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Book Eleven
344-8, with further bibliography; it was also supposed to have medicinal
virtues. Schol. b describes the mixture as Tpo9fiv aua Kai TTOTOV EXCOV and
suitable for the weary, which adds nothing to the present context. The
aphrodisiac potency of the Ischia skyphos (632-5^) is unhelpful. At 642
the mixture is said to quench thirst.
638 EIKUTOC Oerjai (3X //., ix Od., [Hesiod] fr. 185.23 M-W). Hekamede
is in good company, the formula being used of Briseis, Nausicaa, and
Kastianeira (minor wife of Priam). The epic accurately preserves the weak
gradation of the feminine participle (SIK- < pepiK-) against the strong grade
of the masculine/neuter (eoiK- < pepoiK-).
639 oivcp TTpaiiveicp (also at Od. 10.235): see W. Richter, Arch. Horn. H
129-30. npd|iVEios ought to designate the provenance of the wine, but no
place Pramnos, vel sim., is known, unless we accept Crates' (DT) assertion
that there was a mountain npd|Jivr| on Icaria. Other conjectures are noted
by Athenaeus, 30c, E. The term occurs later, in Hippocrates and the comic
poets, but as a designation of quality. The scholiast (T on 624) says red
wine.
645 The Opovos is a luxurious piece of camp furniture otherwise found
only in Akhilleus' grand quarters in book 24. It appears properly to denote
a heavy chair fitted with arms and a high back (Richter, Furniture 13-33).
Iliadic references are elsewhere to the thrones in the palaces of gods. ct€ivoO
implies the decoration noted at 18.422 and frequently in the Odyssey. Here
Nestor rises from the same chair that was called a KAICTHOS (strictly a light
chair without arms) at 623. The choice of words is partly governed by the
interaction of formulas and sentence-pattern; both ITTI KAiajJioIai K&0I£OV
(623, also Od. 17.90) and a-rro (OTTO) Opovou cbpTO (aA*ro) (3X //., 1 x Od.)
are formular.
646 =778: the constituents of the verse are formular: X ei P°S eAcov etc.
(8x //., 4X Od.), Kcrrd 6' (Kai) sSpidaaOai avcoye (also Od. 3.35, HyDem
191), but probably not the whole verse. It is absent from normal scenes
of welcome, e.g. 9.i92ff., i8.388ff.
647-54 Patroklos recognizes the wounded man and proposes to leave at
once, but he is caught between a peremptory Akhilleus and a garrulous
Nestor. Vainly he lays the foundation for a quick departure by declining a
seat (cf. 6.360, Hektor and Helen) and delivering a heightened description
of Akhilleus' heroic temper - a rare Iliadic example of Kco|jicp8ia f|6oAoyou-
U6vn, as [Longinus], De Sublimitate 9.15, termed a typically Odyssean quality.
— Makhaon remained with Nestor during the following scene (he is
still there at 14.1-8), but is ignored by the speakers even when the presence
of a wounded man would have served Nestor's argument at 762ff. He has
served his purpose in motivating Patroklos' visit. Epic narrative focuses not
only on each scene in turn but on the essence of the scene, here on the moral
pressure Nestor applies to his visitor. Patroklos comments on the paradox
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