant he gets a mouthful of salt water, and dies then and there. A similar contrast is expressed inand in the graceful irony of Virgil, Geor. 4. 87, describing the easy method of quieting the bees: “ ‘Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta“ Death . . . comes at the last, and with a little pin
Bores through his castle-wall, and— farewell, king!
”
pulveris exigui iactu compressa quiescunt.’
” Compare with the idea of “πίνειν” Od.12. 350“πρὸς κῦμα χανὼν ἀπὸ θυμὸν ὀλέσσαι”.
