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[294] ὡς . . ὥς, compare note on 1.512 and see also 19.16, 20.424. The two latter passages differ from the first and agree with the present in that the parallelism as . . so does not express the meaning, which is clearly ‘no sooner did he see than. ’ In other words “ὡς” is no longer the modal as, but has become the temporal when; and has affected the correlative “ὥς” till we can take it as then — a difference which is expressed by the aor. in the second clause, where 1.513 has the imperf. Though “ὡς” is often temporal, there is no other case of such use of the demonstrative “ὥς”: the use of the word has evidently been accommodated to that of the relative for the effect of the antithesis. Fairclough (C. R. xiv. 395) writes “ὡς . . ὡς” and regards the second as exclamative, when he saw, how he leapt. This is no doubt the way in which Theokritos and Virgil took the phrase (see on 1.512). The exclamative use of “ὡς”, if we deduct the places where it is = “ὅτι οὕτως”, is rare, but undeniable; see 21.273, 21.441, Od. 10.38, Od. 16.364, Od. 18.26, Od. 24.194 (and we should perhaps add the use in wishes and “ὡς ὄφελον”). But the obvious correlation seems to forbid such an explanation here. — For ἔρος, the only Homeric form, see note on 3.442. πυκινάς, firm, i.e. prudent: cf. “πύκα φρονεόντων” 217. It is possible to read “πυκινά” with S, taking it as an adv. with “ἀμφεκάλυψε”, beset closely; but such common phrases as “πυκινὴν ἠρτύνατο βουλήν”, etc. are all in favour of the text.

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

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