[379] ταρφἔ ἀμειβομένω, ‘with frequent change,’ sc. from side to side. This introduces a new feature in the ball-play. The ball was no longer only thrown up and caught, but the players began dancing, and as they danced, the ball flew from one to the other, all in time to the music. When Nausicaa plays ball with her maidens, throwing it from one to the other, the amusement is described as “μολπή” Od.6. 101, “ἀμείβεσθαι” is used in a similar sense of a voltigeur leaping from the back of one horse to another, “ἀνὴρ ἵπποισι κελητίζειν εὖ εἰδώς . . ὁ δ᾽ ἔμπεδον ἀσφαλὲς αἰεὶ”
“θρώσκων ἄλλοτ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἄλλον ἀμείβεται”. The adj. “ταρφέες” does not occur in the sing. in Homer, but “ταρφύς” is found in S. c. T. 535.ἐπελήκεον, an imperf. from “ἐπιληκέω”, the present in “ω” formed through “λέληκα” from root “λακ-εῖν”, which Curtius connects with Lat. ‘loqui.’ Here it is rightly interpreted by Schol. T. as “ἐπεκρότουν”, ‘beat time,’ lit. ‘made a noise in accompaniment:’ that the noise was made with the feet is inferred from the words “πολὺς δ᾽ ὑπὸ κόμπος ὀρώρει”.
