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[34] “ὅτι ψιλῶς προενεκτέον κοτυλ́ηρυτον” (i.e. “κοτυλἤρυτον”, not “κοτυλήῥυτον”), “οὐ γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς ῥύσεως ἀλλ᾽ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀρύσαι . . Ἀρίσταρχος πολύ, ὥστε κοτύληι ἀρύσασθαι” (deep enough to be taken up in cups), This An.explanation is needlessly artificial. It is more natural to suppose that the blood of the victims was caught in cups and then poured out, so as to make it a direct gift from the mourner to the dead. Blood is given to the shades as a food to strengthen them in the curious ritual of Odysseus' journey to Hades, Od. 10.535 ff., Od. 11.89, 96, 153, etc. Cf. Eur. Hec. 534 ff. (Neoptolemos sacrificing Polyxena) “ὦ παῖ Πηλέως, πατὴρ δ᾽ ἐμός, δέξαι χοάς μοι τάσδε κηλητηρίους, νεκρῶν ἀγωγούς: ἐλθὲ δ̓, ὡς πίηις μέλαν κόρης ἀκραιφνὲς αἷμα”. See App. L, § 8.

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

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