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[291] The course of the dart has given great trouble to critics ancient and modern. Some thought that the dart being miraculously guided need not pursue a natural course; others, that Pandaros was leaning forward to see the effect of his shot; others, that the plain was not level, and that the chariots ran on the lower ground while the footmen fought from the heights (!). None of them seem to have hit on the absurdly simple explanation that Pandaros may have attempted to ‘duck,’ bending his head forward a moment too late. The result would obviously be what Homer describes. (This explanation was, I find, first given by Brandreth.)

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

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