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[548] The reading of the text is that of all MSS., so far as is known. It is true that Hoffmann quotes A C, and La R. A only, for “κῆρας” instead of “χεῖρας”; but the facsimile shews that this can only be due to some strange hallucination. A, like the rest, has “χεῖρας”, as is correctly printed by Villoison. As “κῆρας” is found as early as Eust., MS. support may yet be discovered for it; but this will not alter the fact that “χεῖρας” is the only authentic reading. “κῆρες θανάτοιο” is not an uncommon phrase in H., and in view of the similarity of sound we might expect to find it sporadically here as the result of mere error. Its absence is thus the more significant. We must, therefore, accept the bold personification of ‘the heavy hands of Death,’ which after all hardly goes beyond “Ὕπνωι κασιγνήτωι Θανάτοιο” in 14.231. This line and the MS. reading of 1.97, “λοιμοῖο βαρείας χεῖρας ἀφέξει”, mutually support one another, and the reading “Δαναοῖσιν ἀεικέα λοιγὸν ἀπώσει” should be rejected. (For the personification of “λοιμός” in later poetry cf. Soph. O. T. 27 “ὁ πυρρόρος θεὸς . . . λοιμὸς ἔχθιστος” and Amorg. Simon. fr. 7. 101 “οὐδ᾽ αἶψα λοιμὸν οἰκίης ἀπώσεται, ἐχθρὸν συνοικητῆρα, δυσμενέα θεόν”). It is noteworthy, however, that the metaphorical uses of “χείρ” are curiously rare in H.; Od. 20.267 “ὑμεῖς δὲ μνηστῆρες ἐπίσχετε θυμὸν ἐνιπῆς καὶ χειρῶν” is looseness of expression rather than metaphor. Even “ἐπιχειρεῖν” and “ὑποχείριος” appear only in the most literal sense.

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

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hide References (4 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (4):
    • Homer, Iliad, 14.231
    • Homer, Iliad, 1.97
    • Homer, Odyssey, 20.267
    • Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus, 27
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