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[381] Orchomenos in Boiotia, 2.511, was the city of the Minyai (Od. 11.284), who were famed for their treasure and for the house in which, according to tradition, it was kept (see Pausan. ix. 38, with Frazer's note, and Schuchh. p. 299). The form “Ἐρχομενόν”, which is possibly indicated as a variant in A, is that used locally (see on 2.511). The mention so close together of Orchomenos and Thebes makes it very clear that the Thebes meant is that in Boiotia. 382-4 are a most prosy interpolation, entirely out of character with the rest of the speech. They are evidently due to some person with a dull chronological mind who reflected that during the war with Troy the Greek Thebes was lying waste after the war of the Epigonoi (cf. 2.505). He forgot, however, that Egypt is elsewhere unknown to the Iliad, and borrowed a line from Od. 4.127 where it is quite in place. (383-4 have been condemned by almost all critics since Heyne; Dr. Verrall was, I believe, the first to point out that 382 must go with them.)

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

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