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Book Nine
Homerus (Assen 1951) 74-84, has a list of of similar expressions. Uncontracted
de6Ao9opos occurs at 22.22 and 22.162. The prizes are doubtless
those offered at funeral games, like those of Patroklos or Akhilleus himself
(Od. 24.87-92), cf. 22.164 asOAc^opoi irspi Tspuorra lacovuxes ITTTTOI | jbiiupa
udAa Tpcoxcoai. TO 8e neya KEITOI deOAov, | f| Tpiiros f)£ yuvf|, dv6pos KCCTCC-
TsOvncoTos. There is no allusion in Homer to racing for prizes as a mere sport.
125 dXfjios is strictly 'without booty' (Ion. Ar|Tr|); its association with
dKTfjucov is quasi-formular, cf. 406-7, 5.613. TTOAUATJIOS (f|8' eOAeiucov) at
[Hesiod] fr. 240.1 M-W, as if < Afj'iov, 'crop', is a misunderstanding.
128*9 The operations of Akhilleus extended over Lesbos (129 = 271,
664), Skuros (668), Tenedos (11.625), Lurnessos (2.690, 19.60, 20.92,
20.191), Pedasos (20.92), and Thebe (1.366, 2.691). Skuros was held by the
Dolopes in historical times, the rest lay in the Aeolic area (though within
reasonable reach of a force based near Troy). For speculations based on the
tradition of these raids see Bethe, Homer: Dichtung undSage m (Leipzig 1927)
66-75. — I n I2 8 Zenodotus read duuuovas (clearly wrong before ipyoc),
misled or encouraged by 23.263 yuvaiKa ... duuuova spy a !5uTav, about
whose construction Arn/A were in despair. — sAev OCUTOS: cf. 329-33. All
the booty in the Achaean camp seems to have been captured by Akhilleus,
who is therefore now to be compensated with his own spoils.
130 Zenodotus (Arn/A to 638) wished to include Briseis among the
seven women and read ££ eA6|jr|V. The prefix e£- was a dangerous temptation
to ingenious exegesis, cf. 12.295.
132 Koupf) Bpiorjos (2X, since 274 is a mere repetition of this verse)
interprets Bpior|is, her usual designation (iox) as a patronymic parallel
to Xpuar|is. Of this Briseus nothing was known or invented. 'Briseis' is
little more than a label; she may once have been 'the woman of Brisa' (a
place in Lesbos), though the Iliad associates her with Lurnessos, see 343
n., and the Cypria with Pedasos (fr. 21 Davies = Schol. T to 16.57). There
were also nymphs called ppiacci in Keos and a Thracian tribe Brisae, see RE
s.vv.
133-4 = 19.176—7 which show the same variation in the second verse
as appears at 276 below. Kirk (on 2.73-5) suggests that the custom (OEUIS)
probably refers to the taking of an oath in these circumstances; but that
would make the verses put dvSpes and yuvcciKES (unless that expression
is merely a polar expansion of dvOpcoTroi) on the same footing as legal
personae, an unlikely eventuality, nor is there anywhere any implication
that Briseis is expected to support Agamemnon's asseverations with her own
oath; when Agamemnon takes the oath at 19.2576°. she is not even present.
The 'way of men and women' therefore must be a gloss on the euphemisms
suvqs 67n|3f|uevai and uiyfjvou, cf. Hebr. 'a man to come in unto us after the
manner of all the earth' (Gen. 19.31). Agamemnon affirms in effect that if
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