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[492] μετάβηθι, ‘pass over:’ i. e. ‘change the theme.’ The theme from which he is to change must be interpreted, from the lines immediately preceding, to be not the Lay of Ares and Aphrodite, but the first (75), namely the “νεῖκος Ὀδυσσῆος”. The one would relate to the beginning, the other to the end, of the ten years' siege. The subjects here mentioned would be included within the range of the later “Μικρὰ Ἰλιάς”, from which according to Aristot. de Poet.the following tragedies were composed:—“Ὅπλων κρίσις, Φιλοκτήτης, Νεοπτόλεμος, Εὐρύπυλος, Πτωχεία, Λάκαιναι, Ἰλίου πέρσις, Ἀπόπλους, Σίνων, Τρῳάδες”.

ἵππου κόσμον means literally the ‘preparation’ or ‘outfit’ of the horse; i. e. the ‘stratagem.’ The mechanist was assisted by Athena, as the goddess of handicraft, cp. Il.15. 411“τέκτονος . . ὅς ῥά τε πάσης”

“εὖ εἰδῇ σοφίης ὑποθημοσύνησιν Ἀθήνης”. In the present passage σύν is ‘with help of.’ Odysseus is said to have led (ἤγαγε) the horse into the citadel, because the stratagem was his which caused the Trojans to lead it in. So Athena says, Od.22. 230“σῇ δ᾽ ἥλω βουλῇ Πριάμου πόλις”.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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