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[182] 182-83. The sense of these lines is by no means clear, on account of τις. They would naturally be taken thus, ‘it is no disgrace for a king to appease a man who has been the first to quarrel’; and this is clearly the construction of the similar line 24.369 (= Od. 16.72, Od. 21.133), “τις” there being the same person as “ἄνδρα”. But here this does not suit the context; for it is Agamemnon who “πρότερος χαλέπηνε”, as he has distinctly admitted. We must therefore understand ‘it is no disgrace for a king to make atonement to a man, when any (king) has been the first to quarrel,’ etc.; i.e. a king need not feel ashamed to admit when he has done wrong. Ameis-Hentze join “βασιλῆα ἄνδρα”, as object to “ἀπαρέσσασθαι”, ‘it is no disgrace to make atonement to a man of royal rank (sc. Achilles) when one has been the first to quarrel’; cf. “βασιλῆϊ γὰρ ἀνδρὶ ἔοικε” 3.170. This gives the best sense, but the separation of “βασιλῆα ἄνδρα” by the end of the line is excessively harsh, as it intensifies the natural ambiguity of the accusatives, and almost forces us to take them apart. But the whole couplet is evidently a not very skilful development of a conventional line. It would be made clearer by Bentley's “ὅν τε” for ὅτε τις, but there is no authority for a trans. use of “χαλεπαίνειν”.

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

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