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[236] For prices calculated in oxen, as a mere measure of value, cf. note on 18.507, and 2.449, 21.79, 23.703-5, Od. 1.431, Od. 22.57. We are not told what the τεύχεα of gold were. The word seems not to include the body armour in 3.89, 21.301; possibly it may mean only shields. In 8.193-5 Nestor has a golden shield, Diomedes a “θώρηξ” made by Hephaistos (not that of Glaukos).

This almost burlesque ending to one of the most delightful episodes in Homer has greatly exercised critics. Nothing else in the Iliad or Odyssey can be compared with it, unless it be the evident satisfaction with which “κερδοσύνη” is regarded (e.g. Od. 13.291 sqq.). On the other hand, generosity between “ξεῖνοι” is repeatedly spoken of in terms which shew that the poet fully entered into the chivalrous liberality of the heroic age. There is no ground whatever for rejecting these three lines as some have wished to do. They were Homeric in the eyes of Plato ( Symp. 219A) and Aristotle (Eth. N. v. 9. 7), nor have we any reason for believing that before that time it was possible to treat the Homeric poems with obvious levity. We seem therefore to have an outbreak of conscious and deliberate humour, which is only so far isolated that it appears among men and not, as elsewhere, among the gods.

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

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