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[75] The mere breaking of bread under another man's roof entitles to the position of a suppliant, even though the intention to protect be absent. This is the rule among the Arabs to the present day (see Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, p. 41: ‘even the thief who has surreptitiously shared the evening draught of an unwitting host is safe’). Thus though Lykaon is not actually a “ἱκέτης”, because he has not been accepted as such by Achilles, he yet claims to be ‘as good as’ one. For this sense of “ἀντί” cf. Od. 8.546 “ἀντὶ κασιγνήτου ξεῖνός θ᾽ ἱκέτης τε τέτυκται”, and 8.163.

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

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