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Book Eleven
factual tone of the preceding narrative, i.e. from 229. Homeric pathos
normally resides in the description of the warrior's death or his circumstances,
so with the runover word Koupi6ir|s in 243. For the detail given here
cf. the death of Hippothoos (17.300-3). The disappointed hopes of the slain
are an unusual variant on the frequent motif of the bereaved wife, parent, or
child. (Other frequent motifs are a death far from home, the impotence of
friends to help, the fate of the body, and the youth of those killed.) Here
oiKTpos sounds a rare 'empathetic' note (so T at 243), an intrusion of the
poet into his narrative that is more characteristic of Virgil. It is noteworthy
that this is the only use of oiKTpos of a person in Homer, doroicnv: a
strangely rare word in Homer in view of the frequency of doru, but 'fellow
citizens' is the specialized sense also at Od. 13.192, the sole other occurrence
in Homer. The heroes of course fight primarily for themselves even if their
honour is involved in defence of others. iroAAd 5 S e8coKe: for the custom of
brideprice see 9.146m
244-5 X^ l (°0 an d the relative T& slip into the neuter gender, cf. 5.140
and n., as if the multiple object, aTyas + 6'1's, merged into the idea of nf}Aa,
vel sim. Comments, like similes, reveal the preoccupations of the poet's
world, a rural world in which oxen, goats, and sheep are kept properly
distinct, cf. 696-7. d-crne-TCC is 'in-effa-ble' i.e. 'countless'.
246 e^evdpi^e: stripping the corpse is part of the ritual of battle, enhancing
the K08OS of the victor by inflicting additional 6vei8os on the victim and his
friends. But it was notoriously dangerous: in this Book Diomedes, 368—78,
and Eurupulos, 580—4, are wounded in the same circumstances.
248-63 Koon's success and death. Koon reacts to Iphidamas' death as
a brother should and tries to avenge him despite the odds and rescue the
corpse. Vengeance and rescue were another dangerous part of the warrior's
duty, the subject of the first fight in the Iliad, 4.463!^, and of many other
incidents, e.g. 428ff., 5.20, 14.476, 16.319, 20.419, cf. H. van. Wees, CQ38
(1988) 6; similarly of more distant relatives at 13.463, 15.422 and 15.553. As
explained at 4.463-9, the action of seizing the body exposed the warrior's
irAeupd.
248 cos oOv: 'In Homer ouv almost invariably follows hrei or cos in a
subordinate temporal clause ...' (Denniston, Particles 416). For the name
Koon (< KOECO) cf. Arfi-, Ar||io-, 'ITTTTO-KOCOV 4.499 (see n.) and von Kamptz,
Personennamen 263.
249-50 Koon is blinded by grief, literally and metaphorically, like
Hektor at the death of his brother Poludoros (20.419-21), and 'blindly'
takes on the unequal combat. For the expression TTEVOOS O96aA|ious £KdAuye
cf. the overtly metaphorical dxeos vecpeAri EKdAuye |jeAaiva (17.591).
251 (JTf\ 6' eupd£ CTUV 6oupi AocOcbv: a formular posture cf. 15.541, where
the absolute use of AocOcov shows that it is part of the essential idea. Hrd/A
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