previous next

[433] ἔχον is used intransitively in the first clause (as 5.492, 10.264, etc.), and hence “ἔχει” must be understood transitively in the second, by a sort of zeugma, ‘they held on, as a woman holds the scales.’ ἀληθής seems to be used here in the primitive sense, ‘not forgetting,’ i.e. careful, anxious about her task. The adjective elsewhere is only used of spoken words. To make it here = honest, ‘conscientious,’ is to introduce an entirely un-Homeric conception. The woman weighs the wool not out of motives of conscientiousness, but in order to make sure that by giving full weight she will earn her pay. The variant “ἀλῆτις”, beggar-woman (fem. of the Odyssean “ἀλήτης”, vagabond), is harsh after χερνῆτις (which is apparently from “χείρ”, a handworker), and does not suit the picture. Though it is given in Apoll. Lex., the explanation there appended only suits “ἀληθής” (“οἷον δικαία παραλαμβάνειν τὸν σταθμὸν καὶ παραδιδόναι”).

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

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (2 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (2):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: