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Iliad I Kirk Commentary

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Iliad I Kirk Commentary

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COMMENTARY

BOOK ONE
1-7 Proem: invocation of the Muse and statement of the poet's theme - Akhilleus'
wrath and its disastrous consequences

i The goddess of i is the Muse; so also in the opening of the Odyssey, avSpa
uoi ivveTre, MoOaa - ' Tell, me, Muse, of the m a n . . . ' (similarly at HyAphr
i, HyHerm i). Muse or Muses are used with little distinction in such cases,
compare the invocation at the beginning of the Catalogue of Ships at 2.484
(and 3X elsewhere), lo-nTTe vuv uoi MOOCTOCI 'OAOuina Scbucrr* ixoucroti; also
the opening verses of Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days. An initial
invocation to the Muse or Muses is conventional for epic poems and for the
literary kind of hymn, as is the request to 'sing o f - that means, through
the poet - the main theme which is to be outlined. doi6oi, singers, regularly
claimed to be inspired and taught by the Muses, the goddesses of music,
dance and song who were imagined as daughters of Zeus and Mnemosune,
Memory, and as dwelling on Mt Helikon or in Pieria close to Mt Olumpos.
Hesiod's account of his own inspiration by them as he herded sheep on Mt
Helikon is the fullest evidence (see Theog. 22-34), D u t Homer in the Odyssey
shows Demodokos the Phaeacian singer and Phemios, court singer in Ithake,
as similarly inspired. The former is a singer 'whom the Muses loved above
others.. .and gave (him) the gift of sweet song' (Od. 8.62-4) 5 n e m ust have
been taught (as Odysseus says at Od. 8.488) 'either by the Muses.. .or by
Apollo'. Phemios claims to be auTo8i5ccKTos, literally 'self-taught', but the
meaning is that he had no human teachers, for' the god engendered all sorts
of themes [literally, 'paths'; i.e. of song] in my heart' (Od. 22-347f.).
Similarly to Demodokos the god' gave in abundance the gift of song, to bring
delight in whatever way his spirit bids him sing', OTTTTTJ duuos frroTpuvTjcriv
&ei5eiv {Od. 8.44?.).
The ' wrath' of which the goddess is to sing will persist throughout the
entire poem and is to determine, in a sense, the fate of Troy; it is caused
by king Agamemnon who needlessly slights Akhilleus, but also by Akhilleus
himself who shows himself to be tactless in handling his commanding
general, and, more important, over-obsessive in defence of his own honour
at the expense of his comrades with whom he has no quarrel. How far the

wrath-theme might be derived from earlier poetry, and how fundamental

and far-reaching it is in the construction and purpose of the Iliad as a whole,
will be considered from time to time as the Commentary develops;
something has been said in chapter 4 of the Introduction, pp. 46f.
Meanwhile its immediate beginning is the subject of book 1 which follows.
Usually a heroic song would have a specially composed proem like those
of the Iliad and Odyssey. So much is suggested, among other evidence, by
the opening of Pindar's second Nemean ode (the Homeridai most often
begin from Zeus as proem, Aios EK -rrpooiuiou). But the 'Homeric' Hymns
were sometimes themselves called proems, as for example by Thucydides
(3.104.4, of HyAp), and some of the shorter ones were clearly designed as
preludes to a longer epic piece; see N. J. Richardson, The Homeric Hymn to
Demeter (Oxford 1974) 4f. Moreover a proem could easily be varied from
time to time, especially perhaps to suit a special audience or to accord with
longer or shorter versions of what was to follow. Thus some (rather
unsatisfactory) variants of the Iliad-proem are reported. According to
Nicanor and Crates as cited by the Anecdotum Romanum (1, p. 3 Erbse),
the bibliophile Apellicon owned a text with a single-verse proem, Moucras
dcei5co KCU 'AiroAAcova KXUTOTO^OV, whereas Aristoxenus claimed that some
texts had these three verses in place of 1-9:
eorreTe vuv uoi, MOOCJOU, 'OXuu-ma SCOUOCT' sypvvax
OTTTTCOS 8f| uf^vts TE x°^°S 9* ^£ rT
AT|TOUS T* ayAaov uiov 6 yap paaiAfyi

The first of these verses is Iliadic (4X, see above), but the others show signs
of inept condensation, and in particular the linking of Akhilleus' and
Apollo's wrath does justice to neither (cf. van der Valk, Researches 11, 365^.
By contrast the style of the full proem as it appears in the ancient vulgate
(i.e. vv. 1-9) is typically Homeric in its forceful conciseness, its cumulative
expression with runover in 2 and 4, its verse-pattern climax (7 is a rising
threefolder after mainly twofolders, see pp. 2off.) and its rhetorical tran-
sition to the main narrative in 8f. One cannot be absolutely sure that
as it stands it was by the monumental composer, Homer, but there is nothing
against the idea and the tradition is in favour of it.
Had this proem not existed, modern arguments about the exact subject
of the poem would be even more diffuse than they are. The ancient critics
gave vent to a mass of not very pertinent preliminary questions, preserved
in the exegetical scholia AbT on 1: why begin from such a dispiriting
concept as wrath? Why describe just the end of a war and not its earlier
stages? Why call the poem Ilias and not Akhilleia, to match Odusseia? Why
command, rather than request, the goddess to sing? The truth is that Homer
provides his audiences with just so much information as they need at this
52

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Book One
point; the epic is to be set around the central theme of Akhilleus' anger,
and this anger had disastrous consequences for the Achaean army. That is
enough to highlight the singer's evident purpose of creating a monumental
poem out of a profusion of traditional war-poetry, by relating the fighting
to a single dramatic event which alters the fortunes of war and encourages
the beleaguered Trojans to fight in the open plain.
2 ouAouevrjv: '"accursed".. .that of which we say oAoio', Leaf; an
emphatic runover-word cumulation developed in what follows, 'which put
countless griefs on the Achaeans'. On the cumulative technique of this and
the next three verses see also pp. 32f.
3 Apollonius of Rhodes evidently read K69aAds for yuxas in his copy
(so bT); this finds some support in 11.55, which has KE9CCA&S in a verse which
is otherwise identical with 3 (except for minor adjustments). But the contrast
implied by OCUTOUS in 4 will be clearer if that word implies dead bodies - as
opposed to living souls, and therefore vfux&S, m 3- The implications of the
two terms are fractionally different, and Homer chooses each of them
according to context. Oral poets can be loose in their deployment of
traditional, formular material, but they can also be very precise, as here.
4—5 These verses were athetized by Zenodotus according to Aristarchus
(Arn/A on 4); Zenodotus nevertheless read 8CCTTCC for iraai in 5, a fussy
change of the vulgate which Aristarchus (who is evidently Athenaeus'
source, through Aristonicus, at i.i2e—13a, cf. Erbse 1, 9) tried to refute on
the erroneous ground that Homer never uses 8ocis of animal food - as he in
fact does at 24.43.
5 A half-verse cumulation, in itself decorative rather than essential for
its information, but nevertheless leading to an important new comment.
What is this plan of Zeus? Probably, as Aristarchus seems to have argued
(Arn/A supplemented by D), that implied by Zeus's promise to Thetis at
1.524-30 to avenge the slight on her son Akhilleus by favouring the Trojans,
Aristarchus (Arn/A) also criticized the 'fictions' of recent critics, oi
vecoTepoi, chiefly perhaps the idea that Zeus's plan in the Iliadwas identical
with that signified by the same phrase in the post-Homeric Cypria, frag. 1.7,
namely to lighten the over-burdened earth by means of heavy casualties at
Troy (this tale is also summarized in the D-scholium on vv. 5f. here).
6—7 §£ oO: either 'from the time when', giving the starting-point of
Zeus's plan, or 'from the point at which', depending on 'Sing, Muse' in
1 and giving a delimitation of the theme; compare Od. 8.499/., where the
singer Demodokos ' revealed his song, taking it from where, evOev lAcov...'
The latter is probably correct, despite Aristarchus' support of the former
(Arn/A); the poet is implicitly telling himself to sing (with the Muse's help)
of the wrath of Akhilleus, from the point at which he and Agamemnon first
quarrelled.
53

8-21 Transition to the main narrative, and the priest Khruses" request to Agamemnon
for the return of his daughter Khruseis
8 A rhetorical question designed to highlight the answer, as well as in this
case to lead on to the beginning of the story itself. An elaborated form of
the expression Epi6i £uver|Ke uccxecrOai occurs at 7.210.
9 It was Apollo who started the dispute; an action that is to be so
portentous deserves a divine cause. The circumlocution 'son of Leto and
Zeus' happens to be unique in Homer, since he did not elsewhere need
to be named in such a way as to fill the verse down to the main caesura;
although cf. 16.849 ATJTOOS EKTCCVEV utos|. The contracted form ArjTous is
required by metre here and at 14.327, although not at 16.849 which could
have read AT|T6OS (although the vulgate still has the contracted form).
10-11 These verses lack rhythmical fluidity, either because of the
difficulties of condensation or through corruption of what must have been
an especially frequently-sung passage. In 10 ocvot orporrov is a common
formula, but one which elsewhere, like RCCTCX orpotTov, almost always falls
before the bucolic caesura - 53 is an exception, but cf. 384, another slightly
awkward verse, copae is also unusually placed (only here in this position out
of 17 Iliadic uses and similarly with cbpaev; 2/1 ix Od.); OAEKOVTO 5e Aaoi|,
on the other hand, represents an established formula-pattern, cf. aTdvovTO
8e Xaoi| etc. The verse-pattern of 10 is also unusual; it is a threefolder with
short central colon and rare word-division (in these circumstances) after the
second foot: voOaov &va arTpccTOv copcre KOKTJV OXEKOVTO 6e Xaoi. In 11
the repeated pattern of dactyl followed by two spondees is also uncommon,
although emphatic enough; and TOV Xpucrnv is an exceptionally developed
use of the demonstrative 6 on its way to becoming the Attic-Ionic definite
article (although Chantraine, GH 11, 163-5 usefully underlines the role of
emphasis as well as of contrariety in many Homeric uses, differing here
from M. Leumann, HW 12 n. 1).
fpriuaaev and other forms of orniia^eiv are otherwise Odyssean (15X);
admittedly the great majority of MSS have T)Ti\\T)o* (although A, B and the
fifth-century Ambrosian Codex have f|Tiuaaev, normally printed in modern
texts), but this makes the verse unusually and apparently pointlessly
spondaic.
12—16 Now the transition from proem to narrative is complete, and the
condensed style gives way to a smoothly formular sequence leading to a
minor climax in the rising threefold 16 after the preceding twofold verses.
12 The runover-word followed by a strong stop is emphatic, but the
consequent harshness of the integral enjambment is unusual; so M. W.
Edwards, TAPA 97 (1966) 135.
13 dnrepeicn* orrroiva, with orrroiva SlxearOcu in 20 and 8ex6ou orrroiva in

Then 21 reverts to the calmer twofold pattern. Secondly, the nuances of

meaning are quite subtle despite the heavily formular components. The
priest's apparently mild request contains a hint of trouble to come - a prayer
for Achaean success (obviously a mere formality from a dweller in the
Troad) leads to a succinct request for his daughter's release for ransom;
then in the closing verse he gently points out that this would be no more
than showing due respect for Apollo (for he has held back until now the
name of his god and protector). In other words, rebuffing Khruses will
mean offending the god himself, a message Agamemnon fails to grasp.
18 Out of 88 Iliadic and 94 Odyssean occurrences of 6eoi in the
nominative this is the only one in which it is scanned as a monosyllable by
synizesis (though cf. Seouriv at Od. 14.251). It is certain that the poets were
capable of expressing this kind of simple thought without the use of such
a rare pronunciation (it became commoner later) and the abandonment of
such an extensive and strict formular system. Bentley's Ouui 0soi ufev 8oTev
is the best emendation proposed so far, the postponement of |i£v being
unusual but not impossible.

22-42 Agamemnon's insulting reply, followed by Khruses' departure and prayer to

Apollo for revenge
22 ETrEi^Tjurjaocv: 'approved', simply, without the post-Homeric con-
notation of'in silence'.
23 On ai8eTadcu see 4.40i-2n.ym.
25 KOKcbs and Kporrepov make a strong impression after the deceptive
mildness of the preceding verse: 'this did not please him, but he dismissed
him unkindly and gave him the following harsh command'.
26-32 Again, Agamemnon's reply begins with a smooth and indirect
(but sinister) recommendation consisting of three cumulative verses; then
comes the abrupt and categorical 'I shall not release her', followed by a
cumulative sentence of corresponding length to the first and culminating
in the malicious detail of 31; finally a single-verse injunction, it too moving
from staccato beginning to apparently relaxed end.
26-8 Complicated in meaning if apparently straightforward in form
(see the preceding comment): first the indirect prohibition ('let me not find
you here', meaning 'do not stay'), then the legalistic and almost gloating
amplification, by polar disjunction, of 27 ('either now or later') with its
derogatory 8T)0UVOVT' ('hanging about'), leading to the menacing and
blasphemous 28.
29-31 The threats against the girl Khruseis are, by contrast, openly
expressed, ungainly (in the sound of Trpiv uiv) and pathetic ('far from
home') by turns, and leading to the tasteless summation of household duties,
from weaving to concubinage, in 31. The sentence is a powerful one typical
of Agamemnon at his nastiest; it is not surprising that it offended
Aristarchus' over-sensitive ideas of what was 'seemly' in Homer, and he
athetized the three verses 'because they undermined the point and the
threat, since even Khruses would have been pleased to have her associate
with the king; moreover it is unfitting, dcnpsirks, that Agamemnon should
say such things': so Aristonicus in A, although 'even Khruses.. .with the
king' may seem unlikely to derive from Aristarchus himself.
33 6 yepcov, like 6 yspouos in 35, comes close to the developed definite
article; see comment on 10-11.
34 Is there an intended contrast between the priest's silence (dxecov) and
the roar of the sea (-nroAucpAoiarpoio) ? Ostensibly not, since he is silent
because he decides to obey and not reply, and the sea is roaring because
that is what it typically does, at least in the genitive - iroAucpAoiapoio is a
standard epithet and fills the necessary part of the verse, given that the poet
chooses to emphasize the idea of the sea at this point. Yet the overtones of
GTvoc... OaAdaaris and so on are often of tension or sadness (e.g. of the
heralds going unwillingly at 327; the embassy at 9.182; Akhilleus' mourning

'Going apart' is presumably to increase the ritual effectiveness of the prayer

and the personal claim upon the god (not so that the enemy cannot
overhear, as bT suggest!). The rising threefold verse 35 is a solemn one, and
the solemnity is increased by the formal mention of the god's parentage in
36.
37—42 Khruses' prayer follows the regular religious pattern: initial
listing of the god's titles and local associations; then the special claims on
his favour; finally, and quite briefly, the request itself.
37-8 Khruse is the priest's home town, and his name is taken from it.
It probably lay on the west coast of the Troad some five miles north of Cape
Lekton, near the site of the later city of Hamaxitos, where there are slight
remains of a temple of Apollo Smintheus; see Cook, Troad 232-5. Strabo
(13.612f.) objected that this temple was too far from the sea to fit the
Homeric description (cf. 34-6 and 430-41); that seems rather pedantic since
the later Smintheum (surely a crucial factor in the case) is only a kilometre
or so from the coast. He placed it south of Mt Ida in the plain of
Adramuttion, with Thebe and Killa in the same area. Thebe at least
probably did lie there (cf. Cook, Troad 267), and Killa may have done; in
any case Khruseis must have been on a visit away from home when she was
captured at Thebe, 1.366-9 - see the third paragraph of the comment on
366-92.
39 /EuivOeO: according to Apollonius Sophistes (Erbse 1, 20) Aristarchus
insisted that the epithet was derived from a city in the Troad called Sminthe,
against those who thought 'unfittingly' that it came directly from
auivSos = 'mouse' (in Mysian) and therefore meant 'mouse-god' or
protector against mice; for in Rhodes at least there was a festival called
Smintheia for Apollo and Dionusos, because they killed the mice who were
destroying the young vines.
ipevycc is from ep&pco or epETnrco, 'I roof, implying perhaps completion of
a temple rather than a simple type of building in which the roof was the
main part, i.e. on posts. Early (ninth-century B.C.) temple-models, like
house-models, show complete walls (some of apsidal type), cf. e.g. Lorimer,
HM pi. XXXII.

40-1 For the burning of thigh-bones in sacrifice see the comments on

447-68 and 462-3.
42 The prayer itself is brief, epigrammatic almost, and comprehensive.
Accvaoi is another Homeric name for the 'Axouoi (who are also called
'ApyeToi, Argives, see also on 2.333-5)'•>llimplies descent from the mythical
king Danaos who took refuge in Argos with his daughters the Danaids.

43-52 A plague is sent by Apollo upon the Achaean army

44-7 Apollo manifests himself directly - as archer-god he sometimes needs

to be on or near the spot, not on Olumpos. He is equipped with quiver and
arrows which clatter as he rushes down, emphatically enraged (44 xcoouevos,
46 x^o^voio). Zenodotus athetized 46f. for reasons unspecified, oO KOCACOS
according to Aristarchus (so Arn/A). Verse 47 does indeed arouse some
suspicion of rhapsodic interference, since CCUTOU thus (not in contrast with
anything else) is weak, and the very mention of the god's movement
unnecessary after what has preceded. Has x^ouevoio displaced an original
Kivuuevoio (cf. |TOO KCCI KIVUUEVOIO at 14.173), then developed in 47? But
'like night', at least, is effective; surprisingly it is not found elsewhere in
the Iliad, although recurring in the perhaps rhapsodic expansion about
Herakles with his bow in the underworld at Od. 11.606 (KAccyyT| also
appears there in the preceding verse, although of the dead not of arrows).
50 The exegetical commentators (AbT) made some odd suggestions
about why mules and dogs were the first victims: to give men due warning,
since Apollo was a humanitarian god? Or because these animals are
notorious sniffers and therefore likely to pick up diseases quickly - mules
especially so because of their mixed nature? Yet the animal victims are
remarkable, and could be a reminiscence of a real plague, cf. Thucydides
11.50.1. Apollo's arrows usually signify sudden death for men, generally from
disease, just as Artemis kills women, often in childbirth.
51 (3eA6s 6XETTEVK6S (also at 4.129) is an unusually violent case of
metrical lengthening. The epithet means 'pointed', cf. TTEUKTI, TTEUKSSCCVOS,
Chantraine, Diet. s.v.

53-120 Summoning of the assembly, and beginning of the quarrel between

Akhilleus and Agamemnon

53-4 fcwfjuap, 'for nine days', according to a scholium of Erbse's class h,

'because the poet is inclined to the number nine', which is true; we should
say rather that it is a conventional interval in the oral tradition. Several
other and less probable explanations were considered, for example that it
is the time taken for a fever to reach its climax (for a similar medical concern

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Book One
in the exegetical tradition see 2.20-1 n. init.). Note the unusual rhythm of
53, where dcvd orpccTov (on which see also ion.) in effect bridges the
third-foot caesura and there is no fourth-foot break.
55—6 Why was it Akhilleus who summoned the assembly? Because he
was the greatest of the warrior-captains, and (as bT say on 54) up to a point
anyone could call an assembly; but also, for the poet, because this action
draws him into the necessary quarrel with Agamemnon. Here gives him the
idea of doing so, which has the added advantage of identifying her early
in the poem as sympathetic to the Achaean side. She works from afar, which
also emphasizes her divine power; where the intervention has to be more
concrete and immediate (as with Apollo and the plague, or with Athene
at i94f.) the deity must be present in person, fully or partly materialized.
The exegetical scholiasts (bT) worried over 56: how could Here be
concerned for the Danaans if she was about to encompass the wrath of
Akhilleus? Their answer, correct in its way, was that, despite early
casualties, his withdrawal from fighting would bring the Trojans into the
open and so shorten the war.
57 f|yep6EV 6uriyep66S T* iyevovTo|: typical epic redundance, and
traditional, since this is a formular expression (2X //., 3X 0d.)\ compare
e.g. dcyopfiCTorro KCCI UHTKITTEV (9X //. including 73, 15X Od.). 6ur|yEp6es is also
formular before the masculine caesura, 4X //.
58 On the apparently otiose, 'apodotic', 5' see I94n.
59-67 It is worth noticing that Akhilleus' opening remarks to Aga-
memnon are perfectly unprovocative.
59 Aristarchus (Arn/A, Hdn/bT) rightly disagreed with those who
wished to separate TT&AIV from TrAayx$6VTas so as to give it a temporal sense,
'again', which is non-Homeric, and make it allude to the tale of an earlier
false landing at Teuthrania in Mysia, cf. Proclus' summary of the Cypria,
OCT v, 104.
59-61 £i KHV with the optative in 60 is a remoter condition than e! with
the future indicative in 61 (so Leaf). Here it represents a parenthetical
correction: 'now we shall be driven back home (if we escape death at all),
if we are to contend with plague as well as war'.
63 Zenodotus athetized this verse, evidently because dream-interpreters,
not otherwise mentioned in the Iliad, belong to a different category from
prophets and priests. Aristarchus replied (Am, Hdn, Nic/A) that the
punctuation in 62 should follow EpEiouEv and not ieprjoc, so that UOCVTIS is the
genus, iepeus and dvEipoTroAos are the species. The first is the prophet in
general (with bird-flight as a special province, see on 69-70), the second
prophesies from sacrifices, the third from dreams. That may be too subtle;
it reduces the afterthought-effect of 63, although it is true that the
cumulative style enjoys afterthoughts.

