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[365] 365-68. “ἀθετοῦνται στίχοι τέσσαρες: γελοῖον γὰρ τὸ βρυχᾶσθαι τὸν Ἀχιλλέα, ἥ τε συνέπεια οὐδὲν ζητεῖ διαγραφέντων αὐτῶν. ὁ δὲ Σιδώνιος ἠθετηκέναι μὲν τὸ πρῶτόν θησιν αὐτοὺς τὸν Ἀρίσταρχον, ὕστερον δὲ περιελεῖν τοὺς ὀβελούς, ποιητικὸν νομίσαντα τὸ τοιοῦτο. ὁ μέντοι Ἀμμώνιος ἐν τῶι περὶ τῆς ἐπεκδοθείσης διορθώσεως” (the second edition of Ar.'s recension) “οὐδὲν τοιοῦτο λέγει” Did. The scholion is important as shewing the uncertainty of the tradition as to some points of Ar.'s doctrine in the time of Didymos. For Ammonios see note on 10.398. To reconcile his silence with the words of Dion. Sidonios, Lehrs suggests that Ar. may have ‘removed the obeli’ in his lectures after the publication of his second edition. The question turns mainly on two points, first whether the lines are ‘grotesque,’ as Ar. thought, and secondly on the apparent reference to the “ὁπλοποιΐα” in 368. As to the first modern critics may hesitate as Ar. did — a sympathetic reader may find in them barbaric grandeur like that of 15.607-09, where others only see turgid exaggeration. A reference to the “ὁπλοποιΐα” will of course exclude them from a place in the original poem; it is just possible that the “Μῆνις” may have known of a divine panoply made by Hephaistos for Achilles before “Σ” existed, as we have no reason to doubt Cheiron's Pelian spear. My own feeling is that the passage may be retained as primitive, but that 368 has been altered after the addition of “Σ”.

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

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