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[75] The Alexandrian critics took offence at Hector applying to himself the epithet “δῖος”. It will, however, be felt by any one who is in sympathy with the heroic age that this is no more than a somewhat naïve touch of self-consciousness such as is quite characteristic of Hector. “δῖος” indeed is in Homer little more than an epithet of ordinary courtesy. Hentze, however, remarks that the only other instance in Homer where a speaker alluding to himself by his own name adds a laudatory epithet is in 8.22, where Zeus calls himself “Ζῆν᾽ ὕπατον μήστωρα”. We may compare Virgil's “Sum pius Aeneas.”

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

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