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Book Nine
possibility and (for some commentators) an advantage that they could be
adjudged an interpolation. But this fine expression of Akhilleus' contempt
for Agamemnon and heroic self-esteem cannot be rejected for the sake of a
theory: see Page, HHI 338, who accepts the lines. The wall was Nestor's
suggestion, but it is effective that Akhilleus' sarcasm attributes it to
Agamemnon (note the singular verbs in 348-51). Akhilleus' disparagement
is prophetic. The Achaeans hoped that their wall would prove ocpprjKTOV
(14.56 = 68), but Hektor demolished the gate at i2-445ff.
349 Aristarchus' reading in the last colon, IKTOOI T&9pov, is intended to
make it plainer that a space intervened between wall and trench.
351 The formulas for Hektor in the genitive, "Eicropos ocvSpcxpovoio
(iox ) and "E. iTTTTo6d|Jioio (5X ) break the law of economy. iTnroSduoio,
used of eight characters, is clearly generic, while 6cv6po9ovoio is virtually
specific to Hektor (1 x each of Ares and Lukoorgos). There is a tendency
for "E. dv8po9ovoio to cluster (5X in books 16-18), but it is also possible to
argue that the epithet has hubristic overtones and is assigned to contexts
where such overtones, ironical or pathetic, are appropriate (so Sacks, Traditional
Phrase 163-75).
352-5 Most of the fighting hitherto has been close to the walls of Troy.
This is asserted by Here (disguised as Stentor) at 5.788-90, Poseidon (disguised
as Kalkhas) at 13.105-6, and implied by the panic reaction of the
Achaeans to Hektor's advance in book 8, and by the even more panicstricken
flight of the Trojans from the supposed return of Akhilleus in book
16 and his actual attack in 20. Bacchylides (13.110-20) recalled this evidently
notorious point: TTpiv uev TroAuirupyov | 'lAiou OarjTov dori; | ou
Aenrov. Hektor (15.721) attributed the fact to the caution of the Trojan
elders, a self-serving declaration we need not take seriously, cf. Von der
Muhll, Hypomnema 236.
354 The Scaean gates are three times associated with the (nearby) oaktree,
see 5.692-3^ Hektor presumably stood in the gateway or before it to
defend it, like Polupoites and Leonteus defending the Achaean camp at
I2.i3iff. On the gates of Troy see 3.145^ The Dardanian gate would be
located somewhere in the S.E. quadrant of the enceinte (where indeed there
are two gateways piercing the walls of Troy VI and VII A), the Scaean
gates might be anywhere where the contours of the site permitted an easy
approach. Both gates are mentioned in formulas and their names are doubtless
traditional, but it is too much to expect the town plan of Troy to have
been so preserved. Scaean and Dardanian gates alike are thought of as
leading towards the fighting. Aristarchus (Arn/A) envisaged one gate indifferently
called Scaean or Dardanian. The oak-tree is twice (5.693, 7.60)
said to belong to Zeus, like the famous oak at Dodona, but no special
properties are attributed to it.
355 The incident when Hektor dared to face Akhilleus, if not rhetorical,
109