E. M. Cope, Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle

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‘By “common” or “general” I mean, saying (for instance) in praise of Achilles, that he is a man, or one of the demigods, or that he joined the expedition against Troy; for these things belong (these distinctions are shared by, are common) to many others besides, so that one who does this (such an one) praises Achilles no more than Diomede. By “special” or “peculiar”, what belongs' (properly as a separable accident, but not technical here) ‘to no one else but Achilles, as for instance to have slain the famous (τόν) Hector, the best and bravest of the Trojans, and the renowned Cycnus, who, being invulnerable, prevented the landing of the whole (Greek) army; and that he was the youngest of those that made the expedition, and joined it without taking the oath’ (unsworn, i. e. voluntarily, whereas the rest were compelled to serve by their engagement to Tyndareus), ‘and anything else of the same kind’.

Κύκνον] Cycnus does not appear in Homer. The earliest mention of him seems to be that of Pindar, Ol. II 82 (146), who uses him for the same purpose as Aristotle, viz. for the glorification of Achilles. (Ar.'s notice may possibly be a reminiscence of Pindar.) Ἀχιλλέα...ὃς Ἕκτορ᾽ ἔσφαλε, Τρῴας ἄμαχον ἀστραβῆ κίονα, Κύκνον τε θανάτῳ πόρεν, Ἀοῦς τε παῖδ̓ Αἰθίοπα (Memnon.) The story of Achilles' encounter with Cycnus at the landing of the troops, the long conflict with his ‘invulnerable’ antagonist, and how Achilles finally destroyed him, are all related at length by Ovid, Met. XII 64—145. He was the son of Neptune, Ovid u. s. 72, proles Neptunia; is again classed with Hector, line 75; and in lines 135— 144 is described as finally crushed and strangled with the thong or fastening of his own helmet.

ἄτρωτος] not unwounded, but invulnerable (invulnerable by ordinary weapons; not absolutely, since he was killed). Pind. Nem. X 11, ἀτρώτῳ κραδίᾳ, Isthm. III 30 ἄτρωτοι παῖδες θεῶν. Plat. Symp. 219 E.

οὐκ ἔνορκος] The oath sworn by Helen's suitors to her father Tyndareus at Sparta, that they would defend him whom she chose for her husband against any aggression. This was Menelaus. Victorius quotes, Pausan. Lac. c. 24, Ὅμηρος δὲ ἔγραψε μὲν τῆς ποιήσεως ἀρχόμενος ὡς Ἀχιλλεὺς χαριζόμενος τοῖς Ἀτρέως παισί, καὶ οὐκ ἐνεχόμενος τοῖς ὅρκοις τοῖς Τυνδάρεω, παραγένοιτο εἰς Τροίαν. The passage referred to seems to be Il. A 158. Ulysses says the same of his son Neoptolemus, Soph. Phil. 72, σὺ μὲν πέπλευκας οὔτ᾽ ἔνορκος οὐδενί κ.τ.λ.: and Philoctetes of himself, Ib. 1026. The story of the oath is told in Eurip. Iph. Aul. 49—65; and frequently alluded to elsewhere in the Tragic writers. Comp. Soph. Aj. 1111, Teucer of Ajax, οὐ γάρ τι τῆς σῆς οὕνεκ᾽ ἐστρατεύσατο,......ἀλλ̓ οὕνεχ̓ ὅρκων οἷσιν ἦν ἐνώμοτος.