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65 Aristarchus (Hdn/A) supported an enclitic particle Tap here, el Tap
rather than err* ap*; admittedly EITE.. .em is a relatively new development
(so Chantraine, GH 11, 293^), but the vulgate err* ap'.-.eid* is probably
correct, nevertheless.
Akhilleus here categorizes certain ritual errors quite carefully - divine
displeasure could arise over either prayers or sacrifices, omitted or wrongly
performed; but he does not mention, perhaps deliberately, other possible
offences, such as the one Agamemnon might have committed against
Apollo's priest.
eKorrouPri was generally derived from EKOTOV (tous (SO e.g. bT), although
in 66 it is sheep and goats, not cattle, that are its constituents, and elsewhere
the number of animals involved is less than a hundred; cf. 6.93 and 115,
23.146f. To doubt the etymology (as e.g. Leaf does) is probably superfluous,
since the term may well have become generalized over the course of time.
66-7 It is worth looking back at the elegant variations in colometry: 62
and 63 twofold with strong central caesura, 64 and 65 fourfold with light
semantic bridging of the main caesura but no fourth-foot break. Then comes
contrast as the sentence closes, with 66 most naturally sung as a rising
threefoider (a! KEV TTOOS dpvcov KVIOTIS alycov TE TeXeicov), leading through
integral enjambment into the completive and restful twofold 67.
avTidcxas with the genitive means 'come to meet' (and therefore accept)
sacrifices, cf. Od. 1.25. PoOXeTai must be subjunctive after a! KEV, and is
therefore irregular in form - perhaps read POUXTIT* with Payne Knight and
Curtius (Chantraine, GH i, 458).
68 A formular verse, occurring 5X //. including 101, ix Od. KOT* &p*
ejeTo: on what? the ground? seats? Presumably the former, since the
Achaean assembly would normally be held, by force of circumstance,
somewhere near the ships - at 7-382f. it is close to the stern of Agamemnon's
ship. At 2.99 and 211, after coming to assembly from the ships and huts,
'they sat down and were marshalled into (or according to, KOTCSC) their
places', EprjTvOEV 8E KO6* I8pas. At i8.246f. the Trojans stand in assembly
because of their panic. Probably the terminology and the assumption of
seating in phrases like KOO* 15pas are derived from settled peacetime
conditions; for example at Od. 8.16. the Phaeacians flock to the dyopai TE
Kai i8pai. Homer evidently did not pay close attention to this relatively
minor matter.
69-70 Kalkhas is unlikely to be a Homeric invention, if only because
of his close connexion with events at Aulis; although his father Thestor is
unknown and looks fictitious. The minor Trojan Alkmaon is also 'son of
Thestor' at 12.394, and a third Thestor is Patroklos' victim at 16.401. This
suggests that Thestor for Homer is a general-purpose name devoid of very
specific associations - although 8ea- may have useful divine echoes in the
present instance, cf. OEOTTIS, dEcrrreaios. Kalkhas is a diviner by bird-flight
60

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Book One
(69 oicovoiToAos), but also a u&vns in the broad sense (see on 63) - priest
and prophet of Apollo (72) who thus accurately understands past and
present as well as foreseeing the future (70, and cf. Hesiod, Theog. 3if., where
the poet, like the prophet, needs divine inspiration for his all-embracing
knowledge).
71 Is this an implicit reference to the otherwise non-Homeric tale of the
expedition's earlier navigational error that brought it to Mysia (59n.) - or
simply to Kalkhas' favourable interpretation of the portent at Aulis, recalled
at length by Odysseus at 2.300-2, which set the fleet on its way to Troy?
74-83 Kalkhas' opening speech (its cautious, not to say devious, tone
contrasting piquantly with ev>9povscov in 73) is designed to protect him
against the king's probable annoyance at what he will say, namely that
Agamemnon must surrender his own prize. The dangerous wrath of kings
against bearers of bad news was a commonplace later, for example in
Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus and Euripides' Bacchae, and was probably so
already in the epic tradition before Homer's time. Kings were also prone
to be angry at mere disagreement, cf. 2.195-7, 9.32^
74 |iu0f|aao6ai: 'to declare <the meaning o f ) ' Apollo's wrath.
76 Typical formular variation of the verb, with uoi OUOCJCTOV (4X //.)
for ueu OCKOWOV (2X //., 4X Od.). OVVOEO, something like Leaf's 'mark my
words', is redundant in the standard form of the verse (e.g. IK ydp TOI epeco,
ov 6e ouvOeo Kai ueu OKOi/aov) but useful in the variant form.
bT comment that Akhilleus does not resent Kalkhas' demand for an oath
because he knows it is designed to protect himself against the king.
77 UT)V (Ionic) becomes uev (Attic).
78 6cv5pa is direct object of xoAcoaeuev: 'that I shall anger the man
who...'
80 X^P1!1: m ° r e correctly X^P€U ( a contracted form of xepsfovi) according
to Herodian in A. Zenodotus is said to have athetized the verse (so bT),
which is in fact harmless, a typical heroic sentential but since he also read
Kpeiacjco not Kpeiaaoov (that is, to be taken with KOTOV in 82), Erbse is right
to suspect that it was really 81 he objected to - no more enlighteningly, if
so.
82 KOTOV: 'resentment' in contrast with 81 yohov,' (immediate) anger'.
O9pa TeAeaarj: 'until he brings it to fulfilment'.
85-91 Akhilleus' response to Kalkhas: he swears an oath to protect him,
as requested, and by Kalkhas' tutelary god Apollo (whom he describes as
* dear to Zeus' at 86, as he himself had been described by Kalkhas at 74).
No one will lay hands on the prophet, not even Agamemnon - a gratuitous
addition, this, and mildly insulting, the beginning of trouble. The com-
prehensiveness of Akhilleus' guarantee was plain enough without directly
mentioning the king again.
85 deoirpoTnov here and OEOTrpoTrias in 87 are variant forms used as
61

in which the latter verse has the advantage over the Iliadic version of
avoiding the contracted forms EUEO and JCOVTOS, a relatively 'late' feature
(indeed the latter contraction is unparalleled in Homer); the short dative
plural KOIXTJS is a similar development (of -TJCTI) which Homer avoided where
possible. In fact 88-9 could be re-cast as follows:

ou TIS croi TTccpa vt|uai papEias X6*Pa$ fcroiaei

3<JOOVT6S y* EUEOEV KOCI tn\ x^ovi SEpxouEvoio

There is no sign of this in the tradition, but one is tempted to wonder

whether oral economy would have been abandoned so lightly.
90-1 Now comes the cumulative addition in which insult lies: not only
the specifying of Agamemnon (see on 85-91) but also the ambiguous
description in 91; for EVxeTcu, although it usually implies a justified claim
(made in accordance with what Leaf termed ' a naive consciousness of
position'), as in Nestor's flattering reference to Agamemnon at 2.82, can
also suggest a dubious boast as at e.g. 20.102, 'would not easily win, even
if he claims to be all of bronze'.
91 The MS tradition is unanimous for Evi crrpaTcp (or 6va oTporrov) as
at 15.296, despite the unusual agreement of the ancient critics - Zenodotus,
Aristarchus, Sosigenes, Aristophanes, so Did/A - that' Axoucov, viz. apicrros
'Axotioav, is correct. Both are formular variants, but the former is obviously
preferable for specifically martial or tactical contexts, as indeed at 15.296,
the latter for more general ones. What Agamemnon claimed was to be ' by
far the best of (all) the Achaeans', that is, as overall king. It is odd that
the scholars had so little effect, even though they were probably right; but
that sometimes happened. The irony suggested by EOXETO1 (on which see
the previous comment) is all the heavier since Akhilleus assumes himself to
be 'best of the Achaeans', apicnrov 'Axaicov, at 244.

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Book One
92-100 Kalkhas is emboldened to disclose the cause of the plague in no
uncertain terms: Agamemnon has dishonoured, fjTiuria' (94), Khruses, and
must return his daughter without ransom.
93 The wording of Akhilleus' question at 65 is exactly repeated in this
categorical negative response.
96 Aristarchus athetized (Arn/AbT) 'because superfluous', OTI irep-
laaos. This refers to the way in which TOUVEK* takes up EVEK* &pr|Tfjpos in
74. There may be some minor looseness here, but it does nothing to cast
doubt on a verse which is forceful and, in f)6' ITI SCOCTEI, brilliantly
disquieting in its implications for the future.
97 Yet another case, hard on 91 but more serious, in which the medieval
MSS ignored the majority advice of the ancient critical tradition; for they
accepted Zenodotus' inelegant AoiuoTo |3apEias X6*PaS &9^« despite Aristar-
chus with the support of Rhianus and the Massiliotic 'city' text (so Did/A,
with T adding 'and almost all the editions', KOC! CJXE86V iraaai). It is not
often that a city text was cited for a correct reading, AocvaoTaiv &£IKECX
Aoiyov dTTcbaei, which despite the MSS has become the modern vulgate.
98 TTpiv y' &TTO Tien-pi (piAcp 66pievai eAiKCOTnSa KoOprjv: a good instance
of the combination of simplicity and ornateness (including alliteration here)
in Homeric expression. TTpiv y* has been neatly prepared for by TTpiv in the
preceding verse; the tmesis of &TTO...86UEVOCI is effective since it encloses
TraTpi cpiAco, and stresses his importance as recipient - the epithet cpiAco,
although a standard one, still has emotive force, especially when set against
eAiKCOTnSa of the daughter. This is a unique description of a girl in Homer,
although formular in eAiKCOTTES 'Axcuoi (etc.), 6x //.; perhaps, therefore,
dignity rather than charm is implied. The meaning of the EAIK- element has
been much debated; ancient critics and lexicographers varied between
'black' (citing an unidentified dialect-form as well as Callimachus, cf. frag.
299.1 Pfeiffer) and the more obvious 'swivelling' in various more or less
improbable applications. In modern times Leaf has supported 'with rolling
eyes', implying animation, while Page, HHI 244^ revived 'black-eyed';
Chantraine, Diet. s.v. remains cautious.
99 aTTpidrriv is an adverb at Od. 14.317 and was so taken by Aristarchus
here (Arn/A), but the parallelism with dcv&TTOtvov suggests rather that it
is adjectival here.
99-100 As often, the conclusion of a sentence or short speech in Homer
is slightly different in rhythm so as to provide climax or contrast. Kalkhas'
speech from 93 on consists of a pair of 4-verse sentences, each lightly en-
jambed in periodic, progressive and cumulative style. All 8 verses are two-
or fourfold, with strong central caesura in all except the opening and closing
ones, 93 and 100, where there is light semantic bridging. But only 99 and
100 have true runover cumulation, grammatically inessential but contrived

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Book One
to lead on to fresh information; in addition ioo alone has a strong stop after
the runover (ES Xpucrnv), followed by a short summarizing statement. The
effect of the whole speech is of straightforward and comprehensive, but not
banal, assertion, combining formular elements and repetitive references to
previous speakers' words (e.g. 93, 95) with individual touches (e.g. 96 ITI
5cb(7€i, 98 £AiKC07n5a).
101 On the question of seating see 68n.
103 The strong stop after the runover-word sharpens its impact:
' - annoyed he was; and his black 9p£V£$ were greatly rilled all round with
might [i.e. rage]'. Anatomically the 9p£VES are the midriff, but commonly
in Homer imply 'heart' or 'mind' in a general sense. They are in any case
the seat of passion, whether courage, confidence, anger or love. It is
tempting to take &U91 UEACUVOCI as one word (as most MSS did against the
scholiasts, cf. AbT), 'black all over', especially perhaps in view of 17.499,
dcAx-ns Ken O06V6OS TTATITO 9pEvcc$ dpupi ueAccivas (cf. also 17.83 and 573). Yet
it is unambiguously stated elsewhere that emotion surrounds the 9peves; love
9p6vccs <5cu9€K&Au4/€v at 3.442 and 14.294, and, of desire for food, TTEpi 9p£vccs
luepos aipeT at 11.89. The 9p6vss are black probably because suffused with
blood, which is regularly so described, as ueAav aTua, in Homer.
104-5 His eyes, OCTCTE, shine like fire, a sign of usvos in general - compare
Hektor's at 12.466; and as he begins, TrpcbTicrra, to speak he gazes upon
Kalkhas in an evil fashion, K&K* OCJCTOUEVOS, confirming by this slightly
awkward repetition that his UEVOS is anger, not 'good' martial might.
106-20 Agamemnon directs his remarks first at the seer and then at the
Achaeans in general (he is using the plural imperative by 118). His anger
comes out in three different and successive ways: (i) by the biased
denigration of Kalkhas as prophet; (ii) by the uncontrolled central sentence
(109-15) which turns to a frank and even brutal comparison of Khruseis
with Klutaimestre; (iii) by the unreasonable closing demand for the
immediate production of an equivalent prize.
106 A verse with a powerful beginning, 'prophet of evils', and a
puzzling end; for Kprjyuov is not found elsewhere in Homer, and presents
other difficulties too. It obviously means 'good' rather than 'true' here, see
on 116-17; its later uses are mainly Hellenistic and might be derived from
this very passage, although occurrence in an early Hippocratic treatise (Coan
Prognoses 31) suggests that it could be an old vernacular term. Moreover
TO Kpfjyuov ETTTCCS is curious; this Book has other relatively developed uses
of the definite article (see on n ) , but the article with a neuter adjective,
as here, almost looks post-Homeric; it is more extreme than at Od. 14.12.
The neglect of digamma can be paralleled, of course, and in any case ETTTOCS
can be easily restored to the regular form ETTTES. Perhaps Attic modernization
of the phrase should be assumed, in which case Leaf's suggestion KpfjyOov

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Book One
s, with metrical lengthening of the upsilon, might be envisaged as the
Homeric form. Most MSS do in fact have ismes or ieuras (which is not
recorded in e.g. OCT precisely because of incompatibility with Kpf|yuov);
although that could be under the influence of common verse-endings like
liOdov ignrev, Kcrra uoipav iei-rres.
108 Probably OOTE...OUT' (rather than OU6E...OU8') is correct, and
Aristarchus and Aristophanes (Did/A) preferred it as more emphatic. The
exegetical scholia (AbT) show that there was probably much ancient
discussion about Agamemnon's motives for blackguarding Kalkhas,
especially in view of the latter's helpful divination at Aulis (ym.). At the
time he may have thought the prospect of a ten-year war, even if ultimately
successful, bad rather than good - and then there was the matter of his
having to sacrifice his daughter on Kalkhas' advice. Homer does not
mention Iphigeneia by that name, but that does not mean that the tale was
post-Homeric, as T on 106 suggests; see on 2.101-8.
n o Aristarchus athetized this verse (Arn/A) because that makes the
expression more concise, OVVTOHOS; but brevity was not often what an oral
singer wanted. For TO08* eveKcc foreshadowing OUVEK* in I I I cf. TTpiv.. .Trpiv
in 97f.
112 Leaf says PouXoucu here means 'prefer', as in 117 and also 11.319,
23.594 etc.; but in those passages the verb is followed by f\, which makes
all the difference. Agamemnon simply says 'I want to have her at home',
and then goes on to explain that he prefers her, 7Tpoj3ejk>uAa, to
Klutaimestre.
113 Klutaimestre is correctly so written, without an 'n'. This is now
accepted as the correct version of her name (though with -a for -r|) in Attic
tragedy; A alone of Homeric MSS gives a slight sign of that by writing a
diaeresis over the v in this, her solitary Iliadic mention, and a single papyrus
and scholium omit the letter. The derivation is agreed to be from KAUTOS
(see Chantraine, Diet. s.v. KAEOS) and uf|8oucci, cf. uf|crrcop: 'famous
counsellor1 (and not from uv&ouai in the sense of'woo', cf. uvT)<7Tf)p).
114-15 The formula Koupi5ir|v SXoxov etc. usually has an affectionate
and pathetic ring, as in ' young bride'; so at 11.243, and also of the husband,
KoupiSiov, at 5.414 and 15.40. Here, on the other hand, those overtones are
not present, and it means little more than ' wedded wife' in the legal sense,
as perhaps at 7.392 and 13.626. Agamemnon prefers Khruseis because she
is 'no worse' (i.e. better) than Klutaimestre in three respects: physically
(5euas f|6fe <pvT)v, 'body and stature', a rather formal phrase which may be
designed to play down for the occasion any element of what the scholia called
TT60O$, that sexual desirability to which the king had already alluded at 31);
in intelligence or perhaps disposition, rather (9p£vccs); and in accomplish-
ments (Ipycc, i.e. weaving and other household duties). The whole rhetorical

I2i-8y The quarrel develops: Akhilleus threatens to go home, and Agamemnon to

take Briseis

122—9 Apart from the gratuitous (piAoKTeavcoTOTe (which in any case may
have been a little less insulting in an acquisitive heroic society than we should
profess to find it), Akhilleus' response is calmly stated and not overtly
provocative. It begins with a careful reply, in three whole-verse sentences,
to the question in 123; and even the interrupted and integrally enjambed
closing statement, 127-9,1S n o * exactly excitable. His analysis of the position
seems logical enough: (i) There is no unused stock of prizes, (ii) What has
already been distributed cannot reasonably be recalled, (iii) The king will
be recompensed three- and fourfold if and when Troy is captured. But this
does leave the supreme commander without a female captive for the time
being (for if he has others at his disposal, as Akhilleus certainly does at
g.664f., this is not mentioned); and from the standpoint of Tiufj, 'honour',
that is the important thing.
124 For !5uev followed by a participle see on 4.356—7^1/1.
126 Is the meaning 'it is not fitting for the army to gather these things
up again', or 'it is not fitting to gather these things up again from the army'
(with Xaous as second object of iTrayEipeiv) ? The run of the sentence slightly
favours the former, but the emphasis on Accous as first word perhaps swings
the balance to the latter; Akhilleus would be pointing out that any
redistribution would affect the army as a whole, not just the leaders, which

is an effective debating-point. That would depend on whether the ordinary

soldiers got a share of the booty; presumably they did, and 119 if anything
suggests it.
128 'Three- and fourfold' as might be legally due to a creditor, as AbT
astutely comment.
129 Aristarchus (Arn/A) criticized Zenodotus for reading Tpoir|v, and
argued for trisyllabic and adjectival Tpoir|v, meaning 'a Trojan city' rather
than the city Troy itself; 'for it was unclear' (he adds) 'whether they would
capture it'. Precisely; that is what a! KE TTOOI ZEUS in 128 says, whereas
further captures in the Troad would be easier to predict. Thus Zenodotus
on this occasion was right.
I I
3 ~47 Agamemnon now lets his feelings show more clearly. dyocOos in
131 is not necessarily flattery (see also on 275-6), and indeed bT are
probably right in claiming it as an ironical counterpart to Akhilleus' KUSIOTE
at 122. But then in 132 he openly accuses Akhilleus of deceit - by which
he presumably means that the result of his supposedly close reasoning is
intolerable, and the reasoning itself therefore specious.
133—4 Aristarchus (Arn/A) athetized, on the ground that the verses are
weak in content and composition as well as unfitting for Agamemnon. This
shows how erratic a judge of style Aristarchus can be on occasion. First, they
are necessary to the context since 132 could not lead directly to 135.
Secondly, they are perfectly in character. Thirdly, their subtle complexity
of expression (especially in O9p' CCUT6$. .., in contrast with the pathetic but
falsely-echoing OCUTCOS ... 5EUOUEVOV), combined with the supposedly naive
and resumptive parataxis of KEAECU 5e..., are typical of Homer at his brilliant
best.
136 A difficult verse: OTTCOS &VTOC£IOV ICTTOU cannot mean 'see to it
that...', or at least this construction is not paralleled in Homer. Rather ' (let
them give it) fitting it to my wishes, in such a way that it will be a just
equivalent'.
138 The increase in syllabic weight from TEOV to Atocvros to 'OSuafps
is paralleled in 145 (8Tos 'OSUCTCTEUS being taken together).
139 Aristarchus (Arn/A) athetized the verse as unnecessary after 137,
and because 6 8E KEV ... is foolishly obvious. The run of the sentence does
indeed suggest a time when 138 was its completion; but the elaboration in
139, aoidic rather than rhapsodic in character, is effective precisely because
of what Aristarchus found silly, namely the sinister and*dramatic 'he will
be angry, will the man I come to'. Its paratactic and false-naive quality
resembles that of KEAEOCI 8e UE ... in 134, which Aristarchus also found
objectionable. Note that IKCOUOU implies that Agamemnon will take the prize
in person, see on 185.
141-7 In the latter part of his reply Agamemnon reverts to his better

