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Book Ten
vowed by Diomedes at 292, which is otherwise forgotten, but it is more
likely that the arms, which Odysseus has already offered to Athene at 460,
are themselves the ipov. Dedications, avocOfmccTa, are not part of the religious
practice of the Heroic Age, but were known to Homer (see 7.81-3)
and a fortiori to this poet. — ivocpoc: see 528n.
572-5 The heroes bathe in the sea, partly in order to cool off after their
exertions (575). After that they enjoy the pleasure of the (hot) bath as if
preparing for a feast. There is more than a suspicion of'thematic override'
from this point to the end of the Book, see 576-9^, as the heroes are
indulged in the amenities of an Odyssean palace wholly out of place in their
KAiaiai along the shore.
573 A690S in the epic usually denotes the mane of a horse or the crest of
a helmet. It is an odd word for the back of a man's neck and oddly placed
between the shins and thighs.
574 I5pcb TTOAXOV: primarily doubtless i6p6a if the expression is formular,
cf. fjco 5Iav for f)6a 5., at the verse-end; see Meister, Kunstsprache 7. The
contraction is not necessarily post-Homeric; conservatism preserves the use
of these expressions in spite of awkwardness brought about by linguistic
evolution, cf. 1 i.in., see Introduction 28-30.
575 Wackernagel, Untersuchungen 146, denounced xp&n"(a) as an Atticism
and proof of interpolation. The T-stem, however, occurs at Od. 18.172,
18.179 and at Hesiod, Erga 556; it may be assumed to be a neologism of
the vernacular making a tentative entry into Kunstsprache, where the old
(originally j-stem) forms XP° a etc - were well entrenched.
576—9 Four formular verses round off the book: 576 = Od. 4.48, 17.87;
577 = Od. 6.96 (with xpicrd|i6vai), from the regular bathing scene, cf.
Arend, Scenen 124-6. The notice of the bath and meal is almost absurdly
laconic and omits the heating of the water and the female assistant, see West
on Od. 3.464ff. Familiarity prevented the poet reflecting that bathtubs
(usually heavy ceramic fixtures, archaeologically) were an improbable
amenity for an army on campaign; likewise that the 8enTVOv was Diomedes'
second and Odysseus' third repast this night. Since the heroes have already
bathed in the sea the point of the tub must be that it provided a hot bath,
as is certainly the case at Od. 8.450 and 10.361, and fresh water to remove
the sea-salt. — sO^eoTas, the regular epithet (3X ), suggests the possibility of
wooden tubs (S. Laser, Arch. Horn, s 139). — After the mention of so much
detail one misses a note of the retirement to bed, as at 9.658ff., unless the
scholiast's suggestion (Arn/A) is accepted that the SeiTrvov was really the
apiorov and taken just before dawn. The next Book begins abruptly at
sunrise.
576 a