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[729] πέλεν: the transition from the descriptive to the narrative tense is made one step earlier than we should have expected. Hence Bentley conj. “πέλει”. But, as Hentze has remarked, the imperfect is justified by the fact that the pole was not an immovable part of the chariot, but was put in when the chariot was made ready; so that the word really belongs to the narration, not to the description. πέλεν is not simply = “ἦν”, but means ‘stood out.’

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

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