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[224] 224-6. The recurrence of τε six times in these three lines is remarkable; it seems to be an instance of the primitive use in which it was simply a mark that the two clauses in which “τε .. τε” occur are correlative; from this the use as a conjunction strictly speaking has been developed. Thus εἴ περ, the condition, is correlative to the apodosis which is stated paratactically by ἀλλά, while in the other two clauses containing “τε .. τε” the co-ordination in pairs is obvious. The connexion of this use with the gnomic “τε” (almost = “τοι”) is not clear; the two are possibly quite distinct. The gnomic “τε” would of course be in place in such a sentence as the present, but it is not used in pairs. ἐρχομένω, a nom. pendens, like 3.211 “ἄμφω δ᾽ ἑζομένω, γεραρώτερος ἦεν Ὀδυσσεύς”: or we might perhaps more properly call it a sort of ‘distributive apposition’ not completely expressed; compare 12.400. The old vulgate “ἐρχομένων”, evidently a correction, is found only in one or two inferior MSS. πρὸ ὁ τοῦ: for this order of words cf. 5.219 “ἐπὶ νὼ τῶιδ᾽ ἀνδρί”. The meaning is of course that sometimes one, sometimes the other, is quickest to mark. Brandreth conj. “πρός” for “πρό”.

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

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