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ἀγαθῶν -- τέτυκται is either from a lost line of Homer, or from some other poet (as Schneider inclines to think): note οὔτ᾽ ἄλλου ποιητοῦ just above. There can hardly be any reference to Il. IV 84 Ζεύς, ὅς τ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ταμίης πολέμοιο τέτυκται, as Howes imagines (l. c. p. 196). The sentiment is common: cf. e.g. Hes. O. D. 669 and Pind. Isthm. IV 52, 53 Ζεὺς τά τε καὶ τὰ νέμει, Ζεὺς πάντων κύριος.

σπονδῶν σύγχυσιν. Il. IV 69 ff.

θεῶν ἔριν τε καὶ κρίσιν. This is usually explained as referring to the Theomachy (Il. XX 1—74), which was caused by Zeus and Themis in the sense that Zeus sent Themis to summon the gods to the council at which it was sanctioned (v. 4). But (1) Themis' part in causing the Theomachy is very small, (2) the simplest and most natural meaning of κρίσις is not ‘contention,’ but ‘judgment’ or ‘decision,’ and (3) the Theomachy in Homer is not productive of evil to men, but only to the gods themselves: its citation here would therefore be quite irrelevant. W. R. Hardie (in Cl. Rev. IV p. 182) is, I believe, right in supposing that the strife of the goddesses three and Paris' judgment is meant. ἔρις and κρίσις are regularly thus used: e.g. Eur. I. A. 1307 κρίσινστυγνὰν ἔριν τε καλλονᾶς; cf. ib. 581, Hel. 708, Troad. 924. Hec. 644 f. Κρίσις was the name of Sophocles' play on the judgment of Paris (Fr. 330). The poem referred to by Plato is the Cypria (so also Wilamowitz Hom. Unters. p. 367 note 46), which traced the war of Troy to the judgment of Paris, and that to Zeus' deliberations with Themis (Ζεὺς βουλεύεται μετὰ τῆς Θέμιδος περὶ τοῦ Τρωικοῦ πολέμου Kinkel Epic. Graec. Fr. p. 17. Θέμιδος is Heyne's emendation for Θέτιδος: but it is scarcely open to doubt: for the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, at which the three goddesses quarrelled, was an episode of the poem, and Thetis could hardly therefore have been privy to the plot. See Kinkel l. c. pp. 20, 22 and Jebb's Homer p. 153). Themis was Zeus' ἀρχαία ἄλοχος (Pind. Fr. 30 Bergk), and still appears as one of the Olympians in Il. XV 87. The Cypria is quoted again by Plato in Euthyph. 12 A. We may fairly suppose that θεῶν ἔρις τε καὶ κρίσις was the heading of one of the introductory episodes in the poem: to this also the omission of the article with ἔριν τε καὶ κρίσιν seems to point. Mr Hardie thinks Plato may have attributed the poem to Homer; but Euthyph. l. c. ( ποιητὴς ποιήσας) does not favour this view.

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  • Commentary references from this page (2):
    • Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis, 1307
    • Plato, Euthyphro, 12a
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