[194] 194 is commonly printed without a note of interrogation; but ‘by reading it as a rhetorical question’ (an alternative given by Schol. B) ‘the connexion of the speech is considerably improved. Odysseus has begun by explaining the true purpose of Agamemnon. Then he affects to remember that he is speaking to one of the “kings” who formed the council. “But why need I tell you this? Did we not all — we of the council — hear what he said?”’ — Monro J. P. xi. 125. This also suits line 143 “πᾶσι μετὰ πληθύν, ὅσοι οὐ βουλῆς ἐπάκουσαν”. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the council is always regarded as consisting only of a small number of ‘kings,’ not as including all the chiefs. Nine persons, Agamemnon, Menelaos, Odysseus, Nestor, Achilles, the two Aiantes, Diomedes, and Idomeneus, ‘are the only undeniable kings of the Iliad, as may appear from comparing together 2.404-9, 19.309-11, and from the transactions of 10.34-197. Particular phrases or passages might raise the question whether four others, Meges, Eurypylos, Patroklos, and Phoinix, were not viewed by Homer as being also kings.’ — Gladstone Juv. M. pp. 417-18. This is clearly too small a number to be expressed by line 188, and this consideration no doubt led to the rejection of the note of interrogation.
