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[418] ἐσχάραι: elsewhere an Odyssean word. It is in H. a synonym of “ἑστία”, and seems here to mean ‘hearths’ in the sense of ‘families’; the whole clause “ὅσσαι .. ἐσχάραι” is thus precisely identical with the phrase “ἐφέστιοι ὅσσοι ἔασι” in 2.125. The use of “ἐσχάρα” does not encourage us to understand it of watchfires. It may possibly allude to a primitive way of raising an army by a levy of a man from every ‘hearth’; so that in counting the numbers “ἐσχάραι” would be equivalent to ‘soldiers,’ and thus be “κατὰ σύνεσιν” the antecedent to “οἷσιν”. For the strange form ἐγρηγόρθασι see note on 67.

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

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