Iliad Book 1, line 64

Greek Homeric Greek and Early Greek Poetry
1

Hi, just wondered if anyone could help explain this translation of a line in the Iliad (1.64):

ἀλλ᾽ ἄγε δή τινα μάντιν ἐρείομεν ἢ ἱερῆα
ἢ καὶ ὀνειροπόλον, καὶ γάρ τ᾽ ὄναρ ἐκ Διός ἐστιν,
ὅς κ᾽ εἴποι ὅ τι τόσσον ἐχώσατο Φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων,

It’s the part where Achilles proposes they should ask a prophet why Apollo is so angry with them. It’s the last line in the paragraph above which I’m struggling with. I know the translation is something like ‘who might say why Phoebus Apollo is so angry’, but I don’t understand how the ὅ τι (underlined above) translates into ‘why’?

Thanks in advance.

2

ὅ τι is the neuter of ὅστις (see Smyth 339). It’s sometimes written as ὅ, τι. I assume all the graphical strangeness is to differentiate it from ὅτι, but I don’t actually know. It has got its own entry in the LSJ, which cites this very line.

3

Thank you!

4

You’re dead right, Joel. In order to differentiate it from the conjunction ὅτι, the singular neuter nominative-accusative of the relative-interrogative ὅστις is written either ὅ τι or ὅ, τι. The practice is obviously modern.

5

It’s an adverbial accusative, ‘regarding what’, ‘with reference to what’, hence ‘why’.