Note 747 — BOOK THE TWENTY-THIRD.

Footnote 747: (return) “The old interpreter explained ἐν ξυνοχῇσιν ὁδοῦ, and I think correctly, of a wide track in the open plain becoming somewhat narrower at the point where the old monument stood; but ἀμφίς they took in the opposite sense of χωρίς, or still more forced. Heyne, however, understood it quite correctly of the wide plain around, which was so suited to a chariot-race, and within which, in the distance, stood also the mark chosen by Achilles, ver. 359. Others see in this passage the course winding round the monument; but then it must have been an old course regularly drawn out for the purpose; whereas this monument was selected by Achilles for the goal or mark quite arbitrarily, and by his own choice; and Nestor, ver. 332, only conjectures that it might have formerly served for a goal.”—Buttm. Lexil. p. 95.