kind of royal demeanour, in ordering preparations to be made for the girl's

prompt return to her father. The balanced pairs of imperatives (141 f.
£puaaouev and dcydpouev, 143^ Oeiouev and (3f)aou£v) express the work-
manlike nature of his injunctions; somehow, however, an unctuous note is
heard, to which the gratuitous 6TriTT|8gs (only here and at Od. 15.28 in
Homer), as well as the frequent use of the first person plural ('let's all do
this together...'), contribute. The profusion of epithets is conventional
enough, but nevertheless divine sea and fair-cheeked Khruseis add, in the
circumstances, to the bland and devious impression (ccAoc Slav 6x //., but
14X without that epithet).
145-6 The final sting is the addition of Akhilleus to the list of possible
delegates (on which compare 138, with comment, as well as on 308-11) as
an apparent afterthought, and then with the ambivalent address as TTOCVTCOV
EKTrayAoTcrr1 &v8pcov. How insulting is this term EKTrayAos? Iris addresses
Akhilleus so when she bids him go to the rescue of Patroklos' corpse at
18.170, and Akhilleus himself addresses a Trojan victim likewise at 20.389.
No particular insult can be intended in the former at least; indeed the range
of EKTToyAos in general is from 'amazing' to 'vehement' to 'excessive'
according to context - it does not simply mean ' terrible' or 'violent' as LSJ
assert; see also on 3.415. Yet it does not in any event suggest qualities
desirable in the leader of a mission of expiation and reconciliation (or for
that matter in a man of counsel, 144), and its choice by Agamemnon is
certainly malicious.
148-71 The expressions introducing the speeches on either side (121,
130) have been neutral so far, as 172 will be; but now Akhilleus speaks
C/7To8pa I6cbv, 'with frowning look', from root *5paK-, cf. SepKoucu; that is,
from under lowered brow (or as Chantraine says, Did. s.v. SepKouoci,
'regardant de bas en haut'), a formula associated with speech and
expressing extreme displeasure and rebuke; see also on 2.245. The speech
that follows is both passionate and rhetorical, as in its initial question (15of.).
At times like this (compare especially 9.3o8ff.) Akhilleus thinks and speaks
like no one else in Homer, mainly because of his unique vision of what war
really means and what draws men to it.
149 'Clothed in shamelessness' (cf. 'utterly shameless' in 158) because
he exploits the Tiuf) of others in favour of his own. Kep8aAeo9pov is 'crafty'
(as of Odysseus at 4.339) rather than 'avaricious' - Kep8ocAeos can signify
both.
151 686v iAOeuevai: a specific reference to the journey to Khruse
proposed by Agamemnon, with the rest of the verse as transition to the idea
Akhilleus wants to develop, namely the reasons for fighting.
154-6 The suggested motives for fighting - to avenge cattle- or horse-
rustling or the destruction of crops - are distinctly over-simplified, since the
68

heroic code of gift-obligations must often have compelled one chieftain to

take up arms in another's quarrel.
156-9 See pp. 2if. for the relation between sense and colon-structure
in these four verses.
157 A fluid and emotive verse, with its pattern of long, short, and long
vowel-sounds; see also Griffin, HLD 75.
158-60 The style becomes breathless, with a sporadic interjection of
pure abuse ('utterly shameless one.. .dog-face').
161 'You threaten to take away my prize in person': see on 185.
162 Are the two separate points made here a mere accident of the
paratactic style, so that the real meaning is no more than ' I worked hard
to get the prize the Achaeans gave me'? Probably not; the careful
argumentation (despite flashes of passion) suggests that Akhilleus feels he
has two separate claims on Briseis: (i) he suffered much in order to win her,
and (ii) he was formally awarded her as prize. TTOXXCX uoyrjacc -as is repeated
at 2.690, and the whole theme will be developed at length by Akhilleus at
9.325-32 and 341-4.
165 The alliteration, prefigured in 164, is part of the rhetorical style,
and here expresses one of Akhilleus' bursts of indignation.
167-8 The note of pathos, prominent from 161 on, continues in the
proverbial 'little but loved' (cf. Od. 6.208) as well as in 'when I have worn
myself out fighting'.
169-71 The conclusion is surprising, since we expect Akhilleus simply
to announce his withdrawal from the fighting. It is all the more dramatic
for being stated in such a matter-of-fact way: 'Now I shall go to Phthie,
since it is obviously much better to return home with my curved ships, nor
do I mean to continue dredging up wealth for you here [a* elided for aoi,
170] when I am being dishonoured'. Here the paratactic style does some
odd but effective things with the logic of the sentence: the eTrei-clause
professes to give a reason, but is really no more than a parenthetical
supplement; the true reason, that he is being dishonoured, is given in a
paratactic addition, 'and I do not propose t o . . . ' 6ico (with either long or
short iota in Homer) and 6iouau (always with long iota for obvious metrical
reasons) mean something like 'have the impression that' (so Chantraine,
Diet. s.v. oiouoci), with the idea of personal prediction (amounting sometimes,
as here, almost to intention), as distinct from VOU13CO ('believe on the basis
of accepted truth') and f^yeouai ('judge after careful consideration'). On
169 <pepT£pov see i86n.
172-7 Agamemnon begins calmly, by contrast, and is both sarcastic and
complacent.
173 9e0ye \x6X: 'run away by all means' (Leaf); the irony continues
in the clause that follows, 'if that is what your heart is set on' - similarly

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Book One
Diomedes to Agamemnon at 9.42. Ouuos ^TreaouTai is lightly formular, 3X
//., not Od.
175-6 Here the idea of TIUT), which underlies the whole dispute between
the two men, is more openly expressed. The addition of Zeus to those who
will honour Agamemnon constitutes a startling claim. One reason for
Agamemnon's confidence must be that kings are 'Zeus-reared', 5ioTpe<j>Ees
(8x //., 4X Od.); his own title to respect is fully set out at 2.100-8 (see
comments there), where his royal sceptre is said to have been given to
Pelops by Zeus and then to have descended in the male line. But then the
recognition in 176 that Akhilleus, too, is one of these Zeus-reared kings, and
that they can nevertheless be hateful and behave badly, seems to under-
mine the whole argument. At this point Agamemnon must have it in mind
that he is commander-in-chief, and therefore especially entitled to Zeus's
protection. Moreover the other leaders have sworn allegiance to him, and
that involves Zeus as opKios, protector of oaths.
177 Aristarchus evidently athetized here (Arn/A), thinking the verse
to belong more properly at 5.891 (Zeus to Ares). It is indeed used a little
loosely here; as the scholiast on Dionysius Thrax 13.1 (1, 60 Erbse) observed,
a love of fighting and battles is no bad thing in a general. Yet 178 follows
better on 177 than on 176, and doubtless the verse - a formular one which
could be applied either more or less aptly in different contexts - should be
kept, aiei in any event makes a typical start to a rebuke, cf. 541.
178-80 The asyndeton of 178 and 179, the rising threefolder 179 and
the sigmatic stress of 180 all indicate Agamemnon's growing excitement.
179—80 The 'companions' are, of course, some of the same Myrmidons
he will rule over (180; as prince, at least, since his father Peleus still lives)
back home in Phthie. It is a border region in a sense, or at least one that
had seen certain shifts in population (pp. i86f.), and there may be a sneer
at Akhilleus' provinciality.
181 The threat is formally stated as though it were an oath or a prayer.
It is thus no idle one, nor will Akhilleus take it as such.
182—4 As bT pertinently observe, Agamemnon manages to imply that
he is as superior to Akhilleus as Apollo (who has taken his prize) is to himself.
183 Agamemnon stresses that the ship (141-6) is to be his ship manned
by his companions, i.e. that his action is voluntary and not forced on him
by Akhilleus. The verse is similar in pattern and formular composition to
179:
179 oiKccS* icov crOv vr|uai T6 crfjs KOU croTs eT&poicn
183 TTJV U6V 6ycb (JUV VT|'l T* 6UTJ KCU £UoT$

Part of the same formula-system has appeared already in 170:

170 OIKCCS' luev ovv vrjuai Kopcoviatv, ou5e a' oico...

This verse, however, is a fourfolder, that is, there is no strong semantic

bridging of the central caesura (for although * curved' goes with 'ships', the
connexion is not so close as effectively to override the caesura - nor is there
a fourth-foot word-break to provide a substitute). Verses 179 and 183, on
the other hand, are rising threefolders, with virtual bridging of the central
caesura (since the possessive pronoun goes very closely with its noun) and
substitution of a fourth-foot caesura instead, balancing the second-foot one
and so dividing the verse into three increasing rhythmical units.
185 aCrrds Icbv KAicrfrivSe: now Agamemnon tries to make it clear that
the appropriation of Briseis (who is named in 184 for the first time) is to
be credited to him and no one else. It is that which makes him say he will
go in person to Akhilleus' hut and take her. He does not, in the event, do
so, but sends two heralds instead (320-48). Why? Perhaps because he is a
natural boaster - bT compare his emphatic but unfulfilled assertion about
Khruseis at 29, Tf)v 8' lyd) oO Xuaco, which is not entirely fair because the
plague intervened to change his mind. Or perhaps because a little tact and
royal prudence intervene? That is possible; in any case Akhilleus for his
part, in his eventual reply at 225ff., does not refer specifically to this
obviously sensitive detail but merely in general terms to Scop' &Troatpe!cr6ai,
230; and in his final great oath at 297-303 he contents himself with saying
that he will not fight over Briseis, but will kill anyone who tries to take
anything else of his.
So far the apparent discrepancies over whether Agamemnon will remove
Briseis in person can be explained as psychological subtleties, and do
nothing to justify Analytical speculation about the possible conflation of
divergent accounts. Thus at I37f. the king had threatened to take either
Akhilleus' prize or that of Aias or Odysseus - if, that is, no other adequate
prize could be provided. At 161 Akhilleus reports this as a threat by
Agamemnon to remove his prize OC0T6S, for which, in that particular context,
' in person' may be too definite a translation. Then in the present passage
Agamemnon in his rage escalates his threat in three ways: (i) he drops any
reference to the possibility of a substitute prize from some common stock
(perhaps because Akhilleus has pointed out at 124 that there is no such
thing); (ii) he omits Aias and Odysseus as possible donors and concentrates
on Akhilleus; (iii) he makes OC0T6$ (cf. 137 and 161) unambiguous by
expanding it to CC0T6$ Icbv KAI<J{TIV8€. When it comes to instructing the
heralds at 322ff. he says that if Akhilleus refuses to surrender the girl to them,
then he will go and take her in person * accompanied by many more'. All
this may well reflect, and probably does so, a close observation on Homer's
part of the vagaries of human character and behaviour; but soon things
will become more difficult. In reporting events to his mother Thetis,
Akhilleus will first of all say that Agamemnon took the girl away himself,
ydcp ix*1 y£p<*S» ocCrr6$ &TroOpa$ (356); then, that the heralds took her
7*

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Book One
(39 if.). There is a contradiction here, and it cannot be explained away by
arguing that OCUTOS <5crro0pas implies no more than that it was Agamemnon's
wilful decision; OCOTOS icov KAiair|v8e here makes that virtually impossible.
Admittedly, when Thetis prefers the former version in supplicating Zeus she
may be choosing the one likely to affect him most; but that kind of motive
cannot be assumed when Thersites, also, in addressing the whole Achaean
assembly at 2.240, uses that same unambiguous description: 'because he
took his prize and keeps her, having removed her himself. That is malicious,
like everything else Thersites says - but could he have said it if part of it
could be immediately controverted by practically everyone present?
The possibility begins to present itself that what began as a mere threat
is becoming established in the minds of some of the characters - and, at odd
moments, of the poet himself? - as what actually happened. There is still
no compelling need to presuppose two clearly distinct versions, in one of
which the king removed the girl in person, in the other of which he did not;
but by now one may be more inclined to accept, as well as the certainty
of much psychological insight, the possibility of a degree of oral inconsistency
and imprecision.
186 cpepTepos, 'superior': there is an implied contrast with KapTepos in
178. Akhilleus may be stronger in battle, but Agamemnon is his superior
overall, and that is what counts. Attempts to give cpepTepos a more specific
meaning (let alone make out that cpepTepov meaning 'better' at 169 and
4.307 is an 'abnormal feature', Shipp, Studies 229) are misguided.
187 A sense of completion at the end of the speech is given both by the
(inevitable) end-stopping after four preceding enjambments and by the
restoration of the regular twofold pattern after the intermittent threefolders
in the speech as a whole, at 174, 177, 179, 183 (q.v. with comment) and
186. The speech began with light enjambment and comparatively frequent
end-stopping (especially in the sequence of whole-sentence verses at 176-8);
it ends with a long six-verse statement containing one periodic, one
progressive and three integral enjambments. The effect is of unshakeable
intention rather than uncontrollable passion.
The content of the verse is remarkable too, since Agamemnon concludes
by in effect denying the right of free speech in assembly and claiming that
his opinion must prevail in any dispute. That is contrary to the accepted
practice, emphatically stated (with this episode in mind?) by Diomedes later
in the poem when at 9.32f. he tells the king ' I shall fight (|iaxr)ao|iai) with
you over your wrong-headedness, as is the established custom in assembly -
and do not be angry about it': fj 0euis krnv, &va^, &yopfj* av 66 \xr\ TI
XoAcodrjs. That is, others have the right to put forward their opinion in
assembly just as much as the presiding king, and he must not lose his temper
thereat (cf. 74-83), let alone threaten reprisals. Normally, no doubt, in the
72

case of a disagreement between the king and a single other chieftain the rest
would tend to support the king. In the present instance Akhilleus will take
no notice of the king's threats but will abuse him even more strongly (2256°.),
and after an attempt at mediation by Nestor the assembly will be dissolved
in deadlock.

188-222 Akhilleus is tempted to kill Agamemnon on the spot, but Athene intervenes
in person and dissuades him

188 The affront to his honour contained in the king's last words turns
Akhilleus' growing anger into ocx°S> rnental anguish.
188—92 His heart is divided over whether to draw his sword and kill
Agamemnon, or not; the description of his internal struggle is made more
graphic by the addition that it took place within his 'shaggy chest' ((JTT\QO%
can be used either in the singular or in the plural, for a single chest). The
9pT)v, which often as here is simply the seat of emotions, also has in Homer
a more technical sense of diaphragm or lungs (see further R. B. Onians, The
Origins of European Thought2 (Cambridge 1954) 23ff.; Chantraine, Diet. s.v.).
Aristarchus (Arn/A) felt that 192 'undermines the idea of his anger' and
athetized it, implausibly, arguing that what Akhilleus was trying to decide
was whether to rouse up the others or to kill Agamemnon himself.
193-4 The traditional vocabulary for expressing inner conflict is limited;
even the vocabulary for the organs of thought and feeling is imprecise. Ouuos,
in origin ' breath' and so ' anger' as in 192, is more or less equivalent to 9pr|v
in the formular phrase KOTOC 9p€va KOU KOCTCX 9UU6V (IOX //., u x 0d.\ the
whole of 193 is found 4X //., 3X Od.), simply as 'heart' or 'mind' in a loose
sense. Here 193 perhaps suggests too deliberate a consideration, and his
simultaneous and impulsive drawing of his sword from its scabbard suggests
more accurately what is likely to happen.
In a way, Athene may be said to represent, or embody, his ultimate
decision to go no further - see 3.396-8^, on Aphrodite as a partial em-
bodiment of Helen's emotions - although it is to her divinity rather than
her arguments that he accedes at 216-18. His violent and confused emotions
are reduced to something like a formal debate, although in his own heart
and mind. The goddess no doubt represents, to some degree, the orthodox
code of behaviour - the principle of order which the gods encourage and
support in men - to which he eventually adheres; but she also acts as an
individual caught up in the actual course of events.
194 f|X0e 5' 'AOTjvn: the 8' is 'apodotic' and apparently otiose (so
Aristarchus according to Arn/A), as commonly in the language of epic; it
'underlines the correspondence between subordinate and main clause* in
the paratactic style (Chantraine, GH 11, 356f.). So also in a temporal

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Book One
sentence (for example) at 57f, oi 6* ETTEI oOv f|yep6ev.. .ToTai 8' <5CVIOT&UEVOS
|i£TE<pr| (also 4.21 of.), and in a conditional one at 137, ei 8e KE urj Scbooaiv,
eyd> 6E KEV CC0T6S IACOUOU.
195-6 Aristarchus (Arn/A) athetized here, obviously wrongly, on the
grounds that the poet could not have intuited these divine matters, and
probably, also, that the verses are correctly in place at 2o8f. The ancient
critics did not in any event properly understand the use of repetition in the
oral style, but, even apart from that, the poet as narrator often ascribes
divine motives without hesitation. In fact the language is slightly better
fitted to this initial context, since &U9C0 at 209 (revealing to Akhilleus that
Here likes him no better than Agamemnon) might be regarded as rather
tactless.
197 Athene ' took [or seized] him by his brown hair': she gave it a good
tug is the implied meaning, to gain his attention without delay. This is
perhaps the most remarkable of all corporeal interventions by a god or
goddess in the Iliad. Aphrodite picks up a chair at 3.424 (see comment there),
Ares kills and strips a warrior at 5.841-4, Apollo knocks Patroklos' armour
off him at i6.79iff., and so on - but Apollo, at least, is concealed in mist,
invisible, and Aphrodite is disguised, even if only partially so. Here Athene
appears in her own presence, even if to Akhilleus alone, and that makes her
simple and material action all the more striking.
198 The verse is a little casual in expression, with Athene 'appearing'
to Akhilleus (in the sense that he saw her, 6ponro) although she is behind
him and he has not yet turned round (199). It could be a singer's
afterthought to increase the power or intimacy of the theophany by
restricting it to a private audience, or perhaps even to limit the departure
from realism; bT suggest that it is to spare Akhilleus' pride.
200 Her terrible eyes shine forth - she is a goddess, and in an urgent
mood. But she is also Athene, who is conventionally yActvKCOTns in Homer
(as indeed shortly at 206); whether that means 'blue-grey-eyed' or
'owl-eyed', it still makes her remarkable for her gaze, and Akhilleus
recognizes her at once. The exact reference of yAav/Komis cannot be
determined, but see Leumann, HW 1486°.; POCOTTIS of Here suggests there
may be a relic of theriomorphic forms in each case, but see further on 551.
201 This is the first occurrence in the poem of a very common formular
verse (14X //., 15X Od.) and its even commoner component ITTEQ TTTEpoevTa
TTpcxrnOSa (55X //., 6ox Od., + variants). Words are 'winged' because they
fly through the air rapidly, like birds.
aoa-5 He expresses no surprise, but bursts into an indignant little speech
(two short related questions, two abrupt assertions) which characteristically
assumes that it is the king's outrageous behaviour rather than any fault of
his own that has caused Athene's appearance.

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203 Opptv: G. P. Shipp incorrectly classed the use of this word as 'late'
('one of the many features that suggest that A [i.e. book 1] is not old' (!),
Studies 199) on the grounds that it is common in the Odyssey and only
appears, with its derivatives, hvt times in the Iliad. But arrogant behaviour
is, of course, characteristic of the suitors, and that is why it is so frequent
in the probably later poem. It is repeated here at 214, where it is implied
by 213 to be a legal offence, see on 213-14.
205 As often, the gist of the oath or threat is contained in an epigram-
matic concluding verse, Toycc means 'soon' in Homer; &v with the
subjunctive is an emphatic future, Chantraine, GH 11, 212.
207-14 Athene says briefly why she has come and that Here has sent
her (see also on 195-6). The short sentences with twofold verses, sometimes
progressively enjambed or internally interrupted, suit the urgency of the
occasion but also suggest an effortless confidence.
207 a! Kg TrfOrjai -rjTai: a formula (5X //., ix Od.) presumably designed
in the first instance for mortal rather than divine persuasion; although even
the gods can use coaxing language to mortals, and Athene is being tactful
here, especially at 211-14 as the scholiasts noted. The at KEV. .. locution does
not in any case necessarily imply serious doubt about the outcome, see on
408 and 2.72.
212 A formular verse, 6x //., 3X Od. (including minor variations).
213-14 Actually Akhilleus will receive far more than the value of Briseis,
if she can be so valued; 24.686 suggests that 'three times' is a conventional
factor, which also has legal overtones (cf. 128 and comment, also on 203),
as well as reinforcing the passionate sibilation. The resumptive crv 6*
fcrxeo... provides typical closing contrast after the more leisurely pace and
discursive tone of the preceding verse-and-a-half.
215-18 Akhilleus' three-verse reply maintains the small scale and low
key of Athene's 8-verse speech of advice which precedes it. The whole
episode, indeed, after Akhilleus' initial violent impulse, is kept severely in
place, presumably so as not to detract from the dramatic force of the main
argument between the two leaders. Akhilleus' uncharacteristic reasonable-
ness perhaps prefigures his more important change of heart over the
mutilation of Hektor's body in book 24. It begins in 216 with an almost
sycophantic tone, but quickly reverts to heroic values of indignation and
calculation.
218 A rising, climactic threefolder, proverbial and epigrammatic in
expression, with gnomic TE in its second part as often in generalizations
(including similes).
219-22 A serviceable conclusion to the episode, framed by two/three-
folders (219 and 222) with fourth-foot caesuras. f\ = 'he spoke', and fj Kod
normally indicates that the action about to be described accords with the
75

words just reported. Zenodotus for some reason (Arn/Aon 2igf) compressed
219X into a single verse, cos eiTrcbv TTOCAIV COGS, ueya £i<pos ou5' dnridriae, thus
doing away with a graphic counterpoint to 194-perhaps because he
thought hands were properly heavy because loaded with weapons, cf.
comment on 88-9.
221 pe|3f)Ker. 'was in the act of going'.
222 Aristarchus (Did?/A) wondered whether the verse should be
athetized, since it will transpire at 423f. that the gods had departed on the
previous day on an 1 i-day visit to the Aithiopes. But in that case it would
be not only this verse but the whole intervention of Athene (who had come
'from the sky', i94f.) that would be in doubt. In fact there is a mild oral
inconsistency, arising not so much here as when the poet comes to develop
the Thetis scene later in the Book; see on 423-5.

