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[587] The manner in which Mydon falls is not very obvious. The most probable event would be that he would fall out of the back of the car; for in any other direction the rail and framework of the car would support him. He might then lie with his feet still in the car, and his head and shoulders upon the ground. But then it is hard to see how the horses could be said to kick him; and the Homeric chariot was hardly large enough to hold the whole of the legs and part of the trunk of a man in a reclining position. It would seem, therefore, that he was standing sideways in the car, so as to look at his enemy while he wheeled; and when wounded fell backwards over the side of the car, his knees hooking over the “ἄντυξ”. The ‘soft sand’ explains why the car was brought for a while to a standstill; it would be absurd to suppose, as some commentators have done, that his head dug a hole in the sand so as to keep him fixed. “γάρ ῥ᾽” and “ψαμάθοιο” seem to be mere makeshifts for the sake of the metre. The old glossographers distinguish “ψάμαθος” sea-sand from “ἄμαθος” dust; but it is doubtful if the distinction is real. “ἄμαθος” occurs also in Hymn. Ap. 439, but not elsewhere before Ap. Rhod. Compare “ἄμμος” (in Attic prose) by “ψάμμος”.

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

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