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[142] It is doubtful whether there should be a note of interrogation, or only a comma, after ἀμβροσίην. In the former case we must understand ‘is it because so great need has come?’ or else we must read “ὅ τι”, and take it to be an indirect, virtually equivalent to a direct, question, owing to an ellipse of the words ‘tell me,’ which is not possible. So Schol. A “ἀντὶ τοῦ “τί δὴ χρειὼ τόσον ἵκει”,” comparing Od. 1.171 “ὁπποίης τ᾽ ἐπὶ νηὸς ἀφίκεο”, where, however, “κατάλεξον” has preceded at an interval of only one line. If we put a comma after “ἀμβροσίην” we may assume a curious inversion of expression, instead of ‘what need has come on you that you wander ’; but this (La Roche's) explanation is very harsh. It is better to read “ὅ τι” and explain it as an accusative of relation, ‘on what account do you thus wander, in respect of which need has so much come?’ So Monro, comparing 4.32 “τί .. τόσσα κακὰ ῥέζουσιν, ὅ τ᾽ ἀσπερχὲς μενεαίνεις”; Our choice seems to lie between the first and the last of these alternatives. For ἀμβροσίη as an epithet of night see 2.19.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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