223-305 The quarrel continues; Nestor*s attempt at conciliation fails, and the
assembly is dissolved
223 <5cTapTT|poTs: a word of unknown derivation according to Chantraine,
Diet, s.v.; yet context here and at Od. 2.243, a s w e ^ a s Hesiod, Theog. 610,
compels something like 'mischievous' or 'harmful' as the meaning, and so
does not preclude the obvious connexion with \/^P = J j° m > a n d s o
'discordant'.
225—33 Aristarchus (Am/A) was clearly right to reject Zenodotus'
attempt to athetize this whole passage, presumably because of its violent
abuse of Agamemnon. The exegetical scholia in T show that there was a
lively ancient debate on how justified Akhilleus' accusations (of drunkenness,
shamelessness, cowardice and greed) might be. The pro-Agamemnon party
regarded the criticisms as malicious distortions of necessary kingly qualities,
such as having wine available for official entertaining, remaining somewhat
inaccessible and avoiding being a conspicuous target in battle. That is
clearly rather absurd, but the question remains a difficult one. The
representation of Agamemnon in the epic as a whole is complex and
variable, emphasizing now his generic royal qualities, now his genuine
difficulties as commander of such a diverse and temperamental force, now
his special personal weaknesses. For he was often undeniably irresolute (as
in his repeated suggestions that the expedition should give up and go home,
which begin in the next Book), although not actually cowardly; he put the
blame on others when he could; and his demeanour toward Akhilleus and
concern with his own possessions, as indicated in preceding comments, has
been less than admirable.
225 Akhilleus has already called Agamemnon 'dog-eyed5 or 'dog-
faced', KUVC&TTCC, at 159, in connexion with the idea of his shamelessness
76

<5cvcu6£$, 158). Fawning gaze combined with unabashed sexual and

excremental interests probably accounts for the choice of dogs; but the term
can also be used of women - or goddesses - and Helen describes herself so
at 3.180 (q.v. with comment) and Od. 4.145. Cf. Hesiod, Erga 67, with
M. L. West's comment.
226-7 Akhilleus' next insult depends on an interesting contrast between
ordinary warfare, with the whole Aa6s ('host' or army) involved, and the
X6xos composed only of nobles, cruv 6picrrf|6aaiv 'Axoucov. The X6xos is
the small raiding or ambushing party which calls for the highest daring
and endurance, as is most explictly described at 13.275-86; at 13.277 the
X6xos is where 'true value, &p€Tfu is most clearly discerned'. See also on
275-6.
228 T6 64 TOI xfjp eiBeToa glvou: 'that appears to you as death itself, i.e.
as a mortal danger to be avoided.
229-30 A brilliant and stylish summation of Akhilleus' previous com-
plaints: Agamemnon prefers to remove the property of(anyone) whoever
disagrees with him.
231-2 Another passionately compressed accusation: Agamemnon is
5r|uop6pos, 'devourer of the people', that is, of their property, because they
are weak and let him get away with it; otherwise his latest affront would
have been his last. There is a marked similarity in tone to Hesiod's criticism
of 'gift-eating kings' at Erga 260-4; no doubt it was something of a
commonplace.
233-44 Now Akhilleus turns from abuse to a more positive and even
more impressive kind of rhetoric; he swears a solemn oath by the staff he
holds in token of his right to address the assembly. This is the oath: that
the Achaeans will miss him sorely, and that Agamemnon will be helpless
as they fall at Hektor's hands, and will bitterly regret dishonouring the ' best
of the Achaeans' (cf 9m.). Shipp's suspicions of'lateness' {Studies 226),
based primarily on vai ua in 234 and Attic TraA&uccis (invariably corrected
to -rjs) in the MSS at 238, are not compelling.
2
34"~9 The staff or cncfiTrTpov belongs to the heralds who control the
assembly; they give it to the speaker whom they recognize as having the
floor. It is therefore a particularly solemn object, symbol of royal and indeed
divine authority - Agamemnon's own staff or sceptre at 2.100-8 has
descended to him through the rulers of Argos from Zeus himself, and here
at 237—9 * ne staff Akhilleus is holding is one habitually held by the law-makers
who guard the divine ordinances laid down by Zeus; see also on 2.109. The
oath is made even more impressive by associating the staff with, the idea
of inevitability: just as it will never sprout leaves again, so will this oath
be fulfilled. The development of detail in 235-7 (i ts being cut in the
mountains, the bronze axe that trimmed it) resembles that of similes, and
77

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Book One
for some of the same reasons, for example emphasis and emotional force - but
also to make the oath more impressive and exotic, and therefore more
effective.
239 A particularly solemn verse, beginning with the name and
authority of Zeus and ending with an emphatic reafBrmation of the power
of the oath that will follow.
240-4 The oath turns out to be quite indirect in its formulation, almost
riddling to begin with (240), then dwelling on Agamemnon's helplessness
against Hektor in the closely enjambed verses which follow (241-4). The
effect is sinister and the upshot unmistakable: that his withdrawal from the
fighting is seriously meant, and that the king will come to rue the day he
caused it. The verse-structure in this whole speech is marked by frequent
internal punctuation combined with severely regular colon-pattern - there
is not a single threefolder after the initial verse of abuse at 225.
242 <5cv8pO9Ovoio: a powerful, almost shocking (Trpo$... KOCTdnrAri^iv,
T) first use in the poem of this epithet, although it is formular for Hektor
(ux).
243—4 &uu£eiS- literally 'lacerate', another strong word, the more so for
not being fully formular (although <5cuuacre occurs once elsewhere at the
verse-end at 19.284): 'you will lacerate your spirit within you | in anger
because...' On 6tpicrrov 'Axaicov see gin.
245-52 The language of this short narrative interlude, with its strong
internal stops, runover, cumulation and integral enjambments, is much
tenser than that of Nestor's speech which follows at 254-84, where
whole-verse patterns will predominate. Note the symmetrical arrangement
of 245-9: strong bucolic diaereses at 246 and 247 are flanked by verses with
heavily marked central caesura, while the uninterrupted and indeed almost
honey-sweet flow of 249 marks the conclusion.
245-6 Flinging the staff to the ground expresses Akhiileus' frustration
(Telemakhos does the same, and bursts into tears, at Od. 2.8of); but it is
also a dramatic confirmation of his oath.
246 A cumulative verse which serves the purpose of stressing the staffs
special status through its exceptional decoration (on which see 2-45n.), but
also of getting Akhiileus seated as Agamemnon is.
247 For the king rages iTipcoGev, 'from the other side'; the poet evokes
a tableau which symbolizes the fixed opposition of the two men. The scene
could almost have ended here, and the assembly have been dissolved, but
Nestor is introduced without delay and within 247 itself, so that his
intervention is unlikely to have been an afterthought or subsequent
elaboration. Thus Nestor's role as counsellor and mediator is established
early in the poem, the quarrel is given even more weight, and the
inflexibility of the two contenders - who at 285 303 will reject his reasonable
proposals - is demonstrated in a new light.

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247-52 Nestor is described quite fully here at his first mention in the
poem, unlike Akhilleus and Agamemnon who were assumed to be well
known. Perhaps he was unfamiliar to many of the audience, or perhaps the
singer just wants to emphasize his persuasiveness and venerability so as to
give greater force to his advice. He is also 'one of Homer's favourite
characters' (Willcock).
Anything that is yXuKus, sweet, to men can be described by an obvious
exaggeration as 'sweeter than honey' - even war and anger, in Homer; but
because honey tastes sweet on the tongue it was especially appropriate to
sweet words, and became a commonplace, notably in Pindar, for the poet's
words.
250-2 A neatly constructed sentence beginning with a rising threefolder
and passing from integral enjambment to the relaxed cumulation of the final
verse. Nestor rules over the third generation in Pulos (the important
Achaean kingdom in the south-western Peloponnese, see on 2.591-4) and
is unusually old to be present on the field of battle; hence his role of
counsellor and his garrulous reminiscences. But what did Homer mean by
saying that * two generations... had already perished... and he ruled among
the third'? bT, partly dependent here on Porphyry's commentary, insisted
that since his father Neleus had perished, and his brothers too (at the hands
of Herakles, 11.690-3), Nestor as survivor must be ruling over a third
generation of subjects; therefore, assuming thirty years to a generation, he
must be over sixty and perhaps around seventy. At Od. 3.245, however,
Telemakhos comments of Nestor that * they say he has thrice reigned over
generations of men'; he is admittedly ten years older now, but there may
be a misunderstanding of the distinction between ruling among the third
generation (252 urr& 8fc TpiT&TOiaiv Avaacrsv) and ruling over three gener-
ations {Od. 3.245 Tpi$.. .dvd^aoOai yive*, where the language is
ambiguous).
250 ufipdTrcov &v0pcbTroov: 7X //., 2X Od. The formula must have been
long established, not only because no one later could say precisely what
it meant but also because it had had time to generate an unmetrical
adaptation into the nominative, iiiporres AvOpcoiroi, at 18.288. Later poets
occasionally used uipOTres to mean 'mortal' or suchlike; the commonest
explanation of the word was that it was a compound of yT^P meaning
'share' or 'divide up', cf. usipouou, and 6% 'voice', therefore 'dividing up
one's speech into separate words', 'articulate'. This is unlikely to be correct
since, as Leaf long ago observed, if the word is an ancient one the digamma
of f6vf could not have been neglected, and therefore u£p- would have been
scanned as long. Merops is a prophet and Trojan ally at 2.831 and 11.329;
more to the point may be that the early inhabitants of Kos were called
M£pOTT6S according to Pindar (e.g. Nern. 6.31) and others, and that ulpoy
is also the name of a bird (the Bee-eater). The tribal names Druopes and

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Book One
Aeropes, too, are apparently based on bird-names, which has led to the
speculation that Meropes could be a tribal name of that kind (cf. Chan-
traine, Diet, s.v.); which still leaves the problem of why men in general
should be called by that tribal name. For other theories, none compelling,
see Frisk s.v.; H. Roller, Glotta 46 (1968) 18-26.
254—84 Nestor's intervention is straightforward and expressive, with
predominantly end-stopped verses; internal interruption is conspicuous
only at 27of., and integral enjambment only in the conclusion, at 282-4.
The speech is pointed and persuasive, and even the autobiographical central
section is a purposeful exemplum which does something to reinforce the old
man's role as conciliator.
258 The rising threefolder neatly defines this rare combination of
qualities, on which see 2.20i-2n.
259 A practised transition into one of Nestor's reminiscences, which will
become even longer as the epic proceeds.
260 Aristarchus (Arn/A) argued for f|u!v, not OuTv as supported by
Zenodotus, in order to soften the criticism:' better than us', not * better than
you'. Most medieval MSS sided with Zenodotus, and indeed Nestor is not
usually too delicate in his references to modern decadence; but Aristarchus
may be right in view of 262.
263—5 These are Lapiths from Thessaly, famous in myth and art for the
fight that broke out when the Centaurs became drunk at king Peirithoos'
wedding to Hippodameia and tried to rape her and the other women.
Theseus of Athens, an old friend and ally, helped Peirithoos against them;
the basic story, without this Athenian detail, is attested also at 2.742-4 and
Od. 21.295-304, and ends in the Centaurs being driven out of their home
on Mt Pelion and across to the Pindos region. The verse concerning Theseus
recurs in the sub-epic and pseudo-Hesiodic Shield o/Herakles, 182; it is not
discussed in the scholia, is quoted as Homeric by Dio and Pausanias, but
survives in only a minority of medieval MSS. It is probably correct to see it
as a post-Homeric embroidery, probably of Athenian origin in the sixth
century B.C. when Theseus-propaganda was at its height. As for Nestor's
involvement with the war between Lapiths and Centaurs, that may be
Homer's own idea (so Willcock), based on the tradition that his father
Neleus was Thessalian by birth and only moved down to Pulos later.
266-7 The dramatic repetition KdpTicrroi.. .K&p-ncnroi.. .KapTicrcois is
an entirely successful piece of rhetoric, archaic and almost hieratic in
feeling - although not of course necessarily archaic in composition.
268 9r|p<j(v: it is quixotic to deny, like Leaf citing Meister, that ff\p is
the Aeolic form of Ionic 0fjp. These 'wild animals' are the Centaurs, shaggy
creatures who are half man and half horse (Homer does not need to say
that explicitly) and dwell on the slopes of Mt Pelion in Aeolic-speaking
80

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Book One
Magnesia. It is quite probable that there were earlier hexameter poems
about them, Aeolic rather than Ionic in colouring and origin, from which
phrases like (prjpaiv 6pEOKCpoiai were derived. The latter word recurs only
once in Homer, at Od. 9.155, and then of goats; probably therefore it
means something close to 'mountain-dwelling', with its second element
connected with KOTTOS, KEiucn, 'lying'.
271 KCCT* l\x CCUTOV: 'by myself, not because he was unwilling to fight
among the Lapiths (since he had accepted their invitation to help them),
but rather as a boast: he fought without a chariot or charioteer to back him
up, as he also claims to have done at 11.720.
272 uccxsonro: 'late' according to Shipp, Studies 226; 'exceptional' but
not necessarily post-Homeric according to Chantraine, GHi, 351. uccxeoivTo
at 344 is another matter, and either UOX^OVTOCI or uax&ovTai should
probably be restored there.
273—4 The message of the exemplum is that strong fighters follow Nestor's
advice and obey him; and the word 'obey' rings out three times as past
and present are reconnected.
275-6 au: Nestor does not address Agamemnon by name but can be
imagined as turning to him first; despite his distinction (dcyaOos Trep kov)
he should not remove the girl - not because Akhilleus says so, but in order
not to upset the original distribution of booty. dyaOos does not ever mean
'strong', quite, in Homer (as Griffin, HLD 53, assumes); it is the adjective
of which &p€Tf), aristocratic excellence in general, is the equivalent noun.
At 131 the same qualification, dcyocOos uep Icov, was applied by Agamemnon
himself to Akhilleus; it covers both martial and social distinction, indeed
the two go together - see also the next comment.
276-61 Now Nestor turns to Akhilleus: he should avoid quarrelling with
Agamemnon, who is cpepTEpos, 'superior', in so far as he rules over more
people - and that outweighs Akhilleus' own superiority as fighter (KapTepos,
280) and son of a goddess. The argument depends on the idea of kings as
protected by Zeus, and therefore of the greatest of kings as more protected
than others. 2 78ff. admittedly does not state this very clearly, but there is
no reason therefore to count it as post-Homeric elaboration, as Von der
Muhll and others have done. Agamemnon is accepted by the other paaiAf^es
as overall leader, and we know moreover that they were bound to him by
oath, which involves Zeus once again as opKios.
282-4 At this point Nestor turns back emphatically to Agamemnon,
completing the ring of argument and the A-R-A pattern with a very direct
injunction (au 8e TTOCOE) backed by a personal request (ocuTOcp iycoye|
Aiaaou*) based on Akhilleus' key role in Achaean defence.
286-91 Agamemnon pays enthusiastic lip-service (votl 6f) TCCOT& ye
TT&VTOC...) to what Nestor has said, but obviously has not heeded a word
81

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of it. He completely ignores the practical suggestion that he should give up
the idea of taking Briseis, and harps obsessively on Akhilleus' domineering
behaviour instead of abandoning his own ulvos as Nestor had asked at 282.
In particular, at 29of. he specifically sidesteps the old man's soothing
distinction between q>£pTepos and K&pTEpos. In short, every single part of
Nestor's speech is studiously ignored.
291 Aristarchus (Arn/A) took 6ve(5£a as subject of TtpoOiouaiv, literally
'insults run forward' for him to utter them, an odd and difficult expression
which also fails to contribute to a strong statement overall. He was doubtless
persuaded by the difficulty of trpodiouaiv if its subject is to be Oeol; that
would, however, give a far stronger sense, something like 'if the gods have
made him a powerful fighter, do they for that reason put it before him [i.e.
encourage him] to speak only in insults?' The difficulty is in taking -8k>uaiv
as a part of T{8T|UI. Chantraine, GH 1, 459 n. 1, who describes the form as
'extremement deconcertante', rejects the possibility of its being a present
indicative, preferring the idea that it might be an aorist subjunctive with
short vowel to e.g. Schwyzer's conjecture that it comes from TrpoOirjui, i.e.
TTpoairiiii. The difficulty remains, but does not in my opinion justify Leafs
conclusion ' I see no choice but to regard the passage as hopelessly corrupt.'
292 UTropXr)8r|v: literally 'interruptingly' ('it is a sign of anger not to
tolerate a detailed accusation', bT). The term is used only here in Homer
(but cf. 19.80 OppdAAeiv), who normally lets his characters have their say.
Even here, indeed, Agamemnon's point as expressed in 287-91 seems
complete in itself; it is only the present verse that suggests he was intending
to continue.
293 Agamemnon has complained that Akhilleus wishes to be in com-
mand, and the latter's interruption is designed to show that this is not so,
but rather that he refuses to yield to the king in doing everything he says
(that is, however wrong it might be - he is obviously thinking of the order
to surrender Briseis). This is, in fact, a reasonable defence of Akhilleus'
position. A king does not have to be obeyed when he is patently wrong, or
wrong by general consent.
294 Crnrd^ouai is from C/Tro-feiKoo; the original digamma is ignored, but
such cases of this in a compound verb (as e.g. in 6rTrenT6vTO$, 19.75) are too
widespread in Homer to be regarded as exceptionally late, let alone
post-Homeric.
295-6 Aristarchus athetized 296 (Arn/A on 295), believing that ur| yap
iuoiyg does not need another verb but depends on em-riAAeo; 296 is therefore
a feeble supplement by someone who failed to understand this. Similar
arguments are applied by Aristarchus elsewhere, sometimes more justifiably
as at e.g. 21.570; but in the oral cumulative style such explanatory
additions can be made by a singer even when they are not necessary. In
82

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the present case ydp in 295 implies that the sentence will continue;
moreover there is nothing un-Homeric in 296, indeed the deceptively mild
'I don't believe I shall obey you' (which Aristarchus probably judged to
be unacceptably weak) is highly effective as well as typical of Homer.
297 A formular verse (7X //., 6x Od.), often used in tense and excited
utterances to introduce a new consideration or a drastic conclusion. Here
the new thought, at 298-303, will be expressed coherently and with
apparent calm, whatever the passion behind it - at least until 303 itself. See
also on 4.39.
298-301 This clarifies Akhilleus' position but also introduces one im-
portant change in it, which turns out to be a brilliant device for avoiding an
immediate physical confrontation (and so observing the spirit of Athene's
advice at 2o6ff.) at the same time as preserving his own honour apparently
intact. It is not quite the case that he 'yields in a noble-natured way',
ueyaAoq>vcbs ekei, as bT put it; rather he makes the honourable counter-
threat that is required by Agamemnon's threat to take Briseis in person, but
restricts it to any further aggressive act by Agamemnon, not to the girl's
removal itself. It is, of course, highly unlikely that the king will consider
seizing any further possession of Akhilleus; the imagined case is an artificial
one which allows the latter to sound threatening without actually involving
himself in a possibly dangerous situation. But that is not all, for in 299 he
contrives to implicate the Achaeans in general, not just the king, in the
removal of Briseis, and thus distracts attention, to some extent, from
Agamemnon's particular crime against himself. He does this both in the first
and in the second part of the verse: '(I shall fight) (a) neither with you,
Agamemnon, nor with anyone else...(b) since you [in the plural] have
taken her away, after giving her to me'; the implication perhaps being that
the Achaeans as donors (see on 162) have more right to take her back.
302-3 The threat is rephrased as a challenge made in public - tva
yvcocoai KCCI o!8e -which culminates in a sinister and typically epigrammatic
conclusion: try it, and blood will flow - or rather, since Homer's language,
formular though it may be, is more vivid than any modern cliche,
'straightway will your black blood spurt around my spear'. For Ipcoko (and
£pGof|) in Homer see Chantraine, Diet, s.v.; the basic meaning seems to be
'withdraw from', sometimes with the added connotation of haste, including
both 'rush out' as here and 'draw back' as at 13.776, 14.101.
305 AOaocv: their both rising to their feet, dcvan^Triv, indicates that the
assembly is over; there is no formal dissolution, as normally, by the king
or his agents the heralds.

