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Book Eleven
6fo|Jiai), then back to direct speech (6 8' ... in apposition to irjTpoi in
833).
333 For Podaleirios, son of Asklepios and brother of Makhaon, see
4.193-4^
835-7 ^ a P- 5 (contrary to the statement in OCT's app. crit.) has at
least two and perhaps as many as four plus-verses at this point, see West,
Ptolemaic Papyri 117. West suggests that 16.517-19 (EAKOS uev yap EXCO ...)
and 16.523-4 ("cxva£, T68E ... IAKOS aKearcxai") would make a satisfactory
interpolation after the digression about Kheiron.
841 In spite of Akhilleus' uncertain temper (649) and his own haste
the kindly Patroklos stops to aid Eurupulos. Akhilleus, we know, is resolved
not to act until the Trojans are among the ships and will not accede at this
moment to a request relayed from Nestor. Patroklos must therefore be
delayed until the Trojans have broken into the Achaean camp. The injuries
to Makhaon and Eurupulus and the actions of Aias, Nestor, Akhilleus, and
Patroklos from 489 to the end of the Book are neatly dovetailed:
Fighting on the plain. Makhaon wounded.
Nestor sets off for the ships with Makhaon.
Aias continues fighting while Nestor is driving back.
Eurupulos is wounded and goes back to the ships on foot.
Akhilleus sees Nestor arrive with a wounded man (Makhaon) and
sends Patroklos to find out his identity.
Patroklos goes to Nestor's quarters, where he is detained for a time
while Eurupulos staggers home.
Patroklos, returning to Akhilleus, meets Eurupulos arriving at the
ships.
0O8' cos TT£p • • • TEipouevoio: 0O8' cos followed by participle + rcsp normally
means 'even in such and such circumstances ...' or 'in spite of
being ...', e.g. 721 above. Here the participle ('exhausted as you are') gives
the reason for Patroklos' action, and the introductory particles, which do
not recur together in the Iliad, mean little more than 'nevertheless'.
842-8 A succinct notice of the treatment of Eurupulos' wound rounds
off the book, see S. Laser, Arch. Horn s 106-8, who remarks on the omission
of bandaging (cf. 13.599-600). The medication is continued at 15.393-5.
When the poet-narrator reports the execution of a command he may do so
in the same words with only trivial grammatical adjustments (e.g. 11.512-
13 = 517-18), sometimes with condensation, but usually as here with some
additional detail. — Note the practical character of Patroklos' treatment of
the wound in contrast with that received by the injured Odysseus at Od.
19.457-8 6Traoi8rj 8' aTua ... eaxeOov. The Homeric doctor did not deal in
cautery and the knife (except to remove a barbed arrow-head) but in