καθάρματα. “Ashes of lustral offerings”—Peile. “Alluding to the custom of the Athenians, who, after purifying their houses with incense in an earthen vessel, threw the vessel into the streets, and retired with averted eyes.”—Scholiast.
“What other quittance to a foe
Than hate repaid with hate, and blow with blow?”
Why not? πῶς δ᾽ ου; how should it be otherwise? Observe, here, how far the Christian rule, love thine enemies, was from the Heathen mind. It is very far yet from our practice; though it is difficult to over-estimate the value of having such ideal moral maxims as those of the New Testament to refer to as a generally recognized standard.
“Hermes, that swayest underneath the ground.”
All the recent editors agree in bringing up the line—
κήρυξ μέγιστε των άνω τε καὶ κάτω,
from v. 162 to this place, where the initial words are plainly wanting. “Hermes is invoked here as the great mediator between the living and the dead.”—Kl. “Herald me in this”—κηύξας ᾽εμοι—perform a herald’s function to me in this; the verb chosen with special reference to the name κήρυξ, according to the common practice of the Greek writers. In the second line below, I can have no hesitation in adopting Stan.’s emendation of ὸωμάτων for ομμάτων. Ahrens (in Fr.) has tried to make the passage more pregnant by reading ἁιμάτων, but this scarcely seems such an obvious emendation.