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[315] λιλαιόμενόν περ. This passage shows that “περ” is not always used in the sense of ‘though,’ but keeps its radical meaning, which belongs to it as an enclitic form of “περί”, viz. ‘very much.’ Cp. Il.1. 353; 23.79; Od.8. 187, where the use is distinctly intensive, as here. ‘Usually, however, περ implies a sense of opposition; i. e. it emphasises something as true in spite of a preceding assertion as “ἀχνύμενός περ”, however much vexed, “πολέες περ ἐόντες”, many as they are; “τά τε στυγέουσι θεοί περ” which even the gods (gods though they are) dread.’ Monro, H. G. § 353. And in the combination “καί περ” (generally separated in Homer, as Od.4. 733; 5.73; 10.441; 14. 155; but written together, Od.7. 224), the enclitic serves to intensify the concessive force of “καί”= ‘even,’ ‘even though.’ In “ἐπειγόμενός περ”, sup. 309, we have an instance of the secondary meaning. Compare the use of the Latin quamvis.

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

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