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[586] 586 is no doubt an interpolation: the subj. ἀλίτηται after the historic tense is indefensible, and shews that half the line has been carelessly adapted from 570. In that line there is no word of murder; it would be offence enough against the rights of the suppliant if he were roughly driven away; though Achilles naturally leaves the lengths to which his anger might carry him to his hearers' imagination. It is probable enough both that the poet should in his own person continue this effective reserve in 585 and that an interpolator of less delicate taste should break through it by adding 586.

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

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