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[125] Not without booty would that man be, and not unpossessed of precious gold, that owned as much as my strong-footed horses won me in prizes. i.e. the mere prizes I have won in races would form a large fortune for any man. Ridgeway has shewn (J.H.S. vi. 328) that ἀλήϊος comes from “ληΐς”, and has nothing to do with “λήϊον”, which means ‘crop’ or standing corn, not corn-land; several property in land is confined in the Iliad to the “τέμενος βασιλήϊον”, while there are indications that the ‘common-field’ system still prevailed (see on 12.421). ἀλήϊος and ἀκτήμων, like “πολυκτήμων πολυλήϊος” in 5.613, are evidently to be explained from “ληϊστοὶ μὲν γάρ τε βόες .. κτητοὶ δὲ τρίποδες” in 9.406; they represent the two primitive methods of acquiring wealth, plunder and trade, which in Homeric times flourished with equal rights. The insertion of 126 between “τόσσα” and “ὅσσα” is awkward; Bentley and P. Knight rejected the line on this ground. Brandreth adds that the final “-ο” of “-οιο” is nowhere else found in arsi (?).

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

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