[322]
[325] ἐν μεγάροισιν, ‘in the home of my father’ (Peleus). Nestor tells (11.765 ff.) how he and Odysseus went to Phthia, in the time before the Trojan war, to enlist warriors; and there they secured not only Achilles, but Patroclus as well; Menoetius, the father of the latter, was likewise in Phthia at the time. This occasion is alluded to also in I 253. Why Patroclus was brought up away from his home, Opus, is told in 23.84 ff. When a young boy, he accidentally killed a companion in a quarrel; and his father brought him, an exile from home in consequence, to Phthia, where King Peleus kindly received him and made him the companion and squire of his own son.
[326] περικλυτὸν υἱόν, ‘his son grown famous.’
[327] ἐκπέρσαντα and λαχόντα (“λαγχάνω”), with “υἱόν” (l. 326).
ληίδος αἶσαν, ‘allotment of booty.’ Evidently it was later than this that Thetis imparted to Achilles his destiny.[329] ὁμοίην, here ‘the same.’
[333] εἶμ̓ (ι) has future meaning as in Attic Greek.
[338] αὔτως, ‘as you are,’ cf. l. 198.
[341] καμόμεσθα, ‘won with toil.’
[345] λούσειαν ἄπο, a verb of cleausing, takes two accusatives; cf. 16.667 f. and note.
βρότον, to be distinguished from “βροτόν”.[346] κηλέῳ, two syllables; similarly, “ἐννεώροιο” (l. 351) must be read with four syllables § 43).
[352] λεχέεσσι, to be thought of as something different from the improvised “λεχέεσσι” of l. 233.
ἑα_νῷ, the “α” (long) proves this to be the adjective, ‘enveloping.’[357] ἔπρηξας καὶ ἔπειτα, ‘really then you have worked your will.’ Zeus speaks with irony; he was not unaware of the part played by Here, after all; cf. l. 168 and ll. 181-186.
[358] ἦ ῥά νυ κτλ., ‘is it true then, as it seems, that the long-haired Achaeans are your own children?’ i. e. because you care for them as for your own flesh and blood. The idiom “ῥα ... ἐγένοντο”, ‘were all the time, it now appears,’ is familiar: cf. 3.183, 16.33.
360, 361 = A 551, 552.