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[113] Here again the mention of the χιτών alone seems clearly to shew that Diomedes has no breastplate; for it would be strange if the blood were said to spurt through the tunic concealed by the breastplate while the visible breastplate itself is passed over in silence. The meaning of στρεπτός applied to the chiton here and 21.31 is very uncertain. According to the old interpreters it meant either ‘woven’ — a sense which cannot be got out of the word or its use — or else, and this was apparently the view of Aristarchos, a ‘coat of mail,’ chain or scale armour; but this is untenable, as such armour is absolutely unknown both to H. and to the old monuments. Acc. to Studniczka it implies a mode of weaving in which an extra twist was given to the threads, thus producing a crapy or crinkled surface (Studn. Beitr. p. 64). But it is far simpler to understand it to mean no more than pliant, as in 9.497, 15.203, 20.248. ἀνηκόντιζε, darted up; the metaphor is imitated in Herod.iv. 181 “ἀνακοντίζει ἐκ μέσου τοῦ ἁλὸς ὕδωρ ψυχρόν”, Eur. Hel. 1587, etc.

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

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