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[165] The subj. χεύηι after the opt. ἱμείραιτο cannot be satisfactorily explained, as the sending to sleep is contingent upon the “ἱμείρασθαι”, and therefore could not be spoken of with more confidence than its condition, even if we were prepared to admit the use of the subj. after a historic tense into H. at all; see H. G. § 298. It is therefore generally agreed that the opt. must be restored. Thiersch, with a fine disregard of metrical difficulties, conj. “χεύεἰ”, in which he has been followed, strange to say, by Bekker, Bäumlein, and Döderlein. L. Lange is hesitatingly in favour of “χεύαι”, though this form is very rare in H. (see note on 2.4), and, as he himself remarks, is elsewhere found only at the end of a line or before consonants. Possibly we should write “χεύειε βλεφάροισιν”, as the locative use of the dat. is particularly common of parts of the body; or rather “χεύεἰ ἐν βλεφάροισιν”, which is suggested by the variants of Q and Van Herwerden S. conj. “χεῦαι”, to be taken as co-ordinate with “ἐλθεῖν”.

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

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