[151] The form ἰππεῖς is not Homeric. Lehrs and Brandreth conj. “ἱππῆες δ᾽ ἱππῆας, ὑπό σφισι δ᾽ ὦρτο”, which has support in the variant “ἱππῆες” of several MSS. The corruption may be explained from the old “ΙΠΠΕΣ” wrongly transliterated “ἱππεῖς”, and the order of “σφισὶ δέ” then inverted in order to restore the syllable thus lost. But it must be admitted that some suspicion attaches to 150-2. χαλκῶι δηϊόωντες cannot belong to “πόδες ἵππων” — it will hardly be maintained that the heroes used horseshoes of bronze — but must be referred to “ἱππῆες”, the intervening words being a very awkward parenthesis. ἐρίγδουπος is an epithet elsewhere reserved for Zeus, though “ἐρίδουπος” occurs in “Ω” and Od. as an epithet of the “αἴθουσα”, and in 20.50, Od. 10.515, of rivers.
