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Book Ten
beside x^H&PPOOS- eO£oos is not used elsewhere as an epithet of
66pu.
375 = Aspis 404. (3aupocivcov: 'stuttering', an onomatopoeic word rather
than a reduplicated form of |3aivco ('staggering'). — dpapos is a strong word
for chattering teeth; the verb dpapko is confined in Homer to the clatter of
armour, but is used of the teeth by [Hesiod], Aspis 249, and by Hellenistic
poets. Elsewhere the Iliad prefers KOUTTOS (11.417 = 12.149).
376 xhczpos UTtai 5eious: elsewhere only at 15.4 (with xAcopoi), but probably
a modernized descendant of an old formula xAcopos OTTO Speeos. The
common x^pov 5eos (1 o x ), with transferred epithet, would then be
secondary.
378-81 Dolon's plea is typical, cf. 6.46ff. and 11.131 (379-81 = 6.48-
50 = 11.133-5); typical also, but on the battlefield, is its brutal rejection.
Convention permitted Trojans and Achaeans to recognize each other, cf.
447, and Dolon should have appealed to his captors by name. Verse 378
corresponds to two verses in the other scenes: £coyp£i, 'ATpeos uie, ov 8 s d^ioc
Ss^ai onToiva' | TroAAa 5' EV dcpveiou Trorrpos (Avnuaxoio 86UOIS) KEiufjAia
K6rrai (6.46-7, 11.131-2). The poet's difficulty in adapting these verses (the
other passages are appeals to a single captor) would have been to accommodate
two vocatives in the first verse while bringing up the idea of ransom at
the same time. His recasting of Se^ai oaroiva gave eycov eue Aucrouai, a
slightly inaccurate expression.
379 TTOAUK|JIT)TOS: iron is so described because it was worked by hammering,
not cast like bronze. For iron as a precious metal cf. 23.826-35.
380 Aeolic uuuiv, transmitted by most MSS for the normal (and metrically
possible) uulv, is odd and unexplained, unless it is used as an epicism.
The movable -v makes position in the dat. plur. of the personal pronouns
only here.
383 Cf. 17.201, where Zeus neatly converts this negative command into
a pathetic statement as he watches Hektor don the armour of Akhilleus.
Odysseus' reassurance of the wretched Dolon seems at first reading a pleasant
return to the conventions of war that prevailed before the opening of
the Iliad, when Akhilleus habitually took prisoners and allowed them to be
ransomed (n. 104-6, 21.100-2). But of course it is Odysseus who speaks
and he is trying to extract information. Beside the prospect of booty that
Dolon imprudently reveals his ransom will not be worth collecting.
384 The whole verse is Odyssean (13X ). KCU crrpeKecos KcrrdAs^ov (-co)
occurs 4X in this Book and twice in book 24. The verb occurs also at 9.262
and 38 x in the Odyssey. The skewed distribution reflects not only the subject
matter of the poems but also the semantic evolution of KcrraAeyco from
'recount' to 'tell'. KOCTOtAeyco refers primarily to the passing on of information
point by point; see M. Finkelberg, CPh 82 (1987) 135-8.
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