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Book Twelve
between the actions of the parties but in their feelings, viz. their impetuosity
and frustration. This is accepted by Moulton, Similes 47-8. Even if not the
primary point, feelings are implicit in most comparisons with animate
subjects. The disjunction 'boar or lion' occurs also at 11.293 'to strengthen
the essential idea of the comparison', here latent aggression (Edwards, vol.
V 37)-
41-2 6T' dv ... OTp696Tai: when a simile has been introduced by cos
OTE with the subjunctive it may be continued paratactically by verbs in
the present indicative (Goodwin, Syntax 210), but the indicative (as it
must be) in direct construction with dv astonishes, however, cf. 1.67n. and
Od. 10.410-12 6T S dv ... cjKaipoucTi (on which see Chantraine, GH11 356)
and Od. 24.88-9 OTE KEV ... ^COVVUVTOU TE VEOI KOCI ETTEVTUVOVTOCI dsOAoc (where
emendation is metrically possible). The construction does not recur before
Hellenistic times.
41 The expression KUVECXCTI KOU dv6p&cn OripEUTrjcxi recurs in the nominative
at 11.549 ( = I 5- 2 7 2 ) as KVVES TE Koci dvEpES dypoicoTCti: the hunters of
Homeric similes are peasants not sportsmen.
43 TrupynSov: seen from the front the line of men resembles a wall
(m/pyos). The same word occurs also at 13.152 and 15.618, and the same
formation of troops at 4.334, 4-347- It is glossed as Kcrrd T&£IV TEIXOUS
by Hsch., and as 8I&TCC£IS OTpcrncoTiKf) TETpaycovo£i8f|S Kara TTAIVOIOV
auvT£Tay|i£vr| by Eust. 829.10, i.e. 'close-packed', cf. 16.212-14 cos 8' OTE
dvrip dpdpT) TTUKIVOICTI AIOOICTI | ... cos dpapov KopuOss TE KOU dordSES
ca. At I5.6i5ff. Hektor fails to break the ranks because they are
Trupyr|86v dpripoTES - 'rock solid', as a simile there explains. The irupyos
could also be an offensive formation, cf. iO5n. 'Tunis' was a term of the
Roman army (Gell. 10.9.1; cf. Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 6.33).
44-5 OCKOVTI^OUCJI OocuEids | ccixjids: an instance of Kirk's 'violent enjambment'
where the end of line does not coincide with any point of natural
articulation of the sentence, see TCS 20 (1966) 107. This particular phrase,
however, is formular, cf. 14.422-3. There is another example of violent
enjambment at 51-2, ETT' ocKpco | xsiAsi* At 50-1 OOSE oi ITTTTOI | TOAUCOV
COKUTTOBES is weaker, an instance of 'integral enjambment', cf. 54-5, 55-6.
The whole passage 43-59 is well-enjambed, though most instances are of
the weak, 'progressive' sort exemplified by dm) ydp 5£I8ICTCT£TO Td9pos |
EupEi', 52-3, cf. also 49-50, 53-4, 56-7. This kind of composition reflects
the tension of this dramatic moment as the Trojans close up to the Achaean
lines.
46 dynvopiri 8E |iiv EKTOC: cf. 961CXEI CJE TO aov UEVOS (6.407), which also
refers to Hektor. That Hektor's courage was his undoing is part of Homer's
conception of that hero. For the thought cf. ET| TE UIV COAECTEV QCKYJ\ (16.753),
of Patroklos.
322