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Book Twelve
narrative of book 13, cf. Von der Miihll, Hypomnema 206. The assaults of
Asios, Hektor, and Sarpedon would naturally be launched simultaneously,
and perhaps are to be so understood, but in the usual epic manner are
narrated as if sequential.
in For the suggestion that either fjvioxos or Oep&mov is a personal name
here see 13.386^ It is unusual for the charioteer not to be named in these
contexts.
113-17 This foreshadowing of Asios' death reads like the setting up of
an immediate narrative goal, like the prediction of Agamemnon's injury at
1 i.igiff., but Asios does not in fact die in the assault on the wall, in whose
defence Idomeneus plays no recorded part, in spite of the fact that his
station was vr|cov sir' dpiorepd. The aristeia of Idomeneus marks the first
stage of the Achaean counter-attack (13.36iff.), and Asios was his second
victim (13.383-93)-
113 vfjiTios (-ov, etc.) is highly formular (i8x //., 9X Od. as runover
word in the first foot) and therefore probably a traditional way in which
the narrator, in spite of his apparent objectivity, intruded a personal comment
on his story, see Edwards, vol. v 5.
115 = 8.499. "I^ l os is normally feminine in the epic. A neuter form "IAIOV
arm) is attested only at 15.71 (see n.), where Aristarchus emended it away.
fjVEUoeaaa is the regular epithet in this position (7X and HyAphr 280), cf.
3-305".
118-19 eTcraTO, 'charged', is aorist of (p)i6|iai, see 11.358 and n. Arn/A
refer the form to sTui, as did the poet at least sometimes: the digamma
is ignored at 13.90, 17.285. en' dpiorepd: the 'normal orientation when
there is movement from one part of the battlefield to another' (Fenik, TBS
41): see also 11.498 and 5-355n. The poet can say hrl 8e£i6q>iv TTCCVTOS
OTpccToO (13.308), but that expression is not formular. Oddly, formulas for
movement to the right are lacking. 'Left' usually means left from the
Achaean viewpoint (so Cuillandre, La Droite et la gauche 99), and it was vncov
ETT' dpiorepd where Asios was slain, cf. 13.674-6. But it remains odd that
his opponents here are leaders of a Thessalian contingent, some of the
Thessalians at least being brigaded on the Achaean right, see 11.5-9^ and
introduction to this Book. Aristarchus (Arn/A) on the strength of this
passage stationed the Lapithai next to Idomeneus, i.e. on the left. The
matter is surprisingly difficult to resolve, cf. 13.68 m., and the attempt may
be futile; the narrative as usual is focused on the foreground and works
through a cast of characters rather than a strategic plan. — The poet seems
to envisage some means of passing the ditch in front of the gate. Over it the
Achaeans are streaming ovv iTrTroicriv KCCI oxeoxpi, and Asios, mounted,
follows. Any ancient or medieval audience would recognize the situation
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