previous next

[315] The other passages which bear upon this line are Od. 5.290 “ἀλλ᾽ ἔτι μέν μίν φημι ἅδην ἐλάαν κακότητος,” 19.423 “οὐ λήξω πρὶν Τρῶας ἅδην ἐλάσαι πολέμοιο”. It seems clear therefore that πολέμοιο here goes with ἅδην ἐλόωσι, not as might appear at first sight with ἐσσύμενον; although in Od. 4.733 “καὶ ἐσσύμενός περ ὁδοῖο” the part. evidently goes with the gen.; cf. also 11.717 “μάλ᾽ ἐσσυμένους πολεμίζειν”, and Od. 4.416. Against these must be set a large majority of cases where “ἐσσύμενος” is used absolutely (e.g. 787), so that we need not hesitate to assume the same use here. For a similar ambiguity compare 24.404 “ἴσχειν ἐσσυμένους πολέμου,” 13.630 “σχήσεσθε καὶ ἐσσύμενοί περ Ἄρηος”. Nikanor gives both alternatives, “ἤτοι συναπτέον ἐσσύμενον πολέμοιο, ἀντὶ τοῦ ὡρμημένον εἰς τὸν πόλεμον, ἢ τὸ ἑξῆς ἐστὶν ἐλόωσι πολέμοιο, καθὸ διασταλήσεται” (“διαστολή” is a slight division, less than a stop, to shew that two words are not taken together) “βραχὺ τὸ ἐσσύμενον ἀπὸ τοῦ πολέμοιο”. Ar. rightly declared for the latter alternative, as appears from An., “ἔστι δὲ τὸ ἄδην ἐλόωσιν ἀντὶ τοῦ κορεσθῆναι αὐτὸν ποιήσουσι τοῦ πολέμου καίπερ προθυμίαν ἔχοντα”: while Zen. read “πολεμίζειν”, which must be taken with “ἐσσύμενον”. There is more difficulty on the phrase “ἅδην ἐλάαν” itself. Didymos remarks upon it “κατ᾽ ἔνια τῶν ὑπομνημάτων “οἵ μιν ἄδην ἑάσουσιν” ὅ ἐστι κορέσουσιν: καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ποσειδῶνος” (sc. Od. 5.290) ““ἀλλ᾽ ἔτι μέν μίν φημι ἄδην ἐλάαν κακότητος” διὰ τῶν δύο αα παρέκειτο “ἑάαν.”” For this verb “ἑάαν” to sate there is no other evidence (see on 19.402), nor are we justified in adopting it, as it is not linguistically explicable nor can we estimate the authority on which Ar. was inclined to read it. Indeed the mention of the “ὑπομνήματα”, which seem to have been mere notes, not deliberately published opinions, makes it probable that the verb was no more than a conjectural suggestion based on a wrong interpretation of “ἕωμεν” in 19.402. “ἄσουσι” would, however, be defensible. Schol. T gives yet another variant, “οἱ δὲ ἀάσωσι διὰ τὸ ἄσην ἐμποιεῖν”, but this may be a mere error for “ἑάσουσι”, and has in any case no advantage over it. We must then accept and explain the text as it stands. The question arises whether “πολέμοιο” is a gen. after “ἅδην” or not. Some have taken it as a local gen., ‘to chase him to his heart's content through the battle.’ But this local use of the gen. is very limited (see H. G. § 149), and is nowhere else used except with words which have a purely local sense (“πεδίοιο”, etc.). It would seem then that we must take it as a gen. after “ἅδην”. But here again Homeric analogies fail us. “ἅδην” occurs, beyond the phrases already quoted, only in 5.203 in H.; and the similar “ἅλις” never takes a gen. (see on 21.319), common though the construction is in later Greek. On the other hand, it would seem that the consciousness of “ἅδην” as originally an accus. can never have been quite lost, cf. “ἄδην εἶχον κτείνοντες” Herod.ix. 39, “ἄδην ἔλειξεν αἵματος” Aesch. Agam. 828.It is therefore best to admit this use here, and regard “ἅδην” as a substantival adverb ‘governing’ “πολέμοιο”, ‘in a way to sate him with war.’ Some have even proposed to take it as a real substantive, the acc. expressing the terminus ad quem , ‘drive him into satiety of war,’ for which Heyne well compares Tyrtaios, 11. 10 “ὦ νέοι, ἀμφοτέρων δ᾽ ἐς κόρον ἠλάσατε”. But this use of the acc. in H. is not sufficiently elastic for such a conclusion (cf. H. G. § 140. 4, note). It seems impossible to attain a completely satisfactory explanation of the phrase; and the variation of reading quoted from Ar. may possibly indicate that “ἐλάσαι” represents some lost verb which we cannot now discover. With respect to the breathing, “ἄδην” or “ἅδην”, it may be remarked that the best MSS. give the former with very few exceptions. Ar. however preferred the rough breathing, which is the more correct if, as seems probable, the root of the word is sa, to sate.

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 (11 total)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: