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[179] ἐννέωρος probably means ‘in the ninth season,’ and so ‘nine years old.’ Sometimes however nine seems to be used as a vague or round number; so that the word would mean ‘of full age.’ Plato (Legg. 624) takes it here with ὀαριστής (“τοῦ Μίνω φοιτῶντος πρὸς τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς ἑκάστοτε συνουσίαν δἰ ἐνάτου ἔτους”). It is more natural to join ἐννέωρος βασίλευε, the adjective having an adverbial force: ‘was king’ (i. e. came down from his converse with Zeus and ruled his people) ‘after nine years,’ or, with the vaguer sense, ‘in the fulness of the seasons.’ Some translate ἐννέωρος ‘at nine years old,’ others ‘during nine years.’ The former rendering gives us a marvel of a somewhat pointless kind; the latter is against the usage of adjectives of time (e. g. “δευτεραῖος” ‘on the second day’).

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