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[346] δολιχόσκιον has caused difficulty both to ancient and modern critics, and the idea of shadow does not seem particularly appropriate to a spear. Autenrieth quotes in defence of this interpretation from a German review of an edition of the Makamat-ul-Hariri, ‘the Arabs declare that the shadow of the lance is the longest shadow. Before the first morning light the Arabian horseman rides forth, and returns with the last ray of evening: so in the treeless level of the desert the shadow of his lance appears to him all day through as the longest shadow.’ But this loses all special significance for the Greek; moreover, as Mr. Rouse has remarked (C. R. iv. 183), the epithet is almost always used of spears brandished or hurled, not standing upright. Hence various alternative explanations have been proposed, “-οσκι-” being compared to our ash, or “ὄσχος” (this, however, does not suit either form or sense). Rouse (ibid.) better compares Zend daregha-arstaya, from arsti = spear, shaft, an epithet in the Avesta of Mithra and his worshippers. There are obvious phonetic difficulties in the equation, but an entirely antiquated “δολιχ-ο”（“ρ”）“στιος” may have been changed by popular etymology to make an intelligible compound.

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

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