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[364] The following passage contains many difficulties and inconsistencies. The opening simile is obscure. The unexcused and unexplained flight of Hector in 367 is strange after his very different attitude in 363. ἐκ νηῶν should rather be “ἀπὸ νεῶν”, as they are no longer among the ships, unless the phrase is meant to be a recapitulation of the whole retreat; but then the second mention of Hector would be out of place, as it must be meant to follow after what is said in 358-63. Again, to say nothing of the entire omission of the wall, it is hard to see how the trench can hinder the fugitives on foot while it causes no hindrance to Hector in his chariot; in 12.61-79 the conditions are exactly the opposite. The filling up of the trench by Apollo in 15.356 is entirely forgotten; but for this the absence of the wall might be explained from 15.361. Linguistically the dual “ἄξαντε” in 371 is doubtful, and the omission of the digamma in “ἅρματ᾽ ἀνάκτων” hardly remediable. It is clear, then, that there is some interpolation. Naber would reject only 367-71, but this, besides leaving the questionable simile, gives a very harsh repetition, “ἰαχή τε φόβος τε . . ἰαχῆι τε φόβωι τε” separated only by a single line. The least that can be condemned is therefore, as it would seem, 364-71. The interpolation of the last four lines is easily explicable, if it be admitted that the original “Μῆνις” knew nothing of the wall; when it had once been inserted into the poem, it needed mention in a retreat as much as in an advance.

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

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