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[185] καιρίωι, a deadly spot. The sense of “καίριος” is quite clear in H.; it is always used in the phrase (“τὸ”) “καίριον” as here (8.84, 326, 11.439?); but the traditional derivation from “καιρός” appears highly unsatisfactory. In the first place neither “καιρός” nor any other derivative occurs in H.; in the second, a transition from ‘opportune’ to ‘fatal’ seems quite alien from the directness of Homeric language. Indeed even ‘opportunity’ is not the original signification of “καιρός”, for in Hesiod Opp. 694, and Theognis 401, where it makes its first appearance, it means only ‘due proportion,’ in the proverb “καιρὸς δ᾽ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἄριστος”. These two considerations taken together seem to be convincing; for the transition of meaning, though not quite incredible in itself, could be excused only if the word were quite familiar in its primitive use. We need not go far for a more satisfactory etymology. The exact sense required is given by the word “κήρ” (Curt. Et. no. 53, p. 148), ‘Skt. kar to kill, kAras death-blow.’ Homer himself supplies us with the negative adj. in “ἀκήριος” ‘unharmed,’ Od. 12.98, Od. 23.328. Possibly, therefore, we ought in H. to write “κήριον”, not “καίριον”, the word being confused with the adjective “καίριος” = timely only in later Greek. Indeed were it not for a single passage which possibly stands in the way (“οὐ γὰρ ἐς καιρὸν τυπεὶς ἐτύγχανεEur. Andr. 1120), “κήριος” might be written for “καίριος”, I believe, at least in all the tragedians and Pindar, whenever it occurs in the sense ‘deadly.’

πάροιθεν, in temporal sense, before it got so far. Others take it locally, with “ζωστήρ”, ‘the belt, etc., in front of (i.e. protecting) my flesh.’ It does not stand in opposition to “ὑπένερθε”, which is added independently, as in the phrase “πόδες καὶ χεῖρες ὕπερθεν”: this is clear from 215.

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