Note 724 — BOOK THE TWENTY-THIRD.

Footnote 724: (return) Buttm. Lexil. p. 436, after insisting strongly on the personification of Ὅρκος, observes on this passage: “I see no reason why we should not suppose that in the poet’s mind Jupiter was put in opposition to ὅρκον, exactly in the same sense as ὄρκος is actually found in opposition to Ζεύς in Pindar, Pyth. iv. 297. Κάρτερος ὅρκος ἄμμι μάρτυς ἔστω Ζεὺς ὁ γενέθλιος άμφοτέροις. Further, the expressions μέγας όρκος, κάρτερος ὅρκος suit much better the idea of the witness or pledge of the oath, than they do the oath itself.”