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Book Ten
Hektor, the Argives, or the earth as object. vu£ EKOCAU^E is an Iliadic formula
(6x in addition to this example) which is always used elsewhere metaphorically
of the darkness of fainting or death covering the eyes (5.659 etc.). A
modified form, WKTI KccAuyas (5.23), alludes to a device of divine rescue
usually expressed by &f|p.
203 The preliminaries are now over and the story proper begun. It has
taken the poet just twice as long to reach this point as was taken in book 9,
where Nestor begins making his crucial proposal at verse 93.
204-10 As usual Nestor is made to come up with an idea, cf. 2.360-8
and nn. He proposes that spies creep up within earshot of the Trojan army
or, more realistically, take prisoner a straggler. They are to find out whether
the Trojans intend to pursue their advantage or withdraw. None of this is
of any importance and is soon overtaken by events. All that is required here
is a reason for Odysseus and Diomedes being out between the armies where
they can meet the Trojan spy Dolon. Nestor's proposal has been derided as
silly, but the appropriate question is whether it is plausible in the context
of the heroic world: the idea of espionage such as Diomedes and Odysseus
are to attempt was proposed by Dolon (325-7) and occurred also in the
Little Iliad, fr. 2A Davies, where Nestor proposed that spies should creep up
to the wall of Troy in order to listen to the Trojan women's assessments of
the valour of the Achaean heroes. Plausibility aside, Nestor's suggestions
are made curiously parallel to those of Hektor (308-12), on which see
introduction to this Book. — Nestor's seven-verse sentence is of unusual
complexity, with five levels of subordination, but its cumulative structure
makes it easy to follow. OCT punctuates as a statement, which reduces
Nestor's proposal to a hint. Leaf's question mark at the end of 210 is better:
'Would not some man trust his heart ... ?'
204 The reinforcement of the possessive adjective EOS by CCUTOU (only here
in the Iliad) is Odyssean (1.409, 2.45, 16.197, 22.218).
207 9-qiiiv: an Odyssean word (Od. 6.273, etc. (^ x ))•
211-12 The lack of connexion in the sentences TOO/TOC KS and [xiya KEV is
awkward, but TOO/TCC TE (pace Leaf) hardly improves matters whether the
TauTa-clause is made co-ordinate with IXoi (206) or TTETTIOOITO (204).
212-17 KAEOS ... 86