previous next

[329] μέθεπε with a double accus. only here; in 16.724 we have “Πατρόκλωι ἔφεπε κρατ. ἵππους”. The word “ἕπειν”, from its primary sense ‘handle,’ came to imply ‘handling’ or managing a team of horses, and hence = drive. But it is not necessary to follow von Christ in reading “μέθ᾽ ἕπε”: the constr. ‘drove the horses after T.’ may be justified by such common constructions as “μετιέναι τινα” and the like, combined with the constr. of 8.126 “ἡνίοχον μέθεπε θρασύν”, ‘drove in quest of a charioteer,’ where the direct object “ἵππους” is omitted in Greek as in English. Compare also “ἵππους ὑπάγειν ζυγόν” 16.148. It must, however, be admitted that “Τυδεΐδηι” would be a more usual constr. The reading of Zen. (v. supra) is not to be commended, as it introduces the short form of the dat. pl. “ἵπποις” for “ἵπποισι”.

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

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (3 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (3):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: