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[311] “ἀθετεῖται ὅτι πρὸς οὐδὲν τὸ ἐπιφώνημα” (concluding remark) “καὶ οὐκ εἰθισμένον: κατὰ μὲν γὰρ τὸ ἐναντίον ὁ Ζεὺς ἐπιβεβαιοῖ κατανεύων” (i.e. apparently it contradicts the promise of Zeus in A). “καὶ ἑξῆς δ᾽ ἐπιλεγομένου ὧς αἱ μέν ῥ᾽ εὔχοντο σαφῶς γίνεται περισσὸς ὁ στίχος: γελοία δὲ καὶ ἡ ἀνανεύουσα Ἀθηνᾶ” Schol. A (Aristonikos?). It is hard to believe that such remarks come from Ar., who can hardly have forgotten the fact that “ἀνανεύειν” is repeatedly used metaphorically by Homer to signify a refusal. It would seem that the word here was taken to mean that the statue itself moved its head (cf. Virg. Aen. i. 482diva solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat). The gesture of raising the chin to signify ‘No’ is still universal in modern Greece. The line, it is true, may be spared, and the “ὧς” at the beginning of two consecutive lines is certainly a stumbling-block (but cf. 17.424). But it seems clear that this, as a convenient break, was regarded as the ending of the “Διομήδεος ἀριστεία”, and 312 as the first line of a new rhapsody; cf. 22.515, 23.1. With 311 compare 16.250, and still more 2.419, 3.302, which shew that the “ἐπιφώνημα” is not unusual as the schol. says.

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

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