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[134] πτύσσοντο, were folded; how such an expression can be used of spears commentators have not been able to explain. The word and its derivatives in H. have a very narrow range of meanings, being used in the literal sense of folding clothes, except “πτύχες”, which is used of the layers of the shield, and the ‘folds’ of a furrowed hillside. From this source commentators have endeavoured to deduce such meanings as ‘bent with the brandishing,’ or ‘were interlaced,’ or ‘were a confused mass’; but no satisfactory explanation has been given. The use of θρασειάων ἀπὸ χειρῶν in 11.571 would seem to imply that the verb here has something to do with the flight in the air of the spears when actually hurled, and it is possible that such a sense may be found in the variant “ἐπτήσσοντο”. The root “πτα”- (“πτάμενος”) may perhaps have developed a secondary “πτηκ”- in the sense fly as we know to have happened in the sense crouch (“πτήσσ-ειν” by “ἐ-πτή-την”), whether the two words are originally identical (as Buttmann held) or no. Compare also “ἱλήκοι” beside “ἵληθι”, and other cases quoted in H. G. § 22. 9 note. On the other hand, this explanation does not suit “σειόμενα”, which is used of spears brandished in preparation for a cast; we can hardly put the stop at the end of 134 and read “σειόμενοι δ᾽ ἰθύς” with Schol. T, for this again does not suit the use of “σείεσθαι” (cf. 8.199); “ἐσσύμενοι” would be required. For “δὲ πτύσσοντο” Naber conj. “δ᾽ ἐσσεύοντο”, Pallis “δέ σφ᾽ ἔσσυντο”.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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