306-48 Khruseis is sent home by ship, and Briseis is removed from Akhilleus'' hut
by Agamemnon's heralds
307 This is the poem's first mention of Patroklos, as 'son of Menoitios'
simply - an allusive reference which suggests (proves, indeed, unless it be
the result of minor oral insouciance) that the audience was already familiar
with him. That does not necessarily mean that he was an important figure
in the heroic tradition (like e.g. Agamemnon, who was introduced solely
by patronymic at 7; see also on 247-52), or that his role before Troy was
not greatly expanded by the monumental composer. Admittedly, MEVOITI-
&8T) is Homer's formular way of denoting Patroklos in the dative case in
the central part of the verse (4X //.); but the poet could easily have recast
the verse to give his name directly had he thought it necessary to do so. As
it is, the bridging of the main caesura by the heavy patronymic gives the
effect of a third successive rising threefolder, after 305 and 306, and thus
helps to constitute an especially forceful and emphatic conclusion to
Akhilleus' part in the great debate. The highly unusual run of threefold
verses will continue, however, with 308.
308-11 Akhilleus returns to his hut by the ships, and Agamemnon
begins to carry out the intention expressed at 14if.; a ship is launched, then
his captive Khruseis is led on board for return to her father Khruses. A
sacrificial hecatomb (see on 65) is also embarked, as well as twenty rowers
and Odysseus as captain. At i45f. Agamemnon had named him or Aias or
Idomeneus as possible candidates for this office (as well as Akhilleus himself,
presumably to annoy), but Odysseus with his knowledge and resourcefulness
(TroAuurjTis in 311 is admittedly the standard epithet for him in this position
in the verse) was the obvious choice when it came to the point. On 311 efoev
dycov see 4.392^
312 uypa KeAeuSa: an otherwise Odyssean formula (4X), with the whole
phrase <5cva|36cvT£$... KeAeuda recurring at Od. 4.842 and 15.474. The
complete description of the journey to Khruse will follow at 430-87 and is
full of Odyssean language. That is mainly, no doubt, because the Odyssey
has much occasion to describe seafaring, the Iliad little; there is no need
to regard the voyage as an intrusion into the Iliad by a singer primarily
concerned with the other epic.
313-14 Once the ship has sailed, Agamemnon instructs the army to
purify itself by washing. The epic often describes simultaneous actions as
happening consecutively; that was an accepted convention which made for
simplicity of presentation in the narrative and maintained the linearity of
the oral style (pp. 3 if.). Here, nevertheless, it is clear that the crew leave
without purifying themselves, and this led to some complicated explanations
by ancient critics. But the crew do purify themselves by ritually washing

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Book One
their hands, 449 xtpviyctVTO, before sacrificing once they have arrived at
Khruse. The army, on the other hand, proceed immediately to sacrifice
hecatombs of bulls and goats to Apollo (315-17); and before that they purify
themselves at the earliest opportunity. Theirs is, admittedly, an unusual
cleansing, more than a token washing of hands, presumably so as to rid
their whole bodies of pollution. As often, symbolic and hygienic require-
ments overlap; their whole bodies have been exposed to danger from the
plague, and so the cleansing is unusually thorough. Clearly, too, there
is ordinary dirt to be removed, and the epic did not wholly ignore that;
Here cleans the dirt, Auucnrcc as here, from her skin with ambrosia (en-
visaged as an ointment) at 14.170, whereas Odysseus and Diomedes paddle
in the sea to wash off the sweat (and then have a proper bath afterwards)
after their night expedition at 10.572-6, cf. 11.62 if. The troops do roughly
the same here. They throw the dirty water, the Auucrra, into the sea,
which is a purifying agent; see Parker, Miasma 210, 229n. 130. A compared
Euripides, IT 1193, but //. 19.266-8 is also relevant, for there the carcase
of a boar used in an oath-sacrifice is thrown into the sea to be consumed
by fishes.
315-17 On hecatombs see 6^n. KV\<JT\ in 317 is the smoke and savour
of burnt fat, from the fat-encased thighbones that were the gods' special
portion; see on 447-68. This happens to be the only place in Homer where
the savour is specifically described as rising, together with the smoke of the
altar fire, to the sky where the gods are conceived as dwelling. Seven times
in the Iliad gods (including Athene at i94f.) are said to come down to earth
oOpocvoOev, from the sky; that is not meant to contradict the idea of their
dwelling on Mt Olumpos, since its peaks were above the clouds and
therefore in the oci0T|p, the upper air which was sometimes described as the
sky itself.
320 Talthubios and Eurubates: in Sparta the Talthubiadai were the
family or guild of heralds, presumably from pre-Homeric times on; and
there is a second herald called Eurubates among the Achaeans in Homer
(he is Odysseus' herald at 2.184). Thus both names seem to be generic ones
for heralds. In the Iliad Talthubios is more frequently cited than Eurubates;
he goes on various errands (the two heralds are described as 6Tpr]pcb
8sp<5rTTOVTE, busy helpers, in 321), as well as performing sacred and other
public duties; but it is Eurubates who accompanies the embassy to Akhilleus
at 9.170. There he is partnered by Odios, a third Achaean herald who
receives no other mention (he has a Trojan ally as namesake, one of the
two Halizonian leaders, 2.856 and 5.39).
322-5 A compact and urgent instruction: the first two verses are each
crisp, whole-verse imperatives; the next two are more hypothetical and
syntactic, balancing each other in their strong central caesuras. This is where

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Agamemnon makes his threat unmistakably plain, yet at the same time
prudently modifies it a little: if Akhilleus refuses to surrender the girl, then
he will come in person, but with a posse (auv TrAe6veacnv) that will make
Akhilleus' personal strength irrelevant.
326 KpctTEp6v 61 hrl uO0ov iTeXAe: 'and enjoined upon them a strong
word', that is, of command - in fact the command he has just given in his
short speech.
327-47 The use of the dual for the two heralds, already established in
321, continues predominantly throughout the episode down to 347, with
occasional lapses in 329 and 332 (also in 334, although x^P e T 6 there is a
formula of greeting which hardly needs subjecting to further refinement or
specification; however, cf. xotipCTOv at 9.197). Heralds often worked in pairs,
and stressing this tends to emphasize their authority.
327 For the 'shore of the loud-roaring sea' see on 34.
328 This verse recurs as 9.185, cf. 652. The Murmidones are Akhilleus'
troops from Phthie, see on 2.683-4; their name was probably something
of a mystery even to the singers of the oral heroic tradition, as 2.684 m a v
suggest. Their ships, with their huts directly on the landward side of them,
are drawn up at one end of the Achaean line, with the greater Aias' at the
other and those of Odysseus in the middle, as 8.222-7 =» 11.5-9 specifically
state.
331 TappfjaccvTe KCCI ai8ou£vco: the combination of aorist and present
tenses may be explained by their alarm being temporary, whereas their
respect for a king is permanent. Fear and respect are naturally connected,
especially toward a king; bT cite Helen's remark to Priam at 3.172, al8oT6s
T£ uoi icrcri, (piAe lKvp£, 8siv6s Tg.
334-5 The heralds are ' messengers of gods and men'; bT suggest that
Akhilleus is here tactfully suppressing their connexion with Agamemnon,
and that their divine association lies in preparing sacrifices - but they do
of course also serve Zeus-reared kings, see on 175f. They have come
unwillingly and stand afraid and in silence; Akhilleus, despite his sorrow
at their arrival ('he did not rejoice to see them', 330), greets them in an
open and friendly way and shows without delay that he understands them
to be merely carrying out orders. The poet clearly thinks it important to
reveal Akhilleus' human side early in the poem, especially in contrast with
the frightening aspect he had displayed in the quarrel in assembly. Similar
courtesy to visitors on Akhilleus' part is conspicuous in book 9.
337-9 He extends the same courtesy to Patroklos, now directly named
for the first time (see on 307). Akhilleus' speech is regular and relaxed in
its construction so far, with mainly two/fourfold verses, progressive en-
jambment and the hieratic balance of 339, appropriate to a solemn call
to witness ('before blessed gods and before mortal men').
86

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340-2 Mention of the king, tense and emphatic in its strongly demon-
strative TOO and the blunt 6nrr)veo$, brings a corresponding change of style:
strong integral enjambment at 340/1, made harsh by the awkv/ard synizesis
of Si) cam and the jingling xpeicb lueto y£VT)Ton. Then 342, with its strong
stop after the emphatic runover phrase TOT$ &AAOI$, is rough but effective:
he will not need my help, because he is out of his mind with rage - but
the others will.
343-4 These two verses are cumulative, each designed to explain and
expand its predecessor. For aua Trpoaaw Kai 6-maaco cf. 3.100/. and (without
<fxucc) 18.250, both with verbs of seeing; here voflaat means 'perceive', as
regularly in Homer. oT5e vcqaai, strange at first appearance, is in fact logical
enough (in contrast with the bizarre TrepioiSe vofjcrai, of Odysseus, at
10.247): 'he does not know how to perceive [i.e. look] both forward and
backward at the same time', which implies using experience of the past to
predict what will happen in the future. At 18.250 'saw forward and
backward' is used absolutely, and one suspects this was the phrase's earliest
application; here and at 3.109X, however, it is followed by a OTrco$-clause,
'perceive.. .how to'. In the whole context even 343 by itself seems a little
too elaborate, but now 344 makes a strangely awkward addition, not so
much because of the probably Attic form uocxeoivTO with its unusual hiatus,
since that is probably a surface corruption (see on 272), but rather because
fighting in safety among the ships is a needless paradox. In short, both these
verses are untypically heavy-handed, and even suggest a rare possibility of
rhapsodic expansion. For Akhilleus' words could have ended at 341
&uuvai - but they would then allow, and might seem to some to require,
further expansion. The Homeric singers themselves, and certainly the
monumental composer, can often be seen elaborating by progressive
cumulation in such circumstances; but occasionally, and perhaps here, a
forced quality in diction and thought suggests that possibility of less skilled
attention.
345 = 9-2O5 a n d 11.616; on all three occasions Patroklos obeys Akhil-
leus without comment. That is standard epic practice where no particular
reaction to an instruction, other than carrying it out, is needed, and bT are
wrong to make Patroklos' silence here a particular indication of his mild
and tactful nature. That is not to deny that he is Akhilleus' wholly obedient
friend and subordinate (which makes the strong pressure he will apply at
the beginning of book 16 all the more pointed).
346-7 IK 5' &yocye.. .SCOKE 8' &yeiv: the language of Akhilleus' instruc-
tion at 337f. is adjusted for the description of the event itself, in a charac-
teristically oral manner.
348 Briseis' attachment to her captor is suggested here by her unwill-
ingness, d^Koua', to go. She was also fond of the gentle (within limits)

Patroklos, as she will reveal in her lament over his body at 19.287-300.
Whether Akhilleus would really have taken her back to Phthie as his wife,
as she there recalls Patroklos as having told her when she was first captured,
is another matter. Akhilleus himself is in tears at 349, but that is surely
because of the affront to his honour more than through losing Briseis; later,
at 19.59^, and admittedly because he sees her as indirect cause of Patroklos'
death, he is to wish that she had somehow died in the sack of Lurnessos.

348-430 Akhilleus calls on his mother, the sea-goddess Thetis, to help him avenge
the insult to his honour; she promises to ask Zeus to favour the Trojans
348-57 E. A. Havelock ('The alphabetization of Homer', in Communication
Arts in the Ancient World (New York 1978), 14) detects an 'echo-principle'
at work between this scene, in which Akhilleus goes aside on the sea-shore
and prays to Thetis, and 34-6 where the priest Khruses went along the
sea-shore and prayed to Apollo. There is, indeed, a degree of both thematic
parallelism and verbal repetition:
349 h-dpoov.. .voacpi AiaoOeis 35 QTraveuOe KIGOV
350 8Tv' e<p' aA6$ TToAif|S 34 Trapd 6Tva TroAu<pAoiapoio OaAaaarjS
351 TToAAd 8 e . . . f)pf)cxaTo 35 TTOAACX 8' rnreiT'... f^paO'
357 a>s 9CXT0.. .TOO 8* exAue 43 cos 6900"'.. .TOO 8* EKAUE
How far the singer's listeners are intended by him to feel, less than fully
consciously perhaps, a significant parallelism and contrast, and how far this
is due rather to the oral poet's technique of working with a limited range
of themes and phrases, is a difficult question to answer, especially since for
the oral composer theme (or motif) and language are often closely
interwoven.
349 8ocKp0aa$: see the previous comment. The components of this verse
are formular, but with one or two untypical elements nevertheless: thus
i^ETo occurs i8x //., including IOX in this position in the verse, and AiaoOeis
5X, always last word as here (it is also preceded by vooxpi at 11.80); but
§T&peov, 13X //., is only 3X in this position, and OKpap ( = 'forthwith', cf. a y ) ,
although common enough, is normally placed elsewhere in the verse and
scanned as an iamb not two shorts. The resulting word-order is harsh,
especially in the separation of iT&poov from voacpi on which it depends - one
suspects that voa9i Aiacr0ei$ was normally absolute. Naber's onrep for cwpocp
is attractive (cf. 498 orrep f|uevov aAAcov and 5.753 Oecov crrsp f)uevov cxAAcov),
despite the doubts of van Herwerden and van Leeuwen; although ckpap was
obviously the accepted Alexandrian reading, as e.g. b T confirm.
350 The grey salt sea (see also on 359), the repetition inherent in <3cA6s
and TTOVTOV, Akhilleus' gazing over the sea, the shore itself (see on 34), all

intensify the pathos of events and develop the loneliness and despair of the
preceding verse; compare Odysseus on Kalupso's shore at Od. 5.82-4.
Aristarchus (Did/A) wrote <5cTT£ipova, not otvoTra, TTOVTOV, and that would
increase the pathetic effect (so Ameis, unjustly reprehended by Leaf for 'a
German rather than a Greek idea'!); but, of the two, TTOVTOV at the verse-end
is always OTVOTTCC elsewhere (5X //., 5X Od.), and diTEipova is confined to
yaTav (2X //., 5X Od.) except for Od. 4.510, KOTOC TTOVTOV drn-eipova
KUuaivovTOc. OCT and most modern editors have sided with Aristarchus
(whose view did not affect the Alexandrine tradition or the medieval
vulgate); but the established formular usage, although it might not be so
effective in this verse, may nevertheless be correct.
351 Problems over formular usage continue: Zenodotus according to
Aristarchus (Arn/A) read X6*Pa$ &vaTTTas, although this form would be
unique in Homer. Others according to (?Didymus in) T read X6*PaS
dcvaax^v. This is a more serious contender against the vulgate's 6peyvus;
it is perhaps related to 450 where Khruses prays thus to Apollo, and the
formula recurs in four other Iliadic passages, always with an Olympian as
recipient of the invocation. Holding up one's arms in prayer to a god in the
sky (or on Olumpos) is reasonable enough - but doing so in invoking a
goddess beneath the sea is probably not. Stretching out one's arms, opeyvus,
possibly with a downward inclination, would be more appropriate here, and
it is no objection that the phrase recurs in the Iliad only of Priam imploring
Hektor in the plain below at 22.37. Matters are rarely that simple, however,
for at Od. 9.527 Xe^P* 6p£y&>v is in prayer to an Olympian, while at Od.
13.355 &vao"xobv *s u s e d of prayer to the Nymphs. Yet on the argument
adduced at the end of the preceding comment, formular consistency and
economy sometimes seem to outweigh differences of detail in subject-matter,
and dcvacrxcbv could have been Homer's choice even despite Aristarchus,
the MSS and the particular nuance of meaning. But obviously opeyvus should
occur in any printed text, and, after all, there was probably no complete
consistency of practice in such matters even in Homer's time.
352-6 Akhilleus' prayer (r\pr\oaTO, 351) turns out to be a statement of
complaint, rather, although a request for help is also implicit. It is fluently
composed, with initial periodic enjambment (352) and runover-phrase
supplementation (354), then integral enjambment (355) leading to typical
verse-pattern contrast in conclusion.
352-3 The disposition of ye and irsp suggests the meaning to be as
follows: ' since you, a goddess, bore me, Zeus ought to have guaranteed me
honour - especially since my life is short', rather than simply '.. .since you
have borne me to have a short life'. At 9.410-16 Akhilleus will reveal that
Thetis had told him of a choice, either of a short life but a glorious one if
he remained at Troy or of a long life without glory if he abandoned the

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Book One
expedition and returned home. We hear nothing of this elsewhere in Homer,
but there is no real discrepancy with the present passage, or with 169-71
where the idea of leaving is first mentioned by Akhilleus.
356 This verse recurs in Thetis' report to Zeus at 507, in Thersites'
speech at 2.240 and, with adaptation, in Nestor's at 9.111. The rhythm is
unusual as A noticed, in that word-end after the second trochee without
any preceding break, |r)T(nTi<j£v -IXcov, is in breach of 'Meyer's Law'.
However, the result sounds inoffensive here (and that is the real test) - either
because the spondaic first foot avoids the undesirable verse-end echo that
might otherwise be produced, or because there is no emphatic following
sequence of trochaic cuts to cause offence (cf my remarks in TCS 20 (1966)
78f. and 97-9). The verse-rhythm overall is three/fourfold with diminished
main caesura, and contrasts well with the more straightforward twofold
rhythm of its predecessors in this short speech. On the claim that Agamemnon
has taken away (orroupas < dctrof pas) his prize in person, see the discussion
on 185.
358 TTcnrpi yepovTi: she is sitting by her father ' the old man of the sea';
the verse is repeated at 18.36, the context of which shows her father to be
Nereus (who is not directly named in Homer), since her sisters there are
Nereids (18.52). The ancient sea-god has other names and aspects, Proteus
at Od. 4.365 and 385, Phorkus at Od. 1.72, 13.96 and 345.
359 "TToXif)s aXos echoes not only aAos in the preceding verse but also
aXds TToAiftf, lightly adapted to a different position in the verse, in 350.
Thetis rises out of the sea ' like a mist'; does that mean that she has the actual
appearance of a mist, and therefore only assumes anthropomorphic shape
when she appears before her son and strokes him in 361 ? Perhaps so; one
thinks of Athene descending like a meteor at 4.75-8 (see the comment there,
also on 4.78-84) or like a rainbow at 17547-52, or disappearing like a bird
at Od. 1.31 gf., respectively before or after assuming human disguise. The
present case is slightly different, in that mist is a natural form for the
manifestation of a sea-goddess; other poets independent of the Homeric
tradition have seen spirits of sea, lake or river in the form of the mists that
appear to rise from them.
361 A formular verse (4X //., 2X Od.) applied to deities as well as
humans; xonipeJjev is from an epic verb Korrapp^co, evidently 'pat' or
'stroke'.
362—3 Thetis' urgent enquiry culminates in an emotional rising three-
folder: £5ccO8a, ur) K6u6e v6co, iva eTSouev &U9C0.
365 It is an epic convention that one can relate one's ancestry, or recent
events, even after firmly telling one's interlocutor that such a thing is
unnecessary; so Glaukos to Diomedes at 6.1456°. and Aineias to Akhilleus
at 2O.2O3ff.

