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Book Ten
until the council's decision is taken. With the departure of Menelaos in the
opposite direction and the despatch of Diomedes for the Lesser Aias and
Meges in prospect the storyline has become too complicated for traditional
narrative techniques to handle easily. The poet extricates himself by ignoring
Menelaos and Diomedes and sticking to Nestor.
'33 &H91 5' apcc xAodvav: cf. Od. 4.50 etc. (4X ). (poiviKOEaaav: the proper
epithet for a cloak {Od. 14.500, 21.118). The -VIK- syllable should be metrically
long, cf. 9olvi£, 901VIK0S, so that the word so spelled must be listed as
one of the rare examples of metrical shortening. A contracted pronunciation
(poiviKoOaaav is never indicated for this class of adjectives in Homer (see,
however, 12.283^ and Od. 7.107 (Kcapoakov) with Chantraine's comment,
GH\ 6). It is possible, of course, that the word was taken into the epic dialect
in the form (poiviKfecrcja, cf. the Mycenaeanpe-de-we-sa i.e. TreSpecjaa PY Ta
709, etc., where the syllabic signs -de-we indicate the absence of the linking
vowel -o-.
134 8nrAfjv: see 3.125-7^ 6KTa8ir|V is obscure (< EK-TEIVCO?) but presumably
indicates the blanket-like size of the cloak. ouAr|: wool is the normal
material of the Homeric x^aiVa, reasonably enough (2X in each epic). It
may be used as a blanket (24.646, Od. 14.520). ETrevrjvoOe: for this strange
epic verb, also found at 2.219 and Od. 8.365, 17.270, HyAphr 62, and (with
prefix KOCT-) HyDem 279, [Hesiod], Aspis 269, see n.266n. A connexion
with avOos, which would permit a basic sense 'sprout up', is argued by
J. M. Aitchison, Glotta 41 (1963) 271-8, but see also LfgrE s.v. and Wyatt,
ML 116-17. The poet may not have understood the word so precisely, for
it is odd to describe the nap of a woven garment as sprouting from it.
135 = 14.12, 15.482, a fragment of the standard arming scene, which
the poet treats idiosyncratically, cf. i-2on. otKaxiisvov is clear enough in
sense ('tipped', 'pointed') but of obscure derivation, see LfgrE s.v. Its equivalent
at 11.43 in a secondary variant of this traditional verse is KeKopuOusvos.
137 Ait uf)Tiv &T&AavTov: The formula is shown by its metrics to be
an ancient element of the diction (< Aipel ufJTiv jmTCtAavTov). It is probably
used in this Book as an archaism, for like Alt 91A0S (Aipel 9iAos) it is
absent from the Odyssey.
139 TT£pi 9pevas fjAuO' icof|: cf. Od. 17.261. Sound flows around the hearer
in the epic. The closest verbal parallel, however, is HyHerm 421 epcmi 8e 81a
9pevas fiAuO' icoTj. In all these passages icof) is a sound, in the Odyssey and the
Hymn the beguiling sound of music. Elsewhere in the Iliad (4.276, 11.308,
16.127) !cof| (picof)) refers to the force of wind or fire. Danek, Dolonie 91-7,
takes the word for an archaism known to aoiSoi only from formulas and
used by them, except here, with a defining genitive.
140—76 The short speeches that characterize the exchanges between
Nestor and Odysseus and Diomedes give this section especially a realistic
168