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Book Eleven
for that is exactly what Akhilleus intends to do (see 9.650-3). After the
digression on the war in Elis Nestor will suggest that Patroklos take up the
fight, another irony, for that is what Zeus intends shall happen. Trupos
5r|toio 06pr|Tai is formular, cf. 6.331.
668 iTTiCTxepcb: the sense 'in turn' is evident in the Homeric passages
(here and 18.68, 23.125) and later usage, but it is odd that all three
Homeric occurrences are in proximity to the word OCKTT] or, as here, to
the idea of the sea-shore, as if there were some connexion at least in the
poet's mind with cxepos, cf. Janko, Glotta 57 (1579) 20-3.
669 ( = 0d. 11.394, 21.283, HyAphr 238) evi yvapiTTToTai u&eacn: the
epithet should denote a generic aspect of limbs, that is, it should refer
to the action of the joints; it is true, however, that all occurrences of
the formula are in contexts where age, or ageing, is in question (24.359
of Priam, see n., Od. 11.394 of Agamemnon's ghost, 13.398, 13.430 of
Odysseus as beggar) as if 'bent' were the sense understood.
670—762 The Pylian epic. In the hope that Patroklos may be moved to defend the
ships Nestor relates a heroic exploit from his younger days in which, in spite of his youth
and against his father's wishes, he went to war and defeated the champions of the
Epeans
The basic paper is F. Bolte, RhM 83 (1934) 319-47, see also Von der
Muhll, Hypomnema 200. The details of the fighting, etc., are typical, see
Fenik, TBS 113-14., but in this condensed narrative are mentioned without
elaboration. Nestor's reminiscences have, from his standpoint, two
purposes. First, to use an incident from his heroic youth in order to insist on
his credentials and the value of his words, so as not to seem to 'twitter like
a cicada', like the Trojan elders at 3.151; second, indirectly to admonish or
exhort. The crucial lines therefore are 7166°., the eagerness of the Pylians to
fight and Nestor's insistence, in spite of his father's dissuasion, on being their
leader; Patroklos should overcome Akhilleus' opposition and insist on leading
the eager Myrmidons to war.
Nestor prefixes his tale with a digression on the causes of the conflict
between the Epeioi and the Pylians. It began with that most heroic of
exploits, a cattle raid (671-84) executed in the interests of rough justice, for
the Epeioi had taken advantage of Pylian weakness to renege on their debts
(685-707). The scene thus set, Nestor describes, how
1. the Epeioi attacked Thruoessa in retaliation for Nestor's raid (707—
13),
2. Nestor insisted on leading the Pylians to the rescue (714-21),
3. Nestor won a famous victory (722-61).
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