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Book One
366-92 This earlier part, over half, of Akhilleus' reply to Thetis' enquiry
is a long summary, without the all-important speeches, of the events
dramatically described so far, and which have led to Akhilleus' present
distress. It is surprising to find such a summary so close to the beginning
of the whole poem and so soon after the extremely full description of
arguments and events. Thetis does not need it (but cf. the previous note),
nor does the singer or his audience at this point - although sometimes such
a resume can be helpful to both.
Aristarchus (Arn/A on 365) evidently athetized all 27 verses, which are
obelized in A; 372-5 (= 13-16) and 376-9 (= 22-5) are in addition
asterisked as being exact repetitions of the earlier descriptions; see also
Arn/A on 18.444-56, where Aristarchus is implied to have similarly
disapproved of another summary involving Thetis, this time given by her
to Hephaistos; reference is made there to the present passage. All this does
not amount to much. Aristarchus evidently noticed, as he would, that
neither the summary as a whole nor the exact repetitions it contained are
strictly necessary, and athetized on that account alone. But we know (a)
that repetitions are part of the oral style, and (b) that so too, on occasion,
are summaries or resumes. Admittedly Thetis' report in book 18 is better
motivated than the present one; nevertheless there is much to suggest,
especially in the language itself, that this is no low-grade or wholly
mechanical affair, as the following survey will make clear.
It is perhaps significant that 366-9 goes beyond what has been revealed in
either speech or narrative; there has been no mention of Thebe or its king
Eetion so far, and it takes special knowledge (or untypical carelessness) on
the part of the composer of these verses to have Khruseis captured at Thebe
whereas her home is at Khruse. According to 6.395-7 and 425-8 Thebe is
where Andromakhe's mother, too, was captured, Eetion being her father.
bT on 1.366 explain that Akhilleus was deterred by Athene from attacking
Khruse, and went on to sack Thebe, where Khruseis happened to be visiting
Eetion's wife for some religious function. This could be a later invention,
but our poet must have known something about Khruseis' visit. His general
competence is suggested by his skill at precis-making, demonstrated in what
follows, in which he can often be seen drawing on Homeric language not
used so far in this Book, or even occasionally innovating, in a minor way,
in a reasonable epic style.
Thus 366 Upf)v TToXiv is an unusual phrase, but cf. iep^v of Ilios at 7.20
or Zeleia as teptfa at 4.103 and 121; "IXios Ipfj(etc) | is a common formula,
see on 4.164. 5ie7rpA0ou€v in 367 is not exactly used elsewhere, although
other parts of the compound are found four times subsequently and
l^eTrp&OouEV occurred at 125; similarly with 368 S&craovTo, cf. 22.354
5&aovTon and 8£5aaTOti at 125. In 369 IK 8* IXov for selecting a prize is

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Book One
paralleled by ££eAov at 16.56 and 18.444 ( t n e latter being the opening verse
of Thetis' resume for Hephaistos), but is unparalleled in the previous
narrative of book 1. Such variations of terminology are necessitated by the
omission of speeches that occurred in the original, or the abbreviating of
other material there; thus Xpuor|v.. .&pr|Tfipa in 11 becomes Xpuoris...
iepeus in 370, and he is angry, x^o^vos, in 380 rather than afraid and silent
as at 33f.; Apollo's hearing his prayer is expressed differently (43 TOU 5'
IKAUC, 381 f|KOUcrev), and the explanation that Khruses was 'dear to Apollo'
in 381 is new (and not exactly repeated elsewhere in Homer, as it happens).
Then the shooting of the god's arrows is differently expressed, the KOCKOV
peAos of 382 being not exactly paralleled, although dramatic in its own
right; so is the victims' death, where 382-3 is good (on e-rraaauTepoi see
442n.), although not the equal of the original at 52. At 383-4 the words
of the original (53) are quite ingeniously expanded and fitted into the
required new grammatical sequence; at 385 eO eiScbs may echo 73 eu9povecov;
at 387 dvaords is formular in this position (5X //.), but did not occur in
the fuller account; 388 r)TreiAr)aev uOOov is awkward in construction and
rhythm (being a different kind of breach of Meyer's Law from 356, see
comment there), not otherwise paralleled in Homer - the only harsh feature
in this whole summary. Verse 389 is a rising threefolder withCTVVVT\\ 6of)
reminiscent of 179 and 183 (see on 183), although the reference is to
Akhilleus1 ship and not the one bringing back Khruseis; while eXiKCOTres
'Axocioi (etc.) is a formula (6x //.), here for the first time in the poem; see on
98. The 5£>pa of 390 represent a different way of referring to what was
earlier (99, 142, 309) described as a hecatomb; 391 is competently adjusted
to the event seen in retrospect, with KAiair)0ev and not KAiairjvSe (185) or
KAtair|v (322); finally 392 directly recalls the words of 162, although with
the necessary adjustment in word-order neatly executed.
Such a survey demonstrates that the whole passage is far from being a
mere mechanical summary of what has preceded; it naturally makes
extensive use of the earlier language, but often departs from it in order to
bypass the omitted speeches or make the condensation more fluent. This
is not the work of a rhapsode or decadent singer, but of a singer working
within the living oral tradition. There is no obvious reason for denying that
he is the main composer himself, although the initial puzzle would remain;
why did he find a summary of this length necessary so soon after the events
and arguments had been set out in extenso? Competent and fluent though
it may be within its chosen limitations, it is not, after all, very dramatic or
interesting, at least compared with the fuller version. One possibility is that
it was composed as a shorter alternative to the whole quarrel-scene, one that
could be used when mood and circumstances required (although it is not
so easy to see when such a successful episode could have seemed superfluous);

[See the bold-type verse-numbers in the preceding note for detailed comments from 366
to 392.]

393-412 The second part of Akhilleus' address to Thetis turns from the
summary of past events to his specific request, preceded by the argument
that Thetis is in a position to grant it.
395 obvriaas Kpa8ir)v: a non-formular expression not found elsewhere in
Homer, with 6vivrjui bearing its occasional meaning of'delight' rather than
its commoner one of'help'.
396-406 Zenodotus athetized these verses according to Aristarchus
(Am/A); one can see why, since the tale of Thetis' past interventions is a
peculiar one (as will emerge in the comments which follow), and might
conceivably have been a subsequent elaboration stimulated by f\i KOCI ipyco
in 395 - in which case 408 might follow on from 395 more naturally than
407 does. But the probability is, in the absence of other evidence, that the
digression is Homeric.
399 There is no other reference either in Homer or in later poets to this
particular act of Use-majestS, which has one or two points in common with
the tale of Ares being tied up in a jar for thirteen months (although by
mortals) at 5.385-91. Disobedience by Here and other deities is alluded to
several times by Zeus, but in order to show that he always comes out easily
on top, which did not happen here; so later in this Book at 565-7, where
he encourages Here to obey him with the threat that the other Olympians
will be unable to save her from his physical violence if she refuses. Then
at 15.18-24 n e reminds her how he had once suspended her in the air with
anvils tied to her feet, and the other gods could not release her but were
flung to the earth below if they tried - as Hephaistos was (as he tells her
at 1.587-94) when he once tried to save her from a beating by Zeus and
was hurled offOlumpos, to land in Lemnos, for his pains; or like "Am, at
19. i3of. Zeus's confidence is shown by his threatening speech to the
assembled Olympians at 8.5-27: he will hurl anyone who disobeys him into
Tartaros, and challenges the lot of them to a divine tug-of-war in which

subject divine name human name

i) 2.813C mound near of)ua 7roAucrK&p€)- BaTieia
Troy uoio Mvpivrjs (i.e. 'brambly'?
«) //. 14.290^ bird XaXKis KUUIV6IS
iii) //. !20.74 river 5dv6o$ iKdpicxvSpos
iv) Od. 10.305 magic plant ucoXu
(v) Od. 12.61 clashing rocks fTAayKTai
No principle to account for these peculiarities of name has been satisfactorily
proposed; neither that the * divine1 name is an older linguistic form (untrue
of (i) and (ii), where KVUIVSIS is presumably pre-Greek); nor that the' divine'
name is non-Greek (untrue of (i), (ii) and (v)); nor that it is, on the
contrary, Greek (untrue of (iii), where both names are presumably non-Greek
in origin, and (iv)).
These other instances cannot, therefore, be expected to shed light on
Briareos/Aigaion here, which has in any case a special characteristic: that
this giant existed before men were created, and his name was therefore
assigned by primeval gods. Men would come to hear of him later, when they
might have given him their own special name to describe his developed
sphere or function. Both names, in fact, are probably Greek, ppi- implying
* strong' as in 6ppiuo$ and a!y- being probably connected with 'goat'. The
rest of 404 looks at first as though it offers an explanation of the name
94

Alyccicov'* 6 y&p CXOTE p(rj TTOXU cplpTcnros &AAcov

6Trrr6aoi vaioua* UTT6 TdpTapov eupcbevTot
in which &XXcov is Diintzer's emendation of corrupt MS &TTC<VTG)V. Aristarchus
objected that Aigaion was not a Titan but a sea-creature - erroneously in
that Briareos was confined beneath the earth (just as the Titans were) at
Theog. 617-20, but rightly, perhaps, in emphasizing a probable connexion
between Aigaion and the Aegean sea, and therefore Poseidon.
Much remains obscure, and the expression at this point is a little
awkward - although rendered the more so by the punctuation in e.g. OCT;
the parenthesis, if any, is 6v... Alyaicov' rather than 6 y&p.. .Auefvoov. Yet
the awkwardness can be paralleled in other abbreviated references to
legendary occurrences outside the normal Homeric ambit, for example in
Glaukos' genealogy at 6.145-211 or the Meleagros tale at 9.527-99.
405 yaico is related to y&vuuou, 'I am radiant (with joy)'; K05O$ also
is a kind of emanation, of power, confidence and renown. KoOijeTO occurs
1 ix //., 3X Od.y always in this position before the bucolic caesura; Ku8ei
yaicov, 4X //., is always preceded by it and was devised probably in the first
instance for Zeus (ax), then applied to lesser beings (Ares at 5.906) sitting
by his side and basking almost comically in his aura.
407 On 'grasping by the knees' see the discussion of the supplication
when it actually occurs, on 512-13.
408 For the oti KSV TTGO$ idiom and its implications see on 207 and 2.72;
here, unlike the other contexts cited, Zeus's reactions cannot be a foregone
conclusion and the expression conveys more of its literal meaning.
409 For the Achaeans to be driven back to the ships and penned in there

(lAaai from elAico or TAAco, here meaning 'confine' or 'compress' but

sometimes, perhaps from another root, meaning 'turn round5) is what
Akhilleus wants; but when Thetis relays his needs to Zeus at 503-10 she
will do so in more general terms, just naming the required end (that they
shall honour him once again) and leaving the means to his divine intuition.
410 KTEivou£vous is a powerful runover-word; Akhilleus knows that they
must suffer heavy casualties before his honour is restored, and accepts the
possible sacrifice of friends and allies without evident distress.
imxupcovTai from frravpiaKouai, perhaps associated with eupiOKCO
(Chantraine, Diet, s.v.): 'touch', 'reach', 'enjoy', sometimes in an ironical
sense as here.
412 The result of fulfilling Akhilleus' wishes for the restoration of his
TIUT) is to be that Agamemnon recognizes his &TT|, that fatal infatuation with
his own supposed rights that has led to all the insults and injustice and the
consequent quarrel. Agamemnon himself will admit to orrn at 2.111,
where - as later in the poem also - he will blame it on Zeus.
414 Thetis meets her son's complaints with mournful resignation, but
concedes that he deserves something better, TI VU G* ETpecpov aiva TEKoOaa;
she asks: literally 'why did I bring you up, having given birth to you
terribly?' (sc. in view of your evil destiny, cf. 416 and 418) - it is a kind of
hendiadys, 'why did I bear-and-raise such an unfortunate son?' aiva
T6Ko0aa is unique in Homer, but cf. 22.431 aiva TTa6o0aa, likewise in a
lament; the phrase may have been part of the special vocabulary of dirges.
415—16 ' Would that you had been sitting among the ships without tears
and grief: oysKhov (etc.), imperfect, and O9eAov (etc.), aorist, express regret
and are intensified by the addition of the particle aiGe or cos, cf. e.g. 3.40
a!8' 696X6$ T* ayov6$ T* iuevai.. .and Chantraine, G//11, 228. The thought
here is loosely expressed; Akhilleus' 'sitting among the ships' is solely
because of the quarrel, and he could hardly be free from grief in such
circumstances; had he been griefless, he would have been out there fighting
as usual.
416 The junction of aTcxa with the adverbial formula jjuvuvOa irep, ou
TI u&Aa 8r)v, without a verb, is strained and difficult. Understanding ecrn
does not help (despite van Leeuwen, Leaf and others), since jiivuvBa... should
qualify a verb expressing action or duration as at 13.573, &S... fjairaips
uivvvOa Trep, ou TI uaAa 5r)v. At 11.317^ aAAa uivuv8a| fjuecov eacxeTai
fj5o$ the meaning is equivalent to lwe shall rejoice for a short while'; aTaa
<e<7Ti/6CTCjeTai> here could not be similarly understood. What should
really be understood is something like jflv: 'it is your destiny <to live) for
only a short while, not at all for long'; but Greek would not permit that
kind of omission. Otherwise we have to assume that aTaa itself contained a
verbal idea, 'destiny of living', although its application at 418, just two
verses below, is against that. On uivuvOa see also on 4.446.
96

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Book One
417-18 This couplet matches its predecessor in its integral enjambment
with runover-word, followed by a concise causal summary; the start of
Thetis' speech is carefully composed in sentence-structure if not in detailed
syntax. Ring-composition is obvious here: TOD ae KCCKTJ a!or| T£KOV in 418
takes up the initial rhetorical question in 414 (T(. . .TSKoOaa) by way of the
mediating ccTaa of 416. Akhilleus is especially ill-fated because he is both
short-lived and unhappy.
419—22 Thetis turns to the practical part of her reply: she will go to
intercede with Zeus, while Akhilleus is to maintain his wrath (against all
the Achaeans now, 422, not just Agamemnon) and abstain from fighting.
On 420 a! KE Tri8r|Tai see 2O7n.
423-5 The news that Zeus is away from Olumpos and will not be back
for a further eleven days comes as something of a surprise, to the audience
at least; Akhilleus himself offers no comment. Thetis' words at 420 had
suggested that she would proceed directly to Olumpos, and earlier, at 22 if.,
it was clearly stated that Athene had returned from earth to join the other
gods on Olumpos on this very day; see on 222, where I suggested a 'mild
oral inconsistency' when the Thetis-episode came to be developed here.
Probably the poet decides at this point, rather suddenly, to establish an
eleven-day interval. One point of this might be to allow time for the return
of Khruseis to her father in the episode that is to follow; although usually
in the epic such chronological niceties are not observed, and the singer moves
directly and without comment from one action-sequence to another, even
if it is in a different locale; see the comments on 313-14 init. and on 430-1.
That is the case even if the actions are in fact simultaneous. Alternatively
it has sometimes been suggested (most recently by Macleod, Iliad XXIV 32)
that the eleven-day interval here is planned to correspond with the
eleven days of divine concern over Akhilleus' treatment of Hektor's body,
at 24.23-32. That possibility may be reduced by a consideration adduced in
493~4n.; and would it really have the effect, at such a distance in the text,
of isolating the action of the Iliad from the continuum of the Trojan War'
as Willcock claims? Perhaps so, a little - after all, the isolation would be
achieved by each interval separately, even if the audience did not connect
them. Moreover the imposition of the interval of inaction would increase
the length and perhaps also the impact of Akhilleus' wrath itself. It remains
mildly surprising, nevertheless, that such a device should be introduced so
suddenly and without special comment; but the fluent management of the
gods' return home at 493f. speaks against any possibility of post-Homeric
elaboration.
Aristarchus (Did/A on 423^ on which see also p. 42) cited strong ancient
authority - the Marseilles, Sinope and Cypriot texts as well as Antimachus'
and Aristophanes' commentaries, to which Didymus added Callistratus,
Sidonius and Ixion - for KOT& 8aiTa rather than uer& 8drra in 424, in spite
97

430S7 Odysseus delivers Khruseis to her father Khruses and, after propitiating
Apollo with prayer and sacrifice, returns with his ship to the Achaean camp near Troy

430-1 At 308-12 a ship was launched for Odysseus' voyage to Khruse;

now he arrives there. Notice, once again, the ease and simplicity of the
transition from one scene of action to another, quite different one. It is
achieved in mid-verse here, and with no special preparation (... ctirr&p
f
O5ucra€\!/s), in contrast with e.g. 314, where ol 8*... had been prepared
for by ol uiv... in 312.
432-9 This description of the ship's arrival, like that of its return home
at 475-87, is full of 'Odyssean' language; see the notes on 312 and 434 and
the conclusions there outlined, especially that this is primarily because
seafaring occurs often in the Odyssey but almost nowhere else in the Iliad.
G. P. Shipp (Studies 220/.) observed that the whole Khruse episode is
grammatically 'pure' in the sense of containing few unusual forms; that is
because it is exceptionally formular and traditional in expression, with a
high concentration of typical scenes and motifs,
98

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432 This verse recurs as Od. 16.324. bT comment that TroAuPev6eo$, 'of
great depths', gives the character of harbours in a single word. That is a
poet's or a scholar's rather than a seaman's view - although the implied
observation about standard epithets is correct: a harbour in the genitive
is always 'of great depths' when an epithet of this metrical value is required.
In realistic terms a harbour needs to be neither very deep nor very shallow
if ships are to anchor in it in safety: not so shallow that they run aground,
but not so deep that they cannot anchor in a convenient depth - 5 or 6
metres would do for most ancient ships. Strictly that applies to the 6puo$,
the place of anchorage as distinguished at 435. According to the present
account they enter the outer harbour, take down mast and sails, and row
to a no doubt sheltered corner which might be difficult (as AbT say, more
pertinently this time) to reach under sail. Aristarchus' reading §yyu$ for
£VT6S (Did/A) is therefore misconceived.
433 iaTia M^v crrdAavTo, 'they gathered up the sails': the middle form
does not recur in Homer except in the rather different 23.285, and
Wakefield's crreTAcicv T6 Oeaocv T* is an obvious correction if one is needed.
The Odyssey has 16.353 |laTia T€ anr£AAovTa$ and 3.1 of. ia*ria VTJOS eicjrfsI
crreTAav, but the middle form may have been adopted, imprecisely no
doubt, when the metrical context called for the extra short syllable.
434 icrro56KTi means literally 'mast-receiver', being a crutch at the
stern onto which the mast was lowered. Zenodotus and the MSS are probably
right with U96VT6S, 'letting down', against Aristarchus' ItpevTes (rather than
&9&/T6S, Did/bT and A). The whole verse recurs, not in the Odyssey this
time (where TrpOTovoi, forestays, happen to be mentioned only in mast-raising
scenes, 2.425 = 15.290), but at HyAp 504, in the scene where the Cretan
ship arrives at Krisa; 437 also occurs there (as 505), but it is also formular
in the Odyssey (4X). The arrival-scene in the Hymn, only 5 verses in all, shares
some of its nautical phraseology with the Odyssey, some with the Iliad here,
and has some of its own. This suggests that there was a wide range of
seafaring poetry on which all these poets could draw; thus 'Odyssean'
language (see on 432-9) here does not entail direct dependence on the
Odyssey at all points. It is worth observing that Odysseus' ship carries out
distinct manoeuvres in its two landfalls: here at Khruse it is anchored and
then secured with stern-lines to the shore, later at the Achaean camp (484-6)
it will be beached and then supported upright with props.
435 Confusion between the two processes just mentioned may indirectly
account for the vulgate's Trpoipuaaocv ('drew forward' rather than irpo-
ipsooav, 'rowed forward', which is obviously correct), despite Aristarchus
(Did/A) who cited the Argolic and Sinopic texts as well as Sosigenes in
favour of the latter.
435-7 These three verses recur as Od. 15.497-9; for 436 cf. also Od.
9.137. cvvocf are anchor-stones, probably flat and so bed-like (as the Greek
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Book One
term suggests) to minimize dragging - although many of the pierced
anchor-stones found by underwater exploration are not notably flat. A pair
of anchors are evidently dropped, one from each side of the bow, and
stern-lines from each quarter hold the ship in to the shore - a method
of mooring still widely practised in the tideless and often steep-to
Mediterranean.
436-9 Initial and emphatic EK is not merely repeated, but is used for
a third and a fourth time. The effect of this exaggerated epanaphora is
remarkable; it is purely rhetorical, to convey urgency, speed and orderly
progress rather than the idea of 'out' itself; there is no real connexion
between throwing out anchors and taking themselves, the cattle and the girl
out of the ship. The figure works better, perhaps, in its regular two-verse
form (as it would in 436f. taken by themselves) than in exaggerated
applications as here; although the threefold version at 2.382-4 succeeds
because of the genuine semantic force of the repeated eO.
437 This verse, but with p-quev for (3aTvov, is found 4X in the Odyssey,
here the imperfect |3aTvov is unnatural, but the provision of an aorist, e.g.
(3&v, would require a kind of remodelling which was evidently not
considered worthwhile.
440-1 The preceding four verses have been structurally similar, both
through their initial IK and because of their twofold pattern; the last of them,
439, also provides a certain contrast and climax through its heavily spondaic
rhythm. Now the mood changes as the men proceed rapidly to hand back
the girl and begin the sacrifice, and urgency and excitement are well
expressed in this striking pair of rising threefolders.
442—5 Odysseus' words are compact and to the point; as often the
concluding verse is more relaxed (lacking as it does internal breaks, in
contrast with its three predecessors) and discursive. Aristarchus (Arn/A)
athetized 444 as grammatically superfluous, which is true but irrelevant.
446 Another rising threefolder, matching 441 not only in this respect
but also in its identical central element £v X£Pax TIBSI. The verse is formular
in itself (3X //., if the slight variant at 23.565 is included, of handing over
prizes at the funeral games in book 23, and ix Od.); but the central element
is the basis of the system and occurs independently (3X //., including \sipeacn
for X6Pa^ 4X Od.). The poet forgoes any attempt to put the priest's
presumably mixed feelings into words, and concentrates on his joy at
receiving his daughter back.
447-68 This description of animal sacrifice is a 'typical scene' with
many standard verses. The language is fluent and clear with a number of
technical ritual terms; it is not noticeably archaic, except conceivably in
the rarity of integral enjambment (only at 462/3) and the regularity of
verse-pattern (although there are rising threefolders at 464 and 466). This
is the fullest description in the Iliad of this fundamental ritual act
100

(Agamemnon's sacrifice and prayer for victory at 2.41 off. being similar but
lacking some details), only surpassed by Nestor's elaborate sacrifice on the
sea-shore near Pulos at Od. 4.32iff. For further description and summary
of the not wholly consistent Homeric evidence see my discussion in Entretiens
Hardt xxvn (Vandoeuvres-Geneves 1981) 62-8, and especially the com-
parative table of detailed actions on p. 64.
The main points of the present description are as follows. First the cattle
comprising the hecatomb (on which see 6511.) are stationed round the altar
(447f.; no doubt in as regular a fashion, ££eir)S, as could be achieved quickly,
COKOC) ; the circle is sacred, and at 2.410 the sacrificers themselves surround
the single victim. They purify themselves symbolically by washing their
hands (449) - someone would have brought a bowl of water for that as at
Od. 3.44of. - then take up the OUAOX^TOU, barley-groats that were to be
scattered over the victims, obviously from a basket which is specifically
mentioned at Od. 3.442; as they hold the grain the prayer is spoken (see
on 451-6). At 458 they throw the grain 'forward', 7rpo(3aAovTo, onto the
victims (rather than the altar as bT suggest), then draw back (aOepuaav)
the victims' heads so as to expose their necks and turn them toward the sky
(459). They slaughter and skin them (still 459), then cut out the thigh-bones
and wrap them in fat (460 Kviarj EKCCAUVJ/CCV), making two folds - that is, a
kind of sandwich with the bones in the middle (461 SITTTUXOC). Then they
put on bits of raw meat (461 d>uo06Tr|(7av) which, as we learn from Od.
14.427^ were taken from all the limbs so as to symbolize the offering of the
whole animal (so AbT). Then Khruses the priest burns them on a wooden
spit and pours a libation of wine over them (462^). When the god's portion
has been consumed by fire they all eat the innards (crrrAayxva, 464), which,
as 2.426 shows, have been roasted meanwhile; then they carve up,
uioruAAov, the rest of the carcase(s) and roast the pieces on five-pronged
forks (465, where the opeAoi, spits, are presumably the Treumb(3oAa of
463 = Od. 3.460); they withdraw, epucrccvTO, the pieces when cooked and
prepare the feast (466f). By this point the secular meal is under way and
the sacrificial ritual in the strict sense has been completed.
A few ritual actions have been omitted in this particular passage (as at
2.41 off.) but occur elsewhere in Homer: gilding the victim's horns (as at
Od. 3.436-8), paralysing it with an axe-blow, accompanied where appio-
priate by the ritual female shriek, before slitting its throat {Od. 3.449!.),
cutting hair from its head (//. 3.273) and throwing this on the fire {Od.
3.446, 14.442). Some of these further actions belong to any formal sacrifice
but happen not to be mentioned in our passage, or in other particular
versions of the typical scene; others belong to especially elaborate and
peacetime circumstances (notably Nestor's sacrifice in Od. 3) or to a special
application like the oath-sacrifice at //. 3.268ff.
451-6 Khruses' prayer reverses his earlier one at 37-42 in which he
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Book One
called on Apollo to punish the Achaeans. The invocation in the opening
two verses is identical in each case, as might be expected; the next three
verses, setting out his special claim on the god's attention, differ - here it
is that Apollo had granted Khruses' previous prayer and so should also grant
the present one (453-5). Finally in each case the request itself is confined
to a succinct closing verse; here, that the plague should be ended.
In 454 Tiurjaas is rightly so accented, i.e. as main verb and not as
participle, because of the ufev.. . 6e balance of the verse as a whole.
458—69 These verses recur in the description of Agamemnon's sacrifice
and feast for the chieftains at 2.421-32 (see on 447-68 for the ' typical scene'
of sacrifice and preparation of a meal) - all except for 462^, for which the
book 2 version has a different pair of verses and which recur, on the other
hand, in the description of Nestor's sacrifice as Od. 3.459X For the reasons
for this switch, see the next comment.
462-3 The version represented by book 2 is departed from at this point,
probably for two reasons: (i) if the sacrifice is being performed by a priest,
or by a king in his priestly function, then the main act of offering should
be performed by him and not (as elsewhere on less official occasions) by the
participants at large. Thus Nestor in Od. 3 personally burns the fat-encased
thigh-bones and also pours a libation, and Khruses must do the same here;
Agamemnon in //. 2 leaves the burning of the sacred portion, like that of
the secular portions that follow, to the others, (ii) The Odyssey version has
the additional slight advantage of referring to the sacrificer as old, y£pcov,
suitable both to Nestor and to Khruses here. The distinction of the two
versions is a fine one, from which it might be inferred, not that the whole
scene is a carelessly-organised cento of formular verses and motifs (as Leaf
and others have thought), but that it shows signs of careful adjustment to
particular circumstances; but see also on 470-1.
467-8 = 2.4O3f., 7.31 gf. (also 2X Od., with trivial variations). In
addition 468 recurs alone at 602 and 23.56.
469 An even commoner verse than its predecessors, since it applies to
any meal, not just to one following a sacrifice (7X //., 14X Od.).
470-1 The young men hre<rr£yavTO, 'crowned', that is, filled to the
brim, the mixing-bowls (which were used for mixing the wine with water
in the usual Greek manner). They then distributed the mixture to all
present, making a ritual beginning (hrap^&uevoi) with a few drops in each
cup for a libation, after which the cup would be filled for ordinary drinking;
cf. 9.176 and Od. 3.340-2, also 21.271 f. It is odd that this is done when they
have already been drinking, as in 469, and it is possible that these two verses,
which were part of the formular stock of descriptions of various moments
in this whole typical scene of eating and drinking, were incorrectly applied
here, either by the monumental poet or by a subsequent elaborator; they
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Book One
are of course inorganic. Diintzer went so far as to omit the whole of 469-74,
which was certainly excessive; see on 474.
473 Trairjova here is the song, the' paean', not the name of the healer-god
Paian who was equated with Apollo (so Aristarchus (Am/A), who also
noted that KOCAOV is adverbial with dei5ovTe$). The epic and Ionic form
rfaiT)cov and the contracted Doric and tragic fTondv, also Lesbian ndcov, are
based on earlier fTaidfcov, cf. the Mycenaean dativepa-ja-wo-ne (Chantraine,
Diet., s.v. TTCtidv, with references). The etymology of the divinity (which
resembles 'Id^oves in its termination) is obscure; he gave his name to the
particular shout or song of praise addressed to him by his worshippers
(rather than vice versa as with "ICCKXOS as a name for Dionusos; but cf.
Burkert, Griechische Religion 127), probably by way of the invocation y\r\
v; his Cretan priests sing the Iepaieon for Apollo, irj-rraifjov'
at HyAp 517. Here and at 22.39if. it is a song of rejoicing; in the
latter Apollo is not mentioned, but here the rejoicing is clearly coupled with
praise of the god. It is also accompanied by dance in the UOATTTI; compare
the processional hymn led by Apollo himself in the Hymn to Apollo passage
(514-19)-
474 Here Aristarchus athetized (Am/A) on entirely inadequate grounds
(repetition of the idea of UOATTTJ, 472, in ueATrovTe$, and of the god in
exdepyov); Leaf commented (on 471) that the participles in 473 and 474
separated by KoOpoi 'Axcxicov 'are awkward', although this seems, rather,
a case of typically Homeric cumulation.
475—87 The return home of Odysseus and his crew: they sleep on the
beach in readiness for an early start, sail at dawn with a favourable wind,
then draw up the ship on shore on arrival back at the Achaean camp. Here
too, and not unexpectedly, there is much phraseology of Odyssean type.
475 The verse occurs 6x Od. (and twice more with trivial variations);
not exactly elsewhere in //., but 4X similarly, especially 6ur) T* fjeAios KOU eiri
KV69CC$ iepov eAOrj (3X).
476 Almost identical with Od. 12.32; bT comment that they slept by
the stern-lines so that they would know from the ship's movement if a
favourable breeze sprang up - almost an excess of nautical realism, this
(were they using the taut lines as pillows?). The point surely is that they
were as close to the ship's stern as possible, ready for boarding at first light.
477 A familiar verse in the Odyssey, 20X as opposed to only 2X //., here
and at 24.788 (with (e^dvr) po5o56n<TuXos 'Hobs twice elsewhere and one
further variant). Book 24 likewise has much phraseology in common with
the Odyssey, and for a similar reason: that part of its content is Odyssean,
rather than typically Iliadic, in character. There are of course many more
individual dawns to be noted in the later poem (see also on 2.48-9).
Macleod, Iliad XXIV 47, noted that dawns tended to be mere time-markers
103

there, whereas they often serve special purposes in the Iliad. His further claim
(p. 32) that the present verse and 24.788 are significantly related because
they follow events involving Khruseis and Hektor who had 'aroused such
damaging passions in Achilles' is harder to support.
M. L. West has a good note on £>O5O5&KTUAOS at Hesiod, Erga 610,
pointing out that it might refer either to a pattern of rays like spread fingers
or to a 'single sliver of red light at the horizon', cf. Alcaeus frag. 346.1 L-P.
479 The favourable breeze (kuevov oupov, not elsewhere //. but 4X Od.,
again presumably because of the frequency of sea-journeys there) is a
conclusive sign that the propitiation of the god (472 IA&CJKOVTO) has been
successful; Homer has no need to say that the plague ceases forthwith.
iKuevov is probably connected with IKVEOUCU (SO Chantraine, Did.), and is
a breeze that goes with them, rather than making them arrive; the
D-scholium in A is correct here against the exegetical one in AbT, which
absurdly connects the term with IKU&S.
481-3 = Od. 2.427-9 (except for the slight variant eirprjcjev 6* ocveuos;
the Iliad's EV 6* aveuos Trpf^aev is better).
483 Sicnrpfjaaouaa KeAeuOov is formular, cf. Od. 2.213 and 429:
'accomplishes its course', with traces of the derivation of Trpdaaco from
Trepdco, 'pass over'.
484 On Korra see 423-5^, second paragraph.
485-6 They draw up the ship on the beach (485 = Od. 16.325, cf. 359)
and fix (literally 'stretch') tall props, obviously of wood, against it to hold
it upright. Verse 486 is not an Odyssean one but recurs at HyAp 507 (its
predecessor 485 being close to HyAp 488, see on 434). Once again this
suggests the existence of a body of technical ship-poetry on which the Odyssey
draws frequently, the Iliad and even the longer Hymns occasionally. That
the Achaean ships were shored up with epucrrcc is mentioned elsewhere only
at 2.154.
487 They disperse without reporting to Agamemnon, which might have
been dramatically something of an anticlimax (in the narrative, that is, not
in life); bT comment that the plague must have ended, and that in itself
would show the success of their mission.

488-g2 Akhilleus meanwhile has withdrawn from the fighting and stays in anger
by the ships
488-92 Zenodotus athetized these five verses (Arn/A), omitting 491
altogether. But the glimpse of Akhilleus putting his wrath into action (or
frustrated inaction, rather) is a necessary reminder after the voyage-
to-Khruse interlude and before the long scene on Olumpos which now
follows.
104

488-9 The language of Thetis' instruction at 42 if., dXAa oil uev vOv
vrjvai irapriiievos coKUTropoiai | \\r\v\ 'AxaioTatv, is adjusted as necessary to
the narrative context. For rTrjAfjos ulos compare rTrjAfios vie, similarly
positioned, at 16.21, 19.216.
490 Ku8idv8ipocv is found elsewhere only in the formula u&xr|V ova
KvSi&vsipav (etc.) (8x //., not Od.); for the present adaptation bT compare
9.44of, where the conjunction of war and assembly also occurs, with the
latter as 'where men are very conspicuous', <5cpnrp67rEES.
492 After the formal balance of the OUTE ... OUTE verses preceding, this
concluding verse stands out not, as often, by a difference in verse-rhythm
or type of enjambment (progressive here as in its predecessor) but by
developing the pathetic phrase * eating his heart out' in the second part of
491 into an almost paradoxical deep longing (TTOOEEOKE) for the turmoil of war.

493-6u Thetis goes to £eus on Olumpos; he reluctantly grants her request, which
causes him to be upbraided by Here. Hephaistos mediates and the evening ends in feasting
and music

493-611 This scene on Olumpos has three phases of roughly equal length:
(1) Thetis supplicates Zeus (493-533); (2) Zeus and Here quarrel (533-69);
(3) Hephaistos re-establishes harmony (570-611).
493-4 The gods return from their visit to the Aithiopes, cf. 423-5 and
comment. These two verses (of which 493 = 24.31, see on 477) are
emphatically related by their initial cola, dXX* OTE 8T) and KOU TOTE 8f|, and
are strongly formular in their components. The time-interval is conven-
tionally expressed; fjcos occurs 27X //., 15X at the verse-end as here (as
against 40X and 35X Od.). Eleven-day intervals are convenient because of
the formula-system developed around 8uco8EKcrrr| ysvrr' 'Hcos| and |f|8€
8UCO8€K6CTT| . . . and so on. There are not one but two such intervals in
book 24: Akhilleus defiles Hektor's body for eleven days (31) (i.e. it lies for
eleven nights in Akhilleus' hut (413)), and an eleven-day truce for its burial
is envisaged by Priam (667). These intervals, both closely concerned with
the treatment of Hektor's body, might be deliberately similar (which is not
discussed by Macleod in his commentary); that reduces, if anything, the
likelihood of an intentional connexion between this eleven-day divine
absence in book 1 and one particular member of the pair of interrelated
intervals of book 24; see on 423-5. Different intervals are also possible, for
example nine- and ten-day ones as at e.g. 21.155^, 24.107^, 6.175-
sometimes with similar wording based on ev8£K&Tr|, 8SK&TT| in place of
8uco8eK<5nrr| etc.
495 An effective half-verse cumulation, leading from the resumptive
and almost otiose TT&VTES 6CUOC to the more pointed Zeus 8' f\px*; he in turn
105

generates the contrasting Thetis and so introduces the scene between them
which follows.
496 The complicated pattern of cumulation and enjambment continues.
This verse with its predecessor 495 is packed with meaning, entailing
internal stops, as against the almost frigid balance and flow of the preceding
pair, 493f. For &VE50<J6TO KOUCC OaAdaaris compare Thetis' earlier emergence
at 359, ccve8u TroArqs ccAos T)UT' ouixAr), where the genitive 'out of the sea'
is more to be expected than the accusative here. The latter is more appro-
priate with the other meaning of the verb, 'draw back from', as in e.g.
13.225 otv5u€Tai TToAeuov, where the sense of the preverb is different. Van
Herwerden conjectured pijjupcc for KOUCC which is a bare possibility, although
pijjupcc does not fall into this position in the verse in its 13 other Iliadic
occurrences, whereas KOUOC OaAaaarjsl occurs 3X elsewhere in the poem.
497 f)8pir|: 'like mist', or 'early in the morning'? The first is tempting
because of 359 f)ijrr' ouixAr), but must be rejected because Here will shortly
tell Zeus at 557 that Thetis fjepir) yap aoi ye Trape^ETo, and she can hardly
have been mist-like when she sat down. Moreover fjEpioi must mean 'early
in the morning' or something similar when applied to the Kikones at Od.
9.52. Chantraine, Did. s.v., distinguishes two words, one connected with
af)p and the other with fjpi as in fjpiyeveia, 'early-born', and opts for the
second here.
Thetis 'ascended the great sky', according to Aristarchus (Arn/A),
because the peaks of Olumpos were above the clouds.
498-9 Zeus is apart from the other gods to emphasize his independence
and superiority as well as to make it easy for Thetis to approach him. He
is seated at the highest point of Olumpos, presumably on a throne in his
sanctuary there. He is eC/pOoua, 'loud-sounding' (from foy = 'voice') not
'far-seeing' (cf. oyis, OTTOO-HCC), as is appropriate to the god of thunder.
500—1 These are standard gestures of supplication (see on 512-13),
graphically described - 'as in a picture', bT. She grasps his chin UTT', from
below.
502 Aioc Kpovicovcc avocKTa: the titles present Zeus in his most august
aspect.
503-10 Thetis' prayer proceeds as quickly as possible to a relatively full
statement of the request and the circumstances causing it; title and sanction
are less conspicuously dealt with than in e.g. Khruses' prayers to Apollo at
37-42 and 451-6, for Thetis is a goddess herself.
505 Nauck's uUoc uoi T\\XT\OOV would neatly avoid the hiatus of uoi uiov,
if that is found offensive; see also on 532-3. The superlative followed by
aAAcov is idiomatic, cf. 6.295, 23-532> Od- 5 I O 5- Chantraine (GH n, 60)
debates whether the genitive is partitive or ablatival, i.e.' in distinction from
others'; but aAAcov, because of its separative meaning, must surely be the
106

latter, as against TT&VTCOV etc. in similar constructions, which are partitive.

On Akhilleus as coKV/uopcoTOTOs see on 352-3.
507 See on 356, an identical verse.
509 i And set domination upon the Trojans [i.e. make them dominant]
until such time a s . . . '
511—12 Zeus responds to her prayer with a long and dramatic silence...
512—13 .. .during which Thetis does not relax her hold upon his knees:
4
as she had clasped [literally, touched] them, so did she hold on to them,
clinging to them'. eu7T€<puu!a is from eu<pOvai, literally 'grow into'; compare
the formula of supplication and address, ev 8' ocpa oi 9O x€lP* ^""QS
T' Zycrr* IK T* 6v6p.crjE (5X //., 4X Od.). Grasping the knees and touching
the chin, as at 5oof., are the two main ritual gestures of supplication,
supplemented where possible by kissing the knees or hands. Thus at 8.370-2
Thetis here will be reported as having kissed Zeus's knees and grasped his
chin in supplication; at 10.454^ Dolon is trying to touch Diomedes' chin
just before he is cut down; at 21.67-75 Lukaon clutches Akhilleus' knees
with one hand, his spear with the other, as he asks him to show reverence
(a!8cb$) and pity to him as a suppliant; and at 24.477-9 Priam grasps
Akhilleus' knees and kisses his hands. A certain amount of flexibility is
allowed, according to the posture, behaviour and exact status (e.g. threaten-
ing immediate violence or not) of the person supplicated; knees and chin
are important places to touch since they symbolize special concentrations
of that person's life-force and power, and physical contact is in any case
essential - as also, for example, with a deity's altar when the appeal is less
direct. See further J. P. Gould, JHS 93 (1973) 746°., and J. B. Hainsworth
in Odissea 11, 196.
514-16 She reinforces her supplication not, as might be expected, by
setting out the particular epyov (504) that according to Akhilleus, at least,
would constitute her claim to a counter-benefit from Zeus - that is, her
having got Briareos to protect him (396-406); but rather by dwelling in
general terms on how he must despise her if he does not definitely accede
to her request. This might be relevant to the status of the Briareos episode,
on which see 396-406^
These three verses are carefully balanced, 514 and 516 being two/fourfold
and end-stopped, and the intervening 515 three/fourfold, internally punc-
tuated and leading into its successor by fluent integral enjambment.
514 She requires not merely a breaking of the silence with some possibly
non-committal reply, but a direct promise confirmed by a positive gesture - a
telling hint of the awesome oath that is to follow.
515 €*rrsi ou TOI ITTI 5eo$: the meaning is * since you can do as you like
and need have no fear of anyone'.
518-19 Aristarchus (Did/A) was certainly wrong to read "Hpr| in the
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Book One
nominative, but the syntax remains puzzling: 'Destructive work indeed,
your inciting me to enter into hostilities with Here, whenever she provokes
me with insulting words.' The difficulty lies with 6T' CCV, ' whenever'; Thetis
is only inciting him on this one occasion, therefore the indefinite construction
is out of place. The underlying meaning is probably intended to be that
whenever Here provokes and insults him, it is because someone like Thetis
has first incited him. A loose combination of formular elements is the likeliest
culprit, rather than textual corruption as van Leeuwen suspected.
6X0o8oTr<n<7ai occurs only here, although 6X$O5O7T6S is found in Attic,
presumably formed like e.g. dAAoSorrros.
520 Kcci OCUTCOS: 'even as it is' (Leaf).
522 drrrocrnxe: aorist imperative of drrrooTEixco (2X Od., not otherwise
//., but the simple form OTEIXCO occurs 4X //.); it has a distinctly colloquial
ring, 'march off home', 'be off with you'.
522—3 The verse-end cola correspond in rhythm and partly in sound,
O9pa TEAECTCJCO : O9pa TTETroiOrjs. The latter is a simple purpose-clause
(Chantraine, GH 11, 266), the former a completive clause also expressing
purpose {ibid. 297), as in 6.361 Ovuos ETTEacruTOU 69P' ETTauuvco. 'These
things shall be my concern, for me to bring them to accomplishment.'
525-7 A rhythmically varied trio of verses after the repetitive adonic
clausulae (i.e. after strong bucolic diaereses) of the three preceding ones.
Verse 525 is twofold but leads into violent enjambment (violent, because
it separates adjacent epithet and noun) with the single runover-word,
presumably to place heavy emphasis on TEKUcop. It is followed by mildly
progressive enjambment and half-verse cumulation from 526 to 527, where
ou5' 6T£AEUTT|TOV is not so much plethoric as legalistic in its logical com-
pleteness : ' this is an affirmation which is irrevocable, truthful and certain
of fulfilment'. It is tempting to read luoi for EUOV in 526; the latter is
intelligible ('my (word^'; hardly 'my TEKucop', exactly, after E£ EUEOEV in
525) but not very precise, since it is only on special occasions like this that
Zeus's decisions are irrevocable. TEKucop itself is an old word for TTEpas,' goal'
or 'end', according to Aristotle; 'a fixed mark or boundary', LSJ; here it
is rather the determination of a resolve (see also Chantraine, Diet. s.v. TEKuap).
The nodding of the head as a normal sign of assent or approval is elevated
by Zeus into an irreversible ritual commitment.
528-30 The solemn affirmation is described in Homer's grandest style,
aided by the use of splendid and sonorous words and phrases - KUCCVET|CXIV,
&Hpp6aiai, ETTEppcoaavTo, Kparos frit* dOavorroio.
528 The verse recurs at 17.209, where Zeus, this time in private, nods
to confirm his resolve about Patroklos. There is no difference in implication
between ETTIVEUCO here (in tmesis) and KOTCCVEUCO at 527; he nods his head
forward, including his dark brow - KUOVOS is a kind of enamel shown by later
references to be dark blue, but at 24.94 KU&VEOS clearly means blue-black since
108

