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Book Twelve
I 43~4 = I 5-395~^- lcc Xf\ T6 90P0S TE is formular (4X and once in the
dative), iaxr) is certainly from piaxri and probably from (jfiayr), see
Chantraine, Diet. s.v. f)XTl, hence the length of the final syllable of ysvETO.
145-51 The simile has caused difficulty by beginning as an illustration
of the tactics of Leonteus and Polupoites, making sudden charges like wild
boars, and ending with the noise of missiles against their armour, like boars
whetting their tusks. The poet's picture of the action does not stand still
during the simile, but via the image of the boars passes from movement to
sound.
147-8 56xorrai is the 3rd person plural (< 8EK#TCXI - the ~x~ is Attic)
corresponding to the 3rd person singular 5EKTO (2.420, 15.88), participle
SeyuEVos, etc. (2.794, Q-^ 1 ? J 8-524 (also TTOTI-, OTTO-)), and infinitive 8EX6OCI
(1.23 = 1.377), to which the Odyssey adds an imperfect eSeyiJ-qv (Od. 9.513,
12.230). These forms are best regarded as the present and imperfect forms
of an athematic conjugation of the root 8EK-, partly reinterpreted in the
historic forms as aorists, see Chantraine, GHi 296, and 9.19m., and Shipp,
Studies 63. KOAOCTUPTOS: also at 13.472, in a similar context, a rather derogatory
word, 'rabble'. The hunting party, it must be supposed, are not like
the noble pursuers of the Calydonian boar (9.543), but peasants whose
crops have been damaged. 8oxiico T' &I£OCVTE: an authentic detail, the tusks
of the boar do not point forwards, cf. AiKpicpis &T£as {Od. 19.451), of the boar
that wounded the young Odysseus.
149 UTrcri 8E TE KOUTTOS 686VTGOV (= 11.417): in the midst of all this action
(uTrai) there is heard the gnashing of the boar's teeth.
151 For the resumed narrative picking up a secondary point in the
simile, here the sound of gnashed teeth by the sound of weapons on armour.
Ameis - Hentze compare 13.492-5, where the troops follow their leader like
sheep the ram, at which the shepherd is delighted, his pleasure being then
echoed by that of Aineias, and 15.623-9, where Hektor's charge is compared
to a wave crashing on a ship and terrifying the sailors, whose terror
is then picked up by the terror of the Achaeans.
153 Ka6uTT£p0E is clearly used adjectivally with AaoTcriv. It would in
classical Greek require a verbal form (e.g. ICTTCXIJIEVOIS) to give it construction.
Zenodotus read AaEcrcri (Did/A) for AaoTcn, which would be awkwardly
followed by oi in 154. No details are given in the Iliad of special
works to improve the defensibility of the gate; the Aaos have manned
the battlements and hurl their missiles over the heads of Polupoites and
Leonteus.
155 oxpcov T S OCUTCOV: the same orthography and the same phrase recurs
at 19.302, but crcpECOV (monosyllabic) at 18.311 without CCUTGOV in a more
archaic usage. The most archaic form is oxpeicov (metrically lengthened from
dissyllabic oxpkov), only in the formula coaav OCTTO oxpEicov (3X ).
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