τὸ καὶ μοιχάγρι᾿ ὀφέλλει (Od 8.332)

Abcdef

Member

Hi, hoping someone could help me with the above phrase^.
context:
“οὐκ ἀρετᾷ κακὰ ἔργα· κιχάνει τοι βραδὺς ὠκύν,
330
ὡς καὶ νῦν Ἥφαιστος ἐὼν βραδὺς εἷλεν Ἄρηα
ὠκύτατόν περ ἐόντα θεῶν οἳ Ὄλυμπον ἔχουσιν,χωλὸς ἐὼν τέχνῃσι· τὸ καὶ μοιχάγρι᾿ ὀφέλλει.”

I'm not sure of the function of 'καὶ' in the phrase, and also, is the singular definite article going with μοιχάγρι' (i thought this is a plural noun..)

Thanks!
 

Aurifex

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τὸ seems to mean "therefore" here. καὶ is just "also" or "even", I'd imagine.
 

illa

Member

In the Collection des Universités de France (Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 2002) the reading is τωι. That fits in with the plural noun.
 
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Etaoin Shrdlu

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I don't understand that statement. In any case, τωι would be unmetrical.
 

illa

Member

ὀφέλλω goes with the dativus. "Also for him a fine is due." As for the metrum, the result is dactylus / spondaeus / spondaeus / spondaeus / dactylus / spondaeus.
 
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Etaoin Shrdlu

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Does your reading with τωι also change τέχνῃσι to τέχνῃ, for example? Otherwise I can't see how the third foot is a spondee. (Also, I assume both are either subscript or adscript in whatever source, but that's minor.)

I am aware that ὀφέλλω takes the dative, but I still don't know what you mean by 'plural noun' in #3.
 

illa

Member

Yes, the reading goes with τέχνῃ. I should have given you the entire line, sorry! The plural noun is μοιχαγρια, in this reading without article. Liddell & Scott however stick to το. I have a pocket edition of Homer here, without apparatus criticus. As soon as school starts again, (September 1st in Belgium) I will be able to do some digging in the library.
 
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Etaoin Shrdlu

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But there isn't an article in the other reading, as Aurifex has pointed out. Also, it would have to refer to Hermes, not Ares, the latter being the subject of the active ὀφέλλει.
 

Aurifex

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There's a good explanation in Stanford's edition, and another one in Ernesti's, of what's going on here. I won't bore people with it, but Stanford's does explain why historically there was likely to be confusion over the correct reading.

It seems that τῶ is a variant reading, but with a preceding τέχνῃ, not τέχνῃσι, which wouldn't work metrically, as Etaoin points out. Most texts today seem to go with τὸ.

If anyone has the latest Teubner text or the OCT, an image posted here of the relevant critical apparatus would be interesting. Porson's note on the Oxford text of 1800 says that in one manuscript τὸ is written above τῶ.
 
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