[502] 502-12. This remarkable passage is unique in Homer, where there is no other equally clear case of an allegory. 19.91-4 is the most similar; see note there. Some would prefer to look on the “λιταί” here not as allegory, but as personification; the primitive mind is always in the habit of regarding all forces, moral as well as intellectual, as sentient and active persons. This is undoubtedly the case with “Ἄτη”, who is personified in 19.91, 126, and elsewhere; and even with “ἔπεα πτερόεντα”, which are conceived as winged beings flying like birds from man to man. But in the present case personification has passed into conscious allegory; at least the epithets in 503 seem to be susceptible of no other explanation. Compare the oracle in Herod.vi. 86 “ὅρκου πάϊς ἐστίν, ἀνώνυμος, οὐδ᾽ ἔπι χεῖρες”
“οὐδὲ πόδες: κραιπνὸς δὲ μετέρχεται, εἰς ὅ κε πᾶσαν”“συμμάρψας ὀλέσηι γενεὴν καὶ οἶκον ἅπαντα”. The passage falls into two parts. 502-7 give the position of the offender; he is surprised by the sudden coming of “ἄτη”, who makes him sin; sin is followed by the “λιταί”, who in this connexion virtually mean penitence, prayers for forgiveness. 508-12 refer to the person injured, and the responsibility thrown upon him by his enemy's request for pardon. If he hearkens to the suppliant, the ‘quality of mercy blesseth him that gives’; if he denies roughly, the prayers refused become a curse to him.
The “τε” is gnomic, as so often, Διὸς κοῦραι, because Zeus is the god of suppliants, and to forgive is divine; and also, perhaps, to explain their power over the other gods (497-501).
