BOOK TWO: The False Dream: also ‘Catalogue of Ships’
3 In order to strengthen their claims over the island of Salamis, the Athenians here interpolated a line:
‘and drew them up at the Athenians’ station.’
Apparently Solon arranged the matter for the tyrant Peisistratus, at whose court the Iliad was being edited.
BOOK FOUR: Agamemnon Inspects His Army
4 Greek archers never learned to draw a bow-string back to the ear.
5 An Athenian forgery must be suspected here. The Athenians can hardly have been brigaded with the Western Islanders, nor can Odysseus have spoken before Menestheus did, being far lower in rank. To judge from Book 5, Menestheus’ name has been substituted for that of ‘Meges, son of Phylus, favoured by Zeus’, who distinguished himself in the battle; his troops from Dulichium and the Echinean Isles are bracketed in Book 2 with their neighbours, Odysseus’ Cephallenians, Ithacans, Zacynthans, etc.
BOOK NINE: A Deputation to Achilles
6 Some 822 lbs. of gold, if Agamemnon used the earlier Aeginetan standard; 570 lbs., if he used the Attic.
BOOK TEN: The Dolon Incident
7 Some translators read the text as meaning that, in his battle-madness, he thought of carrying the chariot itself away on his shoulders. But this seems too heroic even for Diomedes when under Athene’s inspiration.
BOOK TWENTY-THREE: Funeral Games for Patroclus
8 Here follow eighty-five lines containing fanciful and somewhat tedious accounts of spear-fighting, putting the weight, and archery. Since Achilles does not mention any of these in his list of events, nor do they figure in Nestor’s record of Amarynceus’ funeral games, I omit them as spurious.
Robert Graves, The Anger of Achilles: Homer's Iliad
(Series: # )
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends