Abstract

 
 
 The b-scholion on Iliad 22.94 attributes a claim about a venomous snake (δράκων) to Aristotle’s On Animals. Likely because there is no obvious parallel text in Aristotle’s extant works on animals, the reference tends nowadays to be dismissed as inauthentic (though it was taken much more seriously in the 19th century). Further, the Aristotle reference has been consigned to a footnote in the standard edition of the Iliad scholia. This essay reassesses the scholion and considers as possible sources a few different works of Aristotle. It also suggests that the Aristotelian material – whatever its source – was brought in by Homeric scholars to support one side of a debate over the meaning of κακὰ φάρμακα.
 
 
Highlights
In Iliad 22, Hector is described as waiting for Achilles, ὡς δὲ δράκων ἐπὶ χειῇ ὀρέστερος ἄνδρα μένῃσιν βεβρωκὼς κακὰ φάρμακ, ἔδυ δέ τέ μιν χόλος αἰνός, σμερδαλέον δὲ δέδορκεν ἑλισσόμενος περὶ χειῇ·1
The ancient scholars’ main concern here was the use of χειή for the snake’s abode.5 (More on this shortly.) There was some curiosity about the idea of a snake eating poisonous things, and what precisely these things were. It is this latter issue that interests me most, though the bT-scholia6 that are the focus of this paper concern both χειή and κακὰ φάρμακα
The last line of this text is a further explanation of why Homer made the drakōn dwell in a hole rather than in a copse or a lair
Summary
272-73. 2 The drakōn appears in Il. 2.308, 3.33, 6.181, 11.26, 11.39, Od. 4.457. The ancient scholars’ main concern here was the use of χειή for the snake’s abode. (More on this shortly.) There was some curiosity about the idea of a snake eating poisonous things (κακὰ φάρμακα), and what precisely these things were. It is this latter issue that interests me most, though the bT-scholia that are the focus of this paper concern both χειή and κακὰ φάρμακα. The last line of this text is a further explanation of why Homer made the drakōn (a wild animal) dwell in a hole rather than in a copse or a lair
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