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the gifts: and (4) he appeals by every possible means (TravTccxoOev) to
Akhilleus, UTroaxecrEi, 8er|C7ei, d^eAiuco, lAeco. Various subtleties are noted
passim, e.g. the insinuation that the emissaries are from Agamemnon, 226
(they question the wisdom of introducing Agamemnon's name so soon, and
wonder if it is not to suggest that the present dispute is a mere hiatus in a
lasting cpiAioc); the flattery at 231; how their allies have not deserted the
Trojans, 233; how Zeus too is angry with Agamemnon, 236; and how
Akhilleus has forgotten, not disregarded, his father's injunction, 259; and
the deferred mention of the gifts, avoiding TO ockrxpOKepSss, 260. In short,
Odysseus presents a skilful argument, but its tone is cool and it lacks 'heart'
(so Reinhardt, IuD 221—2), and so gets nowhere. Phoinix will strike a better
emotional chord and win a grudging concession from Akhilleus, but Phoinix
spoke from a position of moral advantage - he was like Patroklos in a
manner kin to Akhilleus.
The speech is 82 verses long and could hardly have been made longer. It
is unbalanced by the long report (44 verses) of Agamemnon's gifts and
promises which is necessitated by epic convention, but if its general thrust
is considered it is clear that Odysseus is not made to show much faith in the
efficacy of either reason or bribery in dealing with Akhilleus, but appeals to
his sense of pity and love of glory. In short the discourse is nicely fitted to
the character of its hearer, and so to its speaker also: Akhilleus is like the
young men in Aristotle's ethics - governed not by reason but by feeling, and
especially by the fear of disrepute, cf. the attitude he displays towards Thetis
at 18.79- 1 26. Unfortunately for Odysseus, Akhilleus is about to be depicted
as an unreasonable young man to whom glory now means nothing and who
will seize on the very point that Odysseus was careful to omit, the real
attitude of Agamemnon.
The scene in Akhilleus' hut, with Phoinix present, is attested in art from
the second half of the seventh century, see Friis Johansen Iliad in Early Greek
Art 51-7, 164-78.
224 Arn/A remarks on the absence of an explicit verb of speaking, but
that did not prevent a minority of late medieval MSS adding 224a KOU UIV
9Govr)(jocs eirea mrepoEVTa Trpoor|u8a, cf. 10.191 and see Apthorp, MS Evidence
150-2 and vol. v 21 n. 7 for other examples of this tendency. -
'pledged'; for the form (5ei- for 5rj-) see 44n. and LfgrE s.v.
Odysseus is generous with his host's wine but apparently without breach of
manners, cf. Od. 8.475-8, 13.57.
225 SOCITOS |iev eiOT|S' noun and epithet are normally juxtaposed at the
verse-end (8x //., 3X Od. including some MSS at 8.98). For the prothetic
e- see 11.6in. The feast is equal, i.e. equally shared, because it is one of
the rituals by which the dpiOTOi affirm their status as a group of peers
distinct from the community at large. ETTISEUETS: it would be appropriate for
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