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[282] 282-4. The connexion of thought in these three lines is not very clear, and has given rise to suspicions of interpolation, which do not seem justifiable. The reiterated entreaty, the almost pathetic appeal to personal influence, is entirely in accordance with Nestor's character, human nature, and the necessities of the situation, which is not one where we need demand strict logical consistency. Nestor, after appealing equally to both, ends with an especial prayer to Agamemnon, who is obviously the offending party. αὐτὰρ ἐγώ γε, ‘Nay, it is I, Nestor, who ask it.’ There is no antithesis with “σὺ δέ”, which is merely the common use of the pronoun after a vocative; “αὐτάρ” is not adversative except in so far as it marks the transition to a new line of remonstrance.

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

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