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[356] A much disputed line. It is highly probable that Heyne is right in regarding it as interpolated here from 590, where the explanation is comparatively simple. The “χωρίζοντες” of Aristarchos' time took it to mean ‘Helen's searchings of heart and groanings,’ and urged that this view of Helen's resistance to her abduction was peculiar to the Il., while the poet of the Od. represented her as going willingly with Paris. Aristarchos replied, “ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἐπ᾽ αὐτῆς ὁ λόγος ἀλλ᾽ ἔξωθεν πρόθεσιν τὴν ‘περὶ’ δεῖ λαβεῖν, ἵν᾽ ἦι ‘περὶ Ἑλένης”.’ The scholiast goes on, “καὶ ἔστιν ὁ λόγος, τιμωρίαν λαβεῖν ἀνθ᾽ ὧν ἐστενάξαμεν καὶ ἐμεριμνήσαμεν περὶ Ἑλένης: παραλειπτικὸς” (fond of omitting) “γὰρ προθέσεών ἐστιν ὁ ποιητής”. Apart from the gratuitous insertion of the preposition there can be little doubt that this view is right, if the line is to be regarded as in place here at all. The sense is all the fighting and groaning about (caused by) Helen (not, of course, ‘our (mental) struggles and groans’ of sympathy, as some have taken it'. Whatever excuse might be found for Helen in the guile of Aphrodite, there can be no doubt that Homer represents her as having deserted her husband voluntarily as far as the outward aspect of her action went; and she could not therefore be regarded by the Greeks as a victim whose sufferings were to be avenged. The chief passages in H. are Od. 4.145, 260, 3.164, 399 ff., [Od. 23.218-24]. See also Mr. A. Lang's note to Helen of Troy. For the gen. compare “ἄχος ἡνιόχοιο”, grief for the charioteer, 8.124, etc., “ἄχος σέθεν” 4.169, “χόλον υἷος” 15.138, “πένθος παιδὸς ἀποφθιμένοιο” 18.88, and others in H. G. § 147. 1. ὁρμήματα recurs only in 590; it evidently means the struggles of war, “ὁρμάω” and “ὁρμάομαι” being used chiefly of the rushes of close conflict. (In the alternative expl. we should compare “ὁρμαίνω”, always used of mental effort.)

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

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