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[898] The variant “ἦσθας” is probably a mere fiction to avoid hiatus, formed on the analogy of the common term. “-ας” of the 2nd sing. (H. G. § 5). The two last words of the line apparently mean ‘lower than the sons of Uranos,’ i.e. the Titanes imprisoned in Tartaros, as in 15.225 “οἵ περ ἐνέρτεροί εἰσι θεοί, Κρόνον ἀμφὶς ἐόντες”. This, however, is quite unlike the Homeric use of the word “Οὐρανίωνες”, and may be another mark of later date; the Titan myths, like those relating to Kronos, seem only to have become part of the acknowledged belief of the Greek nation at large in postHomeric times. If we take “Οὐρανίωνες” in its usual sense, we must either translate lower than the heavenly gods, or accept Zen.'s reading “ἐνέρτατος”, lowest of the heavenly gods; either of which interpretations makes the passage intolerably weak. For the threat itself compare 8.13-16; and for the Titanes 8.479, 14.279, Hesiod Theog. 720.The form “ἐνέρτερος” for the later “νέρτερος” (cf. “ἔνερθε” by “νέρθε”) occurs only here and 15.225, and in Aisch. Cho. 286.

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

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