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Book Ten
poet of the Iliad's attitude towards extreme violence (see Segal, Mutilation
9-17), but that is violence between fighting men; we need not weep over
the demise of the humble and unwarlike Dolon. His death was quick, and
in an episode where torture would have been applied or threatened in any
culture that condoned its practice there is no hint of it.
450 elaOa, 2nd person sing, future for el, occurs also at Od. 19.69 and
20.179. Against the drawing of any hasty conclusion Shewan observed (Lay
of Dolon 66) that the 2nd person sing, of ETUI did not occur in the other
twenty-three books of the Iliad.
454 At some point, either now or when he was first taken, Dolon fell to
his knees; he now reaches up to touch Diomedes' chin in a powerful gesture
of supplication, cf. 1.501 (Thetis to Zeus, a full description). He does this
with the right hand while grasping the knees of his captor with the left (cf.
1.501-2), cf. J. P. Gould, JHS 93 (1973) 74-82. Diomedes is quick to
execute the would-be suppliant before he can make physical contact, cf.
6.61-5, where Menelaus is careful to break contact before Adrestos is slain.
There are no successful suppliants on the battlefield in the narrative of the
Iliad; the poem also ignores the role of Zeus as protector of suppliants. The
omission is probably deliberate, in order to heighten the stakes for which
the heroes play. The scene of Dolon's death attracted the interest of vase
painters and other artists from the late seventh century onwards, see Friis
Johansen, Iliad in Early Greek Art 74-5, 160-4, Wathelet, Dictionnaire
439-41, though in what context they knew the story is uncertain.
456 The latter half of the verse = 14.466, Aspis 419, in each case of
decapitation. A similar expression Trpos 6' ap^co pf^e TEVOVTE occurs at
5.307, but with reference to a wound in the hip caused by a stone. Not for
the squeamish are Salih Ugljanin's comments on decapitation in hand-tohand
combat: 'Salih: Three fingers of hair above the nape of the neck. Then
it jumps off like a cap. Parry: Does it jump far? Salih: Yes, it will jump five
metres' (Lord (ed.), SCHS1 641).
457 = Od, 22.329. The v.l. 9deyyo|Ji6vr| (in agreement with a feminine
K&prj) would imply the severed head still pleading, a bizarre and gruesome
thought, typical enough of this poet. Articulate speech is not in question in
the Odyssean passage, and need not be foisted onto this.
460 'AOrjvair) AT|TTI6I occurs only here; the epithet is probably a gloss on
the ambiguous epithet &y£Asir| (6x //., 3X Od.), on which see 4.i28n.
462 ToTaSeaai (or -ECTI) : found 5 x in the Odyssey but only here in the Iliad.
The double declension (TCOV8ECOV and TOICTSECTI) occurs in Lesbian Aeolic
among the vernaculars.
463 ETTISGOO-OUEO', 'we shall call to witness', cf. 22.254, i s Aristarchus'
reading for £TTi(3co