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[62] σφῷν, as a contracted form of “σφῶιν”, is found only here. See above critical note. There was a great uncertainty about the correct way of writing this dual. According to Aristarch. , Apoll., and “ηεροδ. σφῶι” is nom. and accus. dual of the second personal pronoun; “σφωέ” of the third. For the gen. and dat. dual of the second person they wrote “σφῶιν”; of the third, “σφωίν”. Of these forms “σφωέ” and “σφωίν” were enclitic. See generally La Roche, Hom. Textkrit. p. 357. Translate, ‘For [the nobility of] your parentage is not lost in you,’ i.e. in your persons. With this use of ἀπόλωλε with the dative, cp. Il.10. 186“ἀπό τέ σφισιν ὕπνος ὄλωλεν”. This interpretation is equivalent to the words of the Schol. “οὐ γὰρ ἀφανῶν ἐστὲ γονέων”, and is better than giving the force of an agent-dative to “σφῷν”, viz. ‘the nobility of your parentage has not been discredited by you;’ for Menelaus could hardly argue that (1) they were noble because their faces were noble; and (2) then compliment them on not discrediting their parents.

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

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