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[31] αἰναρέτα, though very poorly attested, is the correct form of the voc., with the “α^” lengthened by ictus and the pause natural after this case (H. G. § 387). The only analogies to the vulg. “αἰναρέτη” are “Ἀτρεΐδη” and “ὑψαγόρη” (Od. 2.85, Od. 2.303, Od. 17.406 only; we should probably read “ὑψαγόρα”). The variant “αἰναρέτης” as an exclamatory nom. is quite possible (H. G. § 163), and there is something to be said for “αἴν᾽ ἀρετῆς”, which would come to the same thing as the compound, cursed in thy valour. (Brandreth conj. “αἴν̓, ἀρετῆς τίς τ᾽ ἄλλος”, comparing 11.763 “οἶος τῆς ἀρετῆς ἀπονήσεται”.) For the sense we may compare the later compounds “αἰνόπατερ” Aisch. Cho. 315, “αἰνόγαμος, αἰνόλεκτρος, Αἰνόπαρις”, etc., though these do not contain the same oxymoron, which is like that of “δυσαριστοτόκεια” 18.54. “ἐπὶ κακῶι τὴν ἀρετὴν ἔχων”, An., rightly.

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

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