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Book Eleven
12.463 (Hektor again), of the literal expression 'the bronze shone' with
nominative XOCAKOS as at 44-5 and 10.153-4 (see n. there for other variants
of this formula). Tras 5* ocpcc yakKcb is a formular word-group in its own
right, cf. TT. 6* 6c. x« I (juEpSaAeco KEK&AV^O' (13.191-2). The comparison of
the flash of metal to lightning is used also at I3.242ff. and 14.386.
66 = 10.154 (to Aios). For the conjunction of OTepoTTfj and Aios
cdyioxoio see 15.18-31^ and 15.308-1 in., where the suggestion is made
that the aegis was primitively the thunderbolt.
6y—gi The mutual slaughter of the two armies, watched by %eus and Eris, leads to
an Achaean break-through
In an epic poem, a poem about heroes, the narrative of a battle must be
told from the standpoint of the men wielding the weapons; but that can only
be done, when thousands of men are involved, by ruthless selectivity. The
unselected warriors are not thought of as doing nothing, they are simply not
thought of. In this Book there is abridgement as well as selection. The
abbreviated style is imposed by the very full content of this Book, but since
joining battle is a regular sequence of themes the poem's audience would
easily understand the picture the poet intended to draw. In books 4-5 and
16 the focus of the narrative progressively shortens, passing from the general
view of the field, through the exploits of a list of heroes, to the career of one
hero and culminating in a duel between two major figures (16.295-507 is
the clearest example); here the preliminaries are cut out and we proceed
at once to Agamemnon's aristeia. The Iliadic battle then is a work of art. In
it the naming of names is of prime poetical importance, and this is exploited
so as to bring a semblance of order to an inherently disorderly event. The
basic device is to divide the combatants into TTpouccxoi and 7rAr|6us. The
latter is marshalled (9aAayy£S, 90) on a broad front, so that the battle has
a right and left wing (see 5n.). The men engage with missiles (84-5), or may
come hand to hand (4.446-51), or both (8.60-7), or may leave matters to
the Trpouaxoi. The formations are not tight or static; if broken they can rally
and reform, they permit the movements of officers, the use of chariots, the
advance of the irpopiaxoi, the pillage of their victims, and their retreat els
lOvos ETOcipcov. The TTpouaxoi include the great heroes, obviously, but others
also, for it can be said of a reckless warrior that he OOve 81& irpoudxcov (342,
etc., 3X). This does not seem historically improbable, except perhaps for
the chariots. In the ideology of epic warfare the decisive role is played by
the Trpouccxoi and among them by the great heroes in justification of their
status (cf. 12.310-16 and nn.); in its practice the desire for spoils and K06OS
appears a dominant motivation. For a careful discussion of the Homeric
battle see Latacz, Kampfdarstellung 31-95. H. van Wees, CQ,38 (1988) 1-24,
227