[75]
[80] ἔβαλλον, irregular, but quite Homeric, for “βάλλοντες”, which would be expected in a construction parallel with “τιτυσκόμενοι”.
[87] μῦθον, ‘challenge’; cf. note on A 388.
[88] κέλεται, ‘he proposes.’
Τρῶας and “Ἀχαιους” are in apposition to “ἄλλους”.
[90] αὐτόν, ‘himself.’
[91] οἴους, ‘alone,’ in agreement with “αὐτόν” and “Μενέλαον” (l. 90).
[95] ἀκὴν ἐγένοντο, ‘were hushed’; ἀκήν, an adverb, was originally an accusative case. No wonder they were silent, as a scholiast suggests: Paris, the adulterer, now coolly proposes a duel with the injured husband; already having taken the wife, he asks for the opportunity of taking the husband's life also.
[98] φρονέω κτλ., ‘my mind is [Monro, Homeric Grammar^{2}, § 238] that Argives and Trojans should now be parted.’
[99] πέποσθε = “πεπόνθατε”. Another reading, “πέπασθε”, is often preferred. The forms arise from “πεποθ-τε” or “πεπαθ-τε; θ” becomes sigma before another lingual mute and “τ” is aspirated.
[100] Ἀλεξάνδρου κτλ., ‘on account of the beginning that Alexander made.’
[101] τέτυκται, ‘is prepared.’
[102] τεθναίη, διακρινθεῖτε, syntax, § 204.
ἄρν᾽（ε), dual. The ‘white ram’ is an offering to the sun; the ‘black ewe,’ to the earth, black being the appropriate color of victims offered to the chthonian deities.
[104] The Greeks, being strangers (“ξεῖνοι”) in the land, propose to sacrifice to Zeus— “Ζεὺς δ᾽ ἐπιτιμήτωρ ἱκετάων τε ξείνων τε, ξείνιος, ὃς ξείνοισιν ἅμ̓ αἰδοίοισιν ὀπηδεῖ”. ‘For Zeus is the protector of suppliants and strangers, the strangers' god, who attends on strangers to whom respect is due’ (Od. 9.270, 271).
Πριάμοιο βίην, ‘the might of Priam’= ‘mighty Priam.’—The expression ὅρκια τάμνῃ
αὐτός evidently does not mean that Priam ‘by his own hand’ may perform the sacrifice, for Agamemnon does this (l. 273).
[106] παῖδες ... ἄπιστοι, Paris is particularly meant by this general charge.
[108] 108-110. General truths.
[109] οἷς may be masculine or neuter: ‘among what men’ or ‘in what affairs an old man has a part.’ On ὁ see § 119.
μετ-έῃσι, § 136.6; on omission of “ἄν” or “κε” in the present general protasis, § 197.
