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[723] The various attempts which have been made to bring the following laments into lyric forms cannot be regarded as successful. The first to make the attempt was von Leutsch, who noticed that the lament of Hekabe fell into four divisions of three lines each, of which he made two pairs of strophe and antistrophe. The same principle he extended to the other laments by means of various atheteses. He was followed by Westphal and Köchly, but the arbitrary nature of the theory is shewn by the fact that they none of them agree on the lines which are to be rejected. Peppmüller sees in them instances of the ancient “νόμος”, which was a form of hymn in hexameters generally in honour of a god, though there is some slight evidence that it was used also in dirges. The ‘nome’ consisted of three parts, the “ἀρχή” or exordium, the “ὀμφαλός” or body, and the “σφρηγίς” or epilogue. He thus finds in the lament of Andromache an “ἀρχή” (725-30) and “σφρηγίς” (740-45) of six lines each, with an “ὀμφαλός” of nine; Hekabe has an “ἀρχή” and “σφρηγίς” of three lines each and an “ὀμφαλός” of six; Helen has the same number of lines for “ἀρχή” and “σφρηγίς” and seven for the “ὀμφαλός” (rejecting 772). There is something to be said in favour of this view, as the three laments have some appearance of being formed on the same plan; but our ignorance as to the construction of the nome is such that the theory can be only a conjecture. The contents of the laments naturally give them something of a lyric character. The themes taken by the three are Hector's valour, his piety and its reward, and his gentleness.

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

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