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Book Nine
may draw death's sting but is not an equivalent for life on any rational
calculation. Only Akhilleus in his splendid isolation from the ties of family
and community can make such a point. Hektor, for example, cannot opt
for safe obscurity (6.441-6, 22.104-30) without incurring obloquy, for the
heroic ethic must insist against reason that honour is indeed an equivalent
for life.
403 = 22.156.
404—5 Adivos o066s ... TluOoT: see Hainsworth, Od. 8.8on. The sole explicit
reference to the oracle at Delphi in Homer is Od. 8.79-82, but the
sacred site itself is of extreme antiquity: see P. Amandry, La Mantique
apollinienne a Delphes (Paris 1950), and 2.519-23^ o066s would seem to
imply the existence of a temple. For the epic's knowledge of holy places in
mainland Greece see 16.234 (Dodona). FfuOcbv (2.519) or ITi/dco {Od. 8.80,
11.581) is the designation of the site both in the epic and the Hymns, save
AsAcpoi at h.Hom. 27.14. — dq>f|Topos puzzled the scholiasts (Arn/A) who are
divided between d-cpr|-, an allusion to the enigmatic speech of the oracle,
and dcpn-, 'let fly'. The fAcocjaroypdcpoi interpreted the word as 'socket'
(orpo9EUs), which Zenodotus accepted and proceeded to read vnou for
(Doiftou in 405 (Arn/A).
406—9 The end-stopped lines and consequent location of the contrasted
words in the first foot, with the easy enjambment of 408-9, make a fine
instance of natural eloquence, cf. vol. v 44.
409 dueivyETCci epKos 666VTCOV recurs in the Odyssey (10.328). The simple
sense 'cross' is restricted to this phrase in the epic. The quaint phrase ipKOS
666VTCOV is well entrenched in the diction (3X //., 7X Od.).
410-16 Akhilleus knows that his life will be short (and this knowledge,
of course, redoubles the force of the heroic imperatives upon him), as is
affirmed at 1.352, 1.417, 1.505, 18.95, ! 8.458, and 21.277; but this is the
only point where Akhilleus is said to have a choice of destinies. (The closest
parallel is that of Eukhenor, 13.663-70, see 13.658-9^) The choice may
have been part of the tradition of Akhilleus' birth but it seems more likely
that it was invented here for its effectiveness as an argument, as Willcock,
HSCP 81 (1977) 48-9 and Commentary ad loc, suggests. There is an inconsistency
with Patroklos' raising the matter at 16.36-7 and Akhilleus' denial
that he had heard of any 6eo7rpo7rir| or message from Thetis (on which see
11.794-803^). The usual point made is that Akhilleus is short-lived, therefore
he has a claim to fame. But it is easy for him (or the poet) to reverse
this argument and imply that renouncing fame even at this late date would
entail long life. The Odyssey makes Akhilleus' ghost imply that he made the
wrong choice - the worst conceivable kind of life, eirdpoupos ecbv 8r|T6ue|i6v
aAAcp, is preferable to the best that Hades can offer (Od. n.488-91). At
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