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[524] It has been almost universally recognized that the concluding portion of this speech of Hector cannot have been composed as it stands. Ar. athetized 524-5, and 528 (this was omitted altogether by Zen.), and held that 535-7 and 538-41 were a double recension, repeating the same thought twice over (the recurrence of “αὔριον”, 535 and 538, being particularly displeasing). 540, which is found in the parallel passage, 13.827, he seems not to have read here at all. Of the two recensions he preferred the second, as being more boastful, and therefore more in accordance with the character of Hector, while Zen. omitted the former (535-7) altogether. Against individual lines many objections can be raised. The use of ὑγιής is unique in Homer (see note on 4.235); while the phrase φυλάξομεν ἡμέας αὐτούς is doubtful Greek. Again, in 541 ἡμέρη ἥδε must mean, not ‘this present day,’ as it should, but ‘the day of which I am speaking,’ to-morrow. 527 is not consonant with Hector's intention, which is not to drive the Greeks away, but to prevent their escape. All these difficulties can be evaded if with Hentze we regard 524-9 and 538-41 as constituting the intruding version. This may have existed independently (though evidently of late origin) with the exception of 529, which must have been added to make the fusion possible. ὃς μὲν νῦν ὑγιής, that which is profitable for the moment, for to-day; while τὸν δ᾽ ἠοῦς apparently means ‘that concerning the morrow I will now announce.’ This is a purely Attic use of the article, but it makes better sense than to join “ἠοῦς” with the verb, ‘another announcement I will make to-morrow.’

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

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