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Book Ten
scene. Odysseus would have difficulty in managing bow and shield at the
same time, not to mention racing after the fleet-footed Dolon. Dolon, who
took a bow and javelin (333-5), dispensed with a shield. None of the three
wears a full corslet, but Diomedes and Dolon wear lion or wolfskins.
273 AiTT6Tr|V KOCT' auToOi: i.e. KOCT(&) is to be construed in tmesi with
AlTT6TT|V, cf. 21.201 KOCT* OCUToOl AEITTEV, and 17-535, 24.47O KOn^ 0(001 AlTTEV,
but in this Book KOCTOCUTOOI may already be felt as a single word, as in Ap.
Rhod. 2.16, 4.916, and 4.1409.
274-5 epwBios is the name of several long-legged birds, here clearly a
night-heron, a bird of good omen (bT and Plutarch, Mor. 405D) and a
symbol of Athene on coins of Corinth and Ambracia. TTEAAOV in 275 (for
TTocAA&s), an over-clever suggestion of Zopyrus, also denotes a species of
heron and would stand here as epithet to EpcoSiov. The invisibility of the
bird in the darkness makes its sound more numinous. It is of no consequence
that soon there was light enough to aim a spear at Dolon (372).
275 Athene is the goddess of success and so, apart from her patronage of
the Achaeans, the appropriate deity to send the omen. Her activity in the
Iliad is threefold: (1) to instill uevos or give other assistance, (2) to give
advice, and (3) as patroness of craftsmanship. The most frequent recipients
of her aid are Akhilleus, Diomedes, and Odysseus (3 times only), never
Agamemnon, either of the two Aiantes, Nestor (at Troy), Idomeneus, or
any Trojan. She distributes advice with the same partiality. As patroness of
craftsmanship, however, she is unbiased - twice in similes, once on Olumpos,
twice in connexion with Trojans. In this Book, as argued by M. W. M.
Pope, AJP 81 (i960) 113-35, sne * s even-handed in her favours to the two
heroes. — Omens are relatively frequent in the Iliad (eagles 8.247, 12.201,
13.821, 24.315; rainbows 11.27, x 7-547? thunder 11.45, lightning 10.5,
unlucky words 18.272), but like this heron they are usually sent by the god
or, as we should say, are chance events. The business of the oicoviorfis or
oicovoTToAos was to interpret such signs, not to seek them. Only at 24.310 is
a sign requested (by Priam) in the Iliad, but cf. Od. 3.173, 2O.97ff.
275-6 The cry in the night of the invisible bird is an imaginative touch.
Athene intervenes at the right psychological moment as the heroes move out
into the darkness. She is present here but impalpable, breathes UEVOS into
Diomedes at 482, and speaks, unseen, at 509. The Iliadic conception of
divine intervention at this level is more concrete, the god appearing openly
or disguised or literally acting upon events.
278-9 Odysseus' prayer is made in regular form: a mention of the goddess's
titles and former aid, then the special request; but it is also similar
verbally to that uttered by Diomedes at 5.115-20. Verse 278 = 5.115 (to
TEKOS), 280 = 5.117. Diomedes' prayer at 284-94 follows the same formula.
It is not easy to think of an alternative approach, cf. 'O God, our help in
182