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Book Ten
portrayal of the Trojans generally see J. Pinsent in Foxhall and Davies,
Trojan War 137-62, with the literature listed by de Jong, Narrators 250.
15 TTpoOeAuuvous is a term appropriate to the ravages of the boar on the
forests of Kaludon (9.541). For the probable sense of-OsAuuvos ('surface')
see Chantraine, Diet. s.v. The boar levelled the forest auTrjen pi£r)ai: hence
irpoOeAuuvos = 'by the roots' here. The word must be intended as an
'epicism' or it would be a frigid exaggeration even as an expression of
Agamemnon's heroic grief. For further development of this epic word see
13.130-in. For tearing out the hair as an expression of grief cf. 22.77-8
(Priam). IAKETO, unaugmented, is the form approved by Aristarchus, presumably
to avoid the overlengthened syllable 6IAK-. The paradosis augments
in such cases, and so do Hellenistic poets, cf. 6IAKETO (Ap. Rhod. 1.533
etc.).
16 uy66' lovTi An: dative because Agamemnon is appealing to Zeus. The
expression is unique, though f|U6vos Ovyi (20.155) is similar. The phrase is
the second innovation in eleven verses in the diction for the Olympians, a
normally very conservative area.
17-179 In essence this scene is a Catalogue with extended entries. The
pattern here is (1) the hero rouses another, (2) addresses him, (3) he replies,
(4) he dresses and arms; but there is some untidiness: the entries of
Agamemnon and Menelaos are intertwined, that of Nestor develops into
an extended conversation, finally (179) the pattern collapses into a bare
statement. The whole passage is examined by B. Helwig, Raum und £eit
(Hildesheim 1964) 132-4.
17 = 2.5 etc. (3X //., 3X Od., [Hesiod] fr. 209.1 M-W). There is a
synonymous verse appropriate when a character has been debating with
himself: co5e 6e oi 9poveovTi 5odaaaTO KepBiov elvai (3X //., 7X Od.).
18 Odysseus may be called TToAuixnTis and be renowned for his 86A01 and
uf|5ea TTUKVOC (3.202), but in the Iliad it is Nestor who is free with prudent
advice, cf. 204.
19 T6KTaiV8To: 'construct', 'put together'. The usual epic metaphor is to
'weave' a plan, O90CIVEIV. ufj-nv auuuova (nominative at verse-end, Od.
9.414) is a 'beautiful i.e. effective plan' according to Amory Parry, Blameless
Aegisthus 99-103. There is obviously no moral connotation in the present
phrase. Nestor, of course, has already proposed one scheme in book 9, and
that ended in fiasco. This Book, however, avoids any direct allusion to the
events of the preceding Book subsequent to the appointment of the watch
(9.80), cf. io6-7n. For a possible indirect allusion see 252 and n. When
Agamemnon rouses Nestor he proposes nothing more than an inspection of
the watch (96-101).
21-4 For a fuller, and in some respects more logical, dressing scene
see 2.42-6. For male characters the scene is very simple, see Arend, Scenen