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[4] The reading of this line is one of the most puzzling problems in Homeric textual criticism. The MSS., as will be seen, are unanimous for μεσσηγὺς Σιμόεντος ἰδὲ Ξάνθοιο ῥοάων. But Aristonikos says (“ἡ διπλῆ”) “ὅτι ἐν τοῖς ἀρχαίοις ἐγέγραπτο μεσσηγὺς ποταμοῖο Σκαμάνδρου καὶ στομαλίμνης: διὸ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ὑπομνήμασι φέρεται. ὕστερον δὲ περιπεσὼν ἔγραψε” (sc. “ὁ Ἀρίσταρχος”) “μεσσηγὺς Σιμόεντος ἰδὲ Ξάνθοιο ῥοάων. τοῖς γὰρ περὶ τοῦ ναυστάθμου τόποις ἡ γραφὴ συμφέρει, πρὸς οὓς μάχονται” (‘sc. hi versus illa lectione retenta’ Lehrs). Further, Schol. T says “πρότερον ἐγέγραπτο μεσσηγὺς ποταμοῖο Σκαμάνδρου καὶ στομαλίμνης: ὕστερον δὲ Ἀρίσταρχος ταύτην τὴν λέξιν” (sc. the present vulgate) “εὑρὼν ἐπέκρινεν. Χαῖρις δὲ γράφει μεσσηγὺς ποταμοῖο Σκαμάνδρου καὶ Σιμόεντος”. i.e. Ar. at first preferred the reading “μ. ποτ. Σκ. καὶ στομαλίμνης”, and adopted it in his ‘notes,’ but afterwards changed his mind and introduced the text, presumably, into the second or both of his editions; the ground for the change being that the vulg. better agreed with his view of the topography of the Greek camp, on which, as we know, he wrote a special dissertation. Now the consensus of our MSS. makes it practically certain that their reading was also that of Ar.'s vulgate. What then is the meaning of “ἐν τοῖς ἀρχαίοις”? The phrase does not recur in the existing scholia of Did. or We An.find indeed “ἔνιοι τῶν ἀρχαίων” quoted by An.as an authority on 14.214. But the preposition “ἐν” (not “παρά”） forbids us to take the adj. as masc. here; the only substantive we can supply is “ἀντιγράφοις”. But then we are landed in the absurdity of supposing that Ar. was in possession of a whole class of MSS. which could be described as ‘ancient’ in comparison with his ordinary vulgate; and yet that he paid so little attention to them that they are never again named. (The alternative supposition, that the ‘ancient MSS.’ were in fact the vulgate, and that Ar. by his own authority succeeded in introducing a new reading into the vulgate after his time, is so absolutely opposed to the general evidence of the documents that it need not be seriously considered.) Hence various attempts have been made to emend the words “ἐν τοῖς ἀρχαίοις”: e.g. “ἐν τοῖς Ἀρισταρχείοις” Lehrs, “ἐν τῆι προτέραι τῶν Ἀρισταρχείων” Sengebusch. But a much less drastic change will do all that is needed. I have little doubt that the correct reading is “ἐν ταῖς ἀρχαίαις”, sc. “ἐκδόσεσιν”. The ‘early editions’ are in fact mentioned in this way by Did. on 9.657, “σπείσαντες: ἐν τῆι ἑτέραι τῶν Ἀριστάρχου λείψαντες, καὶ ἐν πολλαῖς τῶν ἀρχαίων”. Whether or no these editions included those of Zen. and Aph.we naturally cannot say; but it is clear that there was an authority in favour of the variant, which Aristarchos so highly regarded that for a time he preferred the variant to the vulgate, just as he did in 9.657. And we, who are not troubled with his doubts as to the naval camp, may well agree with him as to the intrinsic superiority of the reading which names the “στομαλίμνη”. This ‘estuary’ is not again mentioned, but modern evidence shews that such an estuary must have existed at the mouth of the Dumbrek Su (Schliemann Ilios p. 84); it is extremely unlikely to have been invented, but the unfamiliar word ran every risk of being supplanted by the more familiar Simoeis, though we have had reason to suppose that this river was not recognized in the oldest form of the Trojan tradition (see on 5.774). The word “στομαλίμνη” is used by Strabo (xiii. 595) of this particular estuary, and more generally of the delta of the Rhone. Theokritos has the form “στομάλιμνον”. But the regular late Epic form (Ap. Rhod., Nonnus, Coluthus) is “στόμα λίμνης”: see Platt in J. P. xix. 38.

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

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