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[85] ταρχύσωσι: cf. 16.456, 674. The word is connected with “τάριχος”, and must therefore mean something more than simple burying. Helbig (H. E. ^{2} 55-6) suggests with great probability that it alludes to some process of partial mummification, such as seems to have been used on the bodies found at Mykene; most likely by the use of honey as a preservative. This was known in Babylon in early times (Herod.i. 198 “ταφαί σφι ἐν μέλιτι”), and was the usual practice when Agesilaos the Spartan king died in Egypt. Compare the use of “τάριχος” in Herod.ix. 120 “ὁ Πρωτεσίλεως .. καὶ τεθνεὼς καὶ τάριχος ἐών” (where, however, the word is chosen with especial reference to fish). Of course in any case the word can only be a survival here from a past state of things, and means no more than ‘perform the funeral rites’; for cremation appears to be the universal practice in Homer. Helbig ingeniously suggests that the pots of honey placed on the bier in 23.170 are a similar survival in ritual of the practice of embalming in honey.

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

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