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[183] ἀεσίφρων, also 23.603, Od. 21.302, Hes. Opp. 335, and “ἀεσιφροσύνη” Od. 15.470, Hes. Th. 502.The word has generally been referred, since Buttmann, to “ἀάω”, from Od. 21.302 where “φρεσὶν ἀασθείς” and “ἀεσίφρονι θυμῶι” occur together. It should then be “ἀασίφρων”, which is given in Lex. 2. 7.Buttmann explains “ε” for “α” as an analogical formation due to forms like “ἀλφεσίβοιος, ταμεσίχροος, φαεσίμβροτος”. But here the derivation hardly suits the sense, as “φρεσὶν ἀασθείς” should imply a definite ‘blinding’ of the mind, hardly a state of incapacity, which the context requires. It is therefore quite possible that the old derivation from “ἄημι” may be right, cf. 21.386 “δίχα δέ σφιν ἐνὶ φρεσὶ θυμὸς ἄητο”, and “φρένες ἠερέθονται” 3.108. The word will then mean ‘blown about,’ ‘volatile,’ in mind, weakened in will by old age. (The weak stem “ἀ-Ϝε”-, root vē, is not elsewhere found, but must have existed, G. Meyer Gr. § 34. 1.)

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

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