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[365] On the phrase αἰθέρος ἐκ δίης see App. H. The variant “εὐδίης” is interesting; it might mean ‘amid clear weather,’ but it does not help the metaphor. “εὔδιος” is not a Homeric word, and in later poets the “ι” is always short, except rarely in arsis. — The simile is very vague and inappropriate; ‘as a storm-cloud appears on the face of heaven, such was their shouting and panic out of the ships.’ It is hard to see what the point of comparison is. A crowd of men is sometimes called a “νέφος”, but there the similarity seems to end. The interpolator of the allusion to the trench seems to have aimed at a counterpart to the great cloud simile of 297 ff.; because the coming of the Myrmidons is there compared to the breaking of clouds, the departure of the Trojans may be compared to the coming of clouds. The result hardly justifies the argument. “λαίλαπα, ἐν τοῖς ὑπομνήμασι κατὰ δοτικὴν τὸ “λαίλαπι,” ἵν᾽ ἦι ὅταν ὁ Ζεὺς ἐν λαίλαπι παρατείνηι τὰ νέφη”, Schol. T.

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

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