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[773] σῶς is the form given by all MSS. and approved by Ar., probably because it begins the line in 22.332, q.v. On the other hand, in the acc. the form “σόον” has everywhere MS. authority on its side, though here too Ar. sometimes read “σῶν” (see on 1.117). But in 16.252 he varied between “σόον” and “σάον”. Of all these forms “σάος” is probably the oldest (cf. “σαώτερος” 1.32 and note on 9.424). The phrase recurs in Od. 5.305, Od. 22.28; it is evidently an oxymoron, ‘one thing is safe for you — sheer destruction.’ The idiom by which safe = certain is very familiar in our colloquial language.

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

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