A. 5. 300 A runner's name and origin

Line 300 with its dactylic rhythm raises a tricky query which is not affected by the metrical pattern, however. Pănŏpēs, a name which is not recorded elsewhere, has more to it than I knew a few years ago when I first dealt with it (SO 86, 2012, 105-6). The form Panopes has always been accepted by editors, minus one (see below). It is admittedly possible to argue that Vergil could have made it up: (1) A feminine Pănŏpē (Πανόπη), a Nereid, is not only a well-known figure (from Il. 18. 45 and Hes. Theog. 250² onwards), but also a deity Vergil was much occupied with, although in the form Panopea.³ To Panope he might have added a masculine 's' after the analogy of e.g. Xρύση (Il. 1. 37) vs. Xρύσης (Il. 1. 11).⁴ (2) Among the numerous variant forms of the name⁵ of the town Panopevs (Πανοπεύς)⁶ in Phokis is found Panope (Πανόπη) mentioned by at least two Roman poets: Ovid Met. 3. 19 (on which see Bömer ad loc.) and Stat. Theb. 7. 344. We may assume that the town was commonly called Panope by Vergil's time, and that Panopeus was the old and more literary form. As the 'Trinacrian' runner does not carry an indigenous 'Trinacrian' name, but a Greek one we have to account for its form.