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[71] 71-3. “ἀθετοῦνται στίχοι γ́, ὅτι ψεῦδος περιέχουσιν: οὐ γὰρ διὰ παντὸς συνδιατρίβει αὐτῶι ἡ Θέτις. τὸ δὲ ἐάσομεν νῦν ἀντὶ τοῦ παρῶμεν, οἷον μηδὲ λέγωμεν: ὅπερ ἀγνοήσαντες οἱ περὶ Ἀντίμαχον ἐποίησαν “κλέψαι μὲν ἀμήχανον”,” An.(and Did.?). The first reason is futile; Thetis, as a goddess who can hear at a distance and come in a moment, may fairly be said always to stand beside her son; the word is similarly used of Aphrodite and Aineias, 4.11. The use of ἐάσομεν with infin. = we will let the stealing be is as ambiguous as the English equivalent; this is hardly a ground for rejection, as the verb is used = let alone with the acc. “ἀλλ᾽ ἦ κεῖνον μὲν ἐάσομεν,” 9.701; “θεὸς τὸ μὲν δώσει τὸ δ᾽ ἐάσει” Od. 14.444. The peculiarity lies not in the meaning of the verb, but in the use of the infin. as direct object, as though it were a substantive in the acc. (for which cf. 1.258), instead of as a complement to an object also expressed. To let be means to permit or to prevent according as the action to which it refers is one which will or will not take place through the inaction of the subject of the verb; the distinction is between the circumstances, not between different meanings in the word itself. More serious objection might be taken to the distance of the verb from its object “Ἕκτορα”, and to the neglect of “Ϝ” of “Ϝοι. ὁμῶς νύκτάς τε καὶ ἦμαρ”, an Odyssean phrase (three times).

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

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