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Book Ten
straight (Amuntor was father of Phoinix who was nurse to Akhilleus, and
Autolukos therefore Amuntor's contemporary), but his geography is suspicious,
see 9447-8n. Eleon is in Boeotia (2.500). Kuthera, lying between
Crete and Laconia, was a place of some importance in the second millennium
B.C. (see 15.429-35^ for details). It is unclear why the helmet travelled
in the first place to Kuthera (it had to go somewhere), but having got
there it is reasonable that it should pass to Meriones in Crete. Valuable gear
tended to circulate about the heroic world through the institution of the
^Eivfi'iov: see West on Od. 1.311-13, and for the custom in Homeric times
J. N. Coldstream in R. Hagg (ed.), The Greek Renaissance of the Eighth Century
BC (Stockholm 1983) 201-7. Normally it is a host who so honours a guest,
as at Od. 1.311, etc., but some presents arrived unsolicited from afar, e.g.
Agamemnon's corslet (11.20). For the combination of gift and heirloom cf.
the corslet of Meges (15.529-34). The efficiency of ££Vir| as a mechanism
for the distribution of valuable objects throughout the heroic world may be
remarked, cf. Finley, World 58-164, with the corrections of J. T. Hooker,
BICS36 (1989) 79-90.
267 If the helmet had to be stolen there could be no better candidate for
the theft than Autolukos (maternal grandfather of Odysseus, as it happens,
though it would be ungracious to mention it at this point), cf. 6s dvOpcoTrous
6K6KCXOTO I KAeTrToown (Od. 19.395-6). — TTUKIVOV 86|Jiov is formular (2X
//., 3X Od.), but would be appropriate to Mycenaean Eleon, see 2.5oon.
dvTiTopfjcras: the modus operandi of the Greek housebreaker (TOixcopi/x°s)
implies accessible mud-brick construction, not the stone lower courses of the
Mycenaean palatial style.
268 Amphidamas is the weak link in the helmet's travels in contrast to
its origin and final destination; he is otherwise unknown.
269 Molos, father of Meriones (13.249), was son of Deukalion and halfbrother
of Idomeneus. Molos, like much of the Cretan onomasticon, is a
name with Lycian connexions. MoAos, MoAr|s, McoAr|s are among the commonest
Lycian names (von Kamptz, Personennamen 353); Greeks would
connect it with uoAelv.
270