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[293] ἐξελύθη was explained by Ar. “τῆς ὁρμῆς ἐπαύσατο”, which the word cannot mean; “ἐξεσύθη” of Zen. and vulg. = issued forth. But there can be little doubt that Ahrens, Brandreth, and Christ are right in restoring “ἐξέλυθε” = “ἐξῆλθε”. The form with “ε” for “η” is not elsewhere found, but has very likely been sometimes suppressed in favour of the more familiar “ἦλθον”. The misunderstanding will of course have arisen in transcription from the old Attic alphabet. This is an interesting, because evidently accidental, proof that in the oldest form of the Epic poems the ictus in the penthemimeral caesura sufficed to lengthen a final short syllable without the aid of the “ν ἐφελκυστικόν”, which originally was not used to make position. (See also on 11.549.)

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

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