Walter Leaf, Commentary on the Iliad (1900), Book 1 (Α）, line 234

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[234] The σκῆπτρον does not belong to Achilles, but is that which is handed by the herald to the speaker as a sign that he is ‘in possession of the house.’ See 10.321, 18.505, 23.568, Od. 2.37. So in the Ellice Islands in the Pacific Ocean the natives ‘preserved an old worm-eaten staff, which in their assemblies the orator held in his hand as the sign of having the right to speak’ (Tylor Anthropology p. 374. Virgil imitates the passage in Aen. xii. 206-11. He may have read “κόμην” for “τομήν”, “posuitque comas et brachia ferro”.

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

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