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[321] ἕποντα, handling. The simple “ἕπω” occurs only here; the compounds have acquired more or less metaphorical senses, which may nearly all be brought under the cognate ideas of treating or managing. The aor. is, with very few exceptions, only found in “ἐπισπεῖν μόρσιμον ἦμαρ” and similar phrases, where it has the sense of joining, i.e. reaching, an end (cf. French toucher à sa fin), J. P. xiv. 231 ff. Owing to the ordinary view that “ἀμφέπειν περιέπειν” etc., mean ‘to busy one's self about’ a thing, critics have found a needless difficulty in the absence of the preposition here; Bekker has even conjectured “περὶ κάλλιμα” for “περικαλλέα”. Curiously enough, the next line is the only place where the simple “ἁφᾶν” is found, though the compound “ἀμφαφᾶν” is common in Homer, and “ἐπαφᾶν” is Both Attic. verbs are closely connected in sense as in origin; the ‘dandy’ Paris is turning over and admiring his fine armour with the same affection which Odysseus shews to his old bow, Od. 21.393 “τόξον ἐνώμα πάντηι ἀναστρωφῶν”; in Od. 19.586 “τόξον ἀμφαφόωντας” means ‘handling’ the bow with the intention of using it.

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

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