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[460] This curious statement is apparently connected with a legend of which we see traces in 20.178-86 and 306, pointing to some tradition of a rivalry for the kingship of Troy between the two lines of the royal family; a tradition which may very probably be based upon historic fact, a family claiming descent from Anchises having at some time ousted another claiming from Priam, or more probably, when in possession of the chieftaincy, having thus justified the inferiority of a supposed Priamid branch. That there was a legend of the permanence of the house of Aineias in Troas we know from the fragments of Demetrios of Skepsis and Hellanikos. In Hymn. Ven. 196 Aphrodite prophesies to Anchises, “σοὶ δ᾽ ἔσται φίλος υἱός, ὃς ἐν Τρώεσσιν ἀνάξει: καὶ παῖδες παίδεσσι διαμπερὲς ἐκγεγάονται”. But this may be merely an echo of 20.307, q.v. Menekrates of Xanthos (ap. Dion. Ant. i. 48) recorded a legend that Aineias, being excluded from ‘sacred privileges’ (“γερέων ἱερῶν”) by Paris, betrayed Troy to the Achaians, who in return spared him, and left him in possession of the land; see R. Ellis in C. R. iii. 132.

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

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