Untitled - Get a Free Blog

Book Eleven
poet has the first clear use of the word as a synonym of oXoos (see Russo's
note on Aspis 147). Leumann, HW 141-8, would regard (3Xoovpco7ns as
primary and, taking the first element as an Aeolism (< *g w ltur-), connects
it with Lat. vultur to give a sense 'vulture-eyed' or 'vulture-headed'.
The accentuation, according to Schwyzer, Gr. Gr. 1 463 n. 5, should be
paroxytone, (3AoaupcbTTis, the final syllable being long.
37 TTEpi: understand 'were depicted' from 60TE9&VGOTO in 36. AETUOS and
O6(3os are paired also at 4.440 (where see n.), 15.119, Hesiod, Theog. 934,
and Aspis 195. Reasonably enough, Theog. makes the pair sons of Ares.
O6(3os was represented as a figure with a lion's head in the depiction of
Agamemnon's shield on the Chest of Kupselos (see 248-63^), Paus. 5.19.4,
see Friis Johansen, Iliad in Early Greek Art 70.
38-90 With Agamemnon's silver TEXocucbv (i.e. with decoration in silver)
compare the golden one of Herakles at Od. 11.609-12, decorated with
dpKToi T' dypOTepoi TE CTUES x a P OTr °i T6 XEOVTES, | OauTvai TE udxoa TE 90V01
T' dv8poKTaaiai TE. Akhilleus' shield-strap was silvered (18.480), the decoration
being unspecified.
39 The snakes are numinous — and ominous, see 2.308—19. They reinforced
the image of Tuphon on the shield of Tudeus (Aesch. Th. 495).
40 du9i(7Tp£9E£S (read by Aristarchus, Did/AT): 'turned in all directions';
d|J9i- is awkward with the numeral TpEis, but the picture, one head
facing upward, the others to right and left, is clear enough. The vulgate
du9ioT£9££s is no easier and may be influenced by ECTTOpdvcoTO in 35, but we
may imagine the three heads in the same arrangement forming a sort of
crown.
41 = 5.743 (see n.): KUVETI is the less frequent of the two common words
for 'helmet' (Kopus 46 x , KUVET) 28 X ) and must originally have meant 'dog
skin', though the special properties of such leather are not reported. Various
bronze attachments are noted including probably the 90X01 implied by the
epithet du9i9aAos - probably metal plates, four in number according to the
epithet T£Tpd9aXov (12.384, 22.315). The other epithet TETpa9aXr|pos is
obscure, though it had meaning for the poet who sang of 9dXocp 5 EUTroir|Ta
at 16.106 (see n.). The grandiose obscure epithets (only in this repeated
verse) suited the helmet of the goddess Athene in book 5, and add a
mysterious and menacing dimension to Agamemnon's equipment. Homeric
helmets are discussed by Lorimer, HM 237-45, D. H. F. Gray, CQ,4i
(1947) 109-21 (= Language and Background 55-67), and J. Borchhardt,
Arch. Horn, E 57-74. In Alcaeus' list of armour (fr. 357 L-P) the Kuvia
(Lesbian = KUVET)) is clearly metallic, as were the greaves.
42 The nodding plume, cf. the famous passage 6.4666°., was a characteristic
enhancement of the warrior's fearsome appearance from the earliest
representations to the close of the Geometric period. The crest of the later
'Corinthian' helmet was a much stiffer adornment.
222