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[557] 557-8 were athetized by Ar. and Aph., and omitted by Zen., as being wrongly introduced from 16.299-300. There can be little doubt that this judgment is right, fine though the lines are in themselves; the repetition of “αἰθήρ” is awkward, and the strong phrase ὑπερράγη is far more appropriate in the later passage, where the clouds are represented as being actually ‘burst open’ by a gust of wind, than here where the air is still. So also the aorist ἔφανεν implies a sudden glimpse through clouds. Here too the peaks and points are less in place than where the mountain to which they belong has been already mentioned. But patent though the plagiarism from “Π” is, there is no reason to doubt that the lines have stood here from the first. They are not interpolated by a later hand, for if we cut them out the repetition of ἄστρα (555, 559) becomes painfully prominent. ὑπερράγη, from “ὑπο-”(not “ὑπερ-”）“ρήγνυμι”. The sense seems to be ‘the “αἰθήρ” (or serene sky above the clouds) is burst open from heaven.’ The οὐρανός is the firmament in which the stars are; the rent takes place in the veil of clouds under the “αἰθήρ”, so as to shew right through the “αἰθήρ” up to the skies and stars beyond. Thus, instead of ‘from the heaven,’ it seems to us more natural to say ‘to the heaven’; but the difference is merely one of the point of view in imagination. The literal sense of “ὑπό” in “ὑπερράγη” is, in fact, upwards, i.e. on the sky side (see H. G. § 201).

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

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