[765] ἐεικοστόν is a startling word, as it can only be explained from the legend of the first fruitless expedition of the Greeks against Troy, when they landed by mistake in Mysia, and had to return to Greece to re-assemble their forces, thus wasting ten years. This story is elsewhere entirely unknown to H. It is, however, as old as the Kypria, at least in the germ, for the Chrestomathy of Proklos tells of the abortive expedition, but not of the ten years lost. It has been suggested that we may have in the phrase a reminiscence of the “ἐεικοστὸν ἔτος” in which Odysseus returns to his native land (765-66 = Od. 19.222-23, and see Od. 24.310); though that of course includes the ten years of wandering after the war. The two lines 765-66 form a sort of parenthesis, and to a certain extent the γάρ disturbs the connexion of thought as given above. It is thus possible that they may be an interpolation from the Kypria; but if not absolutely indispensable, they are at least in harmony with the rest of the lament, and add much force to it; “οὔ πω” (767) is very weak without them.
