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Book Nine
i.e. the Achaean army, but all who can be in question here are the same
yspovTSS whom Agamemnon summoned at 89. As an expansion of an ethnic
name uTes + genitive of the ethnicon is restricted to this expression (and its
derivative Tpcocov KCXI 'Axoucov uTes ocpioroi, Od. 24.38).
671 8ei5exon"': 'pledged', for the spelling (-ei for -r|-) see 44n. The text
should not be corrected, however, for confusion of this verb with SeiKVi/ui is
early, see io,6n.
673-5 Agamemnon's short speech well expresses his anxiety; his question
is 'Will Akhilleus fight?', and his gifts and daughter are forgotten.
673 = 10.544, an d cf. Od. 12.184. Nestor is also ueyoc K05OS 'AXOLI&V (4X
//., 2X Od.). — TTOAUOCIVOS: ocTvos is a 'tale', but are we to understand that
Odysseus tells the tales, or that the tales are told of him? Odysseus is a
diplomat here and a crafty schemer in the Odyssey, but it remains true
generally that 'the epithets awarded Odysseus in the Iliad are supposed to
relate only to the wanderings, and not to the "novelette" of the husband's
homecoming' (U. Holscher, in Fenik, Tradition 54). It is possible, of course,
that the epithet has been reinterpreted, and shifted from the passive to the
active sense.
674 Formular diction puts Agamemnon's anxious enquiry into the same
language as Akhilleus used to taunt him, cf. (9pa£ecj6co) vf|8aaiv aAe^Euevcu
8f)Tov irOp (347). — 8iYiov Trup: as an epithet of m/p, 8f|ios is scanned uu~;
with other words or independently in the sense 'hostile', 'enemy', a dactylic
scansion is usual. See Chantraine, Diet. s.v. for the implications. 8f|ios is
probably connected with 8ccico, 'burn', at least secondarily. There are two
formulas, 8fjiov m/p (4X ) and Ttupos Srfioio (5X ), found only in the Iliad.
677-92 Odysseus replies to Agamemnon's two questions in the usual
reverse order: yes, Akhilleus is still full of wrath, and no, he will not help.
Odysseus is made diplomatically to report Akhilleus' words indirectly; he
thus avoids offensive language, e.g. ex^pa 8e uoi TOO 8cbpa (378). This
speech and that of Diomedes (697-9) are important for the light they
shed on the speakers' reading of Akhilleus' mind. Odysseus affirms that
his obduracy is to be taken seriously but implies that his (first) proposal
to depart is a hyperbolical threat. Diomedes proposes to disregard it:
Akhilleus, he asserts, will come round in his own time; meanwhile there is
nothing anyone can do about it and trying only makes matters worse. The
poet gives him the last word, implying that in the reading of Akhilleus'
mind that he gives to Diomedes we have a correct assessment.
681 aocps is for aaorjs (here a&cps Aristarchus (Did/A)); it owes its vocalism
to the adjective croos, itself by diectasis of contracted crcos (< adpos),
cf. 424n.
682-3 These verses were obelized because Odysseus reports only the
first decision of Akhilleus, 356-63, to return to Phthie in the morning, not