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[19] ἄκμονας, the anvil is the largest mass of metal with which primitive man commonly deals, and is therefore a handy means of torture. Curtius suggests however that the word may here mean thunderbolts, regarded as heavy stones, a sufficiently appropriate implement for Zeus; he compares Skt. as/man, stone, thunderbolt, Lith. akmen, stone. See also Hes. Theog. 722 where “χάλκεος ἄκμων οὐρανόθεν κατιών” may mean thunderbolt, but is more probably anvil. A similar rough and ready torture is applied to Melanthios in Od. 22.173.

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

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