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[206] “ἀγγελίης ἀντὶ τοῦ ἄγγελος”, Ar., a much disputed doctrine. In the present passage we may well take ἀγγ. as governed by “ἕνεκα” (as Od. 16.334 “τῆς αὐτῆς ἕνεκ᾽ ἀγγελίης”) and σεῦ as an objective gen. after it (as Od. 10.245 “ἀγγελίην ἑτάρων ἐρέων” ). So 4.384 “ἀγγελίην ἐπὶ Τυδῆ στεῖλαν Ἀχαιοί” is ambiguous, for “ἐπί” may be taken with the verb (see note there); and 11.140 “Μενέλαον .. ἀγγελίην ἐλθόντα”, with the analogy of “ἐξεσίην ἐλθόντι” 24.235, Od. 21.20 (hence Bentley, followed by van L., read “ἀγγελίην” here). But in 13.252 “ἦέ τευ ἀγγελίης μετ᾽ ἔμ᾽ ἤλυθες,” 15.640 “ὃς Εὐρυσθῆος ἀέθλων ἀγγελίης οἴχνεσκε βίηι Ἡρακληείηι”, we must either make the word a nom. with Ar., or read “ἀγγελίην” with Zenod., or extend the ‘causal’ use of the genitive beyond all analogy, even in the freedom of Homeric usage. The termination “-ίης” recurs only in “νεηνίης, ταμίης”, in the latter case with the fem. “ταμίη” beside it, though this is not an abstract noun. For the formation of such masculines of the -a declension from abstract feminines see H. G. § 116 (2). There is, therefore, a certain amount of analogy for the doctrine of Ar., establishing at least the possibility of it; the conclusion in the last resort depends on the tradition of the text in N and O. (See also Delbrück Gr. iii. pp. 111, 368.) There can be no doubt that on the whole the nom. masc. gives the best sense here, ‘an envoy concerning thee.’ The gen. would rather mean to get (or more naturally to bring） a message of thee, which is not what is required. Odysseus and Menelaos came as envoys from Greece, to obtain the surrender of Helen by peaceful means before the opening of the war, as was related in the Kypria. This is again alluded to in 11.138, q.v. “σῆς”, the reading of Zen., is no improvement on σεῦ, and would have to be taken in the same objective sense, cf. 19.336 “ἐμὴν ποτιδέγμενον αἰεὶ” | “λυγρὴν ἀγγελίην”.

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

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