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[649] ἐπικερτομέων, taunting. This should be the sense of the word, from the parallel passages, 16.744, Od. 22.194, as well as from the adj. “κερτόμιος”, see 1.539, 4.6,5.419. The application is very obscure, but it is best taken as expressing Achilles' tone in speaking of Agamemnon, as though he bitterly assumed that his enemy would thwart him at every opportunity. There is no taunt in his words to Priam. The only possible alternative is to take the word to mean ‘bantering,’ a sense which might be supported by “κερτομίοις” in Od. 24.240, where no malice is implied. We might then see in Achilles' words a playful apology for placing Priam's bed outside the hut, though the “αἴθουσα” or “πρόδομος” is the regular sleeping place for unexpected guests, as in the parallel passages of the Od., but this is at least a serious stretching of the sense of “ἐπικερτομέων”.

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

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