previous next

[152] λειριόεσσαν: so Hes. Theog. 41, and cf. “ὄπα λείριον” Ap. Rhod. iv. 903 ; but it is hard to say how a voice can be ‘lily-like,’ or, to be literal, ‘full of lilies.’ Commentators generally are content to say that the idea of delicacy is transferred from the flower to the sound. The schol. explain “ἐπιθυμητήν, ἡδεῖαν”. The Greeks felt particular pleasure in the voice of the cicada (cf. particularly the charming lines in Scut. Her. 393 ff.), and we can understand the ‘chirruping’ of the old men being compared to it; but that does not bring us nearer to the meaning of the epithet. “λειριόεις” is applied to the skin in 13.830, but the lily is not elsewhere mentioned by H., and appears first in Hymn. Cer. 428. It looks as though some different word of forgotten meaning had been corrupted into a more familiar form; but it is hardly safe to trust to the gloss of Hesych., who explains “λειρός” by “ἰσχνός” (Paley). “λειρίων ὀμμάτων” in Bacchylides (xvii. 95) cannot be said to throw any fresh light on the question. δένδρει, so Zen. The form is well attested in Attic and Herod. vi. 79. “δένδρεον” is certain in 13.437, Od. 4.458; but here the simultaneous synizesis and shortening in the vulg. “δενδρέωι” are intolerable. (In 1.15 “χρυσέωι ἀνὰ σκήπτρωι” we may read either “ἄν” with Lehrs or “σκήπτρωι ἀνὰ χρυσέωι” with Brandreth.) The other Homeric forms, “δένδρεα” and “δενδρέων”, are ambiguous. “δενδρέωι ἑζόμενοι” is possible, but ill attested.

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

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (9 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (9):
    • Bacchylides, Dithyrambs, 17
    • Herodotus, Histories, 6.79
    • Hesiod, Theogony, 41
    • Homer, Iliad, 13.437
    • Homer, Iliad, 13.830
    • Homer, Iliad, 1.15
    • Homer, Odyssey, 4.458
    • Homeric Hymns, Hymn 2 to Demeter, 427
    • Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 4.903
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: