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Book Eleven
Abudos and Lampsakos, according to Strabo (13.1.20). It was listed in the
Trojan Catalogue, 2.835, and is mentioned again at 15.548.
230 7re£6s ECOV: apparently a typical detail, cf. Pandaros' abandonment
of his horses, 5.1928*. (230 = 5.204).
231 dvTiov ?)A6EV: because the Trojans have rallied, and Antenor's sons
must behave in a manner worthy of their father.
232-40 A typical minor duel related in whole-verse formulas; the sequence
A misses B, B strikes A ineffectively, A kills B is invariable, see Fenik,
TBS 6-7. Verse 232 = 13.604, etc. (5X ); 233 = 13.605; 235 = 17.48.
234 'Hit him in the £covr| beneath the 8cbpr|5 but failed to penetrate the
£coonrf|p.' We may take £covr| with Leaf to mean 'waist', as at 2.479 (fceAos)
"Apei £covr|V, but there is no reason why the word should not be synonymous
with £coorf|p, since hits KCCTCX ^coonr'npa are usual enough (3X elsewhere).
Agamemnon is now wearing the sort of equipment envisaged at 4.187 =
4.216 (see nn.), a short breastplate with a belt (to carry the liiTprj if worn)
below it. But what the £cooTf)p was and how it was worn is unclear, cf.
H. Brandenburg, Arch. Horn, E 119-22. -nravccioAos is its regular epithet
(4X).
238 eOpu KpEicov 'AyocuEuvcov: the name-epithet expression (expanded
from Kpeicov AyociiEuvcov 30 x ) is of unusual length and owes its existence to
the long, complex formula (f|pcos) 'ATPEISTJS EUpu KpEicov 'AyauEuvcov (iox ).
239 Ais, 'lion', occurs 4X (and once in the accusative, 11.480) in the Iliad,
and then not until [Hesiod], Aspis 172. Three occurrences are in the phrase
cbs TE Ais (fjOyEVEios), an old formula of comparison with an archaic noun
and an ancient prosody. If the word is of Semitic origin (Hebr. /y/), it
strictly means 'old lion', cf. Isaiah 30.6.
241 x^ K£OV frnvov: Sleep is the brother of Death at 16.672 and Hesiod,
Theog. 212. From that easy comparison it is a short step to saying euphemistically
that death is a sleep (but a step that was rarely taken before religion
allowed death to be thought of as a state from which there could be an
awakening), cf. 14.482, [Hesiod] fr. 278 (Melampodia), Aesch. Ag. 1451. The
sleep of death is brazen because in the epic at least it is unbreakable,
cf. 2.490 9covr| 6' 6cppr|KTOs, yaihKeov 5E UOI f)Top EVEIT], bronze being the
toughest material known to the heroic world, see Moulton, CPh 74 (1979)
279-93. The closest parallel besides 2.490 is 18.222 OTTOC X&AKEOV.
"Apr|S is too close to x a ^ KO X* TC0V to De certainly metaphorical.
oupccvos and similar expressions probably describe a literal part of the
Homeric cosmos, the firmament of heaven.
242—3 The formular hyperbaton is an unusual result of the additive
style, dcTToTcTiv dpf)ycov amplifying TTEO-COV and Koupi8ir)s the now separated
&A6xou. The jerky structure lends itself to a pathetic rendering on the
reciter's part. bT note the pathetic colour of the verses in contrast to the
250