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[150] This line is susceptible of two different interpretations: (a) the old man interpreted no dreams for them when they were coming (to Troy), i.e. had he foreseen their fate he would have kept them from the war; (b) they came not back for the old man to interpret dreams for them. Though the second has found defenders, yet there can be no doubt that the first is right. The use of ἐρχόμενος is exactly the same as in 198; and the sense is quite what is wanted, though the next line is added in a way which is not usual in Homer, as we should have expected to find it explicitly stated, ‘if he had they would not have been killed.’ But in the second alternative the mention of the discerning of dreams seems quite otiose, unless we are prepared to suppose that the old man thought that a specimen of his peculiar skill would be the best welcome for his returning sons. Moreover, the word for return home is not “ἔρχεσθαι” but “νίσσεσθαι” or “νοστεῖν”. A third possibility is given by the Schol. A, their father prophesied to them that they would not come back. But even if such a construction of the participle could be admitted it would still remain a fatal objection that we should want a future, not a present.

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

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