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[72] The need of funeral rites to give access to the underworld (followed by Virg. Aen. vi. 327 ff.) differs from Elpenor's story in Od. 11.51-83; for he, though unburied, is not separated from the shades by the river. So in Od. 24.186 ff. the ghosts of the suitors come among the shades while their bodies are still uncared for (see App. L, § 9). On account of this discrepancy Nitzsch was inclined to athetize 72-74. But we have no right whatever so to manipulate the evidence. On this point, as on so many others, the Homeric poems represent differences of age and place. εἴργουσι, read (“μ᾽”） “ἐέργουσι. καμόντων”, see on 3.278.

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

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