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[125] 125-28 were athetized by Ar. as contradicting the words of Zeus in 26; the danger is not that Achilles may be defeated, but that he may be irresistible. There is some ground for this as the text stands; but the difficulty disappears when we recognise that this part is entirely independent of 1-74 in origin, and that the πάντες here are the gods on the Greek side only. If we took it to mean the whole army of 67-74, it would of course be untrue to say that they had all come down to help Achilles; and 123-24 would, in the presence of the opposition, be intolerably rude and provocative. There is a marked resemblance in phraseology, though none in content, between the whole passage and Od. 7.195-201.

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

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