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Book Ten
436-41 The horses are mentioned first as being the most valuable part
of the prospective loot. Chariots in Homer are not valued highly; none of
those driven by mortals is highly wrought or decorated (except at 23.503),
least of all with gold and silver, and consequently none is specifically seized
as plunder. In the event Diomedes and Odysseus abandon the chariot (but
see 49,8ff. nn.). For Here's exotic chariot, all gold, silver, bronze, and steel,
see 5.722-31 and nn., and for golden armour cf. 6.236, 11.25, an d> °f
course, the armour made for Akhilleus (18.475, 612).
437 The nominatives could be exclamatory, but are more likely to be an
instance of'speakers' grammar', cf. 349-50^
439 Golden armour is an 'extravagant conceit so far as mortals are
concerned' (Kirk, 6.234~6n.), though that would not trouble the author of
this Book. If anything real is meant, we must think of gold decoration, like
that on Agamemnon's corslet (11.25). — (TEUXSOC) TieAcbpia, Oauua iSsaOai
recurs at 18.83 as a description of the (original) arms of Akhilleus. TreAcbpia:
the nouns TreAcop and TreAcopov denote something frightening, e.g. a Gorgon
(5.741); TreAcopios should therefore be 'dread', and that suits its application
to Ares and his spear and to Hades. None of the Iliadic usages require a
connotation of size, but that is certainly present in the Odyssey, e.g. Od.
11.594 (the stone of Sisuphos). As an epithet of magnificent armour one
may compare the colloquialism 'stunning'.
440-1 The sentence pattern ou TI KOCTa0vr|To!(Tiv IOIKEV ... &AA'
dOavdToiai GsoTaiv recurs exactly at HyAp 464-5.
442 7T6A&CTC76TOV is dual of the future. 'You shall despatch me to the ships'
is a possible utterance for Dolon, a confident statement from a prisoner who
thinks he has bought himself out of trouble, which he immediately modifies
as being too hopeful.
444 7rsipri6fJTOV is the only instance in the epic of the subjunctive of the
aorist passive dual. The epic form would be TTEipr|0f)6TOV, cf. 7rap