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[230] To the reading of Zen. Ar. (An.) objects “εἰσὶν οὔτε τῆι συνθέσει Ὁμηρικοί, οὔτε τὸ “οἷσιν βελέεσσιν” ὑγιῶς εἴρηται τοῖς ἑαυτῶν: ἔδει γὰρ τοῖς ἀλλήλων”. The first of these objections is a matter of taste; for the second, viz. that “οἷσι” cannot refer to a plural subject, in the sense ‘their,’ see App. He A. may have criticised with more ground the tautological “βελέεσσι . . ἔγχεσιν”. But there is much to be said for Zen.'s reading, which avoids the awkward καὶ τότε (apparently to be taken as = ‘even in the retreat’) as well as the hardly intelligible “ἀμφὶ σφοῖς ὀχέεσσι”. As this stands we must translate ‘(by falling) beside their own chariots and on their own spears’ — an ungraceful zeugma, which no doubt led to the presumably conjectural “ξιφέεσσι” mentioned by It A. is probably meant that the front rank in their sudden flight impaled themselves on the spears of those behind. But there ought to be no chariots in the fighting line. Monro compares Thuc.vii. 84 “περί τε τοῖς δορατίοις καὶ σκεύεσιν οἱ μὲν εὐθὺς διεφθείροντο κτλ”.

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

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    • Thucydides, Histories, 7.84
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