ἐΰς
τίς γὰρ ἁδονᾶς ἄτερ θνατῶν βίος ποθεινὸς ἢ ποία τυραννίς; τᾶς ἄτερ οὐδὲ θεῶν ζηλωτὸς αἰών → What human life is desirable without pleasure, or what lordly power? Without it not even the life of the gods is enviable.
English (LSJ)
ὁ (v. εὖ),
A good, brave, noble, Ep. word freq. in nom., ἐῒς πάϊς Ἀγχίσαο Il.2.819, etc.; once in acc. ἐΰν 8.303; neut. always ἠΰ (v. ἠΰς) (εὖ only as Adv.): irreg. gen. sg. ἐῆος, παιδὸς ἐῆος 1.393; υἷος ἐῆος 15.138, 24.422,550; ἀνδρὸς ἐῆος 19.342; φιλότητι καὶ αἰδοῖ φωτὸς ἐῆος Od.14.505; always at end of verse (exc. in Od.15.450): freq. with v.l. ἑοῖο, as Il.18.71: irreg. gen. pl. ἐάων good things, good fortune, 24.528; θεοὶ δωτῆρες ἐάων Od.8.325; δῶτορ ἐάων ib. 335, h.Hom.18.12, 29.8, cf. Hes.Th.46,111. ((I) ἐῆος: for this form Zenod. read ἑοῖο; but ἐῆος( = ἀγαθοῦ, Sch.Il.15.138) became, like ἐσθλός (v. ἐσθλός 1.3) and φίλος, almost a possess. Pron. of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd pers., and may be retained. Some Gramm. wrongly took εηος to be a form of ἑός ('his') and conversely gave to ἑός ('his') the signf. 'good' (Anon. ap. A.D.Synt.156.1, EM307.33,318.1): hence the erroneous forms ἑῆος, ἑάων (but ἐΰς rightly), Lex. de Spir.pp.194,196, 198, freq. in codd. The reading ἐῆος (ἑῆος) is well attested only where a substituted ἑοῖο would have had to mean my or thy: where the reference is to the 3rd pers. we find υἷος ἑοῖο, πατρὸς ἑοῖο, παιδὸς ἑοῖο almost without v.l., Il.13.522, al. (v.l. ἑῆος Il.14.9, 18.71, 138). (2) The origin of the forms ἐῆος ἐάων and the variation ἐϋ-: ἠϋ- are obscure: ἐάων perh. had ϝ-, Il.24.528.)
