previous next

[186] We here, for the first time in this book, come upon the idea that Patroklos has been wearing the armour of Achilles; and it is in a passage which is for many reasons suspicious. In the first place, it is somewhat startling to find Hector, after his great promises, and his appeal to Glaukos to stand by his side and watch, suddenly leaving the field of battle: “προσεδόκησεν ἄν τις αὐτὸν δυσωπηθέντα τοὺς λόγους καὶ κινηθέντα ἐπὶ τῶι πράγματι οἷς αὐτὸς ἐπηλλείλατο ἐμμενεῖν. ὁ δὲ ἐπιλέλησται μὲν ὧν αὐτὸς εἶπεν, ἠμέληκε δὲ τῶν ὀνειδῶν, περὶ δὲ τὸ κοσμεῖσθαι γίγνεται”, Schol. Nor A. is it explained why the idea of changing his armour should have thus occurred to him, just after he has sent off Patroklos' spoils to the city. After the passing allusion in 214 we hear nothing more of what we should suppose to be the startling effect of the change; the Greeks do not seem to notice it at all. The “μέγα κράτος” which Zeus gives him does not avail him much; for he does not succeed in gaining the body, his chief aim, but only hangs upon the Greeks in their successful retreat. The word “μετασπών” in 190 is doubtful, and probably copied from the There Hom. Od. can therefore be little doubt that this is an interpolation by the author of the “ὁπλοποιία”. The original narrative is probably resumed in 229, which joins on to 185 without leaving a perceptible gap (Hentze).

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 Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: