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[302] This passage has often been admired as an instance of truth to nature — apretended lamentation for a stranger covering the expression of a real sorrow. Heyne, however, is not without justification in calling this ‘acumen a poeta nostro alienum.’ He is inclined therefore to take πρόφασιν in the sense attributed to it in 262, of a real cause; the grief for Patroklos is not a mere blind to cover what the women dare not express otherwise, but a grief really felt which arouses other and deeper sorrows of their own, exactly as in 338-39 and 24.167 ff. The passage thus gains in dignity and beauty, and the explanation of πρόφασιν is supported by and supports the proposed explanation of 262. The word here implies occasion, i.e. to begin with. Compare the lamentations of the women for Patroklos in 18.28 ff., which we are evidently meant to take as genuine. Note αὐτῶν for the older “αὐτάων”.

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

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