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[38] It is indifferent whether we read ὀτρύνεις with MSS. or “ὀτρυνέεις” with Ar. ἐπίσκοπον: so Ar. and MSS.; there was a variant “ἔπι σκοπόν”, which Döderlein and others have preferred. Both “σκοπός” (Od. 22.396) and “ἐπίσκοπος” (22.255, 24.729, Od. 8.163) are used in the sense of overseer, so they may doubtless be both used in the sense of spy. It is quite possible to take Τρώεσσιν without a preposition as a sort of dat. ethicus, though the construction with “ἔπι” seems more natural. Again, while “σκοπός” is the regular word for ‘spy’ or outpost (2.792, etc.), the addition of “ἐπι” in composition gives more force, as implying one who goes to spy out the foe, rather than a passive outpost; the form may be compared with “ὑφηνίοχος” beside the commoner “ἡνίοχος” (6.19). In this equally balanced uncertainty, which recurs in l. 342, we follow the best tradition.

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

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