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Book Nine
picture has changed by 8.213-15 where the trench has become a sort
of outer earthwork protecting a considerable place d'armes in front of the
wall, a picture that is maintained from that point, cf. 10.126-7 with 194,
n.47ff., 12.85, 16.369, 18.215, and Lawrence, Fortification 279-88.
69-73 Nestor's elaborately rhetorical praise of Agamemnon is his tactful
technique of preventing discord, cf. 1.277-81 and his praise of Agamemnon's
offers at 9.164. This sort of tact is something in which Agamemnon is made
to be remarkably deficient, as appears from 1156°, where he will expatiate
at inordinate length about his gifts to Akhilleus but utter not one word
of compliment - quite the reverse, see 158-61 - and that in spite of Nestor's
proposal that they should appease Akhilleus with gifts and words. —
PaaiAeuTaTOs: see 16m. Agamemnon was cpepTEpos, but also in a way that
is never made clear enjoyed more Ti[xf\ (1.278). It was the latter point,
which Nestor gracefully concedes, on which Agamemnon has been insisting
and will go on doing so until the final catastrophe of book 17. — TrAelaf TOI
OIVOU KAICTICCI, uttered here in complimentary tones, repeats the phrase
structure of Thersites' jeer TTAETOU TOI yakKoO KAICTICCI (2.226).
70 8aiw 6aiTa yspouaiv: what Nestor really means is that Agamemnon
should convene a |3ouAr| of the chiefs, for council and refreshment often go
together, cf. 2.402-40 (the fullest example).
72 The wine from Thrace would include the strong vintage of Ismaros
(Od. 9.196-8, Archilochus fr. 2 West). The poet has overlooked the private
supply from Lemnos enjoyed by the Atreidai, see 7.467-71 - but that, like
many inessential details, was presumably invented to ornament the scene.
— eOpea (4X II., 2x Od.): for this accusative form see Hoekstra, Modifications
112. The coincidence in the dat. sing. (eupEi TTOVTCO) between the -us
and -f|S adjectival declensions made the analogy a relatively easy one.
73 TTOAEECTCTI 6' dvaoxiEis: Bentley's correction to TTOAECTIV SE dvdaaEis
is a good instance of neglect of the principle that one should distinguish
between the language of traditional formulas and the language of the
singers who employed them. The insertion of connectives into formulas is
a Homeric practice facilitated by the lapse of digamma, cf. TrdvTEaai 8*