[198] ἀμφιβεβήκει, ‘used to protect,’ cp. Il.1. 37“ὃς Χρύσην ἀμφιβέβηκας”. It is not necessary to force ἀμφιβεβήκει here into the sense of a present tense, or to read, with Nitzsch, “ἀμφιβέβηκε”. The tense refers back to the time before the destruction of Ismarus. For as a god could not resist the “ἀνάγκη” of fate, he would desert a city when the sentence of its doom had gone forth. Cp. S. c. T. 218 “ἀλλ᾽ οὖν θεοὺς”
“τοὺς τῆς ἁλούσης πόλιος ἐκλείπειν λόγος”. See also Virg. Aen.2. 351; Hist. 5. 13‘Apertae delubri fores et audita maior humana vox excedere deos.’ Plin. N. H. 28. 2. 4 “‘In oppugnationibus ante omnia solitum a Romanis sacerdotibus evocari deum cuius in tutela id oppidum esset.’” The notion of protection in “ἀμφιβαίνειν” comes through that of ‘walking round it,’ ‘patrolling,’ etc.; especially of a hero protecting a corpse or a wounded friend on the battle-field. In this sense it is commonly used with a personal dative, as Il.17. 4“ἀμφὶ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ αὐτῷ βαῖν̓, ὥς τις περὶ πόρτακι μήτηρ”“πρωτοτόκος κινυρή”, cp. Il.5. 299; 14.477; 17.359. In the same sense we have the substantive “ἀμφίβασις” Il.5. 623, and “περιβαίνειν” ib. 21 etc. The latter word is a good illustration of περισχόμεθα in the next line, which means literally, ‘hold ourselves round,’ used with a personal genitive in Il.1. 393“ἀλλὰ σὺ, εἰ δύνασαί γε, περίσχεο παιδὸς ἑῆος”.
