[211] The exordium is quite inexplicable after Polydamas' speech in 80 ff., where he has given advice which Hector at once accepts. The two passages evidently belong to different versions; but the present conception of the relations of the two men is the more prevalent, as it recurs in 13.726 ff., and is brought out at length in 18.243-313. Polydamas is there introduced (249-52) as though he were an unknown character; and it is likely enough that he first appeared there, and is a later comer in this place, his words referring to the general view of him there established. ἀεί, with “α^”, is an Attic form recurring only in 23.648, Od. 15.379. Hence Brandreth conj. “Ἕκτορ, ἔμ᾽ αἰεί πως μέν”, van L. “Ἕκτωρ, αἰεί πώς μοι”.
