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[266] ἀδμ́ητην seems to imply that an unbroken spirit was a recommendation to the heroic cavalier. Naber and C. Nauck have pointed out that we may equally well read “ἑξετέα δμητήν”, and it would be supposed that a six-year-old would no longer be susceptible of breaking. In 655 we have the same phrase with the addition of “ἥ τ᾽ ἀλγίστη δαμάσασθαι”, which is most naturally taken as exegetic of “ἀδμήτην”, and meaning that this is the hardest age for breaking. If we read “δμητήν” there, the line must mean that the mule is the hardest of animals to tame; this is possible, but less Homeric.

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

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