previous next

[577] The ‘Thracian sword’ of Asteropaios is lauded in 23.808. The Thracians seem to have had an early reputation as metal-workers (10.438, 24.234; Helbig H. E. pp. 7-14), and were evidently traders. There is no reason to suppose that the Thracian sword was of a different shape or size from the ordinary Homeric weapon, as the Scholiasts do (“μόνοι γὰρ ἐν βαρβάροις οἱ Θρᾶικες μεγίστοις ξίφεσι χρῶνται, Α”); “μέγα” is a regular epithet of the sword. The fact that Livy (xxxi. 39) mentions javelins ingentis longitudinis, called romphaeae or rumpiae, as in use among the Thracians, obviously proves nothing. Another ingenious and very probable conjecture as to the origin of the epithet will be found in App. B, ix. 1.

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

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (3 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (3):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: