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Book Nine
traditional framework. In this case the poet will have shielded himself
against criticism of his veracity by having Phoinix introduce his reminiscences
with 6TT6u66|i86a (524). He will then have suppressed the firebrand,
if it were already linked to Meleagros, but retained an echo of it in Althaie's
curse. (The curse, of course, has no corresponding element on Akhilleus'
side and is not itself a heroic motif.) He may also have introduced the name
KAeoTT&Tpri (561-3^) and the eTOCipoi of 585.
In the Hesiodic 'Holai (frr. 25.11-13, and 280 M-W), an exceedingly
laconic notice, Meleagros is irresistible in the war with the Kouretes until
he dies at the hands of Apollo, a heroic death similar to that of Akhilleus.
The account in the Minyas, of which [Hesiod] fr. 25 M-W may be a
fragment (so J. Schwartz, Pseudo-Hesiodeia (Leiden i960) 28), stood in
contrast to that of Althaie's curse, according to Paus. 10.31.3. It is unclear
if or how the 'heroic' version of Meleagros' death can be reconciled with
the folktale of the firebrand. Bacchylides has gone some way by slipping,
not without awkwardness, from a quarrel over the boar's hide to full-scale
war in which Meleagros unintentionally killed his uncles and died as he was
looting a corpse. Further divination of the pre-Homeric tale is hampered by
the fluctuations in the primary sources, see H. Bannert, WS 15 (1981) 69 n.
1, for the literature on the question, and for some speculations J. R. March,
BICS Suppl. 49 (1987) 27-46. The extent of Homeric freedom in the use of
a paradigm is most readily visible in the poet's telling of the Niobe story
(24.602-20, with Macleod's note), but adjustment to improve the fit of the
paradigm is not the same as inventing the very point which is to be invoked
as a precedent, a point stressed by W. Kraus, WS 63 (1948-9) 8-21.
Willcock, Companion 109, poses the alternatives: either the plot of the Iliad is
modelled on a 'Meleagris 3 or the parable on the Iliad - too stark a choice;
the theme of anger - withdrawal - disaster - return informs both stories.
Like other digressions the Meleagros episode shows a higher density of
'late' or anomalous features in its language and diction in comparison
with a similar passage of narrative. Page, HHI 327-9, and Shipp, Studies
270-2, list these; the more important of them are discussed below as they
occur. Verbal parallels between the parable and narrative are examined
by G. Nagy, Best of the Achaeans 100-6.
527 irdAai, ou TI VEOV ye suggests an ancient tale relative to the dramatic
date of the Iliad, yet as the genealogies were regularized Meleagros lived
only in the previous generation, see the stemma 558-8n. Phoinix (and the
poet?) wishes to distance himself from affirming the historicity of the story.
529 Koupf^Tes: as a tribe the K. are known only in this context. Their
town was Pleuron, about ten miles west of Kaludon. The name KoupfJTSS
occurs by coincidence also in various Cretan rituals, see Burkert, Religion,
261-2, and at a later date in association with cults in Asia Minor. As
132