Book 13
1.41
So the Ilians tell us, but Homer expressly states that the city was wiped out: The day shall come when sacred Ilios shall perish;Hom. Il. 6.448andsurely we have utterly destroyed the steep city of Priam,Hom. Od. 3.130by means of counsels and persuasiveness;This phrase is not found in the Iliad or Odyssey, but once before (1. 2. 4) Strabo has ascribed it to Homer.and in the tenth year the city of Priam was destroyed.Hom. Il. 12.15And other such evidences of the same thing are set forth; for example, that the wooden image of Athena now to be seen stands upright, whereas Homer clearly indicates that it was sitting, for orders are given to “put” the robeupon Athena’s kneesHom. Il. 6.92Hom. Il. 6.273(comparethat never should there sit upon his knees a dear child).Hom. Il. 9.455For it is better to interpret iti.e., the Greek preposition ἐπί, which more naturally means “upon” rather than “beside.” in this way than, as some do, to interpret it as meaning “to put the robe ‘beside’ her knees,” comparing the wordsand she sits upon the hearth in the light of the fire,Hom. Od. 6.305which they take to mean “beside” the hearth. For how could one conceive of the dedication of a robe “beside” the knees? Moreover, others, changing the accent on γούνασιν“Knees.” accenting it γουνάσιν,They obviously took γουνάσιν, if there ever was such a word, to mean “female suppliants.” like θυιάσιν“Maenads.” (in whichever of two ways they interpret it), talk on endlessly. . . There are to be seen many of the ancient wooden images of Athena in a sitting posture, as, for example, in Phocaea, Massalia, Rome, Chios, and several other places. Also the more recent writers agree that the city was wiped out, among whom is the orator Lycurgus, who, in mentioning the city of the Ilians, says: Who has not heard that once for all it was razed to the ground by the Greeks, and is uninhabited?Against Leocrates, 62.
