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[184] 184-91 are rejected by Fäsi and Düntzer, chiefly because they anticipate the events of the next book — the dragging of Hector in 187 and the ransoming which is indicated by the “πρίν” of 190. Other difficulties are the appearance of Aphrodite, who nowhere else has any special regard for Hector, the effect apparently attributed to the oil of preventing the skin from being torn, and the curious idea that the spot on which Hector's body lies should be hidden, though no such miracle is noticed in 24.15 ff. On the other hand, von Christ remarks that the emphatic “Πατρόκλου” in 192 implies that some one else has been the subject of the preceding lines. The appearance of Aphrodite does not imply any special regard; she acts with Apollo because these two are the leading patrons of Troy. The cloud in 188 is perhaps a way of saying that Phoibos, as sun-god, prevents the sun from shining on the body, and does not oblige us to suppose that the poet conceived a dense fog as filling the hut. The case then is not very strong except against 187, which is indefensible; but the lines, with their unexplained anticipations of “Ω”, rather interrupt than help the narrative, and would be better away. — ἀμφεπένοντο, see note on 21.203.

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

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