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Book Nine
dialect of Lesbos) is proper to athematic verbs and tenses. It is extended to
thematic forms in 57 instances in the Iliad: 13X in books 1-8, 28x in 9-16
(of which 7X in 9, 6x in 10), and i8x in 17-24. The occurrences in book
9 are in six different verbs (the phraseology at 674 seems to depend on 347),
and may be explained as an instance of clustering, the tendency for words
and forms, having for whatever reason been used once, to remain at the
surface of the poet's mind, see Studies Palmer (Innsbruck 1976) 83-6, and
Introduction 27-8.
260 yphov OuuaAyeoc implies that his anger, not the cause of his anger,
was the reason for Akhilleus' unhappiness. Akhilleus corrects Odysseus at
387 below - it is not his ypKos, but his Aco(3r| that is tormenting his soul.
264-99 = 122-57 ( see nn -)- Odysseus reports Agamemnon's words verbatim
as far as the shift from 1st to 3rd person allows, with two exceptions:
and
12 7 oacra uoi f)veiKavTo aeOAia ucovuxes ITTTTOI
269 boo 3 'Ayaueuvovos ITTTTOI asOAia TTOCTCTIV dpovTO
134 fj 06uis dvOpcbircov TTEAEI, dvSpcov f)86 yuvaiKCov
276 f\ BEUIS EOTIV, dva£, f\ T' dv6pcov f\ TE yuvaiKcbv
In 269 ocrcja oi fjveiKOCVTO could certainly have stood but would have made
the reference of oi formally unclear, the unnamed dvr|p being the subject of
the whole sentence. OEJJIIS in the sense of 'custom' is confined to the formula
(fj) Oeuis ecTTi (nx //., 8x Od.) except in 134 and Od. 24.286; at 276
(= 19.177) the formula reasserts itself with the aid of the voc. dvcc£ (for
which cf. 9.33), impossible at 134. In a sense 134 presupposes 276, as
7.337-40 presuppose 7.436-9 (see nn.) and Od. 10.531-7 Circe's instructions
at 11.44-50. Willcock, AJP 96 (1975) 107-9, plausibly argues that the
'prior' version existed in the poet's well-rehearsed mind rather than in a
written or orally fixed text.
Odysseus' verbatim report is not so much a careful statement of the terms
of a contract as the normal epic convention when orders, messages, etc. are
delivered. Verbatim report is the usual practice in most traditions of heroic
poetry, see Bowra, HP 254-8, J. Th. Kakridis, Homer Revisited (Lund 1971)
77-85. A. B. Lord in Wace and Stubbings, Companion 195, entertains the
idea that the virtually exact repetition of such passages, as compared to the
variation observed in most 'typical scenes', is due to normalization in
transmission. Though not to be discounted, the material cited by Bowra
makes the suggestion unnecessary.
270 ipyoc iSuias: only in this verse does the paradosis transmit as a
variant reading the reduced-grade feminine participle i6uTa (elsewhere
always e!8u!a, which is certain at 17.5). Bentley is responsible for the
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