[206] Ζῆν: a somewhat doubtful form. Ar. wrote “Ζῆν̓”, assuming a synaphea with the following line. There are some other traces of this in Homer, but they are all very doubtful, and the short form “Ζῆν” is defensible on analogy, though there is no direct evidence for it. It apparently represents the Skt. djAm, as “βῶν” represents gAm, see 7.238. Herodianos attests also a nom. “Ζῆς”, which might have an accusative “Ζῆν” on the analogy of nouns of the first declension. But the question is by no means certain; it is at least a curious coincidence that in every case where the form “Ζῆν” occurs, the following word, at the beginning of the next line, should commence with a vowel (14.265, 24.331). See H. G. § 106 (2). Van L. Ench. p. 11 compares “δῶ” for “δῶμα” at the end of a line (but see on 1.426), and the cases of elision at the end of the Virgilian hexameter, Georg. i. 295, Aen. vii. 160, and others.
