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Book Eleven
connects eup&£ with eupus (which could only be by analogy with other
adverbs in -&£ and -i£) and paraphrases as IK TrAocyiou, that is 'to one side of
Agamemnon'. But the posture must be that of Koon; he turned 'sideways'
to minimize the target he presented.
252-3 It is not clear what was Agamemnon's posture when he sustained
his wound: he was last seen (247) bearing off Iphidamas' armour. Diomedes
(368) and Eurupulos (581) are wounded while actually stripping the
corpse, a more dangerous moment and a motif established by the death of
Elephenor at 4.463-9, see 248-63^ X £ ^P a H£OT|V is clearly the forearm, the
left (if one must be precise) since Agamemnon was still able to wield his
spear.
254 When Diomedes was wounded in book 5 he immediately prayed to
Athene to be granted vengeance (5.114ff.). Agamemnon omits that formality,
as does Odysseus at 4396°., and carries on fighting. Having banished the
gods from the battlefield, the poet may bear in mind that such a prayer
would be pointless (though its futility could be turned into a pathetic
touch), but the chief reason for the omission of such digressive ornaments is
the general compression of the narrative in this Book, on which see in.
256 ixcov dveuoTpecpes syx°S- &V6UOTpe