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[241] οὔνεσθε, the reading of the vulgate, is obviously corrupt. So far as the sense goes it may come either from “ὀνίνημι” or “ὄνομαι”. If we refer it to the former the line will mean Are ye the gainers that grief has come upon me; if to the latter Do ye make light of it, that, etc. (Note that “ὄνομαι” always means scorn, treat with contempt, not blame as traditionally explained.) Both are possible, but the former is more vigorous and Homeric. To explain the form we must go with Fick to the old alphabet, and suppose that “ΟΝΕΣΘΕ”, taken to be “οὔνεσθε”, really stood for “ὤνησθε”, the correct aor. form; cf. “ἀπ-όνη-το, ὄνη-σο, ὀνή-μενος”. This seems satisfactory. Ar. however took the other course and read “ὀνόσασθε”, the regular aor. of “ὄνομαι”. In favour of this are Od. 17.378 “ἦ ὄνοσαι ὅτι τοι βίοτον κατέδουσιν”, an unmistakably related passage; Od. 21.427 “οὐχ ὤς με μνηστῆρες ἀτιμάζοντες ὄνονται,” 14.95, 17.25 “ἧς ἥβης ἀπόνηθ᾽ ὅτε μ᾽ ὤνατο”, where the two verbs are brought together (see note there). Decision between the two is extremely difficult. On the whole, however, it must be admitted that Ar.'s reading looks like a conjecture; it is very unlikely that “ὀνόσασθε” would have been corrupted to “οὔνεσθε”, and an explanation on other known grounds deserves the preference. “οὐκ ἴσθ᾽” is obviously another ingenious conj. open to the same objections.

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

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