Jonathan, this is one of those conventions that one learns or absorbs
gradually with time, like the fact that Plato is referred to by Stephanus
page numbers from the first Renaissance printed edition, or Aristotle by
page numbers of the Berlin edition. Homer's Iliad is regularly referred to
with upper case Greek letters indicating the book number, while the Odyssey
is cited by lower case Greek letters indicating book number--and both epics
have exactly 24 books, hence W = Iliad 24 while w = Odyssey 24. One does
not even have to indicate Homer or which epic, as Homer is that without
which Greek literature and self-understanding are both unthinkable.
The references in Smyth #1939 are
Iliad 2.113 NUN DE KAKHN APATHN BOULEUSATO, KAI ME KELEUEI ...
and
Iliad 3.439 NUN MEN GAR MENELAOS ENIKHSEN SUN AQHNHi.
Smyth does have a nice harvest in this section of aorist verbs, augmented
and unaugmented, that do not appear to have any clear reference to past
time.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/