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Book Nine
grandson, cf 488 and Od. 16.443 (youvoccriv olaiv 696crad|i£vos). The v.l.
youvacr' euoicnv is an obvious facilior lectio.
457 'Zeus under the earth' apparently = Plouton/Hades, a unique designation
in Homer, but cf. Au x^ovico, Hesiod, Erga 465, and for other
references West's note ad loc, and Nilsson, GgrR 1 376. Persephone is joined
with Hades, as expected, in a similar context at 569.
458-61 These verses are absent from the MS tradition, the tradition of
the scholia, and the late first- or early second-century glossary Pack 2 1189,
but are cited by Plutarch, Mor. 26 (and in part at Mor. 72B and Vita
Coriolani 32). They owe their status in the printed vulgate to Wolf. Plutarch
does not state his source for the verses, but alleges that Aristarchus removed
(e^eTAe) them. That seems to have been a rash inference on Plutarch's (or his
source's) part from the absence of the verses from the vulgate. It would not
be surprising, of course, if Aristarchus had been shocked, as Plutarch reports,
at Phoinix' admission that it crossed his mind to murder his father,
cf. 453n.; it is more surprising that he would have dared to set aside the
paradosis and that his excision could have had such a subsequent effect. If
the verses had stood in the early Hellenistic vulgate, Aristarchus would have
athetized them and they would stand so stigmatized in our MSS. See
Boiling, External Evidence 121, Apthorp, MS Evidence 91-9. This is a strong
argument, for the evidence is slight that Aristarchus excised without diplomatic
support. (It is possible that the 'shock' was not that of Aristarchus but
that of earlier and more irresponsible transmitters of the Homeric text, for
which see Janko, vol. iv 28.) The lines, however, are Homeric in style and
language and motivate Phoinix' flight, cf. van der Valk, Researches 11 483,
'Homer has to give a representation in which Phoinix is forced to leave his
country and to take refuge with Peleus. To this end he invents a quarrel
between Phoinix and his father. In ordinary circumstances we might have
expected that Phoinix would have killed his father and fled from home.
Homer, however, is loth to present facts which are very offensive. This
time he has the more reason to be cautious, because Phoinix is Achilles'
preceptor.'
464 6TOCI are usually grouped with Ka ! 6.456
(= 674), Od. 4.3, 15.273. The sense is imprecise; Hoekstra (on Od. 15.273)
suggests that the formulas signify something like cognati et socii (who might
all, of course, be gentiles). Chantraine, Diet, s.v., cites an extensive bibliography;
see also 6.239n. The intentions and motivation of Amuntor's relatives,
whose behaviour towards his property is reminiscent of that of Penelope's
suitors, are unclear, especially if 458-61 are retained, but evidently coercive.
One may perhaps compare the action of the Spartan ephors in blockading
Pausanias in the temple of Athena until he was on the point of death
(Thuc. 1.134), but what then would they be imploring (Aiaaopievoi 465)
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