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[373] πύματον δρόμον, the last part of the course, i.e. that after the turn. The total silence as to any previous laps prevents our translating ‘the last lap,’ and the race must have been a simple “δίαυλος”. The course stretched straight inland over the plain (“ἐν λείωι πεδίωι” 359), so that ἐφ᾽ ἀλός means towards the sea, see 3.5. The variant “ἀφ᾽ ἁλός” is probably a conjecture to suit the theory that the course was entirely inside the fortification, from the wall to the sea and back again. This theory is attributed to Ar. by If Eust. this is right Ar. must have taken “ἐφ᾽ ἁλός” (as he read) to mean by the side of the sea, i.e. just at the turn. But the supposition is inconsistent with the whole tenor of the description; even if the wall were conceived far enough from the sea to admit of an open course — estimated by Ar., on grounds which we cannot guess, at five stadia in length — the words “ἐν λείωι πεδίωι” and “νόσφι νεῶν” give sufficient refutation. The fact is that in the whole description the existence of the wall is completely ignored. — It will be noticed that no mention is made of the actual turn, in spite of the stress laid on it by Nestor. It is barely alluded to in 462.

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

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    • Homer, Iliad, 3.5
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