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[809] πᾶσαι ἀντὶ τοῦ ὅλαι (and so 12.340) Ar., i.e. the gates were thrown wide open; because, with the doubtful exception of 5.789 “πυλαὶ Δαρδάνιαι”, H. does not seem to have conceived Troy as having any gates except the Skaian. But in all the other phrases (11.65, 13.191, 408, 548, etc., and even Od. 9.389) to which Ar. referred to support his theory of “πᾶς” = “ὅλος”, the emphasis lies on the fact that the whole of something is affected when it might have been only a part; the difficulty here obviously is that we can hardly conceive a part of a gate being opened; “πᾶσαι” could at the most mean that both the “σανίδες” were opened, not one only, and then it would obviously be an unnatural phrase. It is better to consider the poet as conceiving Ilios, like all great towns, as many-gated, but as only naming the one gate which was specially recorded by his tradition.

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

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