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[30] τέκμωρ, properly a thing established; hence, as in 1.526, the determination, settling of a resolve; or, as here, a fixed goal, a limit of destiny. This is illustrated by “τεκμαίρεται”, 1. 70 below, ‘Zeus settles an appointed time, against which you are to take Troy or yourselves be vanquished.’ Hence, as Buttmann remarks, comes the later sense of ‘foretelling by a sign’; for one who foretells an event by personal divine knowledge, like Kirke (Od. 10.563, Od. 11.112), ‘appoints,’ ‘destines’ it to mortals; to a god the two are identical. In 13.20 Poseidon “ἵκετο τέκμωρ, Αἰγάς”, i.e. ‘the goal which he had set for his journey’; 16.472 “τοῖο εὕρετο τέκμωρ”, ‘attained the end at which he aimed.’ The only question which can arise on the present passage is whether “τέκμωρ” means ‘the limit set by fate for Ilios,’ or ‘the goal set for themselves by the Greeks with regard to Ilios.’ Ameis, on the analogy of 16.472, accepts the latter interpretation. There, however, the verb is “εὕρετο” in the middle, which makes some difference (v. however Od. 4.374), while here it is in the active; and the similarity of l. 70 seems decisive in favour of the former: ‘let them fight on’ (the fut. gives the sense ‘for all I care’) ‘till they find out by experience the limit set by fate for Ilios.’ So 9.48, 418.

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

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