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[547] In order to understand this simile it must be remembered that to the Greek the rainbow had no associations of hope or comfort (Monro); it is a part of the storm-cloud against which it is seen, and brings thoughts only of gloom and disaster — the “τέρας” of 11.28. Similarly πορφύρεοξ conveys the idea not of bright colour but of turbidity and doubt; cf. “πορφύρεος θάνατος”, and “κραδίη πόρφυρε” 21.551; it is especially the epithet of the dark shifting sea, which grows black (H 64 etc.) under the wind; see note on 14.16. The point of the simile may be given thus — ‘lurid as is the rainbowcloud, so lurid was the cloud in which Athene wrapped herself.’

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

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