Variant and critical apparatus in a Homeric verse (Iliad 6, 226)

Abstract

This text focuses fundamentally on the presence of the Venetus A manuscript, the codex Marcianus Graecus Z.454 (=822) from the 10th century, the oldest complete version of the Iliad preserved, in the notes of several critical editions of the Homeric work, with emphasis on verse 6.226, in which there is a broad discussion around a double textual variation: ἔγχεσι-ἔγχεα and ἀλλήλους-ἀλλήλων. By bringing the anthropological discussion on structural variant to the debate, we hope to problematize the philological criterion that implies accepting one variant and rejecting another. Therefore, the article intends to demonstrate, based on the articulation between the critical apparatuses and the ancient Martian codex, that the variants can coexist productively, suggesting something about the particular and multitextual character of the Homeric epic.