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Book Eleven
moment of need, a point to which the poet returns at 163. For the moment
it is sufficient to say that the entire Trojan army is in full flight. — This is the
first of a series of seven lion similes or short comparisons in this Book, a
cumulation that reflects the ferocity of the fighting. Other Books with large
numbers of lion similes are 5 with five and 17 with six. See also 10.485^,
12.299-306^ Verse 114 = 175= 17-63. Krischer, Konventionen 36-75,
comprehensively examines the use of similes in Iliadic aristeiai.
118-19 5ia Spuua TTVKVCC KCU \fhx\v is formular, cf. Od. 10.150. KpcrroaoO is
back-formation from the feminine Kporraifi, only here and 13.345 in the Iliad
and 2 x Od.
120 No one could help Priam's sons, a frequent pathetic comment. When
the fated moment is at hand nothing can avail a man, cf. 5.53, 6.16, 15.450,
17.242, not even a divine mother (21.no).
122-47 Slaying of Peisandros and Hippolokhos. FlEiaavSpos is a stock
name: it is used for an opponent of Menelaos at 13.6016°. (see n. ad loc. for
the implications of this coincidence in the victims of the Atreidai) and for a
Myrmidon commander at 16.193. Hippolokhos is used in the pedigree of
the Lycian royal house (6.197), Dut not elsewhere. The father of these
brothers, Antimakhos, would have appeared in the Cypria, but the poet
takes care to motivate Agamemnon's cruelty by an explicit allusion to
his offences (1236°., 1396°.). Stripped of that elaboration the scene is identical
even to the inclusion of a lion simile with the slaying of Ekhemmon
and Khromios by Diomedes at 5.1596°. Another son of Antimakhos,
Hippomakhos, is killed at 12.189.
122-7 The syntax of this long sentence wanders through a long relative
clause with subordinate participial and appositional phrases before losing
itself at the end of 125. It is then resumed as if the preceding relative clause
had been a principal sentence. This is how we speak, and how an oral poet
sings.
123—5 The brief anecdote about Antimakhos prepares the way for his
sons' inadvertent mention of their parent (they are the only victims to do
so) and Agamemnon's violent reaction. Zenodotus read KaKO9povos for
8ai9povos here and at 138 according to Did/A, perhaps supposing that
5ai9pcov (a regular generic epithet) as too complimentary for the wicked
Antimakhos. — uaAicrra is best taken with OUK eiaciKE. 5E86y|ievos: Homeric
usage elsewhere requires the sense 'expect', 'await' which must also be
understood here.
124 Paris' bribery may have been mentioned in the Cypria, but it is too
obvious an explanation for irrational behaviour for there to be any need
of the authority of tradition for this little anecdote. Agamemnon will cite,
or invent, a much more serious charge against Antimakhos (138-41). —
dyAccoc Scopa: formular epithets are usually complimentary of what they
238