[1138] The fact that L has χειμῶνα without notice of a variant, while some other MSS. notice it as a variant on their χειμῶνι, is in favour of the accus., the harder reading. It may be rendered “for the winter,” since it involves the notion of the time during which the flock was to remain in the ἔπαυλα. It is, however, one of those temporal accusatives which are almost adverbial, the idea of duration being merged in that of season, so that they can even be used concurrently with a temporal genitive: Hdt. 3.117 “τὸν μὲν γὰρ χειμῶνα ὕει σφι ὁ θεός ... τοῦ δὲ θέρεος σπείροντες ... χρηΐσκοντο τῷ ὕδατι.” 2.95 τῆς μὲν ἡμέρης ἰχθῦς ἀγρεύει, τὴν δὲ νύκτα τάδε αὐτῷ χρᾶται. 2.2 τὴν ὥρην ἐπαγινέειν σφι αἶγας, “at the due season.” 7.151 τὸν αὐτὸν τοῦτον χρόνον πέμψαντας ... ἀγγέλους. Cp. above, 1090 τὰν αὔριον πανσέληνον. The tendency to such a use of the accus. may have been an old trait of the popular language （cp. “ἀωρίαν ἥκοντες” Aristoph. Ach. 23, “καιρὸν ἐφήκεις” Soph. Aj. 34）. Modern Greek regularly uses the accus. for the old temporal dat.: e. g. τὴν τρίτην ἡμέραν for τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ. Classical prose would here use the genit.: Thuc. 1.30 “χειμῶνος ἤδη ἀνεχώρησαν.” The division of the year implied is into ἔαρ, θέρος （including ὀπώρα）, and χειμών （including φθινόπωρον）.
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