Here, again, we ask: how did the contaminated Books of the _Iliad_ escape the stain of [Greek: peri], with the genitive, after verbs meaning to speak or know? What phrase do they use in the _Iliad_ for speaking or asking _about_ anybody? [Footnote (exact placing uncertain): Monro, Homeric _Grammar_. See Index, under _Iliad_, p. 339.] [Greek: meta], with the genitive, meaning "among" or "with," comes twice in the Odyssey (X. 320; XVI. 140) and thrice in the _Iliad_ (XIII. 700; XXI. 458; XXIV. 400); but all these passages in the _Iliad_ are disposed of as "late" parts of the poem. [Greek: epi], with the accusative, meaning _towards_ a person, comes often in the _Iliad_; once in the Odyssey. But it comes four times in _Iliad_, Book X., which almost every critic scouts as very "late" indeed. If so, why does the "late" _Odyssey_ not deal in this grammatical usage so common in the "late" Book X. of the _Iliad_? [Greek: epi], with the accusative, "meaning _extent_ (without _motion_)," is chiefly found in the _Odyssey_, and in the Iliad, IX., X., XXIV. On consulting grammarians one thinks that there is not much in this. [Greek: proti] with the dative, meaning "in addition to," occurs only once (_Odyssey, X. 68_). If it occurs only once, there is little to be learned from the circumstance. [Greek: ana] with the genitive, is only in _Odyssey_, only thrice, always of going on board a ship. There are not many ship-farings in the _Iliad_. Odysseus and his men are not described as going on board their ship, in so many words, in _Iliad_, Book I. The usage occurs in the poem where the incidents of seafaring occur frequently, as is to be expected? It is not worth while to persevere with these tithes of mint and cummin. If "Neglect of Position" be commoner--like "Hiatus in the Bucolic Diaeresis"--in the _Odyssey_ and in _Iliad_, XXIII., XXIV., why do the failings not beset _Iliad_, IX., X., these being such extremely "late" books? As to the later use of the Article in the _Odyssey_ and the Odyssean Books of the _Iliad_, it appears to us that Book I. of the _Iliad_ uses the article as it is used in Book X.; but on this topic we must refer to a special treatise on the language of _Iliad_, Book X., which is promised. Turning to the vocabulary: "words expressive of civilisation" are bound to be more frequent, as they are, in the Odyssey, a poem of peaceful life, than in a poem about an army in action, like the _Iliad_. Out of all this no clue to the distance of years dividing the two poems can be found. As to words concerning religion, the same holds good. The Odyssey is more frequently _religious_ (see the case of Eumaeus) than the _Iliad_.