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Book Ten
110-12 The swift Aias is Aias son of Oileus: his perpetual epithet is
determinative and distinguishes him from the other Aias; it is explained at
14.521-2 ou ydp of TIS 6|ioTos emoTreaOai irooiv ?JEV | dv5pa>v TpeaadvTCOv.
The gallant son of Phuleus is Meges, Odysseus' neighbour in Doulikhion
(or in Elis - there is some confusion over Meges' homeland, see 2.627-30^
and I3.685n.), a shadowy but not insignificant figure. AtccvTCc in 112 is
the Telamonian Aias, dvTfOeov being a purely decorative epithet. For the
Achaean dispositions (with which the poet of this Book is clearly familiar)
see 11.5—911.; Nestor is in the centre next to Odysseus, Aias on the far left
wing of the army, and next to him Idomeneus.
114—23 These verses are an interesting comment on the characterization
of Menelaos in the Iliad: aware of his inferiority on the field but anxious to
play his part, and overshadowed by his protective brother, see 24on. — The
thrice repeated Trov&crOai seems clumsy, but the epic style shows a certain
indifference to such repetitions, cf. Hainsworth on Od. 7.116. For irovleoOai
of the chore of convening a council cf. 2.409, 9.12; usually in the Iliad the
reference is to the toil of the battlefield.
115 ou6 J iTTiKeuoxo is an under-represented formula in the Iliad (2x ), but
popular in the Odyssey (11 x , with variants)
116 &s eO8ei: the construction puzzled Nicanor (Nic/A) who suggested
an exclamatory &s. The syntax is analogous to that in which the suppressed
antecedent of a relative pronoun has no clear construction in the principal
clause, e.g. coKuuopos 8f| |ioi, TEKOS, icraeai, oV dyopeueis (18.95): 'I shall
reproach Menelaos