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Book Eleven
battlefield is strictly hortatory and on this occasion the poet quickly sends
him back to the ships. At 5.37-94 the Achaean front rank included, besides
Agamemnon and Diomedes, Idomeneus, Menelaos, Meriones, Meges, and
Eurupulos (who is soon eliminated, 581-91); at 16.307-50 Patroklos (not
in question here), Antilokhos and Thrasumedes, the lesser Aias, Peneleos,
Meriones, and Idomeneus. The impression then that Achaean fortunes now
depend on the efforts of two superannuated heroes is not strictly true,
dramatically effective as it is.
502-37 Pap. 8, the first 'wild' papyrus to be published, has five plusverses:
504a ]voi TTep, 509a ]XT| EAOIVTO, 513a ]voio, 514a ]aAAous, and 519a
cos o[. However supplemented they can only have degraded the text, nor is
EAOIVTO (for-oiocTo) an acceptable Homeric form. The pap. omits one verse,
530, q.v. For a full account of its readings, see West, Ptolemaic Papyri 103-7.
— OUIAEI ( = eu&xeTo) caught the attention of Aristarchus (Arn/A). Such
ironical euphemisms are common: oapiorus (13.291, 17.228), 'warm welcome',
'salvo.'
503 eyx gl & iTTTToauvr) TE seems after uepuepa pE^cov to express a single
idea (unlike 16.809 where it is joined with TTOSECTCTI), as if Hektor were
fighting with his spear from his chariot. What UEpuepa Epya could he
perform in the ordinary way from his chariot? VECOV 9aAocyyccs, 'the ranks
of the young men', is a natural expression but does not recur; its uniqueness
must have prompted Aristarchus and his followers to read VECOV, 'of the
ships'. Hektor, however, as yet is nowhere near the ships.
506 TTOcOcJEVdpi