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[204] The relation of the two participles is obscure; neither seems sufficiently different from the other to be subordinated in the usual way, as the special to the general. “κείρειν” in 11.560 (“ὄνος κ. εἰσελθὼν βαθὺ λήϊον”) is hardly to be further distinguished from “ἐρέπτεσθαι” (“λωτὸν ἐρεπτόμενοι”) than ‘biting’ from ‘munching.’ Thus it is hard to say which verb here defines the other. We can only translate feeding on the fat by biting it or the like. ἐπινεφρίδιον also is not like an Epic word. It shews an accurate knowledge of nature, however, as the fat in this spot seems to be a particular delicacy to carnivora; the New Zealand parrots kill sheep by sitting on their backs and biting it out, and the word acquires a special significance when we find that the kidneys are regarded as the centre of life not only by Australian cannibals, but by the Semitic nations (‘the fat of the kidneys is particularly selected by the Arabs, and by most savages, as the special seat of life’ Robertson Smith quoted by Platt in J. P. xix. 46, q.v.).

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

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