[8] With an art that has formed a model for succeeding epic poets, Homer takes up the story in the very middle with an exciting incident. What has gone before he allows to come to light gradually. The incidents of the Iliad occupy about seven weeks (forty-nine days) of the tenth year of the siege of Troy (cf. B 134, 295, 296); the first book occupies twenty-one days of this time.
ἄρ, on the different forms of this little word, which, though indicating various shades of feeling, is often untranslatable, see § 49.1. σφωε, enclitic pronoun, third person, accusative dual, § 110. θεῶν, partitive genitive with “τίς.” ξυν-έηκε, the syllabic augment points to the fact that “ἵημι” originally began with a consonant; on the spelling, § 41. μάχεσθαι, syntax, § 212.This text is part of:
Selections from Homer's Iliad, with an introduction, notes, a short Homeric grammar, and a vocabulary. Allen Rogers Benner. New York. Irvington Publishers, Inc. 1903.
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