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Book Twelve
unexpected, but insects are rare altogether; cicadas appear at 3.151-2, flies
at 16.641-3 and 17.570-2, and grasshoppers at 21.12-13. bT, who hold
(on 10.5) that there is a correlation between a character and the subject
chosen for comparison, suggest that Asios' choice of insects is intended to be
derogatory. That may be so, but this is one of those theses where favourable
instances are counted and counter-examples ignored: the Achaeans at 2.87
and the Myrmidons at 16.259 are not subjects of adverse comment. ocioAos
is used in the epic as an attribute of a most heterogeneous group of nouns:
of a horse's feet, wasps, gadflies, maggots, and of metallic objects. It appears
to mean 'flickering' ('lebending-schimmernd', Mette, LfgrE). Ancient interpretations
oscillate between TTOIKIAOS and 6UKivr|Tos. Similes of parent
defending young are found at 16.259-65 (wasps again), 17.133-7 (lioness),
Od. 20.14-15 (bitch): vivid comparisons to an audience whose fighting men
too often had to do just that, cf. 8.56-7, 11.242, 15.497-9, 17.223-4,
21.587-8, and especially such expressions as uocpvd|Jievos o&pcov 6V6Ka