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[736] ἅζετο is the MS. reading, with one exception; “χάζετο”, which most edd. adopt, is doubtless only a conjectural emendation, and has not even the merit of giving good sense; after three lines and a half have been describing Patroklos' vigorous attack it will not do to say that ‘he did not long yield before his foe.’ Nothing is explained by a reference to the equally obscure 11.539 “μίνυνθα δὲ χάζετο δουρός” (q.v.); and we must either accept the MS. reading or find some better emendation than this. So far as sense is concerned, we have no need to go beyond the ordinary sense of “ἅζομαι”, to fear (the gods), to have a scruple (with infin., 6.267, or “μή,” 14.261). The only difficulty is the gen. in place of the acc., and this is explicable, because ‘his foe’ is not the direct object of the verb; the sense is not ‘he did not long dread his foe,’ but he was not long in awe for his foe. “ἅζομαι” is used solely of terror or reverence of a religious nature (except perhaps Od. 17.401; cf. “ἅγιος, ἁγνός”); the word therefore here refers to the divine panic inspired by Apollo; the supernatural awe thus due to Hector has no long hold of Patroklos, and does not make him hesitate in his onslaught. The use of the gen. may be compared to that with “οἶδα” when meaning ‘to know about ’ (see 11.657), and with the double constr. of “μέμνηυαι” (H. G. § 151 d); or it may be ablatival, had no awe (to keep him) from his foe, as with “λείπεσθαι, διώκεσθαι”.

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

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