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[195] ἐφ᾽ ὑμείων, as 19.255ἐπ᾽ αὐτόφιν εἵατο σιγῆι”. The idea seems to be, ‘Do not let the Trojans hear your words, lest they may endeavour to counteract your petitions by prayers of their own’; this he immediately revokes by the καί in 196, virtually = nay. There was a widely-spread primitive idea that every local or national god could be approached only by a particular form of words, which was therefore carefully concealed from an enemy. Thus the title by which the god of Rome was to be addressed was concealed, as a state secret of the highest importance. So the real pronunciation of Y-h-v-h was kept secret by the Jews, Jehovah being only a conventional form for reading with the vowels of Adonai. It is said that the direction in the Prayer Book to read the Lord's Prayer ‘with a loud voice’ goes back to a period when this too was superstitiously regarded as a magical formula to be repeated silently, lest the enemies of Christianity might find it out. 195-9 were athetized by Zenod., Aristophanes, and Ar. on the ground that ‘they are not consistent with the character of Aias, and that he raises objections to himself (“ἀνθυποφέρει ἑαυτῶι”) absurdly’; a judgment which does not commend itself. It is certainly not inconsistent that a hero, after recommending a conventional precaution, should correct himself, and say that he has no need of such devices. (See, however, Wilamowitz H. U. p. 244.)

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