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[474] τί πάρος λαβρεύεαι, lit. why dost thou brag of old? i.e. why hast thou been always a braggart? This use of “πάρος” alone with the pres. recurs only Od. 8.36 “ὅσοι πάρος εἰσὶν ἄριστοι” (cf. 4.264), but with “τὸ πάρος, πάρος γε” and “πάρος περ” it is of course common enough, to express a state of things lasting to the present time. This gives a perfectly good sense; it is hard to see why commentators take it in the artificial and un-Homeric meaning ‘why dost thou boast before the time,’ i.e. hastily (Död, compares Soph. Trach. 724 “τὴν δ᾽ ἐλπίδ᾽ οὐ χρὴ τῆς τύχης κρίνειν πάρος”). — “λάβρος” (rather “λαβρός” from “λαβ-ερός”, W.-M. Eur. Herc. ii. 65) is used in H. of rushing wind or water (“Ζέφυρος” 2.148, “κῦμα” 15.625, “ποταμὀς .. λάβρος ὕπαιθα ῥέων” 21.271, “οὖρον” Od. 15.293, and “λαβρότατον χέει ὕδωρ” 16.385 are the only other passages). It seems therefore to imply a ‘torrential flow’ of words here (‘reden wie ein Wasserfall’ W.-M. ut supra, showing at the same time that the later use had also another sense, greedy, grasping); “λάβρος στρατός” the chattering herd, Pindar, “Ρ”. ii. 87; O. ii. 86. Schol. A remarks the irony by which Aias accuses Idomeneus of that very fault of boastfulness which was in the end his own ruin, Od. 4.499-510.

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

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