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[462] Compare 5.334 with note. The two forms ῥέα and ῥεῖα are here as in Hesiod Opp. 5-6 brought into close connexion. The former occurs ten times in H. (Il. only), the latter 38. Their etymology is doubtful, but to judge from Greek analogy neither can be right. The root-vowel is clearly “α_”, Ion. “η”, cf. “ῥη-ΐδιο-ς, ῥη-ΐτερο-ς”, Att. “ῥάιων, ῥᾶιστος”. This points to Ionic “ῥῆ-ιο-ς”, with adverbial neuter “ῥῆ-ια”, in the old alphabet “ΠΕΙΑ”, wrongly transliterated “ῥεῖα. ῥέα” is perhaps “ῥᾶ” (which can always be substituted) from an older “ῥᾶ-α” with -“α” like “ἄρ-α, μάλ-α” etc.; cf. Alkman fr. 42 (from Apoll. Dysk.) “τίς δ᾽ ἄν, τίς ποκα ῥᾶ ἄλλω νόον ἀνδρὸς ἐπίσποι”; Strabo (p. 364) quotes Soph. and Ion for the same form. The grammarians also give “βρᾶ” and “βράιδιος” as Aiolic forms, which would point to an original root “ϝρα_”-. Of this there may possibly be a reminiscence in the lengthening of a preceding vowel in 8.179, 20.101; but a short vowel stands before “ῥεῖα” in 17.70, 22.23, “ῥηΐτεροι” (-“τατα”) in 18.258, Od. 19.577, Od. 21.75. Other occurrences of the word prove nothing (Knös Dig. p. 298). P. Knight reads “ῥεῖα μὲν ἄρ” in 461.

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

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