Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges

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[*] 76. Aphaeresis (ἀφᾳίρεσις taking away) is the elision of ε at the beginning of a word after a word ending in a long vowel or diphthong. This occurs only in poetry, and chiefly after μή not, ἤ or. Thus, μὴ ᾿ νταῦθα, ἢ ᾿ μέ, παρέξω ᾿ μαυτόν, αὐτὴ ᾿ ξῆλθεν. In some texts editors prefer to adopt crasis (62) or synizesis (60). α is rarely elided thus.