Iliad 12, 3-8

Greek Homeric Greek and Early Greek Poetry
1

οὐδ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἔμελλε
τάφρος ἔτι σχήσειν Δαναῶν καὶ τεῖχος ὕπερθεν
εὐρύ, τὸ ποιήσαντο νεῶν ὕπερ, ἀμφὶ δὲ τάφρον
ἤλασαν: οὐδὲ θεοῖσι δόσαν κλειτὰς ἑκατόμβας:
ὄφρά σφιν νῆάς τε θοὰς καὶ ληΐδα πολλὴν
ἐντὸς ἔχον ῥύοιτο

It’s the last part of this sentence that makes me wonder: so that it (=the wall) might protect (ῥύοιτο) the swift ships and the great booty within (ἐντὸς). But what is ἔχον doing here?
According to Perseus and the Attikos app (very handy, that one) it’s 3rd plural imperfect, but surely that can’t be, for what then is its subject? I can only make sense of this sentence if it’s a neuter participium praesens, referring back to τεῖχος and meaning something (in connection with ἐντὸς) like ‘holding within’.
Please tell me Perseus and the app are wrong or otherwise explain to me how a 3rd plural imperfect fits into this clause. Thanks.

2

Welcome back! The way I see it, εχον is neuter present participle, its subject being τειχος and object νηας τε θοας και κηιδα πολλην. ‘Holding within’ seems correct to me.

3

Before there was Perseus, there was Psellos, who, while not parsing ἔχον, paraphrases

ὄφρά σφιν νῆάς τε θοὰς καὶ ληΐδα πολλὴν
ἐντὸς ἔχον ῥύοιτο

with

ὅπως αὐτῶν τὰς ταχείας ναῦς καὶ τὴν πολλὴν λαφυραγωγίαν ἐντὸς ἔχον τὸ τεῖχος φυλάττοι.

Gaza has ἔνδον ἔχον.