previous next

[222] ἐπὴν μιγείη. See on Od. 2.105. The optative here is assimilated to the mood of καταβρόξειεν. Bekker alters here and elsewhere to “ἐπεί”. Nitzsch supports “ἐπήν” on the ground that we have here not merely a point of time suggested, but an actual hypothesis stated. So Eustath., “οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἁπλῶς νηπενθὲς εἰ μὴ καὶ κρητῆρι μιγείη”. Or, we may say that the adverb and mood express the repetition of an action in past time. Elsewhere, “ἐπήν” appears with the optative in oratio obliqua, where in oratio recta “ἐπήν” with the subjunctive would have stood. Cp. Il.19. 208; 24.227.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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 (2 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (2):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: