previous next

[100] All MSS. and Ar. read περίδυσε χιτῶνας: but it is impossible to make good sense of this, as “δύω” without a preposition indicating removal (“ἀποδύω, ἐκδύω”) can only mean put on. The compound does not recur till quite late writers (Appianus, Josephus, Athenaeus), whose use of it is evidently founded on the present passage. Povelsen has been bold enough to give the proper meaning to the verb, and explain that Agamemnon puts on the tunics of the dead men, in order to carry them away conveniently! The variant “ἐπεὶ κλυτὰ τεύχε᾽ ἀπηύρα” gives excellent sense, but in the face of the consensus of MSS. it has a most suspicious resemblance to a mere conjecture. Peppmüller's conj. “περὶ λῦσε” may be right (cf. 16.804) but the verb is not entirely satisfactory. στήθεσι παμφαίνοντας is no doubt an ironical allusion to the common phrase “τεύχεσι παμφ.”, and forms a sort of oxymoron, ‘brilliant with — bare breasts. ’ (So Schneidewin.) Ar., however, took “παμφ.” with “χιτῶνας”, and explained ‘where he had stripped off the coats of mail glittering on their breasts.’ For this sense of “χιτών” we might compare “χαλκοχίτωνες”, and see 13.439 and App. B, iii. 4. But the order of words is not Homeric, and there is no reason for importing into this place the breastplate which it seems H. did not know. The reason for Ar's explanation is, no doubt, that he saw no reason why Ag.should strip off a mere article of clothing such as a tunic. But the rending of the tunic is in 2.416 evidently regarded as a final mark of triumph. For “περίδυσε” we really require in fact some strong word answering to “δαΐξαι” there.

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

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (3 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (3):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: