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[664] ὅτωι has only weak MS. support here, but the form without synizesis is a priori preferable, and in 12.428 (q. v.) authority is all in favour of it. Cf. also note on “ὅτοισιν,” 15.491. The present line comes in very oddly, as we should naturally suppose that the appeal by the parents was the same as by ‘children and wives and possessions,’ viz. if you do not fight manfully now you will never see them again. As the text stands we have to understand ‘remember your parents’ in the sense of ‘think of your family honour.’ This sudden shifting of the point of view by an after-thought is very prosaic, and Payne Knight (followed by Düntzer, van L., and others) is probably right in rejecting the line as an interpolation due to the obvious consideration that many of the Greek warriors must be orphans.

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

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