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Book Nine
he had slept with Briseis he would only have been acting normally (and so
irreproachably). It is part of his consistent characterization as paaiAEUTcnros
that he cannot admit any degree of culpability beyond that implied by
daad|ir|v (116). This compares most unfavourably with the candour of
Akhilleus, see 19.56-73 and nn.
133 TTJS euvns: TT\% is not the article but a demonstrative 'her' in reference
to KoOpri Bpiorjos in 132. euvf\s 67Tipf)|i6vai: this euphemism occurs only here
in the Iliad and in the repeated verse 275, but 5X in the Circe episode in
the Odyssey. The doublet Euvfjs 6*rn(3f|usvai f|6e uiyfjvca follows a common
pattern 'verb/noun + at verse-end f)56 (f|6') + quasi-synonymous verb/
noun': there is a negative version of the pattern with 0O88 (ou8') for f)5e.
134 The rhythm, with a strong syntactical break at the end of the
third foot, is very rare, cf. 5.580, n. 154, Od. 3.34, 5.234, 11.260, 11.266.
For the relation of 134 and 276 see 264-99^.
138-9 EiasAOcov: i.e. having taken part in the sharing out. OCUTOS: by
virtue of the commander's privilege, cf. 11.703-4, as opposed to allocation
by the Aocos.
140 We do not need to be told why Helen was unavailable, but a
plus-verse, 140a, TT)V ydp dor' CCOTIS iycb 5coaco £av0co MeveAdco, is reported
by Aristonicus (Arn/A), an addition which he rightly characterizes as sur|6ss
TTOCVU.
141 oOOap dcpoupris: also at HyDem 450, a traditional metaphor for
fertility.
142 Orestes is mentioned 6 times in the Odyssey, where the 'Atreidaiparadigm'
is an important motif: see West, Od. vol. 1 16-17. This is the sole
mention of Agamemnon's son in the Iliad. Like other important figures in
the saga of Troy and its aftermath he is assumed to be familiar to the poet's
audience and so to require no introduction.
143 TT|Auy6TOs: 'late-born' i.e. 'cherished' is the conventional rendering,
see 3.174-511. and HyDem 164-5 where the word seems to be glossed as
dvyiyovos, TroAueuxETOS, and dorrdaios, used especially of an only child (or
only son, as here), cf. the formula |iouvov TTjAuysTOV (482 and Od. 16.19.
The etymologies cited or implied by bT, Eust., and Hsch., which connect
the first element with TT^AE and the second with the root of yiyvouoci and
may go back to the fifth century (cf. Eur. /T829), do violence to the root
of the verb (gen(e), gne), see Chantraine, Diet. s. v. and 3.174-5^, see also
9.482^
144 =286: evi ueydpco eOTrfjKTCp, only in this repeated passage and at
2.661, is known also to HyDem (164) but not to the Odyssey, uiyapov means
'a room' (usually a public or principal room but not apparently at Od.
11.374 and 18.198) and by extension, like 'hall', 'a house.' Its appropriation
to the pillared halls of Late Helladic palatial complexes is a convenience
of Mycenaean archaeology, on which see M. O. Knox, CQ,23 (1973) 1-21.
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