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[418] The Erinyes elsewhere have purely moral functions. They seem here to have developed almost into an abstraction of the law which orders the universe, physical as well as moral (see note on 9.454). This however is obviously a very refined conception; we are not surprised to meet it in Herakleitos (“ἥλιος γὰρ οὐχ ὑπερβήσεται μέτρα, φησὶν ὁ Ἡράκλειτος: εἰ δὲ μή, Ἐρινύες μιν Δίκης ἐπίκουροι ἐξευρήσουσιν”, de Exil. 11, p. 604 A), but it cannot belong to the early Epic age. The explanation of Schol. A “πάντα τὰ παράλογα καὶ τεράστια δοκεῖ ὑπὸ Ἐρινύων γίνεσθαι”, only shews that he fully felt the difficulty. This line could be more easily dispensed with than 407. (Compare Aen. iii. 379 “prohibent nam caetera Parcae Scire Helenum farique vetat Saturnia Iuno” , where the Parcae are intelligible enough.) ἔσχεθον is here best taken as an aor.; 13.163.

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

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