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Book Eleven
there is no such thing as a new character, even if that character was created
by the poet, as some have thought (see vol. iv 313). As the product of an oral
tradition the Iliad-story as we have it was not sung to an audience who had
never heard it before and needed explanations of its personnel; it is the
product of many singings, each a rehearsal for the next. Menoitios is called
"AKTopos uios at 785, 16.14. This Aktor is probably the son of Murmidon
noted by [Hesiod] fr. ioa.101 M-W; Pind. 01. 9.70 adds his wife Aigina.
Since she was mother of Aiakos, grandfather of Akhilleus, it would follow
that Akhilleus and Patroklos were kin. [Hesiod] (fr. 212a M-W = Eust.
112.44-5) actually made Menoitios a brother of Peleus, if reported correctly.
If Homer knew this genealogy in any form he is careful to suppress
it. Cf. 2-558n. for the Catalogue's treatment of Aias and Telamon.
606 For XP 6C ^ with ace. of the person in need see 9-75n. The correption
of -EGO- after synizesis is harsh, especially towards the verse-end.
608-15 Nestor's opening remarks at 656-68 provide a gloss to Akhilleus'
words. Nestor makes a distinction between dAocpupscrOai (which Akhilleus'
present enquiry implies) and KT|5£a0ai or eAeaipeiv (which mean 'show pity'
by some positive action rather than 'feel pity'). An appeal had been made
to Akhilleus' pity by Odysseus at 9.301—3 without effect, and Aias had
commented on his hardness of heart at 9.628-38, as Patroklos will do again
at 16.29-35; we should not see therefore in Akhilleus' curiosity the first
stirrings of some concern for the effects of his anger on his friends. On the
contrary the opening verses of the speech sound a distinctly vindictive note,
and it is appropriate that they should; the more Akhilleus is perceived as
concerned solely with his own honour the greater will be felt the shock of
remorse at the disaster to Patroklos which that selfish concern brings about.
608 TCO iucp K6xapio"|iSV6 Ouuco, cf. 19.287, is a comradely form of address,
cf. 5.243 (Sthenelos to Diomedes), 5.826 (Athene to Diomedes), Od. 4.71
(Telemakhos to Peisistratos), and was so understood by Virgil, Aen. 12.142
animo gratissima [carissima PRb] nostro (Juno to Juturna). See 786n. for
relations between Akhilleus and Patroklos. Note the trivial expansion of the
formula by the prefixed article, uoi... TTAEIOTOV K£XOcpto"|i6V6 Ouucp at 19.287
is a more violent modification of the same formula.
609 Cf. 16.72-3 ei uoi Kpeicov 'AyocuEuvGov | fJTnoc £i8£ir|. These two
passages cannot be reconciled with a previous appeal to Akhilleus such
as we have in book 9, except by rather forced argument, e.g. that the
content of a scene is always relevant only to its immediate context and
may ignore what is to come and what has been, or that 'This phraseology
admittedly ignores book 9 and its attempt at conciliation, but in my opinion
it might be explicable either as a pardonable oversight by a single poet or
even as a deliberate neglect by Achilles of offers which were unaccompanied
by any frank admission of Agamemnon's high-handedness' (Kirk, Songs
289