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[266] 266-94 is a passage which has aroused general suspicion, so inappropriate does this verbose vaingloriousness seem at so critical a moment. Beyond this general ‘subjective’ difficulty, however, there is no serious cause of offence, if we except 268, which is very strange, as we should have supposed that Meriones and Idomeneus, so closely connected in every way, must have had huts near together. There are a few linguistic difficulties, see notes on 278, 285, to which Fick adds the scansion of “οἷος” 275, “πονεύμενος” an Ionic form 288, and “λέγεσθαι, λεγώμεθα” in the sense of ‘talk,’ which recurs only in passages which he regards as late. “νηπύτιος” (292) too has late associations. There is, however, no strong reason for athetizing it, unless we cut out the whole scene between Meriones and Idomeneus; the more so as the very vivid and vigorous passage 276-87 does not look like the work of an interpolator.

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

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