The comments I offered in Classical Inquiries 2016-2017 on Iliad Rhapsody 1 through Rhapsody 24, starting here with Rhapsody 1, were based mostly on details that derive from seven books that I indicate in the Bibliography by way of these abbreviations: BA, GMP, H24H, HC, HPC, HQ, HR, MoM, PasP, PH. Each one of these books has its own index locorum. My colleague Anita Nikkanen, an Associate Editor for the online project A Homer commentary in progress, tracked the sequences of Homeric verses as listed in the indices for six of these books and then summarized my comments on those verses. Following up on her meticulous work, I am in the process of converting her summaries into a form of commentary that is being incorporated into AHCIP. My comments on the Iliad as I presented them in Classical Inquiries 2016-2017 are merely samplings of the content that I hope to contribute to the overall commentary, to which a number of other colleagues are also contributing their own comments. That said, I now proceed to offer a sampling of comments on Rhapsody 1. At this point, my comments about this beginning of beginnings need no further introduction of their own.

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“The Rage of Achilles,” by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1757, [public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Before the hero Achilles ever felt mēnis ‘anger’, the god Apollo already felt mēnis, and it was the god’s anger that ultimately led to the hero’s anger. Relevant are the words akhos ‘grief’ and algea ‘pains’, which are used in equivalent contexts.

The paragraph that follows is meant to illustrate, for those who are reading the Iliad for the first time, the kinds of textual variations that we find in the manuscript tradition.

Iliad 1.97 οὐδ’ ὅ γε πρὶν λοιμοῖο βαρείας χεῖρας ἀφέξει Iliad 1.97 variant οὐδ’ ὅ γε πρὶν Δαναοῖσιν ἀεικέα λοιγὸν ἀπώσει The verse as we see it in our base text shows a reading that matches what we read in the majority of medieval manuscripts. Such a majority of medieval manuscript readings is conventionally known as Ω. The manuscript known as Venetus A is among the Ω manuscripts that shows this reading in its base text. But there is also a variant of this verse, which I call “Iliad 1.97 variant,” and this variant verse shows the variant wording Δαναοῖσιν ἀεικέα λοιγὸν ἀπώσει instead of λοιμοῖο βαρείας χεῖρας ἀφέξει. In the Venetus A, this variant wording is actually written out in the space between the Iliadic text and the text of the marginal scholia. The scholia found in that space are known as the text scholia. And the text scholia in this case add a comment after quoting the variant wording: οὕτως αἱ ᾿Αριστάρχου ‘this is the way the (two) manuscripts of Aristarchus (have it)’. Also, in the marginal scholia of the Venetus A, we read a summary of the reportage of Didymus, who says that Aristarchus, in a treatise that he produced in response to one Komanos, preferred the reading of the Iliad 1.97 variant. And Aristarchus found the same variant in the manuscript of Rhianos and in the Massaliotike. As for Didymus himself, he found the reading of the Iliad 1.97 variant in ‘the (two) manuscripts of Aristarchus’, to which he frequently refers. It can be shown that these two manuscripts used by Didymus had base texts that no longer matched the original base text of Aristarchus, who flourished about 150 years before Didymus (and Aristonicus). Didymus remarks that the other reading that he knows, which is what we read as Iliad 1.97, must have been the reading in the text of Zenodotus. The way that Didymus says this makes me think that he did not have access to the original base text of Aristarchus. The reading that we read in our base text is also given by van Thiel in the base text of his edition of the Iliad. By contrast with van Thiel, Allen and other modern editors give the reading “Iliad 1.97 variant” in their base texts. They do so even though Aristarchus in his base text must have given the same reading that we give in our base text. GN 2010.02.20, updated 2016.02.05.

The words akhos ‘grief’ and algea ‘pains’ are used in equivalent contexts.

When Achilles insults Agamemnon by calling him philo-kteanōtatos ‘most loving of material gain’, the framing narration is referring to the general theme of Agamemnon’s greediness.

apoina as object of dekhesthai, in the context of analyzing I.18.499-500 (litigation scene on the Shield), and Corlu, Benveniste, and Chantraine

commentary on the similarities between Demeter’s and Achilles’ alienation over the loss of a girl

commentary on ‘gracious’ in the context of appeasing Apollo’s mēnis through ritual

apoina as object of dekhesthai, in the context of analyzing I.18.499-500 (litigation scene on the Shield), and Corlu, Benveniste, and Chantraine

commentary on Agamemnon’s mistake about the exchange value of Chryses

commentary on Agamemnon’s mistake about the exchange value of Chryses

Agamemnon’s social prestige is at issue when he is dishonored (in the context of discussing mēnis as incurred by violations of the value system based on group distribution and reciprocal exchange)

Agamemnon’s social prestige is at issue when he is dishonored (in the context of discussing mēnis as incurred by violations of the value system based on group distribution and reciprocal exchange)

commentary on Achilles’ and Poseidon’s analogous grief at their disregard and abuse of communal division