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[422] ἔστε imper.; we can equally read “ἐστέ” [indic.], and the choice is not easy. The latter gives a tone of bitter sarcasm well suited to the passage, ‘now ye are swift’ (viz. when running away); the point depending on the fact that “θοός” when used of men is properly a word of praise, ‘keen in attack’; its use of flying, or at least reluctant, warriors is therefore a strong oxymoron. It is, however, perhaps better to accept the simple and straightforward imper. ‘now be swift to fight’; γάρ in the next line has a more natural connexion if it expresses a continuation, not an opposition, to what immediately precedes.

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

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