quando ego non timui graviora pericula veris?
res est solliciti plena timoris amor.
in te fingebam violentos Troas ituros;
nomine in Hectoreo pallida semper eram.
15 sive quis Antilochum narrabat ab Hectore victum, Antilochus nostri causa timoris erat;
sive Menoetiadenfalsis cecidisse sub armis flebam successu posse carere dolos.
sanguine Tlepolemus Lyciam tepefecerat hastam, 20 Tlepolemi leto cura novata mea est.
denique quisquis erat castris iugulatus Achivis, frigidius glacie pectus amantis erat.
(Ovid, Her. 1.11–22)

Lines 15-16 of Penelope’s letter have given rise to much debate over the years because numerous scholars have found that the couplet contains a mistake over the fate of Antilochus. Some attribute the mistake to scribal corruption in the transmission of the text, others to Ovid himself. Such a cloud of scholarly dust has the passage raised that no apology is necessary for yet another attempt to clarify so minor a point. The crux of the problem lies in the meaning of victum.