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[795] The magnificent passage from here to the end of the book is one of the finest of the battle scenes in Homer, and it is tempting to conjecture that we have here part of the attack on the ships as it stood in the original Iliad. But it is necessary to be on guard against making merit alone a test of antiquity; appearances are all in favour of its belonging to the “Διὸς ἀπάτη” (see Introd. to “Ξ”). The metaphor is from one of the ‘white squalls’ common in the Aegean Sea, which seem to descend from the mountaintops upon the sea. Here the squall is regarded as being sent by the thunderstorm above.

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

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