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[134] ἀστερόεντα, the adjective is elsewhere used only of the sky, except 18.370 of the house of Hephaistos. Here it may mean simply shining like a star, or perhaps ‘adorned with star-like ornaments,’ which may include inlaid rosettes and similar forms such as the so-called Swastika, which we sometimes find indicated on breast-plates in vasepaintings. Cf. “ἀνθεμόεντα” 23.885. The variant “κακῶν βελέων ἀλεωρήν” for ποδώκεος Αἰακίδαο is in all probability the original reading altered when the change of armour was introduced. It seems to have remained in familiar use even to the time of Aristophanes; for it must be this which he parodies in Vesp. 615 “τόδε κέκτημαι πρόβλημα κακῶν σκευὴν βελέων ἀλεωρήν” . The only other similar phrase in H. is “δήιων ἀνδρῶν ἀλεωρήν,” 12.57, 15.533, and that is not near enough to the parody (van L.). But however the couplet stood, it lies under the suspicion attaching to all allusions to the breast-plate (App. B, iii. 3). It would appear that alterations in favour of the change of armour took place after the introduction of the “θώρηξ” into the Homeric armoury.

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

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