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[393] ἄρκιον, ‘there shall be nothing on which he can rely, nothing to give him any well-grounded hope of escaping the dogs and birds,’ Buttm. Lex. pp. 163-4, comparing 15.502 “νῦν ἄρκιον ἢ ἀπολέσθαι”

“ἠὲ σαωθῆναι”. He deduces this sense from the verb “ἀρκεῖν”, through the sense ‘sufficient,’ ‘able to help,’ and thence ‘that on which one can rely.’ So 10.304 “μισθὸς δέ οἱ ἄρκιος ἔσται”, his reward shall be certain (see, however, note there). The passage of course means ‘he shall certainly be slain and left unburied.’

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

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