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Book One
nothing can be blacker than it. Zeus's brows are blue-black presumably
because they are shaded by, but also reflect, his hair, the 'ambrosial locks'.
It seems to me unlikely that, as Willcock suggests ad loc. in the tradition of
nineteenth-century nature-myth addicts (cf. e.g. my The Nature of Greek
Myths (Harmondsworth 1974) 43f.)» t n e description here is based on
thunder-cloud imagery.
529—30 'The lord's ambrosial [that is, divine] locks ETreppcbcravTO,
moved quickly forward, from his immortal head'; (bcbouai is an epic verb
meaning' rush on', as for example at 11.50. According to AbT the ' swiftness
of the syllables' of EAEAI^EV, presumably the reduplication of eA-, evoke the
shaking of the mountain and the swiftness of the movement; more
important, perhaps, is the observation that these verses inspired Pheidias
in the design of his great statue of Zeus at Olumpia. There is a reduced
version of the episode at 8.199, where Here shakes on her throne and causes
great Olumpos to tremble, and it may be that what is to be understood as
agitating Olumpos here - if one is to insist on some specific physical cause
for what is primarily intended as a metaphorical effect - is Zeus moving in
his throne rather than the act of nodding his head.
532-3 Objection has been taken to the hiatus both of otAa &ATO (532)
and of 8e EOV (533). The former is not a serious difficulty, since hiatus at
the end of the first foot, although not common, is not especially rare either.
In this case some sense may have been retained of the initial sigma concealed
in aAAoucci, 'I leap', cf. Latin salio, of which &ATO is the athematic aorist
with psilosis, cf. Chantraine, GHi, 383. The latter instance is more surprising
(although hardly 'inexcusable', Leaf); it might even be correct - after all,
no one in antiquity took exception to it; although emendations like
Brandreth's Zeus 5* !e 6v irpos 8coua have the added advantage of removing
a slightly inelegant zeugma (Thetis leapt into the sea, Zeus into his palace).
533-4 The other gods' respect - fear, almost - for Zeus is shown by their
rising to their feet when he enters his house where they have been waiting;
compare their rising to Here at 15.84-6. This became 1 common motif in
the hymnodic tradition, and is almost parodied in the divine terror at
Apollo's approach in HyAp 2-4. ou5e TIS ETAT|| is a formula (8x //.), closely
paralleled, with UETVOCI ETTEPXOUEVOV following, when Hektor fears Akhilleus
at 22.25lf.
536 The bouncing rhythm is caused not so much by uninterrupted
dactyls as by the trochaic word-breaks in the second and third feet; it is
a faintly undesirable accident, unrelated to meaning.
537 iSoOcra shows that Here saw something suspicious in his manner
despite all the precautions, and the double negative ou8e... f|yvoirj(JEv
confirms the indirectness of the scene.
539 KgpTouioiai, 'with jeers': a syncopated expression, 2X Od., for
KEpTouiots eiTeeam (etc.) as at 4.6, 5.419, Od. 24.240; cf. on uEiAixioicnv at
109

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Book One
4.256, although perhaps we should read KEpTouiocicn after KEpTouiocs at
20.202 = 433 and Od. 20.263. The etymology of the word is in any case
unknown.
540-3 The goddess's jeers (539) are overtly confined to the term
8oAouf}Ta, 'deviser of deceit'; the rest of her remarks suggest no more than
pained surprise and a degree of hypocrisy. It is a wonderfully devious little
speech; she knows perfectly well who has been with Zeus, and will say so
at 555-7. She also manages to imply, with no justification, that Zeus ought
not to make decisions, SIKCC^EUEV, on his own, and that his never willingly
telling her of his intentions amounts to some kind of failure on his part,
ou8e.. .T£TAr)Kas. bT commented that 'wives are angry if their husbands
do not tell them everything'; part of Homer's characterization of Here is
indeed that of an interfering wife, but her passionate support for the
Achaeans, combined with Zeus's regard for Hektor, requires her to be
constantly alert.
544 Zeus is TTorrfip dvSpcov TE GEGOV TE 12X //., 3X Od. (a considerable
but not necessarily significant difference of vocabulary-preference between
the two poems). It is the regular way of describing him after TT]V (etc.) 5'
r\[xei^>STy ETTEITOC; but the choice of this particular formula of address as
against that represented in 560, for example, is especially suitable here,
stressing as it does his august and autocratic side against Here's insinuation
that he is just an ordinary husband. ' Father of men and gods' is more than
just a 'polar' expression (cf. on 548), and marks his pre-eminence over
everything divine and human. The listing of various offspring of both
classes, as is done by AbT, is beside the point; his 'fatherhood' is no more
literally meant than 'Our Father, which art in heaven'.
545—50 Zeus replies in the same apparently calm style, insisting on his
power of private decision; his conclusion is distinguished by the rising
threefolder 549.
546 The Ionic future ei8ft<jeiv occurs 2X Od. (as well as in Herodotus),
although ETCTETCCI as in 548 is commoner.
548 'None of gods.. .or men' is a true polar expression; that is, wholly
rhetorical, since there is no likelihood of men being involved - compare
Heraclitus frag. 30, KOCTJJIOV TOV5E... OUTE TI$ 0ecbv OUTE avOpcoTrcov ETTOI-
rjaEV..., and Xenophanes frag. 23.1, els 6EO$ EV TE OEOTCTI KOCI ovOpcbiToiai
uEyioros.
551 (3oco7n$ TTOTVICC "Hprj: 14X //., not Od. (where Here occurs only three
times in the nominative). It is customary to say that |3ocbTns (which,
however, is also applied to a mortal woman, Phulomedousa, at 7.10) may
be a relic of a time when Here was envisaged as theriomorphic. That seems
doubtful, especially since no properly theriomorphic stage can be traced in
Greek or pre-Greek religion. Athene is similarly and quite regularly
4
owl-eyed' - or 'blue-grey-eyed', since yAccvK- can mean either. The owl

is her special attribute, just as the cow is associated with Here (for example
through Io), but 'blue-grey-eyed' might nevertheless be the intended
meaning, and 'with placid gaze', like that of a cow, that in Here's case.
552-9 The game of half-truths continues: Here, after expressing in-
dignation at the idea that she has ever been unduly inquisitive, decides
the time has come to reveal much of what she knows - not only that Thetis
has entreated Zeus early that morning (on f)6pir) see 497^), but also, as a
strong suspicion (oico, 558), exactly what he has pledged.
552 Here has occasion to address Zeus in these terms no less than six
times in the poem; no other deity would address him so strongly (although
Menelaos calls him 'most destructive' of gods at 3.365) - aivoTcrre is not
used elsewhere, except that Iris calls Athene ocivoTcnri at 8.423, where she
also calls her a bitch. The verse-end formula uOOov eemes (etc.) is in itself
quite common, 32X //.
553-4 The indignation is cleverly maintained in the assertive long
syllables of KCU Air)v, the careful placing of GB and y\ and the rhetorical
redundance (reinforced by OUTG. . .OUTE) of eipouoci and po-aAAcb. Verse 554
almost mocks Zeus's complete freedom to make up his own mind; dAAcc
u&A* euKTjXos is phonetically emphatic with aAA-, -aA-, -r)A-, and 9po3ecn
aacra OeArjaBa with -03-, -aaa-, -rjaO-: 'but in full freedom work out just
whatever you wish', at K* eOeArjaOa (etc.) occurs 6x //. at the verse-end, but
generally these two verses are non-formular, and seem carefully shaped for
the context.
557 On f|epir| see 497^
558-9 Once again the conclusion of a short speech is marked by a
different verse-pattern: in this case, strong enjambment with emphatic
runover-word after a sequence of end-stopped or lightly enjambed verses
that suggested something of Here's self-imposed calm.
561—7 Zeus's reply is less relaxed; a passionate firmness is conveyed by
the interrupted verses, closed off by the continuous flow of 566f. at the end.
561 8cnuovir| expresses affectionate remonstrance here, as it does when
Andromakhe and Hektor use the term to address each other at 6.407 and
486; often it implies a stronger rebuke, as at 4.31. Derivation from Baiucov
is obvious, but the precise development of different nuances of meaning, as
with many colloquialisms, is not. am uev 6'tcai, 'you are for ever making
suppositions', takes up oi'co in 558.
564 After the thinly-veiled threat of 562^, here is a lofty and evasive
concession that her suspicions are well-founded: 'if the situation is as
you say, then it must be because I wish it so' ('you may be sure it is my
good pleasure', Leaf); compare 2.116, a more straightforward use of
jaeAAei... <ptAov eTvai.
566-7 Finally comes the direct threat of unpreventable physical violence
(see on 399), developed by Hephaistos in what follows. I6v6* in 567
in

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Book One
represents IOVTCC, although one might expect a genitive absolute, IOVTOS,
rather (so Aristarchus, Arn/A): 'lest none of them can help you when I
come closer to you', the last words being a nice piece of understatement.
568-72 The colometry of these verses is discussed on p. 23.
569 Kcci jb' dKeouaa KOOTJCTTO: the formula is simply and neatly adapted
from 565.
571 Hephaistos plays a major role, from here to 600, in restoring divine
harmony. That could have been concisely stated in two or three verses, but
the singer clearly wishes to elaborate the motif of Zeus's supremacy and
concealed violence, as well as the character of the pacific Hephaistos himself.
573 Hephaistos begins with the same words as Zeus had used at 518,
fj 6f) Aoiyicc ipya.
574 A rising threefolder, in which cxcpcb (4X //., cf. vcb 2X //.), which was
later the Attic form, should perhaps be acpco' (for acpcoi): Chantraine, GH
1, 266. Quarrelling because of mortals must have been particularly galling
to those gods who were not deeply committed on either side; and Hephaistos
was devoted to pleasant living, see also 579.
578-9 On the colometry, and the adaptation of 578 and 572, see also
pp. 23f. In 579CTUVgoes with Tapd^T) not f)|ilv.
578 Another rising threefolder, with light formular variation of 572:
572 lirjTpi <piAT| tin fjpa cpepcov
578 TrcTTpi <piAco ITTI fjpa cpipeiv
both being developed out of simpler formular elements: urjTpi and iraTpi
are often 'dear', as in the rather similar rising threefolders
441 TTOTpi <piAco ev X 6 P al "riOei, KOCI UIV TrpoaeeiTre(v)
585 ur|Tpi <piArj §v xs?ox T*®81 • • • (see on 584-5)
and other traces of an fjpa q>6povT£s (etc.) system are found elsewhere (ix
//., 3X Od.). T h e etymology of fjpcc is debated, but it is perhaps related to
Old Icelandic voevr, 'friendly': so Frisk.
580-1 The incomplete conditional statement can be treated either as
an aposiopesis or more probably, with Leaf, as a form of exclamation:
'Suppose he should w i s h . . . ! <He would be able to) , for he is much the
strongest.'
582 KCxOonTTecrOai is also used of engaging someone with hostile words,
not 'gentle' ones as here; so at 15.127 and (without brEeacn) 16.421. It does
not of itself imply hostility, but rather a direct effort to engage someone in
speech for an important reason - more than simply to address them.
583 lAaos with metrical lengthening.
584—5 A pair of rising threefolders; see on 578 for the second of them.
The Sfrras of 584 is a two-handled cup, ApupiKurreAAov, and obviously easier
to hold in both hands when full. Aristarchus (Did/A) read \Bipi nevertheless,

112

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Book One
and was supported by the Marseilles text as well as Aristophanes and
Sosigenes; his reason was presumably XglP* m 59^- The vulgate retained the
plural form, which may well be correct, especially in view of 23.565 EuufjAco
8f iv x 6 P al T ^ £ l (°f a piece of armour).
586-94 Hephaistos now addresses Here directly, repeating the gist of
his appeal but reinforcing it with a reminder of what had happened to
himself when he once tried to protect her against Zeus. He is presumably
referring to the incident described at 15.18-24, m which Zeus, enraged with
Here for driving his son Herakles down to Kos in a storm, had hung her
from Mt Olumpos with a pair of anvils tied to her feet, and then thrown
anyone he caught trying to release her down to earth, half-conscious. The
exegetical scholium in A reminds us that there were 'two throwings of
Hephaistos', since at 18.394-9 n e thanks Thetis for saving him when his
mother Here (whom he there describes as a bitch) threw him out of
Olumpos because he was lame. There were presumably two variant and in
fact contradictory stories to account for his lameness; the monumental
composer uses both of them, at a long interval in the poem, to motivate first
Hephaistos' role as mediator between Here and Zeus, and then his special
gratitude to Thetis.
592—4 The description is full of charm and subtle meaning, and it is a
sign of Milton's genius that he could even improve on it {Paradise Lost
1.740—6). The day-long descent emphasizes the lofty remoteness of the
divine mountain, the little breath that was left in him (cf. 6Aiyr)TTeAecov at
15.24) and his own immortal resistance to such violence. Lemnos was
Hephaistos' main cult-centre in the Greek world, because of its natural gas
rather than as an active volcano - but also because it was close to the Asiatic
region from which the idea of a divine smith was drawn. The island's
pre-Greek inhabitants (it was not colonized before the ninth century B.C.)
were called Sinties according to Homer here. They were 'of wild speech',
&ypiO9covoi, at Od. 8.294, being Pelasgians according to Philochorus; bT
tell us that he, Eratosthenes and Porphyrius tried to derive their name from
aivEoOai, 'to harm', clearly a mere conjecture.
597 ev5e£ia, 'from left to right', which was the propitious direction.
598 oivoxoei was the correct Ionic form according to a galaxy of texts
and critics including Aristarchus (Did/A); the medieval texts wrongly kept
the Attic form covoxoei, but cf. on 4.2-3. The divine nectar is described as
though it were wine, and is drawn from a mixing-bowl - was it, too, mixed
with water?
599—600 Why do the gods burst out laughing at the sight of Hephaistos ?
Not just because he is TTOITTVOOVTCC, 'bustling'; bT on 584 are probably
correct that part of the comic effect lay in the lame god (on whom see further
on 607) performing the role of wine-pourer, properly the duty of the comely
Hebe or Ganumedes, and in such a bustling (and perhaps even deliberately

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Book One
parodying) way. Whether the cripple's ' leaping up' at 584 was part of the
humour, as the scholiasts thought, is more doubtful; but the anecdote about
his own fall among the Sinties may have been designed by this amiable god
to provide light relief as well as deterrent example. At least it made Here
smile (595 and 596), and in general that was not easy to do.
601-2 A formular description of feasting; 601 occurs 6x Od., and, from
TrpOTTav on, 2X elsewhere //.; 602 occurs 5X //. (including 468 in the present
Book), 2X Od.
603-4 The rather awkward addition about Apollo and the Muses is
unparalleled in Homer, although a similar but more elaborate picture is
drawn at HyAp 182-206, where they are accompanied in the dance by the
Graces and Hours, Harmonie, Aphrodite and Artemis - even by Hermes
and Ares for good measure. That development is the certain result of
rhapsodic taste; the present pair of verses, with their rather awkward
progression ' (did not lack feast) or lyre.. .or Muses', could conceivably be
a late-aoidic elaboration, OTTI KCCATJ occurs 3X Od., including &|jei|36u£vai OTTI
KaAfj at Od. 24.60, itself a probably rhapsodic excursus in which there are
nine Muses (unique in Homer), as at Hesiod, Theog. 60. At all events it is
the first surviving reference to 'amoebean' verse.
605-8 The sun sets and the gods depart for bed, just like mortals, each
to his or her own house which the craftsman Hephaistos has built (cf. 11 -76f.,
14.166f. ~ 338f., 18.369-71). Zeus's palace where they had been celebrating
was probably higher up than any of them, although not necessarily on the
topmost peak of Olumpos, cf. 498f.
607 &u<piyuf)eis: there has been much debate about this word; Chan-
traine, Diet. s.v. *yur| regards it as an expanded form of &u<ptyuos, used of
spears in the Iliad and itself rather mysterious, although probably meaning
'flexible'. It is undeniable that (as bT on 607 probably had in mind)
yuicoaco at 8.402 and 416 means 'make lame' - but is this itself perhaps
derived from the assumption that the ancient description of Hephaistos,
<5c|i9iyur)6is, must mean 'crippled' in some sense? He is x^Xov at 18.397,
which does not however state, as is said of Thersites at 2.217, that he was
XcoAos iT6pov TTOSCC, that is, lame in one leg only. Could he have been no
more than 'curved [the root meaning of yu-] on both sides', that is, severely
bow-legged ?
609—11 'Very much a rhapsodist's tag' (Leaf): surely not - these verses
make a satisfying close to the Book, and it strengthens both the force and
the irony of the encounter between them to show Zeus and Here in the other
side of their relationship, as real spouses. It is true that the compound
Ka6eO5*, as opposed to the simple verb, occurs only here in the Iliad but
six times in the Odyssey; but that is not significant either of'lateness' or of
'Odyssean' composition.

114

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Iliad I Kirk Commentary

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Iliad I Kirk Commentary

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COMMENTARY

wrath-theme might be derived from earlier poetry, and how fundamental

Then 21 reverts to the calmer twofold pattern. Secondly, the nuances of

22-42 Agamemnon's insulting reply, followed by Khruses' departure and prayer to

'Going apart' is presumably to increase the ritual effectiveness of the prayer

40-1 For the burning of thigh-bones in sacrifice see the comments on

43-52 A plague is sent by Apollo upon the Achaean army

44-7 Apollo manifests himself directly - as archer-god he sometimes needs

53-120 Summoning of the assembly, and beginning of the quarrel between

53-4 fcwfjuap, 'for nine days', according to a scholium of Erbse's class h,

ou TIS croi TTccpa vt|uai papEias X6*Pa$ fcroiaei

There is no sign of this in the tradition, but one is tempted to wonder

I2i-8y The quarrel develops: Akhilleus threatens to go home, and Agamemnon to

is an effective debating-point. That would depend on whether the ordinary

kind of royal demeanour, in ordering preparations to be made for the girl's

heroic code of gift-obligations must often have compelled one chieftain to

Part of the same formula-system has appeared already in 170:

This verse, however, is a fourfolder, that is, there is no strong semantic

<5cvcu6£$, 158). Fawning gaze combined with unabashed sexual and

subject divine name human name

Alyccicov'* 6 y&p CXOTE p(rj TTOXU cplpTcnros &AAcov

(lAaai from elAico or TAAco, here meaning 'confine' or 'compress' but

430-1 At 308-12 a ship was launched for Odysseus' voyage to Khruse;

latter, as against TT&VTCOV etc. in similar constructions, which are partitive.

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