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[7] ἐπάλυνεν is of course aor. It would seem that we must understand πολύν and ἀθέσφατον to apply also to “νιφετόν”, or else the picture of a snowstorm merely ‘sprinkling’ the fields appears a very insignificant phenomenon compared to those which precede and follow it. ὅτε πέρ τε (a combination recurring only 4.259) should by Homeric analogy bring in some new concomitant circumstance. Here it seems to mean ‘in consequence of which.’ Compare the very different treatment of the snowstorm simile in 12.278 ff. It is hardly necessary to add that the combination of thunder and snow is too strange to serve as a mere subordinate part of a comparison.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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