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[195] 195-96 = 18.426-27, Od. 5.89-90. τετελεσμένον, capable of accomplishment. The ideas ‘done’ and ‘doable’ are closely allied, as is seen in the verbal adjectives in -“τος”, which themselves are almost participles (compare “τυκτῆισι βόεσσι” 12.105 with “σάκος τετυγμένον” 14.9); “κτητός” = gainable, “ῥηκτός” = vulnerable, “φυκτά” 16.128, “πιστά” Od. 11.456, “οὐκ ἐξιτόν”, there is no getting out, Hes. Theog. 732(see H. G. § 246 *). Here this pregnant sense has been imported into the participle, so that “τετελεσμένον” = * “τελεστός”, cf. “ἀτέλεστος”, that cannot be accomplished (so van L. Ench. p. 326: ‘participium pro gerundio’ Brandreth). The phrase is commonly explained to mean ‘if it is a thing that has been accomplished and therefore may be done again,’ which is not satisfactory. Others take it to mean ‘if it is a thing already accomplished in the designs of fate,’ i.e. destined to be done. But such fatalism is not Homeric either in expression or thought.

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

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