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Book Nine
18.95-6 Thetis affirms that the doom of a short life will take effect as soon
as (or, by implication, if) Hektor is slain. Plato blends that passage with
the present, ['AxiAAevs] 7r6Trucj|i6vos Trccpa Tffc [iTFpos cos ATTOOOVOTTO
drrroKT€ivas "EKTopa, [xx] Ttoifjcras 6e TOOTO oiKa8e eAOcov ynpaios TEAeuTfjaoi
(Symp. 179E). The tension between quest for glory and the emptiness of
death is, of course, a theme of the whole Iliad. The idea that long life, if only
it could be assured, might be preferable to glory recurs at 12.322-8 (Sarpedon
to Glaukos), but as an impossible argument since it rests on a false premise.
411 Kr|p is equated with uoTpa by Hsch., Krjp* f| Gavarr^opos lioipa, i.e.
KT|p is synonymous with uoipa where uoTpa means or implies 'death', but
Kf|p never signifies (as uoipa can) 'the natural order'. The two terms share
some epithets (6Aof|, Kcncr)), but uoipoc is ineluctable (cf. uolpccv 8' ou Tiva
(prim irecpuyuevov 6uu€vai avSpcov 6.488), whereas Kf^p' aAeeivcov is a common
formula. The usual etymology associates the words with Kepotf^co,
'ravage', but direct derivation from the root of Keipco, 'cut', is preferable, so
thatKf|p, uoipa (< ueipouai), and 8cciucov (probably < 8aiouai) represent
the same semantic evolution at different stages: 'divide' > 'share' > 'fate'
> 'death' > 'Death' (personified fate). See also I2.326n., Nilsson, GgrR 1
222-5.
413 KAEOS &90ITOV iorcci has frequently been compared with the semantically
similar and etymologically identical expression in the Vedic hymns
§rdvah ... dksitam 1.9.7, c ^- dksiti kdvah 1.40.4 etc., with the implication
that the phrase is a fragment of an Indo-European heroic poetry: see
M. Durante's list in R. Schmitt, Indogermanische Dichtersprache (Darmstadt
1968) 297-309. The words stand here as subject and predicate, but that
may be a grammatical modification of a formula in which the epithet,
though not decorative, is attributive, cf. the Delphic inscription GDI 1537,
Ibycus fr. 1.47 Page, and Sappho fr. 44.4 L-P. The complete phrase, KAIOS
OKpOiTov ICTTCCI, is an equivalent of the formular KASOS OUTTOT' oAeiTai (2X //.,
1 x Od., HyAp 156, [Hesiod] fr. 70.7 M-W), and can readily be seen as an
ad hoc creation from elements readily available to the poet, see M. Finkelberg,
CQ 36 (1986) 1-5, with A. T. Edwards' correction, CQ, 38 (1988) 25.
414 IKCOUI was established in the printed texts by Wolf and has very little
MS support; the paradosis, with remarkable unanimity, is the unmetrical
iKcouca. IKCOUI, however, exchanges one anomaly for another - the 1 of the
active form IKCO is long. O!KCC8' + parts of iK&rOcci is formular (3X elsewhere
in //., 5X Od.) and, again as OIKCCS' IKCOUOU, occurs at 393. IKCOUOCI, however,
cannot stand here unless the following 9iAr|v is emended to bf\v (= 6uf|v, see
1 i.i42n.) after Brugmann. The sense required of the verb is 'go', 'return',
hence Nauck's Tcoui, accepted by Leaf; but if this is a case of 'concordance
corruption' the whole phrase O!KCC8' IKCOUCCI may be intrusive. Wyatt, ML
117