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Book Nine
taken either as middle of (f)Epuco, 'draw away', or as infinitive of 6puo|ioa,
'save', see 10.4411. and Leaf at 1.216. In the handling of these epic verbs the
distinction is probably blurred in the poet's mind also. Here the construction
with OTTO, 'from under' suggests pepuecrOai, the sense of the passage
epusoOai.
250 EOT' is for ioTOu according to Bekker, but the present is logical, 'there
will be ocxos because there is no li'nxos 5 . Odysseus ostensibly means the perils
of the Achaeans, but the KOCKOV, the reader realizes, is the death of Patroklos,
as at 11.604. — OKOS evpEiv gives a heavy rhythm usually avoided before a
major sense-break at the diaeresis; it seems deliberate, for EupeTv OCKOS is
possible, perhaps to point up the punning contrast with ocxos at the same
point in 249.
251—8 Peleus' parting words to his son, with their obvious scope for
pathetic irony, are mentioned several times in similar language to that used
on this occasion, see 7.124-8, 11.786-9, 18.325-7. They may have been part
of the tradition on which the Cypria drew, but they are too apposite to be
other than virtually an example of what later rhetoricians called prosopopoeia,
the orator's assumption of a convenient personality in whose name
he affects to speak. Nestor, recalling the same occasion, appeals to Patroklos
in similar terms at 11.786-9. At 18.326-7 Akhilleus recalls his last words to
Menoitios in oratio obliqua. The Homeric style does not admit extensive use
of indirect constructions {Od. 23.310—41 is the chief exception); nevertheless
the direct quotation of Peleus' alleged words is emotively effective. The
quotation is an oblique way of saying 8&nac7ov Ouuov laeyav (496), words
that at this juncture would be impolitic coming from Odysseus. — 06 TTETTOV:
Odysseus adopts a comradely or even avuncular tone. Nestor used the same
expression to Patroklos, 11.765, again in the context of a father's parting
words.
255 pieyccAf)Topa Ouuov: see iO9n. Observe that throughout the narrative
of the quarrel between Akhilleus and Agamemnon the poet recognizes in
addition to the account of loss and recompense an irrational and incalculable
element, the 0u|i6s of the injured party. Reason is of no avail unless the
0u|i6s can be controlled (TCJXEIV 256, 8a|j&£siv 496) or mollified (iaivEiv
23.600). Agamemnon has balanced the account, but has left Odysseus with
the task of trying to reach Akhilleus' 6u|i6s. The best way to do this would
be to add to the indispensable offers of recompense some words of excuse or
explanation as Agamemnon does at 19.78-144 or as Antilokhos does more
generously at 23.587-595, but Agamemnon has precluded this, the only
approach that could conceivably be productive. — ICTXEIV: not 'keep', but
'keep in check', cf. IxsGuuos, 'continent', at Od. 8.320, the opposite of EIKEIV
257 AriyEUEvai: the infinitive ending -|i£vai (native only to the Aeolic
97