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[244] κεκλημένος εἴη. Cp. Il.2. 260“μήδ᾽ ἔτι Τηλεμάχοιο πατὴρ κεκλημένος εἴην”. This so-called ‘periphrastic conjugation’ is found in Homer only with the perfect passive participle, as in “τετελεσμένον ἔσται”. See Lehrs, Aristarch.383.Translate, ‘Would that such an one might be called my husband, and that it might please him to bide here!’ Compare “σὴ παράκοιτις κέκλημαι” Il.4. 60.Ameis suggests that οἱ, standing as it does in an emphatic position, marks the transition from the general sentiment to the thought about Odysseus himself as the possible husband. These two lines incurred the disapproval of some of the older critics. Aristarchus obelises both verses, but is not indisposed to let the former stand. Plutarch (de audiend. poet.) is offended by them, saying, “ψεκτέον τὸ θράσος αὐτῆς καὶ τὴν ἀκολασίαν”, and Schol. Q. T. remarks, “Ἔφορος ἐπαινεῖ τὸν λόγον ὡς ἐξ εὐφυοῦς πρὸς ἀρετὴν ψυχῆς: ἐγὼ δὲ πρὸς τὸ ἁβροδίαιτον τῶν Φαιάκων”. Modern feeling will doubtless side with Ephorus, regarding the words as expressing the thoughts of an innocent girl, to whom marriage was a certainty and not a mere possibility; and she has no hearers but her own familiar handmaidens, for Odysseus is ἀπάνευθε (sup. 236). In the presence of men, Nausicaa is very different, even before her father, “αἴδετο θαλερὸν γάμον ἐξονομῆναι” sup. 66.

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

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