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Book Eleven
require a causative agent) and the perfect passive (of which the question
OTTO T(VOS can always in principle be asked). The variation is rather pointless,
for the epic style would not object to the repetition of the formula
T6TIT|6TI 0UUCO.
558-62 The simile of the ass in the cornfield is unparalleled, but like
many other topics used once only is clearly drawn from daily life. It may
not, however, be 'original'; there was a proverb ovos (3a5i££is sis ocx u P a
TpayrjuaTcov (Philemon fr. 188). Heroes are normally compared to 'noble'
animals, lions, boars, or stallions, whose courage is easily imputed to the
hero even if it is not the point of comparison. Ideas of Aias' characterization
have not been helped by the contrast drawn between him and Odysseus -
in the poems of the Cycle, not in the Iliad - as if Aias symbolized brute
unthinking brawn in opposition to the other's sharpness and subtlety. The
Iliadic Aias was characterized by !5peir| (7.198), at least in his own estimation,
and Hektor recognized his TrivuTT) (7.289). Hektor's jeer at 13.824
ATav duapToeTres, (3ouydi£, is mere abuse. Here the point of the simile is that
Aias shrugs off the Trojan attacks and retreats only when he is ready to do
so. It implies tenacity not stupidity, or even obstinacy, and so illustrates
Aias' forte, the ocuTooraBiri, in which he did not yield even to Akhilleus
(see Idomeneus' comment, 13.321-25). The eventual departure of the ass
foreshadows the eventual escape of Aias from his present predicament. In
general, Homeric similes, being drawn from the concrete world of nature,
maintain the same observer's style as the narrative. They do not directly
affirm permanent ethical traits. bT have an elaborate note on this comparison
(cited by Edwards, vol. v 30).
This the fifteenth and last simile of the Book. Similes find typical slots in
the pattern of battle narrative of which they form the characteristic TTOIKIAIOC
(see 62n, 67-9^). The character of the narrative changes shortly, at 596,
from the ferocity of the battlefield to the leisurely discourse of Nestor and
Patroklos, and with the change ornamentation by simile drops out.
559 Hocyn: the long -d- is hard to explain, see LfgrE s.v. dyvuui and
Wyatt, ML 78-9. Confusion with the perfect stem seen in sdya (Hesiod,
Erga. 534) is possible, though (KOCT)eriya is the usual Ionic form.
564-74 With this picture of Aias fending off the Trojans compare the
retreat of Antilokhos at 13.551-9. The details are similar: the ineffective
bombardment with spears and the tactic of alternate retreat and turning to
fight (cf. Fenik, TBS 98). The diction of the two passages, however, has
nothing in common.
564 = 6.111 = 9.233 (see n.). The reading TroAuriyepees (for TrjAeKAeiToi)
is due to Aristarchus (Did/AT). TroAuriyepses, a hapax legomenon, is apposite
here, though that does not guarantee that it is right. The formular verse,
with Tr)AeKAeiToi, is in the vocative case.
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