It is a well-established fact that no text is a seamless series of pieces of information which provide the reader with an entirely complete picture. Instead, every text contains minor or major gaps which the reader is to fill in for himself or herself on the basis of the surrounding information that the text does provide. In the case of minor gaps, the reader hardly notices them at all. Other gaps, however, may be considered more serious and may therefore encourage a commentator to give an explanation that something is presupposed, but never explicitly mentioned, in the text. As a consequence, the scholia repeatedly report that a particular event happened κατὰ τὸ σιωπώμενον (‘in silence, tacitly’ ≈ ‘implicitly’). For instance, in Il. 5.221–8 Aeneas invites Pandarus to mount his chariot in order for them to attack the raging Diomedes. They do so in 239–40. What happened to the charioteer?

The passage may in itself seem unspectacular, and the interpretation of the scene perhaps somewhat literal-minded. What is important, however, is that κατὰ τὸ σιωπώμενον is recognised as a recurrent feature of Homeric poetry (καὶ ἔστι παρ᾿ ῾Ομήρῳ πολλὰ τοιαῦτα) at an early stage in ancient scholarship.