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Book Ten
narrative for the first and a passing reference for the second, cf. 11.15—46
(Achaeans and Agamemnon, 32 verses) but 56-60 (Trojans, 5 verses).
Dolon takes no corslet and neither sword nor shield, cf. 257ft 0 . At 459 he has
a bow, here omitted.
334-5 Dolon dons a wolfskin as a sort of cloak or camouflage. In [Eur.]
Rhesus Dolon is made to have the grotesque idea of disguising himself as a
wolf and creeping up to the ships on all fours {Rhesus 208-13). — KTi8er|v:
for *iKTi5er|v (< IKTIS, 'marten,'), KTIS in Hsch. is a ghost-word 'imagine
pour les besoins d'explication' (Chantraine, Diet. s.v. IKTIS). iKTi8er|V could
be read here but not at 458. On the loss of i- by the misunderstanding of a
rare epic word see Leumann, HW 53-4. It is a question whether any
symbolism should be read into Dolon's wolf and weasel skins. Fenik, Iliad X
and the Rhesus 60, roundly discounts a possibility that opens the door to
wide-ranging anthropological speculation, but see 2C)n. Reinhardt on the
other hand, IuD 247, recognizes that something of the character of the lion,
leopard, boar, wolf, and weasel rubs off on the wearers of their skins, cf. bT
(at verse 23) AoAcovoc 8e cos 6eiA6v KOU AaOpiSiov irpa^iv opucovTOC AuKf)v
[6v8uei]. The weasel too was of evil reputation.
336-40 bT note the effect of the foreshadowing; it creates suspense to
know that Dolon is going to his doom. The focus of the narrative, however,
at once switches to the two Achaeans and we follow events through their
eyes, except for a brief digression at 515-25. One result is that from this
point the Trojan council is forgotten.
338 The expression 'ouiAos of men and horses' is a paraphrase, using the
formulas of the battle scene, for 'camp', the horses being tethered to their
chariots beside the men, cf. 47off. There is in fact no epic word to express
encampment. The Achaeans' camp, called vauoraOuov by Aristarchus, is
expressed by 'the ships' or 'the ships and huts'.
340 8ioyevr|s 'O8ua6us: only here in the Iliad {Od. 5X). Aiour|86a 8e
TTpoaEsnrev seems an odd half-verse with which to introduce direct speech
but recurs at 8.138. The oddity is rather that the introductory sentence
begins in the preceding verse with consequent enjambment, cf. 9.622-3.
343 This is the sole allusion in the Iliad to the unsavoury (and of course
unheroic) practice of scavenging loot on a battlefield. One may compare
the unpleasant aspects of the real world that slip out in similes, e.g. the
enslavement of a woman at Od. 8.523-30. In the heat of battle at 6.66-71
Nestor urges the Achaeans to press on, not stopping to strip their victims
(similarly Hektor to the Trojans at 15.347), ITTGITQ 8S KOU TCC [the evapa]
6KT|Aoi I VEKpous au TTESIOV