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[380] 380-83. Here again we have a passage apparently interpolated in order to bring in an allusion to the trench. It will be seen that the simile in 384 which refers to the whole Trojan cavalry comes in far more appropriately after the account of the confusion of the Trojan horses at large in 378-79 than where a transition has been made to two single teams in 380 (Patroklos') and 383 (Hector's). The transition, too, from “δίφροι” (379), the chariots of the enemy, to “ὠκέες ἵπποι”, P.'s horses, is harsh, because when we first read 380 we suppose that the horses meant are those belonging to the chariots in question; it is only when we come to the end of 382 that we find that we are wrong. The phrase ἐπὶ Ἕκτορι κέκλετο θυμός, his heart bade him attack Hector, is quite unlike any of the uses of the very frequent “κέλομαι”, which requires the infin. to be expressed, and the omission of the object (Patroklos? or his horses?) makes the phrase doubly obscure.

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

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