Walter Leaf, Commentary on the Iliad (1900), Book 18 (Σ）, line 604

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”, and have therefore been obliged to change ἐξάρχοντες to “ἐξάρχοντος”. This is done on the authority of Athenaios (n. 181 c), “ὁ δ᾽ Ἀρίσταρχος . . τοῦ Κρητικοῦ χοροῦ τὸν ὠιδὸν ἐξεῖλεν, ἐπιτεμὼν τὰ ποιήματα τὸν τρόπον τοῦτον, “πολλὸς . . τερπόμενος . . μέσσους”” (as text', “ὥστ᾽ ἀνίατον γίνεσθαι παντάπασι τὸ “ἐξάρχοντες,” μηκέτι δυναμένης τῆς ἐπὶ τὸν ὠιδὸν ἀναφορᾶς σώζεσθαι”. Ludwich has shewn that this evidence is absolutely worthless. It is on a par with the statement of Alexander of Kotyaia (19.77) that Ar. ‘interpolated’ a line which we happen to know was read by The Aph.one argument which might seem to justify Athenaios — that Ar. denied to “μέλπεσθαι” and “μολπή” the sense of music (see on 13.637) — he has himself excluded by the further assertion that Ar. not only expunged the line here, but interpolated it in “δ”. All this is in glaring contradiction not only to all that we know of Ar.'s method, but to the abundant evidence of the slight effect which his atheteses had upon the text. It is of course quite possible that the line may have been found in some of the old erratic copies which we have learnt to know through the earliest papyri, and which were evidently dear to archaeologists such as Athenaios and Plutarch (who makes a precisely similar statement on 9.458 ff.); as these were doubtless banished through the influence of the Alexandrian school, in a sense Ar. may be said to have ‘removed’ the line; but there is no ground for supposing that it ever stood in a recognized text. Did. knows nothing of it, nor does Lucian “περὶ ὀρχ. 13; τοὺς ὀρχηστὰς τοὺς δύο, οὓς ἐκεῖ ο<*> ποιητὴς κυβιστητῆρας καλεῖ, ἡγουμένους τοῦ χοροῦ” shews he read “ἐξάρχοντες”. Further, the participle “ἐξάρχοντος” in the gen. absol. without a noun agreeing with it is very doubtful in H.; 11.458 is the only other case, and there Zen. read “οὗ” for “οί”. The text as it stands is quite intelligible; the κυβιστητ̂ηρε are two ‘leaders,’ perhaps professional posturers and tumblers, who go through a dramatic performance to which the youths and maidens dance a sort of accompaniment. Compare Bent's description of modern Greek dances (The Cyclades “Ρ”. 246) ‘. . the syrtos, a wavy line of five or six women, hand in hand, and led by a pocket-handkerchief by one man, whose acrobatic executions were wonderful to behold. Then there was the rapid dance performed by rows of men with their arms round each others' shoulders, four steps backwards, four forwards, with pointed toe, first slowly, with the pace increased till I was almost dazzled by its rapidity.’ These dances may be seen every Easter Tuesday at Megara, and seem to be among the most ancient survivals in modern Greece. — The reading of H, “ἐξάρχοντε”, is likely to be right.

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

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Walter Leaf, Commentary on the Iliad (1900)

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