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[451] τοῖον is best taken as an adjective, as in “ἀβληχρὸς μάλα τοῖος” (11. 135., 23. 282), and so whenever it follows an adj., as “μέγα τοῖον” (3. 321), “σαρδάνιον μάλα τοῖον” (20. 302). After an adverb it is of course adverbial, as “θαμὰ τοῖον” (1. 209), “σιγῇ τοῖον”, &c. The meaning is not, as usually given, ‘so very —,’ but ‘quite,’ ‘just’: “κερδαλέον δὴ τοῖον” of a child means that it may properly be called “κερδαλέος”. So in the only instance of the phrase in the Iliad, 23. 246 “οὐ μάλα πολλόν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπιεικέα τοῖον”, ‘but just a befitting one.’ Compare the corresponding use of “τόσον” (l. 405 supra): also the common use of “οὕτω” after an adv. with the sense of ‘quite,’ as in “μὰψ οὕτω” ( Il.2. 120), Attic “σαφῶς οὑτωσί”, &c. The modern use of ‘so much’ in the sense of ‘very much’ is not Greek. The supposition that “τοῖος” may have a deictic force (=“τοιόσδε”) is also untenable.

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

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