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80

80 On the Homeric use of the word Uncos'. in a humbler and commoner sense; so that from these alone we should not have derived the notion that it was an epithet of distinction. In the passages which I shall now cite, the application seems much more indiscriminate. One or two of them, taken alone, might be strained to a more confined sense ; but I think, when viewed together, they make strongly against the notion that the term implied much distinction, at any rate in the Iliad. Asius, the Trojan ally, says — ov yap eY^'y €(paixr}v rjpcva^ Ayaiov^ < / GyYjGeiv r}ixeT€pov ye juevo^ Kai '^eipa^ aaiTTOv^ — II. XII. 165. where he seems to speak of the Greeks simply. So Menelaus says to the Trojans, vvi^ avT ev prjvaiv jueveatveTe TrovTOTropoicriv TTvp oXoou (iaXeeiv^ Krelvai h' fjpcoas A-^aiov^. II. xill. 628. So Zeus says to Apollo, aWa (TV y ev -^^eLpecxcn Xa/3' alyi^a Ovacravoecrcrav^ Tr)v fxak eTTiaaeicov^ <po(ieeiv ijpooa^ 'Avaiou^. II. XV. 229. Accordingly Apollo tells Hector, Tpexj^co fjpcioa^ 'A^aroJs. II. xv. 26I. Again, Tpwaiv eXireTO 6v,ao^ ei/l crrrjOecraiv eKaarov vrja^ evLTTpriaeLVy Kreveeiv ff ijpwas 'A'^^aiov^. II. xv. 701. When Zeus is exerting himself in behalf of the Trojans, and Posidaon in behalf of the Greeks, the expression is, to) c a^,(pk (ppoveovre ^vco Kpovov vie Kparaico avopaaiv ^pweaai Terev^eTOv aXyea Xvypa. II. XIII. 345. In all these passages the word might be taken for the warriors generally : we can scarcely believe it to be confined to the chiefs, or the owners of chariots, an opinion I at one time entertained: at any rate they suggest no such notion. But there are three passages in the Iliad, in which the heroes are spoken of as forming the crTiYes^ the ranks. When Apollo carries off ^neas from Achilles, TToXXd^ ce (jTiya^ ripcowv^ TroXXaV Se Kal 'lttttwv Aivelw VTrepaXrOf Oeov airo x^^P^'S opoma^. II. xx. 326.