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[128] ἠλέ, here only, with “φρένας ἠλεέ” Od. 2.243, “οἶνος ἠλεός” Od. 14.464. The word is evidently connected with “ἄλη, ἠλασκάζειν” (Od. 9.457), “ἠλίθιος”, etc., and there is some evidence for an Aiolic form “ἆλλος” in the same sense (conj. by Bergk in the famous ode of Sappho, fr. 2. 16 “φαίνομαι ἄλλα”, I am as one distraught). Fick therefore writes “ἆλλε” here. It is possible that “ἀλλοφρονέων” may be derived from this, and, as the Et. Mag. (68. 45) suggests, even the familiar use of “ἄλλως” in the sense uselessly; though in that case confusion between the two words must have been very early. Compare “ἀλλοφάσσω”, to be delirious, in Hippokrates, and see Meister Gr. Dial. i. 142. διέφθορας (the perf. only here in H.) is best taken in a pass. sense as in Hippokrates and late writers; in Attic it is always trans. (e.g. Soph. El. 306), and so of course it may be here if, by a slight change of punctuation, we join it with “φρένας”. But then the order of the words is not Homeric. αὔτως, it is for nothing that thou hast ears to hear with. The clause may equally well be taken interrogatively.

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

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