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Book Eleven
401 T, who is alert to such matters, stresses that the poet piles on the
agony of the Achaean reverse by emphasizing the peril of Odysseus wore EK
TTCCVTOS OUV6X61 TOV aKpoorrrjv. (For the empathy of the Greek audience see,
for example, Plato, Ion 535.) Reinhardt, IuD 107, discusses these situations,
for which there is a formula, EVOOC KE Aoiyos Ir|v ...
403 This is the standard formula that introduces monologues (7X + 4X
in Od.), and illustrates again the tendency of the epic to represent what goes
on in the mind (as we should say) as a dialogue between the person and a
personified entity (so Dodds, Greeks and the Irrational 16), cf. 12.292-307^
The monologue, as a device to reveal a character's motivation at a critical
juncture, has a curious distribution in the Iliad. There are none until
this point, two in this Book, cf. 4O4ff., and ten in books 17—22. The situation
in which Odysseus finds himself, the lone warrior in peril, is a common one,
and the scatter is unexplained. The monologue 'Shall I stand and fight or
withdraw?' is a type-scene and therefore the hero always resolves to stand
his ground, cf. 21.553-70, 22.98-130 (the exception is Menelaos, 17.90-
105), see Fenik, 77?$ 96-8, 163-4, and S. Scully, TAP A 114 (1984) 11-27.
The monologue is followed by a simile of animals pitted against men and,
except in book 22, by the hero's escape. — oxOrjo-as: 'perplexed'.
405-6 (biyiov, literally 'more chilly' (as at Od. 17.191) is regularly metaphorical,
as is the verb jbiyoco. Odysseus shudders at the prospect confronting
him. Punctuation after uoOvos (note the emphatic runover position)
should be light; the flight of the others is part of Odysseus' fears.
407-10 Odysseus puts to himself a moral argument: the apioros qua
api(7Tos has a duty to stand and fight. Poseidon put the matter similarly to
the laggard chiefs at 13.116-19:
5* ouKETi KocAa UE8IETE OoupiSos
TTOCVTES apioroi EOVTES ava CTTpctTov. 0O8' av iycoyE
dv5pi uaxEoxjaiurjv 6s TIS TTOAEUOIO
Auypos ECOV uulv 8E vEUEaracouai TiEpi
Cf. the words of Hektor to Andromakhe at 6.441-6, and contrast the
practical argument of Sarpedon at 12.322-28. Verse 407 = 17.97 etc - (5 X )•
Verse 407 is the standard verse with which the hero dismisses his doubts.
410 Note the fatalistic touch characteristic of the Iliad, cf. 430-3, 12.328,
and most pathetically 21.111-13 (Akhilleus to Lukaon). EPAT|T(O): this
middle form is always used in a passive sense. For the sentiment 'kill or be
killed' cf. 12.172. The aorists are gnomic.
411-12 =17.106-7 l ess tne filler