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[38] This line contains the only two cases in H. of the 3rd pl. opt. in -“αιεν” instead of -“ειαν”, see Curtius Vb. ii. 268, G. Meyer Gr. § 587. But “κτερίσειαν” is implied as a variant by Did., “οὕτως διὰ τοῦ α ἡ παραλήγουσα, κτερίσαιεν”, and Schol. T remarks that it is “Ὁμηρικώτερον”. Ar. probably read “τίσαιεν” in 1.42. An.says “ὅτι οὐ μόνον οἱ ἐπὶ ξένης τελευτῶντες ἐκαίοντο ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ ἐπὶ τῆς ἰδίας πατρίδος”. It had evidently been proposed to explain by the emergencies of war the difference between heroic and historical funeral rites. The phrase κτέρεα κτερίσαι or “κτερεΐξαι” is elsewhere purely Odyssean. “κτέρας” occurs twice (10.216, 24.235) in the sense of a special possession. The plural, except in this phrase, is found only in Od. 5.311 “τῶ κ᾽ ἔλαχον κτερέων”, evidently = funeral rites. The link between the two is no doubt to be found in the custom of laying the dead man's favourite possessions in his grave, or burning them on his pyre. “κτέρεα” thus passed from the sense of possessions to that of funeral rites, and thus generated the verbs “κτερίζω” (11.455 etc.) = give a funeral, and “κτερεΐζειν”, which occurs mainly in the figura etymologica (also 23.646, 24.657).

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

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