[5] πᾶσι, i.e. all that chose to come: a perfectly natural expression. The reading “δαῖτα” ascribed to Zen. is not mentioned in the scholia, which merely say that he athetized 4-5. The only authority for the statement is Athenaeus (i. p. 12), on whom no reliance can be placed. But the reading is in itself vigorous and poetical. In fact the metaphor is so natural that we cannot even argue with confidence that Aischylos had “δαῖτα” before him when he wrote
: or Eur. Hec. 1077“σφακτὰν κυσί τε φονίαν δαῖτ᾽ ἀνήμερον”, Eur. Ion 505 “πτανοῖς ἐξώρισε θοίναν θηρσί τε φοινίαν δαῖτα” (Soph. is neutral, Aj. 830 “ῥιφθῶ κυσὶν πρόβλητος οἰωνοῖς θ᾽ ἕλωρ” ). In all these cases there is an apparent echo of the present passage, and “δαῖτα” if a real variant is much older than Zen. The argument against it in Athenaeus (often ascribed, though without ground, to Ar.), that H. never uses “δαίς” except of human banquets, is not even based on fact, see 24.43. On the whole “δαῖτα” seems intrinsically a better reading, but we have no right to leave the uniform tradition of the MSS.“ κυσὶν δ᾽ ἔπειθ᾽ ἕλωρα κἀπιχωρίοις
ὄρνισι δεῖπνον οὐκ ἀναίνομαι πελεῖν
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