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Book Nine
Kf|pux* ocji' oirdaaas (Od. 10.102). Phoinix is certainly not in the same
class as Aias and Odysseus, but it is a question whether his status can
be reduced to that of the heralds, as A. Kohnken argues, Glotta 53 (1975)
25-36, and 56 (1978) 5-14, in response to A. Thornton, ibid. 1-4: he is
OTT&COV of Peleus (23.360) and ccva£ of the Dolopes (AoAoTTeaaiv dvdaacov
484), worthy to rule beside Akhilleus (616), and he has a role, they have
not. (3) Aristarchus (Arn/A on 168) therefore detached Phoinix from the
embassy and sent him ahead. This strains the meaning of fjynaaaOco at 168
and creates a new problem over Akhilleus' surprise at 193. (4) The embassy
is conceived as two groups, Phoinix and the rest or the heralds and their
principals, see R. Gordesiani, Philologus 124 (1980) 163-74. For this alleged
usage, 5.487, 8.186, 23.413 and HyAp 456, 487, 501 are cited, but the
embassy cannot easily be broken into any balanced pairs. (5) Nagy, Best of
the Achaeans 50, 54-5, suggests that the dual at 182 refers to Aias and
Odysseus, Phoinix having gone ahead, but that at 192 to Aias and Phoinix,
the assertive Odysseus (cf. 223) having then taken the lead — as he is
expressly stated to do on the return (657). Even for concise narrative that
leaves too much unstated. C. Segal, GRBS 9 (1968) 104-5, re f ers tne duals
of 182-5 to tne heralds and those of 192-8 to Aias and Odysseus. But the
plural eOpov (186) and the interlude 186-91 hardly justify the change of
reference of the repeated TOO 6e (3ocTnv. (6) The duals survive from an
archetype in which they were grammatically appropriate. This seems the
most promising line of attack, discreditable to the poet though it may
appear. Two heralds were sent at 1.3206°. to take possession of Briseis
with abundant use of the dual (including the expression p&rnv TTapa OTva
1.327), and two is a sensible number where a witness may be important, cf.
Odysseus' defensive remarks at 688-9. That an embassy is a theme in the
repertoire of Ionian minstrels cannot be demonstrated, but is suggested
by 11.139-40, and if it were it would be reasonable to suppose that the
dual would be part of its diction: note that the dual occurs at 9.689 and
perhaps at 170 (frreodcov) with specific reference to the heralds. (On the
relation between 1.3206°. and 9.1826°. see C. Segal, GRBS 9 (1968) 101-114,
Lohmann, Reden 227-31.) There is a recurrence of certain formulas: 1.322
= 9.166, 1.327 = 9.182, 1.328 = 9.185, but the important parallel is the
pattern of the two scenes. Failure to adapt theme to context is observed in
genuine oral poetry, when the generic (and traditional) form overrides the
requirement of a specific context, but it is not a conspicuous characteristic
of the Homeric poems. Where themes are confused, narrative illogicality is
more likely to be the result, but for an example of grammatical confusion see
17.386-7 and nn. where a singular verb 7TCCA&(7