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[185] 185 was athetized by Ar. on the ground that H. knows nothing of four-horse chariots, and that the four names conflict with the dual “ἀποτίνετον”. It appears that some tried to evade the difficulty by taking Ξάνθε and πόδαργε as epithets, not as proper names, which is equally un-Homeric. There is apparently an allusion to a four-horse chariot in the late passage 11.699, and in a simile Od. 13.81. The names of the horses are all copied from other places; see 16.149, 23.295, Od. 23.246. There seems no good reason to reject this one line, which is of a piece with what follows. It is likely enough that the composer of the passage may have regarded dual and plural as interchangeable, like Zen.; or he may have carelessly copied from some lost passage where only two horses were addressed. The speech would begin very badly without the opening line.

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

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