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[407] ζωάγρια, the price of my life, cf. Od. 8.462 (Nausikaa to Odysseus) “μνήσηι ἐμεἶ, ὅτι μοι πρώτηι ζωάγρι᾽ ὀφέλλεις”. The word (which is used in these two passages only in H.) evidently signified in the first instance the price paid to a warrior who took a prisoner alive instead of slaying him, see 6.46 “ζώγρει, Ἀτρέος υἱέ, σὺ δ᾽ ἄξια δέξαι ἄποινα”. The use in these two places is clearly a playful extension of the word, but fixed the sense for later Greek; cf. Herod.iii. 36, and the meaning ‘offerings to the gods for recovery from sickness’ in Anthol., etc. Θέτι, Nauck “θεᾶι”, the contracted -“ι_” for -“ιι” being doubtful. Acc. to van L. (Ench. p. 224) the only other places where this -“ι” cannot be thus resolved are 6.335, 17.661, 23.891, 24.141, 706, and five in Brugmann Od. however (Gr. ii. p. 602) regards the -“ι_” as the primitive instrumental -i, used from early times as a dative.

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

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