ἐξαιτοῦντα , "asking earnestly. " This compound has a like force in O. T. 1255, Trach. 10; and so the midd. below, 586 , 1327 . Cp. ἐξεφίεται , straitly enjoins, Ai. 795. In prose, the special sense of ἐξαιτεῖν was "to demand the surrender of" a person, answering to ἐκδιδόναι : Antiph. or. 6 § 27 εἰ...θεράποντας ἐξαιτοῦσι μὴ ἤθελον ἐκδιδόναι.
σμικροῦ is better than μικροῦ , since the rhetorical ἐπαναφορά (cp. 610 , O.T. 25) needs the same form in both places. μικρός having prevailed in later Attic (as in Xen. and the orators), our MSS. in the tragic texts often drop the ς . But, metre permitting, tragedy preferred σμικρός . In Soph. fr. 38 εἰ μικρὸς ὢν τὰ φαῦλα νικήσας ἔχω
, the word="of short stature," in which sense Il. 5.801too has Τυδεύς τοι μικρὸς μὲν ἔην δέμας
, though in 17. 757 σμικρῇσι
. Curtius ( Etym. p. 622), comparing σμυκτήρ and μυκτήρ , remarks that analogy speaks for the antiquity of the ς in σμικρός , while it is possible that the μ was not original, but arose from some other sound.