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[235] πέπονες: this word is found in H. only in the voc. It is generally a polite address, sometimes with a shade of remonstrance, such as is often expressed in our ‘My good sir!’ It is always found in the sing. except here and 13.120, and in these two passages only it has a distinctly contemptuous meaning, ‘weaklings.’ ἐλέγχεα, an abstract noun used as a concrete. Monro (H. G. § 116) compares “ὁμηλικίη” = “ὁμῆλιξOd. 22.209, “δῆμον ἐόντα”, one of the common sort, 12.213. It should be substituted for “ἐλεγχέες” in 4.242, q.v. So “τὰ δ᾽ ἐλέγχεα πάντα λέλειπται24.260. Ἀχαιίδες, οὐκέτ᾽ Ἀχαιοί = 7.96, imit. by Virgil, Aen. ix. 617o vere Phrygiae, neque enim Phryges.” Thersites evidently regards the suggestion of a return to Greece as entirely his own; after his attack on Agamemnon it would be absurd to conclude with a proposal to do just what the king has himself ordered.

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