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[160] κ́ηδεος = “κήδειος”, a family grief; the notion of grief, which prevails in the subst. (see 13.464), is in the adj. developing that of family tie, though always in connexion with mourning. So κηδεμόνες (163) = kindred mourners. For the double form of the adj. cf. “χρύσεος” by “χρύσειος”. But the dropping of the “ι” (after passing into a semi-vowel) is curious where it does not form part of an original diphthong; the primary form being “κηδεσ-ιο-ς”. It is thus subject to the same suspicion as “ὠκέα, βαθέη” (from “ὠκεϝια, βαθεϝιη”). Some, acc. to Herodianos, regarded it as a gen., ‘is a matter of grief,’ but this predicative use of the gen. is Latin rather than Homeric (H. G. § 148). οἵ τ᾽ ἀγοί, sc. “εἰσίν, οἵ” being the rel. Ar. (“καὶ σχεδὸν ἅπαντες”, Did.) understood the letters to stand for “οἱ ταγοί”, but apart from the hardly Homeric use of the article the word “ταγός” does not occur in H., and where it is found in Attic it always has ā. (We have “τα^γοῦχος” however, Aisch. Eum. 296.) The fragment of an additional line in “παπ. λ” has been variously restored; “ἠδ᾽ οἳ κηδεμόνες: σκέδασον δ᾽ ἀπὸ λαὸν ἅπαντα”, or van L.'s “οἱ δ᾽ ἄρα κηδεμόνες σκεδασάντων λαὸν ἅπαντα” will give something like the original, unless 160 ended differently.

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

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  • Commentary references from this page (2):
    • Aeschylus, Eumenides, 296
    • Homer, Iliad, 13.464
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