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Book Twelve
95-6 This Asios meets his death at 13.384-93 at the hands of
Idomeneus. His home Arisbe is on the south shore of the Hellespont above
Abudos. Note that 96-7 = 2.838-9 q.v. Another, undistinguished, Asios
was full brother of Hekabe (16.717ft 0 .). Asios is a senior figure; the Adamas at
140, etc. is certainly his son. There is also Phainops 'AaiaBris, 'A(3u666i OIKICC
vaicov, mentioned at 17.583, whose father may be the same as the present
Asios or an echo of him. The name is not as 'Asiatic' as it may appear; an
Asios was a genealogical poet of Samos, and an a-si-wi-jo is recorded at
Cnossos (Df 1469, etc.). His father's name Hurtakos recalls the Lycian
toponym urtaqijahn and, perhaps more significantly, coincides with a place
in Crete, cf. Phaistos at 5.43. Aristarchus (Arn/A) noted that the epanalepsis,
"ACTIOS ... I "Acnos, is typical of the Iliad, but occurred only once in the
Odyssey (1.22-3).
96-7 =2.838-9. TTOTaiioO &TT6 IeAAf|SVTOs is independently formular,
but the river at 2.659 and 15.531 flowed near Ephure, not into the
Hellespont. See 15.53 m.
98—9 Aineias has not been seen in action since his ignominious encounter
with Diomedes at 5.297-317, nor indeed does he take part in the sequel
in spite of this foreshadowing (as it must naturally be taken) of his assault.
100 These sons of An tenor are associated with Aineias in the Catalogue
(2.819-23). Verses 99-100 = 2.822-3 with OOK OTOS for Aiveiccs.
101-2 Sarpedon and Glaukos, commanders of the Lycians (see 292n.),
are the only leaders of the emKoupoi of any consequence in the Iliad and
play a role in the fighting second only to that of Hektor. Sarpedon slew
Tlepolemos, the principal Achaean casualty in the first half of the Iliad, and
meets his own death at the hands of Patroklos at 16.4196°. He and Glaukos
were cousins, see the genealogy at 6.196-9 and 16.419-683^ Asteropaios
here enters the epic for the first time. He has no role in the attack on the
Achaean wall, but reappears in books 17 and 21. He was a leader of the
Paeonians, not mentioned in the Catalogue (2.848-50), and perhaps for
that reason as well as to increase the pathos of his death, is described as a
recent reinforcement for the Trojans when he confesses his identity to
Akhilleus at 21.153-60. It is the lack of first-rank fighting men among them
that confines the imKoupoi to one brigade; elsewhere it is implied they were
numerous (2.130, 4.438, 17.154-5).
103-4 The pronouns oi (nom. plur.) and 01 (dat. sing.) refer to Glaukos
with Asteropaios and to Sarpedon respectively. The couplet explains the
inclusion of Asteropaios, for Glaukos would be an automatic choice. None
of the leaders of the more distant allies listed at 2.840-75 were worthy to
stand beside the two Lycians.
105 dAArjAous apapov may describe the formation called the irupyos
when the army stands on the defensive, see 43n. and cf. 13.129-35 and
328