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[324] 324-25. Though the sense of the passage is clear enough, it is critically one of extreme difficulty. The only important MS. variation is between λαυκανίην and “λαυκανίης” or “λευκανίης”. The evidence of Did. is “ἔν τισι τῶν ὑπομνημάτων φαῖνεν” (“φαῖνον”, Schol. T) “δ᾽ ἧι κληῗδες, ἵν᾽ ἡῖ ἐπὶ τῶν τευχέων: τὰ τεύχη οὐκ ἐκάλυπτε τὴν λαυκανίην, ἀλλ᾽ ἐποίει φαίνεσθαι”. It appears then (1) that Ar. in his editions had the text; (2) that the “κοινή” had “λαυκανίης”; (3) that in ‘some of his notes’ Ar. read “φαῖνον” or “φαῖνεν” — in either case agreeing with “τεύχη”, the armour exposed the gullet. The text will mean the skin (“χρώς”, from 322) was exposed (or perhaps with a vaguer reference it was exposed = there was an opening), where the collar-bones from the shoulders clasp the neck, even the gullet, “λαυκανίην” being in ‘whole-and-part’ apposition with “αὐχένα”. Those who read “λαυκανίης” made the gen. depend either on “κληϊ^δες” (Schol. T) or on “χρώς”, the subject supplied to “φαίνετο” (Eust.). Monro suggests that it may be a local gen. ‘in the part of the gullet where’ comparing 17.372 “νέφος δ᾽ οὐ φαίνετο πάσης γαίης” (but the negative there makes a difference). Nauck reads “λαυκανίη” as nom. to “φαίνετο”. T. Seymour D. in C. R. xv. 28 suggests that the poet ‘had “λαυκανίη” in mind from the first,’ but allowed the nom. to be attracted to the acc. by the construction of “αὐχένα” in the intervening rel. clause. For “λαυκανίη” cf. also 24.642. It is possible that here it may mean throat generally rather than gullet, though the more special sense is recommended by the antithesis with “ἀσφάραγος”, wind-pipe, in 328. ἀπ᾽ ὤμων is to be taken as a prepositional attribute to “κληῗδες”, cf. 447 “οἰμωγῆς ἀπὸ πύργου,” 10.371 “ἐμῆς ἀπὸ χειρὸς ὄλεθρον”. It is possible, but less pointed, to take “ἀπ᾽ ὤμων” with the verb, hold the neck apart from the shoulders, cf. the similar phrase in 8.325, with note.

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

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