The Homeric collocation and its related variants and present a syntactic problem, failing to respond to standard treatments of infinitival syntax set forth in synchronic grammar handbooks of ancient Greek. I propose a new approach to the collocation, analyzing it as a serial verb construction. I further argue for a historical relationship with the asyndetic imperatival sequence , which also shows serial verb syntax and which ultimately provides the impetus for the creation of the collocation in the context of a face-to-face, verbal exchange between speaker and addressee. This derivation crucially accounts for a number of otherwise inexplicable syntactic, semantic, and poetic properties of the collocation in Homeric epic.