Note 169 — Chapter V

He is accused, however, of having interpolated several lines to gratify Athenian vanity, and one with a deeper view; that, namely, which says of Ajax, that he ranged his own alongside of the Athenian ships (Il. ii. 558) with the purpose of strengthening Athens’ claim to Salamis, then hotly contested by Megara. The Megarian versions said, on the other hand, that Ajax led ships from Salamis, and from Polichne, Nisæa, and other towns of Megaris. Both this trick, and the credit of collecting Homer’s poems, are ascribed by other authors to Solon. Some eminent modern scholars have doubted whether this arrangement and revision ever took place.—See Knight, Proleg. ad Hom. § 4, 5.