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[412] Aigialeia, wife of Diomedes, was the youngest daughter of Adrestos, and aunt of her husband; for Tydeus had married her elder sister Deipyle, see 14.121. So in 11.226 Iphidamas is married to his maternal aunt. This seems to shew that relationship through the mother alone ceased to be recognized in Greece at an early date; though Mr. M'Lennan thought that traces of it existed till historic times, and that the change to the recognition of paternal kinship is recorded in the trial scene in the Eumenides. If this be the case, it must have been a peculiar instance of survival in Attica. It may be said generally that in Homer the idea of kinship is almost the same as our own, though relationship through the mother is not quite so close as with us. δήν must go with γοόωσα, with long lament; but this is not very appropriate. Perhaps the original reading was “δή ϝ᾽”, lamenting him. For the feminine patronymic Ἀδρηστίνη cf. 9.557 “Εὐηνίνη,” 14.319 “Ἀκρισιώνη”.

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

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