previous next

[448] The relative construction of ὅτε is virtually forgotten in the description of the “κλισίη”, and it is not till 457 that we come to what may be called an apodosis. The κλισίη of Achilles is described as a full counterpart of the Homeric house, with a fore-court and “πρόδομος” (673), “αἴθουσα” (644), “μέγαρον” (647), and the whole is called “οἶκος” (572) and “δώματα” (512). This indicates a complete difference of view from the rest of the Iliad, except from I. Even there, though the scene passes in the same hut, there is hardly any indication of a building on this scale; compare particularly 9.658-59 with 24.643-44, where in a precisely similar context the former knows nothing of an “αἴθουσα”. The “μυχός”, however, is common to both (24.675 = 9.663). In the rest of the Iliad the “κλισίη” is hardly thought worthy of the formal compliment of an epitheton ornans, the only exceptions being “κλ. ἐύτυκτος” (10.566 13.240) and “ἐύπηκτος” (9.663 = 24.675) — all in late passages. The whole conception indicates a poet who is more familiar with the palace than the camp; he has not taken the trouble to consider how little his spacious dwelling agrees with the crowding of the Achaians along the shore, or indeed with the first conditions of a naval camp. Heyne would reject 449-56 altogether, chiefly on account of the violated “Ϝ” of 449 and 452. But 565-67 evidently contain an allusion to 454-56, and the conception of the house is the same throughout.

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

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide References (6 total)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: