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[275] μητέρα. This word stands naturally in the accusative, as forming the contrast to “μνηστῆρας”, but the construction thus begun requires to be completed with “ἀπόπεμψον”, as Od.2. 113; or “ἀνωγέτω ἀπονέεσθαι”, as Od.2. 195; instead of which it is made to terminate in a softer expression, involving an anacoluthon. Döderlein proposes to put a period at “γαμέεσθαι”, and to mark off “εἴ οἱ θυμὸς ἐφορμᾶται” between commas: but the regular use of “ἐρορμᾶσθαι” in Homer is with an infinitive, as “ἐμοὶ αὐτῷ θυμὸς ἐφορμᾶται πολεμίζειν” Il.13. 74, cp. Od.4. 713.Besides which, the abrupt commencement ἂψ ἴτω would be most harsh; and the passage given from Il.1. 179“οἴκαδ᾽ ἰὼν σὺν νηυσί τε σῇς καὶ σοῖς ἑτάροισι Μυρμιδόνεσσιν ἄνασσε” seems insufficient to justify such a construction, as there has already been an imperative mood earlier in the sentence. For a similar anacoluthon compare Il.2. 681“νῦν δ᾽ αὖ τοὺς ὅσσοι τὸ Πελασγικὸν Ἄργος ἔναιον . . . τῶν αὖ ἦν ἀρχὸς Ἀχιλλεύς”.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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