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Book Eleven
indirect argument, nor of anything that could be fairly described as Trccpcd-
9ccais (793). Nestor moots two possibilities, either Akhilleus will fight personally
or he will despatch Patroklos to the battle as he does in book 16,
without any indication being given at this point which, if either, will come
to pass. This is therefore a good example of Schadewaldt's 'Ungenauigkeit'
(Iliasstudien 110, 140); the action of the poem is foreshadowed but partially
and ambiguously. Verse 790 = 9.259.
792-3 = 15.403-4 (with opivco for opivais); Patroklos will be speaking
to Eurupulos. The use of the vague auv Saiuovi (almost = 'with luck',
'if all goes well') may suggest that Nestor is doubtful of success, see Erbse,
Funktion der Gb'tter 266. 8aiucov expresses the driving force of events where no
more specific and approachable agency can be named, cf. 15.461-5^ and
Burkert, Religion 180.
793 ( =I 5-4°4) Trapsnrcov: the a is long by position (< Trap-peiTrcbv).
The word is picked up by Trapai-9aais. rraipou is significant; this Trapai9aais
is well-intended, not like that with which Here arms herself at 14.217, f|
T' EKAEVf 6 VOOV TTUKCC 7T6p 9pOVSOVTCOV.
794-803 =16.36-45 with grammatical changes. In the latter passage
Patroklos is pleading with Akhilleus to be allowed to enter the fight.
Zenodotus 'cancelled' (Trspieypavyev) 794-5 (Arn/A) and possibly all ten
verses, see Boiling, External Evidence 136-7, and Nickau, £enodotos 82-97, f° r
that scholar's objection to repeated passages. Aristarchus athetized 802-3
on the grounds that the Trojans were at this moment neither exhausted nor
among the ships, as is the case at 16.44-5. That shows his characteristic
over-precision, though 'concordance interpolation' between repeated versegroups
is a widespread feature of Homeric textual history. Verses 799-
801 = 18.199-201 also but with a' UTroSsiaavTss for ae TCO SICTKOVTSS.
796—803 A piece of direct tactical advice, typical of Nestor (cf. 2.360-
8n.), but here with an unusual overtone of tragic irony: he would be sending
Patroklos to his death. It is characteristic of the portrayal of Nestor that he
is made to come up with a potentially acceptable compromise: Akhilleus
will keep up his n^vis but send out a surrogate, and the Achaeans will get
not their supreme champion but the next best thing.
797 90COS, 'light of salvation', is a traditional metaphor (797 ^ 8.282,
16.39)-
798—9 For men being unrecognizable in armour, see 3.i66n. The
Homeric helmet may have cheek-pieces (cf. the formula Kuveris 5ia
XaAKOirapfiou, 3X ), but there is no evidence that it covered the face as
completely as did the broad cheek-pieces and nose-guards of classical and
later times. Therefore Patroklos' wearing of Akhilleus' armour is not so
much a matter of suppressio veri as of suggestio falsi; what the Trojans would
recognize would be the devices on the shield and the ornamentation of
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