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[684] On this passage Eustath. writes, “τινὲς δὲ δύο τελείας ἐννοίας ἐνόησαν: μιὰν μὲν ἐλλειπτικὴν ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ στοίχῳ, ἵνα λέγῃ μὴ μνηστεύσαντες εἶεν καὶ ἑξῆς, ἑτέραν δὲ τὸ ὕστατα δειπνήσειαν. καὶ ἔστι φασὶν ἡ τοῦ πρώτου στίχου ἔλλειψις, συγκεχυμένης καὶ ἀγωνιώσης ψυχῆς”. This seems to give rightly the origin of the construction. The sentence should have begun with a negative wish, ‘O that they had never wooed me, nor had ever given me their company;’ then the positive wish would have followed, ‘may this be their last meal here!’ But Penelope hurries on to the expression of the latter thought, the uppermost in her mind at the moment, so that only this second wish is actually developed; for the words “μὴ . . μηδέ” introduce no optative mood, but serve only to negative the participles. We might write out the two clauses thus, “μὴ ὄφελον” (cp. Il.9. 698) “μὲν μνηστεῦσαι μηδ᾽ ἄλλοθ᾽ ὁμιλῆσαι, νῦν δὲ ὕστατα καὶ πύματα ἐνθάδε δειπνήσειαν”, but when, as here, the clauses are blended together into one positive wish, the sense may be thus represented: ‘Utinam—nec me unquam petentes, neque alioquin congressi—ultimam hic cenam iam nunc comedant.’ Translate, ‘O that—never having wooed me, nor ever having met here—they may now eat their very last meal in this place.’ With ὁμιλήσαντες cp. Od.21. 156.In Od.20. 119; 22. 78 we find “ὕστατα” alone; in Od.20. 166“πύματόν τε καὶ ὕστατον”. It is not certain whether “ἄλλοθ̓” stands for “ἄλλοθι” or “ἄλλοτε”. Nitzsch prefers the latter. Ameis compares “ἐπὴν πόσις ἄλλοθ᾽ ὄληται” Od.14. 130, “ἄλλοθ᾽ ὀλέσθαι” Od.18. 401, “κλαῖε δὲ βουκόλος ἄλλοθ᾽ ἐπεὶ ἴδε” Od.21. 83, which passages show, at any rate, that the “ι” of “ἄλλοθι” is frequently elided. But it does not seem, as Eustath. hints, that “ἄλλοθι” is intended to form a contrast with “ἐνθάδε”.

The passage generally quoted in illustration of these lines is Od.11. 613“μὴ τεχνησάμενος μηδ᾽ ἄλλο τι τεχνήσαιτο”, but the parallel is not very close, for there the main wish is a negative one, naturally introduced by “μή”.

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

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